David was at Mary Washington hospital since Monday with severe leg pain, low oxygen and aspiration pneumonia.  He finally came home about 6:30 tonight expecting to have home health tomorrow with a nurse (coming mid day), Physical therapist (unknown time but probably coming) and home oxygen.  He had a little tank for the trip.  Along about 7:30 a guy from the oxygen supply company called and said they would be unable to deliver the oxygen because the doctor at the hospital wrote the order wrong and Medicare would not pay for it.  He assured me that David's oxygen was 100% on room oxygen when rest in.  I disagreed. We went back and forth. I said that David could die and that I was taking him back to the emergency room.  David had taken the oxygen off to go to the bathroom and his level dropped to 80% but went back up when we replaced the O2.  I hung up and the guy called back later offering to bring a tank for 75.00 that I would get back when the paperwork got straight tomorrow morning.  I declined because getting refunds is always a huge deal and I was exhausted and frustrated.  David went in to get a shower and the guy called back again offering to give me a tank if I met him in Stafford in an hour.  I declined because I couldn't leave David and finally caved and said I'd pay the money for a tank of O2.  So the service technician called me and said he lived in Chesterfield Va and it would be about 1 1/2 hours to get here.  I gave him directions.  He showed up with the entire set-up to compress room air and make it more concentrated with O2, two travel/emergency tanks and lots of tubing.  David can move 50 feet without moving the compressor.  The compressor has wheels so we can move it if necessary.  He was extremely nice and at 11:15 David had a reliable source of O2.  There is an adapter to moisturizer the air but we did not install it right away.  The valves are more complex than the gas for the grill but I got it figured out before the guy left.
The shower exhausted David and I had to use the wheelchair to get him back to the couch in the family room.  He just had his midnight pain medicine and is finishing up a recorded show.  I will get him into bed and then try to sleep myself.  The O2 compressor is actually kind of soothing.
Tomorrow we take the disk of his CT showing the stenosis of the spine and osteoarthritis (and him) to the Pain clinic for an evaluation and treatment plan.  The IV steroids helped the pain and the hospitalist thinks that steroid injections to the spine will be very useful to eliminate pain.  He is definitely not a candidate for surgery.  He is logarithmically better than when he left here in the ambulance on Monday and if he continues to improve this fast, he should be back doing 30 minute walks and going to Silver Sneakers before the new year.