After a good night’s sleep, I called Amanda to check on her. She was already up and had a decent night’s sleep as well. I got ready and headed over to the hospital. I didn’t even bother asking Amanda if she wanted Starbucks; I knew the answer! On the way over, I was thinking of all the faces you see here; I saw a few that looked troubled. You never know what someone is going through, especially at a hospital; it is a tender place. It reminded me of a friend I was talking to at church Sunday, who said that looking at Amanda, you’d never know what she’s been going through. He was right; most wouldn’t have known her heart was going fast enough to run a marathon.
She was happy to see me when I walked into the room, not just because I was carrying coffee, either! She said they left her alone last night, and she never saw the nurse again after I left until it was shift change. The nurse talked to the new nurse in the hall, and Amanda overheard her meanly saying, “I don’t even know why she’s here. She just had a biopsy”!
The hospitalist came by later this morning; she was pleasant and thorough, we both liked her. She stayed a while going over everything. Too bad it’s shift change tomorrow, and she leaves. The mood we are getting is that this isn’t that bad and happens, making us feel a little better.
Not long after the hospitalist came by, I saw a familiar face wave from the hall. It was one of the transplant team cardiologists, not ours, but one we’d dealt with many times before during hospital stays. We both like him; he has a good bedside manner, stays to chat, speaks to both of us, and stays to answer questions. He walked in, saying long time no see, with a PA we like. He shook hands and said hi to Amanda, then came over to shake my hand; that isn’t common. I would typically have stood up for the handshake, but he’s a little person; sitting straight, I’m almost a head taller than him standing up.
He went over things with us for a while, answering questions. This is the first doctor I have cared to ask questions of since we knew Amanda was rejection. He wanted to get some fluid off and ordered IV diuretics. The jest of the visit was wait till the biopsy results were back. The results will be back tonight; he mentioned that they sent some of the biopsy to a lab for further testing. I don’t think that is normal.
I, point blank, asked if we should be worried because I knew this doctor would give me a straight answer. He paused and said we should be mindful. Saying that the arteries were showing some narrowing but mild. This is still coronary artery disease, and where the rejection starts to cause the graft to go bad. But the new medication should stave that off but not reverse it. I asked about the rate, and he said there were a multitude of things that could cause it. Many things like stress could cause an acute high rate and so on. However, it is more than likely that this high rate is caused by rejection since it is sustained.
When they came in, I had put my Mac on Amanda’s table, and the doctor noticed all my stickers, mostly from our travels. He mentioned the locations and how they were all west. He’d been to a few spots and Pagosa recently. He talked about cookies they loved at a particular spot there.
I made a few runs back and forth for lunch, our bags, and an afternoon Starbucks refresher run. Once back with our bags, I got our Fire Stick all set up so we could watch TV. This always impresses the nurses! I don’t know if it’s good that we’ve been here so much that the Fire Stick remembers the Wifi network, though. The afternoon was just sitting around waiting for someone to bring news of the biopsy results, but none ever came. I ordered some dinner, Amanda was feeling like pho.
After eating, I noticed Amanda wasn’t feeling too well; she didn’t say anything, but I could tell. It was one of those I’m fine things. She acts like I don’t know her better than anyone else on this earth! I can tell by her tone of voice if she is talking to someone else when I call, even if it’s been a few minutes after they leave or if she’d just got off the phone with someone; she could never cheat on me, I’d catch her quick! So, needless to say, I can look at her and know if something is wrong pretty quickly, and it annoys me when she says I’m fine!
Later, while we were watching a good newer Netflix movie, she started having a pretty high rate, some palpitations, and chest pain. I told her we’re in the hospital; tell them you aren’t feeling good so they can get a picture of what is going on. The nurse got the PCA to get vitals an EKG, and he also got the night hospitalist to come by. The doctor ordered stat labs, a chest X-ray, and some morphine for the pain.
It took a while, but the morphine finally helped ease her pain a bit. She says laying on her right side helps with the pain, too, which is weird. Hopefully, we will wake up and have a visit from the cardiologist with news of the biopsy results and a solid plan of action.
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