Back home again

Wednesday turned into quite a whirlwind of a day.  Julia was scheduled to have her electrodes removed first thing in the morning, and even though Libby said she did not need me to come up, she sounded like she really wanted someone to hold her hand, and who else is better suited to that job than me?  So I got up early and hit the road a little before 6:00 am.  I thought this would get me into Birmingham before traffic got too heavy.  But I was wrong.  Between road construction about 25 miles from B'ham, and then normal traffic, it took nearly 2 hours to get to the hospital.  It turns out I arrived just as the surgery team was talking to Julia and Libby, about 5 minutes before they took her in, so I got there right in time.  Everything went smoothly, all the electrodes came out, and each of the holes through her skin have a single stitch in them, so she has lots of little puckers on that side of her head.  Her head was sore, and hurt some, but overall everything was fine.  She even was able to eat soon afterwards.  She took a few naps to get over the anesthesia.  We were debating on whether or not to go home Wednesday, which seemed pretty quick to me, or wait until Thursday.  We were leaning strongly toward Thursday, and since I needed to get back to pick up Virginia from ballet and get her to choir practice, I left at about 3:15 pm.  I just missed seeing my first college roommate's wife, who came by to visit.  Rats!  The most thrilling part of my ride home was stopping at Sam's in B'ham and getting gas for $1.98 a gallon.  As soon as I got home, Kate told me that Libby had called and they were coming home on Wednesday.  That was a change in plans!  But I had no time to call and find out what was up.  Off to get Virginia, then choir practice, by the store to get milk, and home around 7:30 pm, in time to get a text from Libby: the car battery was dead and the car would not start.  Apparently the little nurse's aid person, who wheeled Julia out to the parking garage, dumped them out, and was leaving.  Libby asked her to speak to the security people and ask them to send help.  But no help came.  So Libby had to leave Julia (in her pink bathrobe) waiting in the garage, walk back into the hospital, and look for security herself.  But they were all missing.  Fortunately, the people at the help desk knew who to call, and got someone there to jump the car.  On the way out, the parking ticket decided not to honor the validation stamp, so she had to pay $25 to get out of car prison.  Then Libby turned the wrong way and got turned around in B'ham after dark.  This about put Libby over the edge.  She called me up, and I talked her out of her lostness, and headed in the right direction.  Just before 10:00 pm, Libby and Julia arrived home.  But wait - there's more!  The doctors put Julia on some temporary medication until her seizure medicine gets back up to proper levels in her bloodstream.  They, of course, did not actually give us any medication - just a prescription that had to be filled that night.  So I went out to find an all-night pharmacy.  They were a little backed up, so I went home, tucked Libby into bed to fall asleep to the peaceful tones of Perry Mason on the TV, back to the pharmacy around 11:30 pm to get the medicine, woke up Julia to give it to her, and finally to bed.  And there you have it - just another ordinary day for this summer.