• New normal, for a little while

    Tuesday was going to be a pretty packed day with labs in the morning in San Antonio, wound care in Uvalde in the afternoon, and then a visit with our primary doctor in the early evening. Amanda fell asleep, to no surprise, while we were watching a movie and missed taking her meds by almost…

  • Home

    We were both up pretty slow for the 8 am antibiotic dose. It’s not just the meds but you have to clean the port off, flush with saline, administer the antibiotic, flush, then put heparin in the line. It’s a process, and I’ve had to dig deep to bring back and remember all the steps.…

  • Homeward Bound

    Amanda was doing better this morn but still pretty sleepy, which was good because she needed to catch up on sleep. I took a quick shower in the hopes it would summon the doctors! Things did get rolling pretty quickly, though. The nurse mentioned discharge, and my first question was, is the hospitalist rounding yet?…

  • Processing

    All of the pieces were together for us to leave today, but I told them we wanted to go Saturday morning. As soon as they said we could go, the best discharge time would still have been a couple of hours later. That would have put us in rush hour traffic and added at least…

  • Lots of Leg Work

    We haven’t had the TV on much at all this hospital stay. Either there’s always activity with nurses and doctors coming in, or we’re on our phones. Last night, I was complaining to Amanda about how, at home, she always has to have the TV to go to sleep, but here she doesn’t need it.…

  • Stir Crazy

    Today, we officially hit the hospital limit before you go crazy; we are both ready to get out of here and are stir-crazy! The plan is still to discharge us tomorrow, but I highly doubt we’ll make it out of here by then. As much as that pains me to say things just aren’t lining…

  • Hospital Days and Nights

    We both slept well last night, at least; Amanda got a higher dose of her sleeping meds. For me, I turned a chair around and stacked pillows in it to match the level of the recliner, Amanda’s idea. I also made the chair with a fitted and flat sheet, so maybe it was just a…

  • An Extended Stay

    Sleep is still a rarity, with them not giving Amanda her regular sleeping meds and my feet hanging off the recliner over my foot! IV problems still plagued us this morning. They gave Amanda a dose of morphine, and it burned badly as the IV blew, the pain med going everywhere but her vein. So,…

  • Back to the OR

    Amanda didn’t get an IV until the early morning hours because the nurse wasn’t able to get one in. She was stuck seven times before they got a good one in. The nurse we didn’t like tried four or five times, then the charge nurse, and finally, a morning nurse. I told Amanda she was…

  • A Little Hiccup

    We’re currently in the hospital in Houston; Amanda has an infection in her chest from the sternal wire removal two weeks ago. The transplant team wanted us to be here for a two-week follow-up, but we pushed for a follow-up with our primary; I guess they got their wish after all. She’s actually in surgery…