“Yes, he can go home. He’s got to understand that he’ll be in the bed for a while before he can start getting up. You need to check with your insurance plan to see what kind of home care you have. I think he’ll need some help at first.”
“I’ll call them as soon as I get home,” Nicole said. She wanted to participate as little as possible in Jeff’s home care.
“He’ll need help getting to the bathroom for a while,” the doctor said.
“We’ll manage it,” Nicole said, smiling at the doctor.
“I’ll let the nurses know you’re going home. You can pull your car around and they’ll wheel him out. I’ll send the nurse in.”
After another forty-five minutes of news, the nurse came in with the discharge papers. A strong looking man came in with a wheelchair and helped Jack into the seat. Nicole left the room and went to find her car. She drove around to the back entrance of the hospital. A few minutes later, she saw Jack being wheeled to the curb. The orderly helped him into the back seat and shut the door.
“Get me home,” Jack said. “Those hospital people are insufferable.”
“I need to call someone to help me get you in the house,” Nicole said when they were on the road to Rockbridge. “I can’t do it myself.”
Jack didn’t say anything. She called his sister, Morgan, and explained the situation to her. Morgan said she would meet them at their house. When Nicole pulled into the drive two hours later, Morgan was leaning against her car, waiting on them. Her husband, Phillip, was looking at their huge oak tree that took up half of the front yard.
“I don’t know how we’re going to manage this,” Nicole said. “I think he needs a wheelchair.”
“Believe it or not, we’ve got a wheelchair in the trunk,” Morgan said. “It’s Phillip’s mother’s. We’ll use it.”
Phillip walked over and helped Jack out of the back seat and into the wheelchair. When he pulled the wheelchair over the step into the kitchen, Jack winced in pain. “Dammit, man. Be careful,” he said to Phillip. Amazing that he could be so foul when he was depending on other people to help him.
Phillip wheeled Jack into the living room. “Where’s he going?” he asked.
Nicole hadn’t thought past getting Jack home. She had no idea where to put him.
“I guess the den. I think I need to make some phone calls and get a hospital bed in here or something.” It was only two thirty so she should be able to arrange for something.
“There’s a drug store near here that carries medical supplies and equipment,” Morgan said. “They might be able to get you a bed here pretty quickly.”
Nicole called the drugstore and asked about a hospital bed. “Does your insurance cover it?” they asked her. She had no idea.
“I don’t know,” she said, “But I’ll pay cash for it until I find out. Can you get it out here today?”
An hour later, a delivery van showed up and two men got out and moved a hospital bed into the den. Nicole paid the exorbitant bill with a check. She would need to get on the phone to the insurance company as soon as possible.
Phillip and Nicole helped Jack into the hospital bed and turned on the television in the den. Jack raised the bed so he could see the TV. Nicole covered him with a blanket.
“Thank you,” she said to Morgan and Phillip as they were leaving. Jack hadn’t said one word of thanks to his sister and brother-in-law. “I couldn’t have managed without you.”
After they left, Nicole went back into the den to check on Jack. He was dozing. She would need to go to the drugstore to fill his prescriptions. She might have to go to the grocery store for some soup and other things to feed Jack, but she decided to wait until he woke up so she could tell him. As she watched the television in the den, she felt grateful that Jack would not be in her bed that night, or any night in the foreseeable future. The universe was giving her an opportunity. She intended to take advantage of that.
Click here to follow me on Twitter
Be sure to like my Facebook page here!
Please take a moment to check out my
other Kindle books on Amazon.
Love Weaver
Hand-Me-Down Love
Come Down in Time
Serena's Choice - Coastal Romance Series Page 19