We’ve been home for a few weeks and are already back in Nashville for a second time since we left Tennessee. As usual, we were busy back home. Amanda was catching up with work at church. We also had kids camp. However, we didn’t stay the night as we normally would; we were back and forth a few times, though. We also had to make the two-hour drive to get labs. There was not a day we didn’t go somewhere. I was also back and forth to work a bit. By the time we left Nashville, we had the 1,100-mile drive under our belt, we had driven about the same distance while home, and I’d put in over a thousand miles on the rails before we flew back to Nashville, all in about 10 days.
It was a little over a week ago when we left to go up for a kidney transplant follow-up and a heart biopsy. I was cutting it pretty close getting back in time for our flight. I was in Alpine with work, and on the way back I texted Amanda a list of things to pack for me. It was close enough that she had our ride lined up and ready to go the minute I got there. I threw on some clean clothes, and we took off on the 3-plus hour drive to the airport. Our flight was pushed about 30 minutes, which gave us a little breathing room.
I’d flown a ton back and forth to Nashville, but it had been 3 years since we’d flown together. I’d prefer we were back on that last trip we flew together to Utah, instead of flying up for hospital stuff! We hadn’t eaten, so when we landed after 11 at night, we were hungry and grabbed some food on the way home. When we got to the apartment, the door was unlocked. Good thing no one decided to let themselves in! I was worn out; this was my second time going straight from work in West Texas to Nashville.
Our first appointment was the next day with the NP for a kidney follow-up. Everything looked good. The levels weren’t getting better, but not worse either. I questioned her about our November appointment. I was trying to get our Nashville November schedule down to nothing. She agreed they’d start working with us as long as we could continue to get labs in Texas. So that was good since I’d already put in our move-out notice at the end of our lease, which is early October. Our plan, though, is to be out by the end of September. A light at the end of the tunnel that is getting closer.
When we arrived, I had to rent a car since my Suburban was down. I figured the battery was the issue, so after our appointment we went to Costco to get a new battery. Since there is no external lock, I had to get a pop-a-lock guy to unlock it before I could even begin to see what was wrong. The guy for the unlock service wouldn’t tell me how much over the phone, and it was high, like everything else in Nashville. After my obvious and vocal disdain for the price, we agreed on a lower number.
After it was running, the AC had issues; it was blowing hot out of the driver’s side and cold out of the passenger’s! After some fiddling with it and pulling fuses, I got it reset, likely an issue from the dead battery. Then when I took it out for a spin, there was an odd vibration. I finally pinpointed it to a tire. They were on the verge anyway, but still looked decent. I was hoping we could make it home on them. A little more driving and praying about it, I just didn’t feel comfortable making the 1,100-mile trip home on may-pops, and I got a new set the next day. The tire guy even asked if I was having any roughness or vibration. Two were worse than I’d thought, one being cupped badly, he said. Speaking of tires, when it rains it pours, the Yukon needed tires before we came back up this trip. So, I had to get a set put on when we were back in Texas, as well! I was still worried about the battery for the drive home, though. I had checked, and the alternator was good; I was concerned about an unknown drain on the battery, though. So we were just going to pray a mechanical hedge of protection around our trip home!
The next morning, Amanda had her heart biopsy. We had to do a clinic visit first, though, which was new for us. The clinic visit was a pain since there were a couple of hours between it and the cath. I questioned it heavily; I thought the scheduling could have been better at getting us closer to the biopsy time. The biopsy went well, but it was almost 5 pm before we got out of the hospital. They wanted a repeat soon since Amanda’s steroid level was lower; they needed the next biopsy within four weeks. The problem was we had another with a left heart cath for yearly check. It was pushed from the year follow-up back at the end of June because she needed contrast, which is hard on the kidneys. So, they pushed it out a few months to late September. We’re still pending whether she’ll have the left heart cath with the upcoming four-week biopsy, whether they’ll push it again, or if we keep the original date. As planned, that would be our last hurrah; I already had a one-way ticket up for that heart cath and biopsy. We were going to move back home the following week, at the end of September. So, we’ll see how that pans out now.
The biopsy went well. Zero R, the lowest the rejection can get. There was some narrowing of the pulmonic valve. It’s the heart valve located between the right ventricle and the pulmonary artery. It opens to let blood flow from the heart to the lungs. I’ll be honest, with our previous valve issues, I was a little worried when I heard that. It didn’t seem to bother the doctor that much. At least nothing we need to worry about right now. When or if we do, a valve replacement would be a walk in the park, after all we’ve been through. We’re still barely recovered from the heart, much less the kidney transplant; it’s one step at a time right now. What did Jesus say about this? Worrying, not heart valves that is! And who can add a single hour to their lives by being anxious? So, we’ll let tomorrow worry about itself.
We rolled out to head home the day after the biopsy, Friday. I needed to get closer to home so I could take a call to work. I’m on a board where I don’t get called in much, and I’m on what we call a guarantee where I get paid whether I work or not. It’s too hard to explain, but it’s very involved with taking off, and I can lose money easily; not only that, but if I were to lose my entire guarantee, I would lose insurance coverage. I already had to take off once; it was getting hit-or-miss, so I needed to get home.
I was worried about car issues on the way back. So I wanted to leave early to have time to fix anything that may pop up. Before we left, I had to get a small battery jump box I ordered from Amazon. I was worried about the AC, the radiator repairs, plus some new oil cooler lines and the battery. So, I wanted to be prepared and not have to bum a jump from someone in the middle of nowhere. The problem was we’d left not only our mailbox key but our key card to get into the mailroom and package locker. I had already sat like a stalker waiting for someone to go in the package room the night before, with no luck. I’d also made a couple of stalking runs in the morning with the same result, and the office didn’t open till 9 am. I finally found the maintenance guy, and he let me in to get the package. Then we hit the road for Louisiana, staying the night with my aunt. It works out so good having them halfway to stay with.
Things looked good with work, and I’d made it to the new month, which kind of reset things, so we decided to swing by Houston on the way home. We stayed with some friends, Jenny and Jeremy. Jenny had stayed with Amanda back in November when I was home working. It was good to see them and hang out for a while. On Sunday, we got to see Ryder, one of my old students whom we love like a son. He had a girlfriend who he’s serious about, and we just had to meet her! Nathan and Kim, our good friends and his parents, were in to see him too. So we all went to Ryder’s church and had lunch together, then Amanda and I hit the road back to Brackett.
There has been a little stress on Amanda about the insurance. While I was on my leave of absence, it was reported that I was out of work and my insurance was terminated at the end of July. So, the hospital is getting a little antsy about the upcoming cath. I dealt with them about 4 or 5 times while Amanda was in the hospital; she never knew about most of it. One being right after the heart transplant. To be stressed to the max with all we had going on, then dealing with the insurance was rough. I learned, through much frustration, that there is no way to speed the process up, and they report when they report. Amanda was getting pretty frustrated with the multiple calls from the hospital. It was only today that it was finally reported I was back to work, then a few more days before the system that tells hospitals is updated. It’s a horrible bureaucratic system between Union Pacific and United Healthcare, but they’ll pay the hospital sooner or later, so I can’t gripe too much!
Amanda was soild busy while we were home. She was up many nights past midnight working on things for church. There were plenty of times Tank and I said good night, got in bed, and saw her in the morning! Honestly, she was a little too busy. She really needs to be doing rehab and busy with that. I have seen a decline in her since she got out of it in January when we came home. Then she was too weak after the kidney transplant to really get any benefit from rehab. I think she needs a solid few months of it. She needs to be pushed in this area to actually do it. I am not the person to do the pushing; I just come off as a pain in her you know what when I do! I’m not quite sanctified enough to exude gentleness very well, just yet! So, needless to say, this has created a little tension with us. We are trying to make it back and forth to Texas more now, and I have been pretty adamant that if she does come home, she needs to be more proactive in the rehab. I fully disclosed that I don’t trust her to do rehab on her own, so we needed to figure something out. Sometimes I need to be the bad cop; this was one of those times.
On top of Amanda’s regular work, there was the women’s conference. She led worship for that and did a lengthy Q&A session sharing her testimony. She prepped for the conference way too long the night before; I don’t think she was in bed till after 2 am the night before the conference. Tank and I didn’t know exactly when it was because we were both sawing logs for a few hours by the time she joined us. As if all of what she was doing wasn’t enough of a drain physically, the testimony and Q&A were emotionally taxing, as well. She was speaking of the storm of our lives while we were still in the storm. Heck, she just had the kidney transplant less than two months ago!
The fast-and-furious work is just common for us. There’s only so many hours in a day, and we don’t like getting up early! It seems like we’re always just blowing and going, with something always going on. My new spot at work keeps the railroad from calling as much, but I have filled that extra time with something much more taxing: a new endeavor. I don’t want to explain it in this post, but I promise I have a lengthy post written months ago to explain it all, which I’ll post soon. If you were at church Sunday with us, then you know what I am talking about. Everyone else, you’ll have to wait!
We hadn’t planned to stay through the women’s conference and had originally planned to stay after the last biopsy. But we shifted things around to make it work; that’s why we flew last trip. I had wanted to leave early the day after the conference, Sunday, to head back to Nashville. However, Amanda wanted to stay for service. I did too, but leaving after church and driving 9 hours isn’t fun; Amanda surely didn’t want to do that. The deal we made was that if we stayed for church, we’d need to leave right after. I was right; it was no fun, and we rolled into my aunt’s driveway in Minden, Louisiana, about 11 pm. I got a reprieve from Amanda’s whining about being tired around 6 pm when she passed out for a couple hours. Not sure how much that nap helped; she woke up tired!
I was up early in the morning while Amanda and Tank slept in, sitting by the pool talking with my aunt. Petting the dogs is a requirement at her place too; she has 5 of them. Two of which are big Great Danes and eye level with me sitting down! I knew Amanda needed rest, so I let her sleep late. Though I wanted to get on the road, I didn’t wake her, but kept checking to see if she was awake. Tank finally arose from his slumber around 8:30 or so. I had to forklift his big butt off the bed, being the gray-faced arthritic old man that he is! Amanda was up, but not moving very spryly about an hour after Tank. It took a bit to convince her to get ready, and we rolled out earlier than we did the day before, around noon, but still way later than I wanted. The trip was uneventful, with Amanda and Tank passing out on the final stretch from Memphis to Nashville.
Everything is pretty fluid with our schedule, especially with my new spot at work. So, on Saturday, when Amanda said she wanted to be back in Brackettville for the following Sunday, we pivoted, and I began my logistical approach. We are baptizing around 15 during next Sunday’s service, so that is why Amanda wanted to be back. I ran different scenarios through my head. Amanda could fly back; I was already flying out Wednesday morning. We had Tank, though, so that wouldn’t be the best. We could drive back, but I’d need to be back by the weekend; that’s the most likely time for me to get called to work. We have a follow-up with the kidney doc on Thursday, and we could be packed up and roll out after that. We may need to drive straight through if things are tight with work.
I know what you’re thinking: why didn’t we fly up? Well, we didn’t plan far enough in advance to pivot that much. Last-minute round-trip flights, booked within a week or so, are over a grand each. Amanda isn’t ready to fly up by herself just yet. Gas is only around $400 round trip, so from a financial standpoint it was a no-brainer. To boot, I only began to flesh this idea out on the drive up! We decided to let Union Pacific or the good Lord make the decision. If I didn’t get called to work by Tuesday night, we were rolling back home, and right now it looks good for that. After that decision, I began thinking about what we could push to keep Amanda in Texas till her next biopsy. There was a pain doc appointment, but if Amanda had a refill with her pain patch, then we could push both the pain doc and the rehab appointments. Insert Barkley being the bad cop, aka a jerk with no gentleness, about doing PT at home!
So, Lord willing, if we are all able to come back home, we will be able to stay another 10 days or so. If it works out, this is where the new spot at work really pays off. Literally, I am getting paid to take Amanda back and forth to Nashville and be up here for follow-ups; ain’t God good! Speaking of God lining things up, his provision has been absolutely perfect for us, whether monetarily or other means. One example: as I started this new endeavor, which is very time-consuming, a retirement happened at work, which allowed me to hold the new spot and opened up a ton of time to get things done. God’s provision, you couldn’t convince me otherwise!
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