Nursing Home Visit – attempt #2

After a horrible attempt for a road trip last month to try and get our nursing home overnight stay requirement filled so that Hannah can be approved for the medically depedent children’s program (and medicaid), we are going to try again this weekend.

Last time, we only made it about 45 miles of a 200 mile drive before we had to return home.  She had 3 beginnings of a hypervenilation episode (as a result of a tantrum of not liking behind confined) and one actual hyperventilation episode, all requiring us to pull over for about 10 minutes, get her out of the car, give her some fresh air and cuddles, and then move on.  Also last time, she was teething horribly and completely congested, so in hindsight, it probably was not a good move to go that weekend.

We are going to try again this weekend.  We have to check in by 11 am on Saturday, so we are actually going to leave when the kids get home on Friday afternoon.  This way, we can drive as far as we can on Friday and spend the night in whatever city we can get to.  Hopefully we can make it the entire way Friday (it would normally be a 4-hour drive, but not with our situation).  But this gives us a cushion just in case we have to stop and give her a break.

I will admit that I am incredibly nervous about this trip.  The first 40 miles is in more of a rural area, so if for some reason we needed 911, it would not be that quick.  We will definitely be taking our oxygen with us, actually a couple of tanks “just in case.”   We have the DVDs ready to go, but even those only taking her mind off things for a period of time.

I don’t know what it is about her and driving.   She tends to do it when she is more on the tired side (not nap tired, but just up for a while), and when she is not feeling well.  We were able to make it to Katy last weekend (45-minute drive) without a problem, but on the way home, she had another episode, and we had to pull off the freeway and give her fresh air.

I hope, hope, hope this works.  I don’t know what we will do if it doesn’t.  We thought about flying closer to the nursing home, but there would still be an hour+ drive from the airport, but then we have to pay for airline tickets.  We thought about renting a small RV (which the kids would love), but even that is a few hundred dollars.

Just keeping my fingers crossed…