I’ll start this one off on a funny note for you, since this happened last night. I was walking around to get my chair ready for bed. Earlier in the evening, I had loosened my belt to be comfortable. I came over to get something for Amanda, turned around, and my pants fell off all the way past my butt cheek on one side! I guess all the walking is doing me good.
Amanda has been sleeping well with he new dosing for the sleep med, and she isn’t even groggy during the day. Think the insanely bright happy light has been helping with her wake cycle. We’ve had a few nurses stop by to say they have one and love them. One of the NP was happy to see us using one. I’ve even noticed a better mood for myself after sitting in front of it for a while. Not the same, but a similar feeling to walking out in warm sunlight, not the great sense of the sun hitting your skin, but similar mood-wise.
When the NP came by this morning, she said I saw you ate 90% of your meal last night. She was so happy Amanda was eating. They go by percentages of hospital food trays, so I have to help with the percentages. I may be using a kid’s tray for my percentage suggestions. In the words of Augustus McCrae from Lonesome Dove, “I’m half honest,” when it comes to the amount she’s eaten! I don’t want to see that NG tube go back in.
It didn’t seem that PT was going to come by, so the nurse asked about getting her up. I was all for it. She was looking for help, but I told her I could help. A care partner ended up coming in to help. She and the nurse were on opposite sides, while I stood in front and held her hands. She did well and needed less BP medication to stand than before. After standing, she rocked back and forth, holding my hands. Put on a slow country song, and it could have been a slow dance! Slowly but surely, she’s improving.
A breakfast tray never showed, not that she would have eaten much anyway. I waited for Torchy’s to open to get a taco, Amanda thought a potato egg and cheese taco sounded good. I made the walk, a pretty decent one, probably a mile and a half there and back. I grabbed a couple of tacos, picked up a refresher, and made my way back. Amanda did pretty well on the taco; it was loaded one, plus she had part of a shake earlier. My Gus rating was 80-85% of a food tray!
PT came around lunchtime, even though we weren’t expecting them. She had a very bubbly personality. This PT will be here all week and was the one who worked with Amanda yesterday. We talked about things, and since they had already gotten Amanda up, she figured they would just get her up to march in place and do some arm exercises. Amanda did well and took less BP medication than she had this morning. She marched for a while, then she worked her arms, and went back marching. It was about ten minutes that she was up and did great. The PT was the most excited about her progress when she finished saying, “I’m so happy, yay!”
We had a mid-shift nurse change. Not sure why, but we ended up with my favorite CVICU nurse, Jackie. We had her for three days in a row during some of the rough times when the pneumothorax happened and Amanda was still on the vent. Not long after that, Renee said they were there, so I went out to guide her to the room. After I got Amanda settled, Renee stayed with her while I hopped in with David to head to the apartment. David wanted me to drive after his long drive, and since I knew the way. I barely knew how to get there, I’d only been a few times and never without GPS. I felt the pressure was on, but I managed to get us there without a map!
Beverly had wanted to come help put things away. She and her husband, Sam, got there when we had about half the trailer unloaded. About the time, sweat was rolling into my eyeballs! We knocked it out quickly with the extra hands. Beverly was raring to go, putting things up. We had a ton of trash bags with everything from towels to linens, so we got everything out and put it away. We also unloaded a ton of totes. I think out of 15, there are only three left with things in them. I had strict instructions from Bev to unload them; she was cracking the whip on all three of us guys! She got all of the clothes up on hangers, she joked and said to tell Amanda she would come see her in three days, after she finished hanging all her clothes up! We were working nonstop, then I looked and it was about 6 pm. We worked a little more than called it quits. There really isn’t much left for me to do, mainly just to organize it as we’d want it.
After we were done, we needed to drop the trailer off at Sam and Bev’s. Then we made our way to the hospital. Amanda didn’t know what she wanted to eat; she just wanted something bland. I had settled on Chick-fil-A again, I figured tenders, mac and cheese. Then I realized it was Sunday, and they were closed. Amanda said she wanted mac and cheese, so I was on the right path. It proved to be a little harder than I thought it would to find the said dish. We settled on getting some from McAllister’s along with potato soup. After I dropped that off, David, Renee, and I all went out to dinner. I think we were all tired, so they dropped me off and then headed back to the apartment to crash.