Before I get to our departure from Nashville, let me catch you up. We were just going through the motions after the holidays, getting back in the groove with Amandas PT and Rehab schedules. It was taking a lot to get things lined up with dialysis back in Texas. We were also trying to get home dialysis set up for when we return to Nashville. Plus, a biopsy was among the things our trip home revolved around.
On the fun side of things, Brett was now leading the open mic at the hotel where I’d met him. So Amanda and I made our way down to see him after a dialysis session. Amanda still hadn’t met him, and I was glad they got to meet each other. We stayed for a while, and one of the Hopdoddy crew came by to see Brett, also. It was good to see him, too. That night, we weren’t in the mood for burgers, so we went to Midtown to get a taste of Texas at Torchy’s Tacos on the opposite side of Vanderbilt.
We also had a dinner date with a couple with whom we have mutual friends. We have friends who used to live in Brackett but have since moved to Colorado. We meet up with them on one of our trips up to the mountains. They are from Nashville, so they had connections there. We actually met another friend of theirs in the hospital, as well. We had been in contact with these friends of friends we went on the dinner date with for a while. They were going to come by when Amanda was solo in the hospital prior to transplant, then after, but it never worked out. We had planned to eat with them before Christmas, then go to a drive-through light display, but one was sick, so we played it safe and opted not to go. We finally got to have dinner with them at a nice place in Franklin. It was good to finally meet them and hang out with new friends for an evening. We were already talking with them about getting back together when we returned to Nashville. Tennessee has given us so many friends over the time we’ve been there.
Before we left, we had a couple of appointments, one being with a gynecologist. The heart team was still scratching their heads about the breast swelling and wanted Amanda to follow up. She had a mammogram, and the results came back clear, yet they still want her to go in for a gynecological visit. It was in Lebanon, about 30-40 minutes from the apartment. It was the quickest appointment. The doc came in, let Amanda explain why she was there, did an exam, and then pretty much said that if the mammogram was good, there wasn’t much else he could do or recommend. The consensus is that the swelling is fluid-related and likely due to her dialysis catheter on that same side.
We had a little party before we left, which Bev threw for us with her family and neighbors. She had a nice spread out for dinner, and her neighbor cooked some steak and sausage. We played games and had some good laughs. One game was where you picked something to draw, then passed it to the person next to you. That person draws what you wrote, then the next person guesses what was drawn, and the subsequent person draws what the guess was. It’s passed back and forth, guessing and drawing until you get your original. It was hilarious to see what the original was supposed to be and how far it got off! Since my birthday was coming up, Bev even got me a cake. It was a good time.
As we tried to figure things out for our actual departure, we were also trying to line up home dialysis and figure out when I’d mark up for work, which got a little stressful. There were a lot of moving parts. For work, I was off just over the 30 day mark to make me take the return to work exam. I’ve been with them for over 20 years; it’s not like I’ve forgotten all that in 30 days, and I’d taken the same exam back in October. I was trying to get off my leave early and make sure to get the exam lined up to take on our way through San Antonio, but also in time, and get back to work to get my seven days to qualify for insurance. Finally, we landed on a day to leave. A Thursday just after Amanda’s last doc appointment and dialysis on the Wednesday before. It would put us through San Antonio on Friday afternoon to take my exam. It was only the day before we left that I actually had a confirmation that I could take the test then. Needless to say, I was a little stressed with all we had going on.
Amanda’s last appointment was with a hematologist. The team was concerned about her chronic low white blood cell count. This doc wasn’t too concerned and chalked it up to the rejection medication. She still wanted to run a few labs to check things and said we’d need to follow up after we were back in Tennessee.
Our leave day was crazy. We had to get some prescriptions before we could head out. We’re running into issues of the Vanderbilt team not being able to prescribe across state lines. They didn’t have everything ready, so we had to wait a bit. Finally, we were ready, and I hadn’t realized we needed gas, so we pulled into a gas station on the way out of town off I-40. When I went to pay for the gas, I realized I didn’t have my money clip. I freaked out. Did I leave it at the apartment, or did it fall out of my pocket? I rarely have left it. I have a system of staking things, so I don’t forget my keys, money clip, belt, and glasses. My car keys go on the bottom, so I don’t forget the rest. I stack my everyday carry pile on top, since I can’t leave if I don’t have my car keys! But I had grabbed my keys late the night before, packing some last-minute things. I also had some loose pants for traveling that, on occasion, let my knife or keys slide out if positioned oddly.
I had been at Starbucks and went out to check the front tires after I heard a weird sound, so I could have lost it at either place. I don’t carry a wallet; I only carry a money clip. Besides a few hundred dollars in cash, since we are traveling, I had my ID, passport card, and my main credit card. As Amanda called Starbucks, I turned my card off just in case, and we drove back to the parking lot, where I checked the tires in, nada at either location. I was frustrated since we were already running late, but we went to the apartment to check. My money clip lay right where I’d put it the night before when I got my car keys from under the pile! I was beating myself pretty badly about that! We both knew there was a reason for it; the extra hour delay on top of the prescription hour delay had its reason. Maybe God was protecting us from something down the road. That didn’t keep me from thinking that the reason was just me being a dummy!
We pushed hard to get far enough in Texas to get better placement and make it to San Antonio for my exam. I’d already booked a hotel in Waco, skipping my Aunt’s house slightly off route and halfway through. We’d have needed to leave from there too early. The drive time was a little over ten hours, but with stops, it took us closer to twelve, and we rolled into the hotel close to 11 pm. After a little sleep, we hit the road again. We hadn’t been in Texas 24 hours before we’d been to Buc-ee’s twice, eaten Mexican food three times, and gotten pulled over by a trooper!
The night before, I was rolling pretty hot down I-30 with a car behind going even faster. I was approaching an 18-wheeler, and the car behind was in the left lane, slowing and kind of staggering us. As I got closer to the rig, the other car was barely gaining on us, and I decided, ok, buddy, I’m cutting you off and going on around since you’re just hanging out. I put my blinker on, and that summoned the red-and-blue lights. The car behind me, the one staging me, was a trooper! As I pulled off at an old country road exit, I told Amanda, “I earned this ticket!” This trooper was very interested in Brackettville because he’d been deployed to Del Rio a few years earlier during heightened border enforcement. We chatted a long time, all the while I was thinking I better not be making all this small talk and losing time, and still get a ticket! To my surprise, I only got a warning. Well, Amanda got the warning, for some reason it had her name on it even though the car is in my name and I clearly handed him my driver’s license, the one we spent half the morning looking for. The only way he’d have gotten her name was from the insurance. Amanda berated me for that since she’d “never even been stopped for speeding ever,” she kept telling me.
Once, in San Antonio, we had some, you guessed it, Mexican for lunch just before my exam. Amanda and Tank hung out in the car while I took it. I’d taken the 100-question test in an hour back in October. I shaved 15 minutes off that and got a better score this time. I could have aced it if I’d taken my time, but I had everyone waiting in the car! We picked up a grocery order and dinner, Mexican again, on the final stretch. I unloaded the bulk of what we had, leaving some storage stuff in the car. Amanda was in full nesting mode, having not been in the house for 8 months. She was cleaning the pantry and throwing out stuff in the fridge, like cray lady? I finally had to tell her, ” Chill out!” All I wanted to do was take it easy after two long days on the road.
It seemed we got out just in time, right before the winter storm hit. Our apartment was without power for 3 days! The roads were a wreck, too, literally. I saw a picture of a jackknifed trailer on I65 right where we exit to go to Vanderbilt. It had completely taken out an overhead road sign. It was a mess and reminded me of the Texas snowpocalypse in February of 21.
That about catches you up from Nashville to Texas. We’ve been home a little over two weeks now, and it’s been crazy busy. I’ve been busting it on the house remodel, and Amanda has been back to work and doing dialysis 30 minutes away from home, 3 days a week. We’re always busy at home, so it feels normal at least! I’ll catch y’all up on one time at home later. I’ve just been too busy to sit down and write. It took me going to work to have a break from the remodel and have time to write!
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