Upgraded

Well, I’ve been home working a week already, taken six trains back and forth to Houston, worked 75 hours, and driven over 1000. I’d say I’ve made the most of my time at home, even if I haven’t gotten anything done on the house yet. I got out with an engineer that I’ve previously worked with when I first started on the Houston run. It was good to get out with someone I already knew; he loves traveling, so we had a lot to talk about. He’s been very interested and asks all kinds of questions about Amanda’s health.

Wednesday, Amanda said that when Dr. Sacks, the cardiologist, came by, they needed to up her magnesium but were going to keep everything else the same. She also said she was going to talk to the coordinator about getting an exception to upgrade her on the list because of the dopamine. Also, mentioning that Amanda’s name had come up a good bit, so they may not need an exemption. Amanda thought that it might mean they were already receiving offers, just none that were acceptable. She won’t ask for answers like I do; I’m always full of what-ifs and hypothetical questions. I like to have a plan and not be surprised by things, so I cover my bases, Amanda, not so much. Later in the evening, she started having bad chest pressure. The nurse called the NP, and they ordered an EKG and got her something better for the pain. After her day, she was wiped out and crashed early.

My engineer was from Tennessee, and we talked about our current situation with the apartment falling through. We tied our train down outside of Houston and rode in a van to the hotel. By the time we got to the hotel, he had already called his sister to ask her about a place she had rented, as well as his mother. His mother seemed to have a promising lead: a friend of hers had a nice house they could rent. I was about 50 miles away, right at the hospital’s limit for the first few weeks, but it was $500 cheaper a month than what they wanted for the basement apartment. I was talking to a friend the other day, and she said it was just neat how God had placed people in our lives all over, from our Houston friends to our Nashville friends, and so on.

After the news of the apartment falling through, I have started looking at houses to rent versus apartments. I can oddly get a little better deal on houses, but they are a one-year lease minimum. Six-month apartment rentals are about half as much more as year leases. That has been a common theme: you are heavily penalized for a shorter lease. A house would be better; most are bigger and have yards. It’s challenging because I’m unfamiliar with the areas, so I’m unsure where to avoid. I have looked at so many over the past few days. I check the included pictures, but also pull the satellite images and street views. I can get a pretty good idea of the area by looking at the street view of the houses and the vehicles, and get a feel for what kind of neighborhood it is in that way. The ones that are priced right are all in ghettos! I have made a short list after culling many. My thinking is that if we decide to go with a house, it needs to have a yard. There’s a high chance that after a couple of months, Amanda may be staying there by herself, while I’m back and forth, so she’d need a yard to let Tank out in. That’s a whole other issue with getting a pet-friendly rental, too. We’ve already decided; he’s old and may not have many more years left, so he has to come. It’s a big decision to commit to a long lease, but we’d already talked about that with an apartment, even. Hotels here aren’t cheap, and if we’re coming up here monthly for a year, this could pay for itself anyway. We have a lot to figure out.

Amanda had gained a pound on Wednesday and then again on Thursday. They decided to up the dopamine and Bumex both to counteract the fluid retention. Dr Sacks was going to write an exception for a bump to status 3 with the increased dosage. To qualify for status 3, a higher dose than Amanda was getting was needed, but with her heart rate, they weren’t sure she could tolerate more. That was the ammo for the status upgrade. Her kidneys weren’t happy, and if they got any worse, they planned to do another right heart cath on Friday. They also still wanted her off her regular sleep med, even though she was taking a fraction of the dose she usually takes. She had refused to take the other one because of how groggy she was and her BP issues. So they were going to try a different one. Part of the issue with the regular one, the PA explained, was that it could cause issues like ICU delirium if she were taken back to surgery too quickly and had taken it. The new sleep medication is an antipsychotic drug with the side effect of sleepiness. I guess the action of the drug is that you feel less crazy when sleepy, but I’m no pharmacist!

Later that day, I noticed Amanda had made a large Amazon order; then, a Whole Foods order notification popped up. I text and asked if her Nashville friend was coming by, and she said How’d you know! It was farmers market day, so they were going to try to make their way down. She was wondering how the IVs were going to work out, though. I’d already thought of it and have an idea to rig something up in her wheelchair. In the meantime, I told her to have the nurse find a wheelchair with an IV pole, and that’s what they did. She got the fabulous tacos I had, and they also found a yummy fruit sorbet at a gelato place. She had a bag of mag going, and it was going to be done, so they had instructions to be back in 1:45, the time left on the bag. She said it was beeping on their way back! It was good to get a selfie of them outside. Amanda would disapprove, but I’m going to share it with y’all anyway!

Amanda got a new resident in the room, baby Jesus. A nurse had taped a mini Jesus on top of her IV pump! The night nurse had a brother who was born in Del Rio. I thought the nurse from Boerne was close to home, but that was right next door to us, small world. The exception was written and submitted. Amanda was immediately upgraded to a status 3, and they had a week to approve. If denied, she would revert to status 4. Praying hard, they approve, and we stay at an upgraded status. Her output wasn’t much, even with the increase in both drips. So they were leaning toward doing the cath. 

Dr. Sacks had acted like they may need to take some further action pending the cath results. Amanda thought of a balloon pump, where a balloon is inserted into the heart to assist with pumping. Amanda was on one after her transplant for a bit. I was on a train, as we discussed things. I wasn’t sure if I should fly up or not. I wasn’t worried about the cath, but what if they needed to do something else? Amanda wasn’t sure and was making an assumption. She wasn’t on the official schedule for the cath either. Plus, it was Friday, what if they pushed, or she couldn’t get in since inpatients are all add ons? I decided against flying up after I got off work and would reassess in the morning.