Amanda was doing better this morn but still pretty sleepy, which was good because she needed to catch up on sleep. I took a quick shower in the hopes it would summon the doctors! Things did get rolling pretty quickly, though. The nurse mentioned discharge, and my first question was, is the hospitalist rounding yet? She wasn’t sure because they were sometimes late on the weekends. I told her we had a 6-hour drive ahead; she said she would text the doctor and let her know we needed to get out of there early.
The ID doc showed up early to check things out. She had mentioned she was going to be busy, so I didn’t think we’d see her. We like her and have dealt with her before. We had already received the stamp of approval from her but got it again. The hospitalist followed not long after. She went over a few things; we asked for some wound healing powder, which you mix with water and drink, that the wound care nurse told us to request. Amanda was still a little nauseous, so she asked for something for that as well. I also requested plenty of pain meds because we hadn’t yet been able to get an appointment with our primary.
Getting pain meds is such pain in the you know what! I always feel like we have drug-seeking behavior, and have been treated like that in the past. The transplant has given us somewhat of a pass, though. At least most feel we know what we are talking about now and don’t look at us like we’re just trying to get a quick fix. The one medicine seemed to be working well. I remember a time when we were alternating 2 pain meds, and I had to set alarms every 2 hours to wake and give Amanda her meds. Oh, good times; we sure have been through a lot over the years.
As soon as I felt like we were really leaving, I started packing. I had a huge box to carry out with a smaller one on top. I put my travel backpack on; it’s a high-end, barely carry-on size pack I treated myself to a while back. I buckled the hip belt and tightened the shoulder straps like I was headed across the airport, grabbed the boxes, and headed out. As I exited the elevator, a lady was trying to come on without waiting for me to get off and nearly ran into me. She said, oh, good gravy! This is a phrase one of our old students uses, and I laughed immediately, thinking of him. Back for another trip and help Amanda get dressed and pack. But I’d taken so much out that I only needed one more trip. So I would wait till they called transport to come get Amanda in a wheelchair.
I called the pharmacy to make sure the hospitalist did her part; they said the scripts would be ready in an hour or so. They finally came in with the discharge paperwork to sign, so it was go time. The nurse was surprised, saying oh, you’re ready upon walking in. You bet we are Bubba; we were ready to blow the joint! I put Amanda’s Dooney purse backpack on and owned it, grabbed her rolling bag, and a huge puppy Marshals bag stuffed full with an insulated Buc-ee’s snack bag hanging out the top. The snack bag, Amanda pointed out, was nowhere near as full as it was on the way in. I think that was a jab at me!
Just after I got all the things in place, including the snack bag, within arms’ reach, Amanda texted that they were on their way down. I pulled up a bit after they got to the door because the person ahead of me didn’t know how to use the parking garage kiosk. It was quick and easy for me; I just used my credit card instead of getting a ticket, so it saw the time and just charged me. Quick and easy but not painless, it was $40 this time, making a total of $100 for parking, and the car was gone for 24 hours, too! It still beats the $40 valet at the hotel we stay at, I guess. I miss all our friends at the old hotel that would just comp our valet parking every trip.
Our first stop was Chic-fil-A for some Arnold Palmers and fires. Then, I went to HEB for the prescriptions, and to my surprise, they were ready. I hadn’t filled the Yukon up when going back to the hospital because I was scurrying to make it back for the dressing change. Costco wasn’t far away, so I ran by there for gas. The lines were too long, so we skipped to and headed for Buc-ee’s in Katy.
We’d make it all the way to Seguin for our next stop, Starbs, and some snacks. We stopped in San Antonio for Pei Wei takeout; Amanda wanted Chinese now that she missed it for dinner last night. It was a frequent takeout place for us before they closed during COVID, so we thought to give this new one a try.
Once home, I needed to set things up for Amanda’s antibiotic treatment. I had to clean the dining table and get all the saline flushes, Heparin, antibiotic, and other supplies. I got Amanda all taken care of, then I had loads of she’s and laundry to do, along with dishes too. I was steadily busy all the way till bedtime with something or another. By some miracle, we both got completely unpacked, and I even put the bags up.
The antibiotics are every 8 hours, so getting up and setting up all the IV supplies is going to get old real quick. By the time we got home, it would put us at 1 a.m. for the next dose. We’ll move it up a bit and do 8 a.m., 3 p.m., and midnight. This will go on for 3 weeks. The wound vac dressing change will be 3 times a week starting Tuesday. But for now, I have 1 a.m. antibiotics to administer.