I am tired lately and haven’t even started going back and forth working out of San Antonio yet. I don’t have any time to rest. When I’m at the apartment in the afternoon, I’m working on getting things all situated, and the same goes for the nights when I get there. I have a shelving unit coming in today to organize the coat closet as a party for Tank’s food, cleaning supplies, extra paper towels, TP, and all the other junk that’s not food. I’ve been putting off installing fan remotes too, I can’t install them at night since there’s not enough light, so it’s only in the afternoon. I know those may sound silly, but I’ll be gone to work once Amanda is settled. She needs to be able to do things easily by herself, and getting up to pull a chain with short arms isn’t easy!
As I was walking to catch my bus this morning, I quickly moved along with long strides since the bus’s arrival was imminent. My head was down looking at my phone as I activated my daily bus pass on the app. I knocked my head so hard on a tree that it jarred my teeth! I say tree, not limb, because this branch was about two feet in diameter, and it dropped over the sidewalk with clearance for a normal person, but not my head at 6’6” tall. I screamed out as it made contact, some waiting at the bus stop, looked back. The only good thing was it caught me off center, not dead on, so it missed the round tab on top of my cap. As someone who knocks his head often when those tabs dig into your skull, it adds insult to injury and will bring a tear to your eye! I had a headache all morning from the knock still.
When I walked in the room, I could tell Amanda was hurting. I immediately told her to push her button when I noticed it wasn’t lit. She said she had been waiting about 45 minutes, but the nurse had just come in and was coming back soon. She also told me I missed all the fun last night. They had to call the rapid response team in. The red scrubbed nurses came a running; they are like the hospital’s emergency team. Her rate was sustained in the 140s and her chest began hurting badly, and a push of the IV pain meds didn’t help much. They ran labs and found that her potassium and magnesium were a little low, so she got bags of both. They did an EKG and everything was ok. She hadn’t been feeling good since and hadn’t felt good all morning either.
She was in the mood for breakfast, which was usual; she never even liked breakfast before we transitioned to intermittent fasting. I ran over to the Children’s hospital to grab a chicken biscuit for her and came back. She felt bad enough to have breakfast and not good enough for coffee, it was an odd day, if I was basing things off of just those choices, but her face told me all I needed to know.
She has a terrible nurse today. She called her in to get set up for a shower, and she sluffed off all her work to the PCA. I’ve called them nurse assistants, but they aren’t even that, PCA is a patient care assistant. They help with trips to the bathroom, check vital signs, and fill water and ice up, but they do not really have any nurse duties. The PCA was wrapping up the central line, which she didn’t know how to do. Amanda had to tell her how to use the large sheet of wound tape. She also disconnected the IV line, which they aren’t supposed to do, without gloves on and didn’t cap the hanging line. Amanda was mad and the PCA could tell. Amanda still wouldn’t ask her to do things right. When you want something done a specific way, you have to tell them I said to her. She expects too much from people, thinks they’ll do things right, and is disappointed when they don’t. I, on the other hand, think people are idiots until they prove me wrong; that way, I’m surprised when you do things right and am not disappointed! She just wanted to be mad today, so I let her until the madness would creep my way. Needless to say, she’s been frustrated all day.
While she was in the shower, the transplant pharmacist came by. No one had ordered for them to check the Furoscix, the on-body diuretic infuser, I had brought in, but it needed to be approved for use in the hospital. The team rounded this morning, the cardiologist hasn’t given us a keep it up, but we got a thumbs up and a shooter finger like he was Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore! We’d already talked to the PA, and she told us about the plan. Sometimes, I think the NPs and PAs run the show primarily; you know, like Biden and whoever was running that show behind the scenes! The NPs and PAs have their finger on the pulse, so to speak, we talk with them more and they are up to date daily and don’t need to be caught up on things like the rounding cardiologist does. They make a lot of the medication decisions and things of that sort.
The nurse seemed bothered to do her job. I don’t think she liked men much either! After Amanda was out of the shower, she pushed the button. The nurse stopped by to see what she needed from the hall. Amanda told her she needed the Furoscix and that the pharmacist had come by. She said I know then went back to whatever else she was doing, if it wasn’t evident she wouldn’t be right on it from standing in the hall to ask what we needed anyway. I’d already told Amanda that I would put the Furoscix on. The pharmacist hadn’t even seen one and said the nurse likely hadn’t either. I told her we’d used it and I could put it on. She said technically the nurse was supposed to be in the room when we did it ourselves though. She also printed a label for the nurse to scan and said she ordered noon, but it could float either side of that.
So when the nurse left, I told Amanda that if she were not here by one, I would put it on anyway. I said I’m the one who talked to the pharmacist and I’ll take the heat about it. Amanda’s the kind that asks for permission, and I’m the kind that asks for forgiveness later, but she didn’t balk at my idea since she had already been fired up today! The nurse showed up before one. I was ready to argue about putting it on. There was no sense in her trying to figure it out on Amanda when I already knew how. I had already washed up and had the infuser ready, so when she showed, once she gave Amanda some other meds, including Bumex pills, I started to get the infuser ready. The nurse didn’t say a word but watched. I cleaned everything up, the location where it would go on Amanda’s belly and the vial of Lasix. I slapped the vial in like a magazine in a pistol, shut the little door, and placed it on Amanda’s belly. Then I securely pushed the infuser and tape edges around and pressed the dreaded button to deploy the needle. The nurse gave me a nod of approval while looking impressed and said you did a good job. I must have for her to say that because I was pretty sure she didn’t like me!
Amanda was tired from her wild night and didn’t like the Furoscix because it hurt, so she napped. While she slept, I left early from the apartment. I’ve been using different apps and the Metro text line to figure out what bus or train combo to get back and forth the most expedited. I caught one that stops just outside of the hospital. The driver loved the brakes on that thing too. I was standing at attention by the sign, and he overshot the stop by a car length and did so at every stop, most of them putting the door where it opened in the grass! Not sure how he got his license, but I wasn’t about to stand up while he was driving.
Once at the apartment, I got to work on installing the fan remotes. I had it about halfway hooked up and noticed that the sending unit was too big to fit in the ceiling box. So, put everything back together, put in an Amazon return, and order remotes that had a smaller box. After that, I put a lamp together that had been delivered. I also ran a few crisscrossed extension cords to have the lamp turn on with the switch at the door and put a cover over both wires. I put a coat hook rack up with command strip hangers by the door to hang keys and Tank’s collar, harness, and leash. It was a busy afternoon. I’m hoping I can finish everything by the time Amanda arrives.
Amanda said she hadn’t peed much with the Furoscix, which was a little concerning. She had the nurse update to the PA. She called Amanda and gave her the plan. They ordered an IV push of Bumex and upped her oral dose as well. Once the Furoscix was started, the drip was stopped and three daily doses of oral Bumex were added. The new dose made the total 1mg less than the daily maximum. The PA told Amanda that was the most she’d ever prescribed to anyone before. Dr. Nair planned to have us come in twice a week for IV Bumex pushes as well. I’m praying hard this works and she can get out of the hospital for a little while.
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