I woke up on Monday physically, mentally, and emotionally better. At Brittany’s morning check-in, she said Amanda was much better, too. I was reminded of the verse in Psalms that says joy comes in the morning. It’s not rainbows and butterflies all the time; some days just plain suck. It was a tough weekend for us, but it’s a new day. God is good, He’s got this, and we know how the story ends! When I got up, Tank was curled up next to me, and I reached over to pet him. He put his foot on my arm and popped his head in my hand; I think he was feeling better, too.
I thought I’d make it without tears until I saw a picture Amanda posted of Zoey on Facebook.
Tank seemed ok, but he knew I was leaving since I’d packed the night before. We travel a good bit, whether travel or pleasure, so he knew the routine. So he was punishing me sitting on the couch where he couldn’t see me in my chair as I drank my dirty chai. I wanted to hang out with him for some semblance of normal before leaving him alone. Before I took the blanket I buried Zoey in, I rubbed it all over another of my clean blankets and left it in my chair. Tank will inevitably get in my chair, and he often gets in trouble when I get home to find him lying there on my blanket! Before I left, I fixed him up with a nice setup in my chair with the blanket and a pillow and let him know it was okay to get up there. My a softy, I’ll never get him out now!
I know Amanda is worried about Tank. My brother-in-law, JJ, knows him well and house-sat during transplant times. Our pastor, YJ, lives across the street and will check on the pups sometimes. I wanted to ask them to check in on Tank, but they would both be gone for Christmas. With all the Js gone, I asked our other pet sitter to come in between the other sitter to check on him and maybe take him for a walk. If anything, I figured he’d be tired and sleep more.
I was ready to get back to the hospital but had a few stops. YJ and his wife had pulled out just before I did. They were driving about half the trip I would make before turning off and heading to Bastrop. So we were talking back and forth as we drove. He was letting me know where all the troopers were hiding! I thought I would give them a sob story if I got pulled over. My wife’s in the hospital, we have to spend Christmas there, and I just put my dog down. Unless they had a Grinch-sized heart, I figured that story should do the trick. As my mother would have said, that sounds like a country western song!
I was listening to worship music, and God turn it around by Jon Reddick came on as I pulled up to the Border Patrol checkpoint, jamming pretty good and was thumbing! It was something I needed to declare over our lives. I know I speak of worship music a lot, but God has comforted me through music many times. Worship music is a part of the fabric of our lives, too; Amanda is a worship leader, after all. It’s pretty much all Amanda will listen to. I’ll occasionally listen to Americana and 90 country, but I primarily worship.
I stopped in Uvalde at Hobby Lobby to pick up a Christmas tree and a few things to decorate it with. I had some ornaments from a few at church. I picked over the few remaining trees; only three were left! Then, I FaceTimed Amanda until Brittany took over. I was extra trying to find the right stuff Amanda would approve of. I was throwing out words like coordinating and muted colors! I needed a few things to put up the massive number of cards I received from everyone at church. I should have gotten a buggy, my hands were full.
I had one more stop to make. I needed to make a deposit and get a new debit card in San Antonio. The bank was by the airport, so traffic was terrible. The traffic didn’t let up much on the way to Houston. I needed lunch and a pick-me-up, so I hit Taco Cabana in Seguin and then Starbucks. Brittany called and said she tagged Jenny and her husband, Jeremy, in and was on her way home. Jenny is a heart warrior herself, whom Amanda became friends years ago via an online group. They live in Katy, only about 30 minutes from the med center.
After terrible traffic most of the way, I got to the hospital around 4:30 p.m. I parked in my favorite spot all the way to the roof, and one level down, there is always a spot right next to the elevator.
It was good to see Jenny and Jeremy. I hadn’t seen them since our first transplant anniversary when we had dinner with them right before we took off to the Smoky Mountains. They are a special couple; not many can really understand what we’ve been through; they get it on a level no one else can. So we get along with them great, not that either of them is hard to like anyway! We swapped hospital war stories and got caught up for a couple hours before they went back home.
Then Amanda had a bout of hypoglycemia and low blood sugar. She started feeling very flushed, throwing covers off like a mad woman. They came in to check her blood sugar, and it was 52. So, I found some sweet stuff and let her scarf it down with some juice the nurse brought. This was her first time having hypoglycemia. I used to battle this all the time before our lifestyle change and losing all the weight.
After that, I worked on getting the tree up and fluffed to Amanda’s liking. I added the lights, which had to be battery-powered per ICU regulations. The only acceptable tree was a flocked one, so I got a blanket to try my best to contain the snowy mess.
I needed to rearrange the room a bit. Brittany messed up my organized chaos with the pile of stuff she brought! Neither of us was too hungry, but Amanda needed to eat a regular meal due to her new low blood sugar issues. So, I grabbed a falafel bowl from Hala Brothers to share.
They finally let her walk a little to the potty. Even with only about ten steps, that’s still the most she’s walked in five days. After that, we went over the ornaments I had brought to see how she wanted to go about the tree. We decided to decorate it on Christmas Eve so she could finish the felt ornaments she was working on. We had a ton of cards I picked up from everyone, including the regular Christmas card, probably 75 to 100, including some from the kid’s Sunday school class, children’s church, and each class at school. It was too sweet, and she enjoyed reading each, which took over an hour.
The Ambien saga continues, too. They had it fixed, but someone removed the order! So we had to deal with that all over again tonight. I didn’t have to get too mean, but I was locked and loaded; I hadn’t fired on anyone in a bit! We also had a bag of stuff to decorate the room with, so I out that all up to help get in the Christmas spirit the best you can in a hospital. We were in bed late with all of that and the cards to read. So after I loaded Brittany’s post, it was close to 1 am before I went to sleep.
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Sleep well. 😴