Amanda was sitting up in the chair this morning as we waited for PT. She had her knee up and bent about 90 degrees, saying I think this is better than last time! I quickly said let me take a pic to send to the physical therapist. It took her six weeks of PT to get to 90 degrees last go-round, so I’d say we’re doing much better!
I got her up without the nurse’s help to go to the bathroom; luckily, we didn’t get caught. I think I’m fully qualified to be a patient care technician; even if I haven’t had formal training, I’ve had plenty of on-the-job training! She is doing so much better now, able to get herself up and down without help and so much more. She even put her own socks on and just needed a little help to push her shoe on.
PT finally came by for a group session with one other in our group and three in the group on the other side of the room. Our physical therapist was a riot and thought it was supposed to be a comedian, so that made things interesting. The lady next to us was chatty and a little annoying, but once she started working that knee, she wasn’t near as talkative!
Amanda had taken her muscle relaxer with normal morning meds as usual, and they gave her the pain medicine at the same time. So, by the time she was in PT, everything kicked in, and she was high as a kite! She hates it when she feels like that; I don’t like seeing it either, but it is better than her being in tears. The PT session went great, even if she was a little sleepy. She was able to get a 95-degree bend, which we knew was going to be good with the morning bending she did.
Occupational therapy was the next appointment after PT. They just checked to see how well she could get up and down in the chair, bed, and potty. Amanda did everything without assistance, even getting her leg in the bed, which is a lot more than I can say about the first time around. Her improvement is amazing over the last surgery. OT also checked on information about the house, such as steps or stairs and such. We won’t have any issues with stuff at our home, so she put her stamp of approval on the discharge.
I had talked with the joint care coordinator nurse about Amanda’s Prograf levels, her main rejection medication. We needed a trough level, the lowest level of the medication, which is taken right before the next dose. So, the blood draw is time-sensitive. She lined it up for the right time, and they got that before the regular nurse came to take the Ace wrap off of Amanda’s knee.
I think the regular nurse was new to joint patients because when I asked her about taking the wrap off, she wasn’t sure if she did that. She found out that was her job and came back quickly to take care of it. Pharmacy was next; a couple of ladies came from there to go over Amanda’s meds for the umpteenth time. The caplin was waiting for his turn to talk to Amanda as well; she was popular this morning!
It wasn’t long before the hospitalist came by as well. He was nice talking about how he’d read Amanda’s chart and couldn’t find her the day before because. With her long history, he was looking for an older lady he said! It’s sad we now have to worry about asking for better pain management with all that goes on with narcotics. I always feel we give off drug-seeking vibes with our knowledge and requests. So, with the pain med problems before, I was worried he’d be a pill himself about the stronger medication. He was the farthest from that and was ready to give us a higher dose. I feel Amanda is ready to go down a bit from what she’s on now. She’s still a little too zonked, and we need to find a happy medium.
They had predicted about 1 for discharge, so from experience, I was just hoping we’d be out by 5. To our surprise, they were pretty close, getting us out around 1:30. The joint care nurse was very nice and said it was nice to have us be so knowledgeable about things. She appreciated me mentioning checking the Proof levels, saying that would have easily been missed. She said y’all really know your stuff! I told her with all our years of this, we have to be our own advocates. Especially me, when Amanda can’t for herself. It was obvious to her that this wasn’t our first rodeo.
If you followed us only for a short time, you know where our first stop was, Starbucks! Neither of us had any breakfast or lunch, so it was about time for something in our bellies. Everything was close by, including a Costco to fill up on gas. I had placed two orders for food also. A curbside order at a Mediterranean place we like for dinner later and one at a Freebirds for a couple of burritos for lunch on the go. Coffee filled us up, and I wasn’t about to eat driving in the busy city, so we waited for the county roads before we ate.
Uvalde, about 40 miles from home, was the next stop for a potty break and some drinks. We also needed to pick up the prescription for pain meds. We made it home about the time I thought we’d be leaving the hospital, 5, so that was very nice. I was in such a good frame of mind I unpacked the car, my bags and everything! It’s a good thing I did that before washing sheets and making the bed; I hate doing both of those! I also put a seat riser on our toilet; I’d meant to before we left, but we’ve been kind of busy.
Tomorrow is a follow-up with our primary care physician in Uvalde; he’ll be managing the pain medicine from now on. Our first PT appointment is on Friday in Del Rio. So, there will be lots of driving in the coming days and weeks, but that’s nothing new to us. We’ve already put 5,000 miles on the Yukon, and we just bought it the first of April!