This morning, we slept late. I didn’t even get out of bed till just before 10. The nosebleed day was exhausting; I can only imagine how Amanda feels. Once up, I got ready. Tank had a midnight potty run, so he didn’t bother me or bother uncurling himself from next to his mom. He’s a funny dog and doesn’t play with toys or anything like that; his favorite pastime is being around his people. This dog loves a good walk but is getting too old for too many of those. I’ve already been doubling up on his arthritis medicine. I took him out, and as we waited for the crossing light, no jaywalking across Main St., a fire truck came barreling around the corner. It was ear-drum-busting; I was sad Tank didn’t let out a big ah-woooo himself; he just saves those when he’s sad and alone in a hotel room!
Once I got Tank back in the room, I made a couple of runs to the car. I had the wheelchair and a few extra bags since we stayed an additional couple days so I couldn’t make it in one run. I’d chastised Amanda for not packing in a one-trip load! The parking garage elevators were stuck open on the first floor on my second trip up. The fire alarm had them shut down. The stairs were locked, so an older man with slicked-back hair and shiny cowboy boots that were probably as old as me and I made our way across the large garage to the middle elevators. He made me think of my father a little; we chatted on our walk over, and then I walked back to the Yukon. Amanda wouldn’t be able to walk to the car with the elevators out. I looked over the edge to see how the parking situation was at the hotel. It was packed, and the valets are a pain when you park up front. Amanda couldn’t bring Tank down by herself, either. I checked the elevator, and they were back working, thankfully.
Amanda’s belly was unhappy with all the blood that got in there with the nosebleed. The ENT we saw inpatient mentioned to lean forward to keep the blood from going in her belly. That only works so well when you have blood coming out of your eyes and pouring down your throat, some is bound to get in your belly! He mentioned that blood in your belly is an irritant and can cause gastric issues. As Amanda had a little chest pain and crazy rhythms this morning, she joked, saying she didn’t think she and her heart were friends anymore! Mentioning it felt foreign, and she didn’t think she, her heart, liked it in there anymore.
As a sheriff’s deputy, I knew from the area stopped traffic to let me across with the wheelchair; I said see you next week. That is so different for us; we’ve had extended stays many times and had doctor visits a good bit, but nothing like this. This is common, with weekly treatments, for radiation and chemotherapy treatment, but foreign to us as a heart patient. The back and forth is taxing on everything from our mind/body to our car to our pocketbook; I’m worn out.
I made sure to leave a good tip for housekeeping. I’d cleaned all the blood from everywhere and rinsed the towels out the best I could. Being a medical center hotel, those won’t be the first bloody towels they’ve seen. I made sure to pick up after Tank as well. I didn’t want to get ratted out if we were supposed to inform them of a pup! I’d put good money that they do nothing different in cleaning, even if they did charge a dog fee. I’d rather leave a tip for the cleaning ladies to get versus helping the hotel’s bottom line. Speaking of costs, some of the hospital stays finally hit our insurance to the tune of over 3/4 of a million! I’ll be a seven-figure stay before we know it. Thank the Lord for our great insurance; our portion of that was zero. I’ll be interested to see what the insurance actually pays.
As we got all loaded up, I saved Tank for last; he will need a little training with his steps! They collapsed as they jumped on them like a madman. I also needed a little training; I learned quickly that I needed to attach the strap to the recliner lever to keep them from sliding away. Our first stop was HEB to grab some scripts and some sushi for the road; the next stop was next door for road coffees. Tank was enjoying the fresh air, wind in his ears, and scent buffet!
My coffee was a little shy in size, a medium in a large cup, but with the same amount of espresso. It was strong, but I enjoyed it and downed it. I was chatty and monologued for hours after that! Sometimes, this is typical of our road trips, but Amanda wasn’t responding to anything. I think I was just annoying her, talking about everything under the sun. I finally shut up, and Amanda caught a good nap. Tank joined in and got a nice one when the sun hit him just right. The only thing missing was my nap; the Yukon knew the way well but refrained!
Upon Amanda’s suggestion, we held the sushi for dinner when we arrived home and grabbed burgers from where we’d gotten them on our last trip home. It took us around the loop at the airport in San Antonio. That helped us miss some bad traffic where three interstates converge and I10 turns North. There is always a bottleneck that slows us down to a halt. There was a ton of traffic, and Siri wanted me to go down I35 and up. This is way out of the way, and we never take that route. Siri said it was about 10 minutes quicker, but it is probably 30 minutes longer typically. I should have taken her advice. For those of you local, you’ll appreciate this: we were at a dead standstill on the top of the new overpass from Loop 410 to Highway 90. Traffic was stop-and-go for about 15 miles, with no wrecks, just congestion! We finally got a clearing and hammered down, with Lambchop waving at everyone we left in the dust or giving the bird depending on the mood of the ones we passed and how they took it!
I’d forgotten something off of the pharmacy list at HEB. Amanda needed more syringes for the finger paint pneumonia medicine, so I stopped at Walgreens, close to home (40 miles, but that’s close for us), and grabbed a few. The pharmacy closed early at six; at about 6:45, the pharmacist was closing up. He saw me wondering and looking and asked if I needed help. I said what I was looking for, and he just turned around and didn’t say a word except to ask what size. He unlocked the difficult accordion door he’d just closed and came back and just gave me three, asking if that would do. Really nice guy. I helped him close the dumb door, and he got it with one try and was excited about that. That’s all I needed, but I picked up a few things just because he helped me out!
We got home and ran a few loads of laundry we had brought home. Our sweet long-term dog sitter had text me late last night and asked if she could clean the house since we were coming home, I quickly agreed! We text back and forth as she asked about a few things around the house. The one that got me the most excited was when she said, “I see you have the boxes out for the nativity. Do you want me to put them up?” I wanted to kiss her right in the face when I saw that. I despise putting that thing up with all of its boxes and styrofoam! We had another friend clean the house while we were gone the long stretch, too. Coming home to a clean house after being gone is so nice.
We settled in, had our sushi, and Amanda got to work wrapping a few things up for work that she’d planned to knock out when we got back, but we’re running two days behind with this trip going so long. Tank was the most glad to be home and couldn’t wait for us to get in our chairs so he could get in his big, fluffy bed and sleep. He can’t sleep there unless at least one of us sits down. He’ll just stand on his bed looking at us!
We’ll get little reprieve from travel; we head to San Antonio for Amanda’s Botox migraine treatments. She finally got approval from the transplant pharmacist. It was today at 1:45, which we couldn’t make, tomorrow, or three weeks from now. We are just gluttons for punishment, I guess. When Amanda told me it was tomorrow, I was like, no!