A Busy Day

Last night, we went for a walk later in the evening. I didn’t have to pull back on the reins too much; she was easy out of the gate this time. She didn’t make it very far, though. She is so much worse than when we arrived a week ago. Amanda asked how long we had been here. I replied that I didn’t even know what day it was, much less have a clue when we got there. She said at least you get to leave I have barely left the room.

We had a cross-country cyclist staying in our Airbnb downtown. There wasn’t any coffee, no K-cups. I hadn’t been there to double-check things after it was cleaned last. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. I told him I would see if I could get some dropped off, but it was later in the evening, and I didn’t want to bother someone with something so trivial. He later asked about the coffee. I explained I couldn’t get any to him and I was in the hospital with my wife. He was nice, then demanded a partial refund since there was no coffee and he’d have to buy some! 

I have long wanted to have a restaurant or something of the sort. I have an entrepreneurial spirit; I grew up with my mother’s fine dining restaurant on the back porch of our home of my father’s cattle ranch, how could I not want to be an entrepreneur! In the past six months or so, we have decided not to seek any business ventures, which was hard for me. For this very reason, the last thing I wanted to deal with while in the hospital was the coffee situation in the Airbnb that the guy rented for $88. I bet he’s one of the cyclists who ride on the wrong side of the white line, and that is always in the way! It would be so hard to have a business in times like these; we just don’t need the extra stress. I’m still not ruling out a food truck just yet, though! It opens when I’m off work, come find where I’m at that day on the socials, and when we run out, we’re done for the day. That sounds like fun with limited stress!

Early in the morning, a helicopter was idling on the roof. There are 26 floors, and we are on the 25th, so it was loud and there for over an hour. I couldn’t sleep at all while it was here. So the extra sleep I was hoping for turned out to be negative! Amanda called for meds while we were up, too. She promptly fell asleep after getting her meds, but I did not.

The assistant came in at a nice 6 am to get Amanda out of bed to weigh her. The three diuretics she was on were finally doing their job. She was down six pounds in 24 hours, finally! The hospitalist came by and talked about things. She asked about Amanda’s activity. I explained and said she couldn’t make it far at all. Amanda chimed in and explained the pain. The doctor wanted to get PT to come by. I had to explain that that wouldn’t help; she looked at me like she was questioning me. I went on to say we’ve had a lot of surgeries, and I’ve helped her through a lot, and this wasn’t a conditioning issue. It is when her heart needs to pump more that she has issues. She finally got it, and it seemed to make sense then. She asked about being listed; she was an advocate of that. Mentioning she felt we were just spinning our wheel and not doing anything. Me too, honey!

The team came by; the doctor was happy today. He asked how she was and said, “You better not say you haven’t peed; I saw the weight!” He talked about how they’d do the same regiment as yesterday. We mentioned the oral med versus IV. He was perplexed and stormed back to the PA’s computer. He has a heavy Greek accent and is very fidgety. He talks fast and likes to pace and stay moving! Coming back over to us with a very confused face, he said he’d never heard of the oral version of the medication and that was not what he had ordered. I told him we questioned it and maybe should have had them call about it. He was elated because that was something we could go home on, though.

Amanda was going to take a shower but got some meds first. The nurse wanted to give the Bumex push and asked if she wanted it before or after. Amanda said, let’s wait in case it drops her BP. The nurse said we don’t want you to “Drop it like it’s hot” in the shower. That’ll have some of you singing that Snoop Dogg in your head, and probably get you millennials reading this to reminisc about your clubbing days!

I was getting ready to leave for an apartment tour when Amy, the inpatient and pre-transplant coordinator, walked in. She likes to sit down and chat; this time was no different. Moving the pillows out of my leg chair, she sat down. This was a serious talk, though. She had the pre-transplant education binder with her. The insurance had approved rather quickly, she said. It was go time. There was a barrage of things she had to go over, a list of questions she had to check off. She mentioned a power of attorney. Amanda and I had already talked about that because I may need to sign for her in an apartment. 

I asked the impossible question, prefacing that I knew she couldn’t answer it. How long would the wait be? We talked back and forth. I mentioned I was about to go apartment hunting and was just planning. She understood and said it was weeks before and thought it would be months this time. After her question, she laid out all the things Amanda needed. A ton of labs to start. Then a few ultrasounds on the kidneys and a neck and leg doppler scans. Since she was over 40 now, barley Amanda would add, it was an ultrasound versus a mammogram since they didn’t have that machine. She needed a pap smear with HPV results. Amanda had looked up her last results from 23, and they were current, so one less thing she’d need to get done here. We needed evaluations from the surgeon, transplant doc, transplant coordinator, phycologist, social worker, financial counselor, dietitian, and pharmacist. She would need some CT scans, pulmonary function tests, X-rays, and a stress test, to name a few. It will be a busy rest of the week. I had a lot of questions for her, as well, one being if she could get a PICC line to keep from being stuck so much.

After that, I was off to check the apartment out. An apartment will make things so much easier. A couple is coming to stay with Amanda and getting a hotel room. I feel bad that they are getting one if we had a place they could stay there. I could cook; we wouldn’t need to worry about Tank. These apartments were in a much better location. I knew the road it was on and didn’t even need to look at a map to figure the way. It was a few blocks from the hotel we used to stay in. It is centralized between the South Main/NRG shopping area, Rice Village, and the Med Center. It was within walking distance of a grocery store (which has a Starbucks), a bus stop, a Chick-fil-A, and one of our favorite pizza places. It is also a few minutes’ drive from Target and other shopping options. 

It wasn’t the newest place and wouldn’t be considered a luxury apartment, but it was perfectly suitable for what we needed. The first one I looked at was essentially a two-bedroom, one-bath, but it was called a one-bedroom with a study. The problem was that they had three floors and no elevator. So, first-floor units were sought after, and that was what we’d need since Amanda wouldn’t be in stair-climbing condition for a while. There were only two first-floor units available, and they go fast. That might have been a line to get me to sign a lease, but I think it’s true. The leasing manager was very helpful and understanding of our situation. The shortest lease agreement was three months, but to my surprise, we could go month to month after that. So I feel much more comfortable getting a lease now, which is the ideal thing to do. 

I left comfortable enough with that complex, and I didn’t even go to look at another. My mind was spinning, though. The month-to-month after the lease was up was a game changer. I hadn’t thought of that scenario. As I drove to get gas and Chick-fil-A to get lunch, no map was needed; I knew this area too. I thought of what to do. I came across the heart-painted signal box Amanda had wanted to take a picture at while we lived here and did on our first heartiversary trip. I felt it was a sign to get the apartment. I’m still apprehensive about adding that much to our monthly budget, which is stretched thin with me not working solid and the extra expenses of being in the hospital. It would help with some of that; I could cook and park there. Parking alone is almost $500 a month if I’m at the hospital every day. 

Once back, we had our southwest veggie wraps. The nurse came in and needed to give Amanda some medication. When she pulled Amanda’s chart up, she noticed a ton of new labs and work-ups she had to do. She’d need to stick Amanda again to get the 13 vials of blood they needed. It took her a couple of sticks to get a good vein, and she called for backup to help with all the vials. I took a pic and said it was good content for our blog. She told me to say that your body produces so much blood daily, about half of it in the vials!

Amanda was busy working through the afternoon and early evening on a few things. Today was a busy day, and by the time we thought to order dinner, it was getting late. Amanda asked about dinner and where we wanted to get it from. I was quick with my answer; I wanted dinner from a good hippie place called Flower Child. It’s one of my favorites for plant based fare and has delicious veggies. I got a plate of sides, and Amanda picked a bowl. She also wanted to try their cashew-based green chili queso with chickpea chorizo. 

It would be a while to get dinner, but we ate a late lunch, so it didn’t hurt our feelings. They came to get Amanda for all the ultrasounds, and I got a notification that our food was on the way! They whisked her off. It was shift change, so the nurse was in the hall having a briefing with the night nurse; it was the nurse Amanda didn’t like. I could hear them, and she acted like she hadn’t had Amanda as a patient. I made sure to tell the day nurse we’d had her before. I’m quick to dislike some nurses. I’m pretty discerning with people and usually a good judge of character. Amanda likes to give more benefit of the doubt than me, and she’s just plain nicer than I am, too! But, even Amanda dislikes this nurse. 

I grabbed the food from the driver shortly after Amanda was gone. She was worried about eating cold food. I was nice, and didn’t dive into it right away, though the queso was tempting! She messaged me saying she was done and just waiting on transport. I told her, “Have wheelchair will travel, where are you at!” We had our new wheels delivered to the room yesterday. She arrived in time to still have warm food. The queso turned out to be white cheddar, but that didn’t stop us from eating it!

I’m headed home tomorrow to work a trip to Alpine and back. I plan to be back late Saturday or early Sunday. Rhonda, a friend and praise team member, is my relief. I need sleep, so expect light updates unless Rhonda sends me an update of her own. It will be a big day tomorrow, and there will be lots of tests. That will break her in quickly for her first “Amanda duty” debut.

I could use some prayers for wisdom on the apartment situation. Not knowing how long Amanda will be on the list makes it hard to jump into a lease. I do not want to bite off more than I can chew. Either way, we must get an apartment once we get a heart. I feel a heavy prompting to go ahead with it, but I never make knee-jerk reactions; I always sleep on decisions like this. I need prayer and need to pray on this myself.