Amanda has been doing well. We are currently getting the “mab” infusion right now. Her weight has been up and down, with a few adjustments to her IV meds last week. They started her on a midday dose of IV Bumex. She takes it orally usually, but with the extra fluid retention, they wanted to add that for a couple of days. The plan was to do the IV midday for infusion days as long as her labs looked good. Her chest was hurting and it came in surges last week, but she hasn’t seemed to complain much here lately. The home health nurse came by last week to change the dressing. It was the same nurse as last time, the one with poor English. She was, however, very impressed with Amanda’s cart, which was all set up with the meds and the dressing kit she needed! We didn’t have to make a clinic visit or be at the cancer center last week, so that was nice.
I worked a couple of trips back to back, so I’ve been worn out lately. It is nice to stay at home both ways, but 12-hour plus shifts with a three-hour drive are working on me. I also have to stay on top of checking the boards to know when I should leave for work. On my first trip last week, I hit it just right, and the phone rang just as I arrived at the rest area. So, I just freshened up, changed clothes, and headed to the depot. I’m getting all too familiar with that rest area. I have already rigged my backpack out with things from my dopp kit, with plenty of room for my boots, work clothes, and sidearm (sleeping at a rest area is kinda sketchy). I have to park a ways from the bathrooms to get service in the car. I need good service to take my call, and it’s super dark on the walk from the car to the bathrooms.
I haven’t had to sleep at the rest area for either of my trips last week, but I should have on my previous trip. I got in the back seat, scooted the front seat all the way forward, propped my feet up on the console, and caught up on Andor, a Star Wars series, to be ready to watch the new season just released. Once tired, I climbed in the back, and that’s when the phone rang. I’m used to it, that just seems to be how the railroad works! The longer I work out of San Antonio, the better I will get with train call times, but it’s still hard to gauge when I will get called, even after 22 years of doing this. I still need a few things for the Yukon to be a good camper. Namely, a better bed, but I have been holding off on spending the money. I think it is time, though, if I’m going to sleep in the car at a rest area, I might as well make it as comfortable as possible. It doesn’t seem there is an end to this anytime soon.
I have been taking it easy driving in. Following a semi and not worrying about driving the speed limit is much less stressful on the interstate. I had to take a detour with bad traffic on my last trip and went southwest, the way we take the trains, through Sugarland and Rosenberg, working my way back toward I-10. I decided just to follow Highway 90 alongside the tracks then. It was much more peaceful than the interstate, and I will likely take that route more in the future when I leave early. I just put it on cruise at 55 mph and enjoyed looking at the countryside while listening to the coffee house channel on the radio.
I’ve been worn out lately. I have all the things on my plate, from caring for Amanda, cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. All of that with working crazy hours and a 400-mile round trip to work is going to take its toll on me, I can see that now. I didn’t realized how hard this would be until we stated living here. Back home, I usually get my rest away from home when I’m in Alpine. I don’t get that here, though, because I am home even when away from home! It is nice, but at the same time, I miss shutting myself inside my hotel room and not leaving until I am called. That is a reset for me that I don’t get here. We are so used to that, too. I think it is healthy for us to be apart and not around each other 24/7. Don’t get me wrong, we usually spend all our spare time together, much more than most couples, and do everything together, but a break sometimes can be good. Let’s just say Amanda has already threatened me with the Bumex needle a couple of times!
Sunday, we went to an early showing of Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. It was a 20th anniversary re-release. We don’t watch movies in the theater much, but I always watch Star Wars movies when they come out in the theater. I’ve seen all of them. I’m a bit young to have watched the originals in the theater, but I saw each of those upon their rerelease in the 90s. And I skipped school to get tickets for the midnight showing of episode 1. I’m a huge fan and didn’t want to miss this rerelease since this one is my favorite out of the 1-3 episodes. Usually, I watch them solo without Amanda; she’s not a fan, or I have taken Star Wars fans from the youth group many times, too. She went along with me this time. We went early so as not to worry about crowds. There weren’t even 10 of us in the theater, so it worked out. I like attending early release showings, but was at work for this one. They are usually hype, with some all dressed up in cosplay. I’m not that hardcore, but I like seeing the enthusiasm. However, if I had a friend who did cosplay, I would likely only be a nudge away from dressing up as my favorite character, Qui-Gon Jinn; with my height, long hair, and beard, I think I could pull it off well, too!
This morning, the lab tech had a hard time sticking Amanda. That’s been a common occurrence lately. The pharmacy was also running behind with the meds. It looks like it may be a long day here at the cancer center. Hopefully, it will not be too long. I have to take Tank to the vet this afternoon. He has been having some issues with his ears, and the usual prescription med we give him hasn’t seemed to work. He has also become partially deaf, so we wanted to get him seen about. This happened with an ear infection before, and his hearing returned after the infection cleared up. We’re hoping it’s the same this time. Sybil came by yesterday evening, and Tank didn’t even hear her at all. It wasn’t long after she was gone when he woke up, smelled her, and was sniffing around, wagging, and looking for her; it was cute!
We will be coming home this weekend for my union meeting on Monday, and Amadna also has an appointment for her migraine Botox injections in San Antonio on Monday. I had hoped for a long weekend at home, at least three nights, but we may not be able to stay that long. I was bumped off my job and had to switch to a different position on the board. That put me off Amandas’ infusion today, but it may put me in a bad spot for leaving early to head home. I need to work as much as I can right now since I’ll be off for a week when we go to Vanderbilt in a couple of weeks.
There has been some confusion about the Vanderbilt trip, and I want to clarify some things. We are not moving to Nashville, yet. We are going there to get approval to be listed with Vanderbilt, but we have no intention of using that transplant center. We will keep that approval in our back pocket if needed. The idea is that we should be listed here in Houston with Methodist in late June or early July. I plan to sign a six-month lease when our current lease is up (June), but only after Amanda is actually on the list. Then, once that lease is close to being up (December), we will reassess and see if we need to transition to Vanderbilt. We need this time so I can work enough to qualify for next year’s vacation and family medical leave. This will also give us ample time to finish the remodel on our home and sell it. That is the only way we can fund living in Nashville, since I can’t work from there. I don’t want to chase rabbits, but there is a slight chance I could work out of Little Rock if a management spot were to pop up there. We’re trusting God that if Nashville is to be realized, things will line up for it, just as they did for Houston. This could all change in a hurry if, god forbid, Methodist denies the listing, though. The best scenario is that we never have to think about Vanderbilt besides this trip for the transplant workup. I’m praying hard that everything happens here in Houston.
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