The ball was rolling to get us out of there after the team came by Friday. Although the new diuretic wasn’t cutting it, they still let us go home. They did, however, up the dose almost three times. We also got a sample of the new injectable. It’s a large pack about the size of an iPhone but ten times as thick. It stays on for about four hours to release the Lasix over time. It’s a medication Amanda was on before, just not in this form. We have some on order, but with prior authorization, it’ll likely be two weeks before we get them. Once they mentioned discharges, I could tell Amanda was hesitant; she didn’t say anything, but I could tell. She was worried about the fluid retention getting out of control. On the other hand, I was ready to go home; I figured if we were going to trial run stuff for home use, let’s do it at home!
I’d asked the nurse, since we had our wheelchair once we were discharged if someone could just wheel her down. She was a straight-laced young woman with a heavy Caribbean accent and wasn’t about to do that. So that meant I’d have to make two loads to the car plus the wheelchair. We had a ton of stuff after two and a half weeks. I told Amanda if they didn’t have someone to get her, then I’d just come up and get her myself; I hate waiting for transport before we can leave. I got my second load to the car, and when Amanda still didn’t have anyone to get her, I just wheeled up front, parked, and went to get her myself with a valet barking at me for where I parked!
On the way out, I swung by the unfurnished apartment we’d been considering to show Amanda the complex and the area. She approved, and then we grabbed coffee on the way out since we’d skipped it in the morning. On the way out, our heart friends who live in Katy met us at Bucee’s to give us a send-off. I filled up on snacks we didn’t need and gas we did need. We talked with our friends for a while, but Methodist called to finish the intake with Amanda. Everything was good they took our insurance as we’d told them, and we have an appointment on the 3rd Monday in March.
We had the doctor call in all the prescriptions to Uvalde so we wouldn’t have to wait in Houston since the discharge seemed to go quickly. We got out later than I’d expected, and once we left Katy, I knew we wouldn’t make it to the pharmacy before they closed. So we called a friend, our old next-door neighbor for years who lives there now, and asked if they could pick them up. She’d saved us in the same situation after Amanda’s first knee replacement. Amanda didn’t need to pee the entire trip home and never even got out of the car I think thats a first. The new diuretic wasn’t working. They’d held off on the bigger dose since we were driving, but it’s not like they’d never given her some right before we left. Though we know all the pee-pee stops between Brackettville and the Texas Med Center, we didn’t need any for Amanda.
Once home, I unloaded the car. Tank was super happy to see us, especially Amanda. He never runs out the door, but he did to see his mom! Amanda was doing a little too much once home. I told her, “You’re smarter than you’re acting; quit being dumb and doing too much. Sit down and do things in stages!” She seems to do better with alternating the pain meds. I told her last night to start alternating the pill with the IV meds. That way, when we leave, there’s a little bit in her system. Her heart was beating harder, she said, maybe with the fluid building up, it was already starting to cause issues.
We all climbed in our freshly washed sheet that some friends took care of. They said Tank was pretty excited and was jumping up and down, so while one distracted him, the other made our bed! Our dryer is still down; the parts finally showed up after they sent a can opener instead of the parts the first time around! Some friends mentioned we needed to do another Amazon wish list like we did for the hotel room after the first transplant. So, last night in bed, I was adding things we’d need, more this time trying to outfit an apartment and not a hotel room. We haven’t fully decided to go with the apartment, but that’s the way I’m leaning.
I didn’t sleep well last night and was up early, but Amanda, on the other hand, slept in late. Though I was up, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I worked on the Amazon wish list and added notes about what each item was for. We lazed around the house till I realized I needed to get ready to go to Del Rio. Amanda wanted to stay home, but I had an appointment to get the tires rotated and pick up groceries, we didn’t have any since we’d been gone so much.
I was tired on the drive over; I guess the lack of sleep caught up with me. I had hoped they would get me back early, but they didn’t take the car back until a while after my appointment time. A tire sensor needed to be replaced, but two others had issues as well, so I went ahead and had all four replaced, but only after I made sure to get a discount for replacing all of them! I need to keep the Yukon in tip-top shape if I’m going to make a 400-mile round trip to work when I start working out of San Antonio. Plus, all the back and forth from Brackettville to Houston.
After the tires were done, I grabbed a curbside order from Walmart, washed the car, and picked up a curbside at HEB. I couldn’t leave without getting some iced tea for Amanda at our favorite tea spot. It was a surprise that she didn’t want StarBs; I think she’s conserving for the trips back and forth! I also needed to hit up the threading lady before I left town. I gotta keep this fast-growing unibrow in check!
As soon as I got home, I went to work on the dryer. It ended up being the part I suspected. The heating element coil was completely broken into. Not bad for a 15-year-old dryer. I’ve only worked in it one other time, a couple of years ago; it needed some new belts then. I can do the work, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I texted a friend, joking I could do a lot, but the more I learned to do, the more I discovered what I don’t like to do. Appliance repair is one of the things I don’t like to do! I broke a connecter and didn’t have the right size, so I hit a couple of friends up to see what they had. Nothing ended up working, but I didn’t stop trying. I had to bust out my soldering iron late in the evening to make it work in the end! I would’ve tried anything to keep for going back to Del Rio tomorrow. We saved a ton with me fixing it, even if I grumbled and cussed the dryer multiple times!
I took off one more trip with work. I didn’t think leaving Amanda right when we got home was a good idea, especially since she was starting the new diuretic tomorrow. We still need to make our minds up about the hotel, furnished, unfurnished apartments. I still feel good about the unfurnished one and think I’ll start checking what we have to take and get an inventory. We still have a good bit of stuff from when we were in the hotel after the transplant, and I have some extra things from my borrowout in Iowa. We have a good start and won’t need much, but the one thing with an unfurnished is that we will need stuff we’ve never needed before, like linens, towels, and whatnot.
I still think it’s a good idea to go with the unfurnished, and we’ll come out better. Things just lined up for it, and I felt like God was confirming it until they didn’t list Amanda, and I was so confused. But we ended up back in Houston anyway, so it seems right, even though we don’t know for sure that she listed yet. I feel the manager will also work with us if we need to leave early. Either way, we were looking at six weeks to two months before we would have a definite no from Methodist and an out-of-state place lined up. That would put us halfway through the lease anyway. I’m praying we stay out of the hospital for the fluid management, but experience says we’ll end up there. An apartment would certainly be handy then, especially once I go to work that way.