The night before we left to make the trek home, neither of us could sleep. I guess we were like kids going on vacation. I woke up around 2 or 3, and Amanda was awake too. I was up early to shower, pack, and be ready for the doctors to show up. The cardio NP was the first to arrive; I think she came early to get things lined up for us to leave. She ordered another diuretic dose. Even after the previous IV dose, she was still holding on to fluid. The NP is growing on us; I think she finally realized Amanda knows her stuff. When Amanda tells them she is retaining fluid or whatever else it is, she knows what she is talking about.
The hospitalist was extra nice, probably because she was giving us the boot! She even said it was best if Amanda got a dose of morphine right before we left. Nothing we didn’t know and had already planned to ask for just that, but a nice gesture, many hospitalists won’t have bothered. They always make it sound like discharge is going to happen soon. We know better than most; discharges are never quick, ever!
We were held up waiting for the diuretic dose for this particular discharge. It took nearly two hours to get the dose. The nurse came in and wanted to give Amanda the morphine, but she said she wanted to get it till right before we left. Amanda wanted to get one of the oral pain meds, but the nurse said she couldn’t have them close together. The hospitalist had already said it didn’t matter. The nurse had been a pill all day, starting first thing in the morning, complaining about how cold our room was.
As I went to get coffee, I took a large load to the car. It was packed, and I still had another load and groceries I planned to pick up on the way home. I called Amanda and told her how much stuff was in there. She made sure there was still room for her! From our room, you could see Starbucks; she took a picture of me from her 25th floor room. Looking outside, she said, “I’m going to get to go outside today!”
Once the diuretic arrived, they gave it to Amanda, followed by the morphine. It was go time after that. The papers were all signed, and we were ready to roll. I had one more load I would take when I got the Yukon. All we had left was the midline to pull. The nurse went to pull it, but just like a PICC, it was stitched in, so they couldn’t just pull it like a traditional IV. Then, the nurse had to get an order from the hospitalist to pull it. Insert eye roll!
The nurse had a hard time cutting the stitch. It was tight and tugged on Amanda’s skin badly. She ended up having to get help to get it out. She told a nurse walking by to get the charge nurse and tell her it was very important! There was a lot of pulling on her skin, which hurt. But they finally got it loose. After that, it was really go time!
I loaded up and went to get the car. Then we had to wait for transport, which sometimes takes hours, just to get someone to bring a wheelchair. It was 45 minutes or so before she made it down to the car. After that, we had to stop by HEB to pick up all nine prescriptions that were called in. We had to make the diuretic pee-pee stop in Katy. We also ran through the car wash and picked up a freedom snack: a StarBs refresher and Chick-fil-A waffle fries.
We made it to San Antonio with a few stops in between. We needed to find a pee-pee stop and get dinner and groceries, so we stopped at Sprouts to get a few veggies. We’d already placed a curbside order with HEB in Uvalde for staples. Next to Sprouts was a Pei Wei, where we often pick up Chinese food from to eat when we got home.
As I mentioned in the last post, we were met with fanfare when we arrived! YJ, our pastor and friend, who lives caddy-corner from us, said to stop by because his wife wanted to see Amanda’s face! She, along with many others, wanted to see Amanda. When we pulled up, I was like, what the what this is to many people. I have purposely not told anyone before when we’d arrive so we could just sneak in. It had been so long since Amanda had been sick and long term hospitalized that I forgot my own policy!
I was in pure protection mode, stepping out of the car to make sure no one would come near her, I didn’t even go straight to help her out. We’d planned to have visitors but not right away, and with all that’s been going on, we had not talked amongst ourselves or with the doctors about it. I felt like the meme with the frog in a cowboy hat with a six-shooter: stand back no one touches Amanda! I felt I might have been abrasive; I just had my protector hat on!
We felt very loved with all the ribbons and welcome home signs. After we got inside, everyone disbursed but left the signs against our courtyard wall, where we had a nativity display. They were all lit up by the nativiy back light, and we could see them from the living room.
YJ needs to help in times like these, or he’ll just start doing stuff, which is usually something that annoys me! We joke around and pick on each other constantly. Amanda never had much of a father figure in her life, especially as an adult, and YJ had been one to her. They are close and are even mistaken for father and daughter often when out together. I’ve always joked he is like my annoying father-in-law! So, I had to give him a job, and that was helping me unload the aforementioned very full car. I guess he called for reinforcements. Everyone was wanting to help. Being cautious, I had to say no, though. With colds and the flu going around, the less we hands that touched things going into our house, the better. Think back to the height of 2020 coivd protocols when things were getting crazy; that is how we must act.
A few stayed behind and asked if they had gloves and if it would be ok to help unload things to the front door. I agreed, which was a big help with all we had. Someone said it was a good thing we had such a big Yukon because it wouldn’t have fit in a smaller one; Amanda insisted on getting an XL! YJ showed up later and helped cart things into the house. I have a ton to unpack now, not including groceries!
We were both a bit overwhelmed. Amanda really felt the loss of Zoey. I had both my get-home and a night without her, so I’d already gotten rid of those tears. I was even a bit overwhelmed by the welcoming committee, too. I think I was just hangry, too! We hadn’t eaten and planned to right when we got home. Amanda was having a moment, and I was busy unpacking, so we didn’t eat until late.
I still had to get some blankets and sheets washed and dried and make the bed. Not long after dinner, though, we all three hopped into bed and promptly fell asleep. Tank was glad to have his people home.
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