The docs visit. All is still go for me to leave ASAP.

Breakfast looks only so-so, but I eat most of it and keep it down.

I climb the whole flight of of those steel and concrete stairs and come back down.

I get another sponge bath, including a shampoo. The nurses are wonderful.

Another suppository produces two small stools! Who'd ever think that would be a cause for celebration?

The correct size walker arrives, just in time.

I get dressed in my new sweat suit. I'm ready to go. Just a little rest before the trip.

Finally I'm wheeled down to the front door of MGH. I'm helped into the car. I have to be careful not to violate any of the hip precautions. So I sit down on the door sill and tip my head under the top of the door and into the car. Then I scootch straight back as far as possible so I can swing my left leg into the car without bending it at the hip more than 90 degrees and without swinging the left leg beyond the centerline of my body.

My daughter had placed pillows on the seat but I soon discovered you can't improve on a Volvo seat. It was more comfortable without them.

The ride home was uneventful for me, but I think my wife was a nervous wreck afraid any bump in the road would harm me.

A friend was waiting to help me out of the car and into the house but I didn't need the help. I used the walker to get across the gravel driveway, the uneven brick patio, up two steps into the house, and across three internal thresholds into a small bedroom off the living room that was to be my home for the next week or so.

I am exhausted from the short journey from car to bed.

We discover the visiting nurse association had been told I'd be home yesterday and they had been calling all day today trying to set up appointments to visit me. I guess somebody didn't tell them my return home was delayed a day.

I'm glad to be home.