Just before we started our discharge we had a new friend stop by to see us. Week before last I l rolled out to Houston with supplies for hurricane Harvey victims. Pastor YJ, a friend Ron, and myself went. We also brought tools and stayed a couple of days to mud out houses. Some would say by chance but the Lord already had it lined up for us to be at the sweetest lady’s home for this clean up. She stopped by to see us. It was great to see her sweet face and to meet her great niece who she brought with her. Every time we’ve spoke since we helped out, she talks about how much of a blessing the help was. What she doesn’t know is she has blessed all of us just as much if not more. I thank God for crossing our paths.
We are now finally in the hotel. The ride over was a short one just a block or so down but a rough one for Amanda. We got here a little after 4. I got Amanda all settled in to her pillow fort and headed out to CVS it was only a couple of blocks away. I got there about 15 minutes before the pharmacy closed and waited in line for 5 or 10 minutes. Once I gave them the prescription they said they’d have it ready tomorrow. I explained my situation they said it was to close to closing time to fill it. I went off the the next one and waited in line again to find out they didn’t have any or that medicine. I asked them about other CVSs and they said they were all closed and pointed me to a Walgreens. I called them on the way to see if they had the medicine in stock. By this time it was about 5:30 most of the stores around closed at 6, I was told that they couldn’t give me information on a class 3 drug over the phone. After another long wait and being hollered at by an older lady that I needed to get behind her in line, I found out they were out also. They couldn’t look up the stock online at another 24 hour store and had to call but didn’t have time. I head that way and notice a HEB next door to the Walgreens, I wasn’t counting on Walgreens at this point. I pull up just before 6 and my Texas country store came though in the clutch. Leave it to the Texas grocery store to save me for meds when the big pharmacies let me down. Ok enough with my prescription saga.
I was worried about leaving Amanda for so long. Even with all the frustration it worked out, Amanda slept almost the entire time I was gone. Olive Garden for dinner and she ate fairly good tonight. Her blood pressure is still low, I’ll keep an eye on it before anymore pain meds, they tend to lower blood pressure. Her o2 levels are great high 90s. Her heart rate is a little high for her, the pacemaker is set at 70 but she’s beating in the high 80s. It bothers her because the ventricular pacing is different, harder than normal. She says she can feel every beat the faster the more noticeable. We are going to see if our primary doctor can have a Medtronic rep come out to do a check on her pacemaker to report to the surgeon so we can see if the atrium lead is getting any conduction yet. Once it starts to scar in maybe it will get better, that’s the thought. This will save us a trip to San Antonio or Houston before we come back for the first check up.
We also went for a hallway walk and she did good. Amanda’s cocoon, the make shift hospital bed is working good. Wish we could have gotten a handicap room with the taller toilets though, that would have made it easier for her. Now that I think about it we should have just got a handicap suite and I could have slept on the couch. This room is working and much more comfortable than the hospital.
Tomorrow Amanda’s El Paso friend along with another heart sister from Katy are going to come in the morning and stay with her while I go to church. The church I’ll be going to is one that we partnered with for our mission trips this summer and last week. I’m looking forward to hearing pastor Jamie preach. He’s the one that came by the day of Amanda’s surgery.
Our plan is still to come home on Monday. I’ll post another update tomorrow afternoon some time.
Getting better
Today has gone good so far. The girls came and stayed with Amanda for 3 hours or so this morning. I’m sure they chatted nonstop. It didn’t take quite as long to make it to brother Jamie’s church as I thought. So I found a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant, where no one spoke English, it made me fill at home. They had great food, awesome salsa, and fresh squeezed OJ so I was set.
While eating I was going over some scripture on my phone. The verse of the day on app was 1 Peter 1:6-7 same verse God stopped me on the other day that I shared about. I think he might be trying to tell me something. Service was good this morning, and it was nice to slip away for a moment to worship. It was good to see some familiar faces I recognized from the mission trip.
Amanda’s has been doing good. I figured she would have passed out for a while after staying up with the girls and talking but it was me that was knocked out for a couple hours! She takes the pain meds every 6 hours both of them are staggered. I have alarms on my phone for each dose every 3 hours. So no missed or late doses here, I told you my patient care skills were strong! This also means no long periods of sleep. Amanda’s blood pressure is good, it’s still low but sitting around normal pressure for her. More importantly her O2 levels are great, she hasn’t needed the oxygen yet, the machine hasn’t even come out of the truck.
I’m about to order, some Chinese take out. Soup or noodles seems to be what Amanda can handle the best right now. We plan on taking it easy and leaving late tomorrow morning. We’ll play it by ear and see how she can handle the ride possibly staying the night on the way.