Day 106 (Dec 6)

My sister brought me to the General Aviation section of the airport and we found the company in charge of the flight.  I've never flown on a private jet before and I wasn't sure what to expect.  Luckily it seems to be a very easy operation.  There is no terminal, per se, but rather each company has a building that backs up to the tarmac.  When you enter the building, it looks like a hotel lobby inside, but instead of heading to the elevators after one checks in, you head out the back door to the tarmac where the business jet is waiting to take you to your destination.  Pretty slick, except that in our case there was no jet waiting for us.  The check in lady had no record of our aircraft and asked me for the tail number, which I, of course, didn't have.  I gave her my itinerary, but she couldn't tell what jet in her schedule could be the one that Tobias and I are supposed to be on.

Minutes before I was on the phone with the hospital while we were still in the parking lot.  I wanted to ensure that everything was running smoothly and get a read on when Tobias would arrive at the "terminal".  The hospital nurse told me that Tobias was prepped and ready to go, but that no one had arrived yet.  I assumed that the medical transport team was running late and went inside to find out what their status was.

Since the check in lady was unable to find the jet in her system, I opened my email with the details and called the air ambulance 24x7 hotline.  The German lady who took my call also wanted to know the tail number and told me that she couldn't help me without it.  Luckily we were able to exchange enough information for her to identify the aircraft.  She reported that the aircraft had been grounded in Iceland due to poor weather conditions and were going to have to postpone the flight for one day.  She confirmed that the flight was scheduled to leave at 10am on Tuesday.  I asked why no one had informed us or the hospital and she said that they had informed the insurance company.  If I have any problems with that, I would need to call the insurance.  I asked her why she didn't notify the General Aviation company.  I pointed out that Tobias was prepped and ready to be picked up and that I had made arrangements to leave.  She said that she was sorry, but that it isn't her problem.  Literally.  Wow.

With nothing left to do, I informed the hospital and then went back to my sister's house, dropped off the luggage, got in the car we have been borrowing for three months and headed off to the hospital.  It felt wrong somehow because I had mentally prepared for the flight today and wanted to get back home.  Tobias was also out-of-sorts.  He had no therapies planned for today, but the nurse was able to get some food ordered for him.  I washed his sweaty and tired face, but he didn't renew like he normally would have.  He was able to speak fairly well, however, and told me that he just wanted to sleep.  I asked if he wanted to eat or go for a walk, but he only wanted to sleep.  I checked with him several times, but he just wanted a day off.  His heart rate was running a little over 100 and I asked him if anything was wrong.  He said yes.  I asked what was hurting and he said something, but I couldn't understand.  After another hot face wash he said that his knees hurt.  I bent his knees several times and massaged his knees.  I even put support pillows under his knees, but he still complained that his knees hurt.  I asked him if anything else was hurting, but he said "knees, that's it".  I ended up calling the nurse and the aide.  They completely repositioned Tobias and put warm blankets over his knees, but I checked 30 and 60 minutes later and his knees still hurt.  I asked the nurse to give him some Tylenol for pain relief and that seemed to help.  I think that he must be concerned about the flight and the delay isn't doing him any good.

The case manager came in to report that the air ambulance company had informed him that the flight was now scheduled for Wednesday at 10am.  20 minutes later they called back to say that they were "going to do their best" to pick Tobias up at 7am on Tuesday at the hospital.  I was tired of getting imperfect information so I called the General Aviation "terminal" again and asked about their plan for the flight.  The lady on the phone again asked me for the aircraft tail number, which I still don't have.  She said that she can't locate the right flight without the tail number and that she doesn't know the destination of departing aircraft.  We finally identified the plane by the name of the pilot, who was listed on both our documentation.  It surprises me that such an important and expensive flight would have such poor information available.  She confirmed that the flight is scheduled to leave at 8am on Tuesday (tomorrow).  This matches up with the last information received from the air ambulance company so I'll show up at the "terminal" tomorrow at 7am.  Keep your fingers crossed.

It was 3pm and I felt exhausted.  I didn't slept well last night and two months of getting up early have apparently been wearing me down.  I decided to let Tobias sleep and I returned to my sister's house to relax.  I turned off the lights in Tobias' room, told a sleeping Tobias that I loved him and would be waiting for him at the airport tomorrow and then drove back to my sister's home.  I put a movie on the TV and laid down on the couch.  It felt like I was on the operating table and the anesthesiologist had just administered the sleeping drug.  Sleep poured over me like a wave and I was out in seconds.  I slept for two hours and then spent the rest of the day unsuccessfully trying to wake up.  It's now 11:30 and I'm going to try to go to sleep for the night.

Hope over fear.