Getting Closer to Busting Out

Friday night, Amadna never got her evening dose of Bumex. The night nurse finally heard back from the doctors, but when she came in, Amanda was asleep and didn’t give it. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter; by Saturday morning’s weight check, she had lost 3 pounds. It seemed we really were heading in the right direction.

Tank has been itching badly, I think it’s allergies. He had what seemed to be a couple of hot spots, and when I brushed him, they bled. I had ordered some medicated shampoo, which smelled like the medicine Dimetapp from my childhood. So, I gave him a morning bath, one of his least favorite things to do! We typically get him a steroid shot to help with allergies every few months, but it’s only been two. I think all the spring pollen and change of location has got us both down. I feel better after daily sinus rinses, but still feel a little head congestion, my issues may have been allergies after all.

My phone alerted me that I had trends that were changing. I checked the health app, and it showed that my daily average in calories burned, walking, steps, and so on were all up. Seemed I doubled everything and over the past 5 days I’ve averaged 6 miles of walking daily. And I thought I’ve been lazy catching the train instead of walking to the transit center.

As of Saturday, Amanda’s kidneys were trending up slightly. But she was still finally getting rid of the excess fluid. The Metolazone was stopped since she was voiding well. I think one day could have done the trick. I told Amanda that when we get out, playing with the doses will be easier once we are making the calls. She typically does this with the Bumex dose and will do up and down on the dose as she needs. Dr. Nair has been okay with that for years. We got another keep it up Saturday for the rounding cardiologist again.

I had already talked with the cardiologist about getting out of here Monday for our appointment with Methodist. He was on board, but the logistics weren’t in his court. It was a matter of telling not asking, and Amanda always asks and I tell. We are going, is how I was approaching this, not asking if we could. I’d already told Amanda that I’d handle this one! So, I told the hospitalist about it and said they could treat it as testing and leaving the floor, but I knew she’d need to work in the logistics of how it would work. She said it is technically leaving the hospital, so she wasn’t sure. I’ve seen plenty of patients out for a smoke break in their gowns leaning on their IV poles. So, I told Amanda we could go on a “smoke break” if needed!

I left to go to the apartment to work on a few things and let Tank out. After that, I drove to Spring to the hotel where I’d leave my Suburban. It’s a Holiday Inn Express and has a fenced parking area. You needed a code to get in the gate. I’d never seen that before at a hotel. I was a little worried about leaving the burb with my tools in it, but I was happy to see the fence. 

Ryder, a former student from youth ministry whom we’ve stayed close with, lived close by. We vacationed in Pagosa last February with his entire family and are great friends with his parents. So, I bummed a ride back to the hospital from him. He showed me around the area where his church and the mechanic school he went to. I planned to pick dinner up on our way to the hospital, so we all ate together in the hospital. Ryder stayed a while after we ate, he’s the slowest eater in the world! Once we started talking about trucks, Amanda promptly kicked us out! He ended up driving me back to the apartment too. It was good to see him and catch up.

Things have gotten real for me, I finally made a seniority move to San Antonio to work from there to Houston. First time in twenty years I’ve worked out of the San Antonio terminal. Honestly, it would be a lot more scary if I hadn’t just been to an entirely new territory in Iowa a few years ago. I know the lay of the land here and know or know of many engineers that I will work with. So, that will make it much easier than Iowa. I won’t work till later next week, but I was able to get the weekend off without having to take any day since I bumped the baby while his turn was heading to Houston. So, that will give me a few free days off before the turn is back in San Antonio and lined up to get out, that’s what we call sharpshooting on the railroad! 

This morning at around 5 am, I was woken by an Amazon driver trying to get in the complex. They tried Amanda’s code, but it didn’t work. I gave them mine and buzzed them in, then barely went back to sleep afterward. I was super tired when my alarm went off. When I got to the hospital, I learned Amanda was another 3 pounds down today, putting her under what we assume to be her base weight. They have been asking what her base weight was and we really aren’t sure. It’s higher than she’d like, we are both heavier than usual. 2024 wasn’t kind to our waistlines, with all we had going from our mother’s passing, the sternal infection, the knee replacement revision, all our trips, and this hospitalization we’ve put a bit of weight on and that combined with the fluid retention that stated in October has made it hard to find what her dry weight really is. Labs can help tell where that number is, too. Once too much comes off, it will strip her and they can see that with blood work. 

The day nurse was nice and a nerdy funny, Amanda said. When she was giving morning meds, she said you’re on a lot of meds, and when a nurse from this floor says that, that’s a lot! The cardiologist came in around lunch time. He didn’t have his usual entourage with him, just one PA. He said something about going to Methodist tomorrow and asked what building we’d be going to. As he looked out the window, he pointed the way. I mentioned I know how to get to the basement hallway that connects the hospital. He vaguely told me how to make it from there. I can’t remember what he called it, but it’s essentially an order for a hall pass to go over there. I asked Amanda if we’d have to carry a large board or a milk jug with a pass attached to show we had permission!

I’ve been schooling everyone on the Furoscix. I had specific instructions to wait to put it on till the nurse could watch yesterday. I just explain away, telling them how it will run 30ml over the first hour, then 12.5ml an hour for the remaining four hours. I could be a sales rep for them! I’m a huge advocate of them it’s the ticket to get us home. The nurse today was intently watching me put it on too.

We had visitors this afternoon, Amanda’s brother and niece came by bearing gifts; lunch and some Sonic drinks. They stayed for a while. After chatting a bit, I left to take advantage of someone else being with Amanda to get a little more work done on the apartment. They came by the apartment for a bit before leaving town to see it and say hi to Tank.

I’m praying we have a positive apportionment with the Methodist tomorrow. I am eager to get over there and hear what they have to say. I think it will be good to meet in person and hear things from the horse’s mouth so to speak. We’ve put a lot of eggs in this Methodist basket before we even knew we’d be listed with them. I still feel it is the way to go, especially if we can get out of the hospital and wait there, I’m working hard to make it a home. Also praying we found the ticket to the oral diuretics and can get out of here. I said the same to Dr. Keep it up, he said yep with his fingers crossed and held high as he walked out of the door.