Just before our food came I changed the bandage on Amanda’s chest tube incision. It was pretty painful for her the tape was stuck to her skin. She is allergic to most adhesives, it tends to leave small blister on her skin. This is that much worse when one bandage comes off and right back on. The tape that was on her neck caused some raw spot that look pretty bad. She’s sore on at the main incision site now too from having to hold her arm up while I was taking the tape off. I just put some gauze on it for now to let it air out where the tape was. The incision look really good though.
This morning I got all of Amanda’s medicine out to give her. At home I see her take them and we have large basket where we keep everything. I know of all the medication she takes I guess I just didn’t realize how many she takes at a time, till they were all laid out. The picture is of all the mediation she takes and that’s not counting the pain meds either, 13 in all with most being taken twice a day. That can give you an idea of her daily routine. We’re hoping she will be able to come off some soon. She’s been on the blood thinner for a while since the stent and will need it for a few months after this surgery but hopefully she’ll be off of that eventually. The Advil is just post surgery. One of the goals along with no more oxygen is to be off all pain medication also. She takes two diuretics, to help get rid of any fluid retention this new valve may fix that also. That is our prayer to be pain and oxygen free and the less medication needed is a bonus.
We went for a walk earlier. She did good but is still hurting with movement. I imagine the ride home won’t be fun for her. She was feeling a little funny so we checked her O2 levels while walking. Her levels were good but her rate was high for her, in the 90s. As I mentions before the V pacing is weird for her and the faster the worse it gets. It will be a long 2 weeks for her till the the new leads are connected. The conduction could be better in the atrium also and we may not even need to new one connected.
It will be good to be home, the house was cleaned by a friend today so it will be all ready for us. Amanda will be glad to see her babies, Zoey and Tank our boxers. I’ve got a few things to take care of at home to get it ready for Amanda. I’ll need to get Amanda her cocoon made! Sooner or later I’ll need to make a run to the store to get a few things. I also need to get our shower chair out of storage and buy a removable head for the shower. I should have thought about that before we came up her but it didn’t even cross our minds.
I’ve got a ton of stuff to get out of the hotel room before we can leave in the morning. Well see how things go but it’s really only a little over 4 and a half hours of straight drive time to the house. Unless Amanda needs to stop before we’ll just stop half way for a potty break. The less getting in and out of the truck and walking the better for Amanda.
I can only post one picture on a post at a time. So I posted some others in the gallery, if anyone would like to see them. I’ll post again late tomorrow after we get all settled in.
Home sweet home!
Well we are home! I had Amanda all packed in the front seat with pillows as we left just after lunch. While we were getting ready this morning Amanda said she wished she could just “winkle” her nose and be home! We got to the house right before 6 this evening.
The ride home was painful for her. It was a little bumpy getting to the interstate and the Katy freeway overpasses were a little rough for her also. For the most part it was smooth sailing from there till Uvalde, 40 miles from home. That last 40 miles was the worst for her. She was pretty quite on the way home mostly sleeping on and off. That’s nothing unusual she’s not much of a talker on road trips. She a great life partner, a great ministry partner, but a terrible road trip partner!
I gave her the pain meds a little early during the ride home because she was hurting so bad, we’ll be back on the regular schedule here at 9. She also didn’t take her diuretics this morning so we wouldn’t have to make so many bathroom stops. We only stopped once halfway at Bucees, it was pretty rough for her walking in after she was hurting so bad. I thought a Dr. Pepper Icee would make her feel better but DPs power wasn’t even that strong. By the way Bucees has more coverage with hand sanitizer pumps in the bathrooms than the hospital does! For those of you who don’t know what Bucees is, it’s a Texas based convenience store. The best one ever, 80 plus gas pumps, about that many toilets, always super clean, and no 18 wheelers allowed.
I got Amanda all tucked in her pillow cocoon as soon as we got home. She’s feeling much better now. The pups are having a hard understanding why they can’t love on mom though. My mom and dad came by to check on us and dropped off dinner. It was great especially after eating out for the last week. They also set us up with dinners for a few days.
I tried to get ahold of our primary doctor to see if they could get a Medtronic rep in but his PA wasn’t in. She’ll be in tomorrow, I’ll check with them then. The plan is to go back to Houston Thursday of next week for a check up then the procedure on Friday to connect the pacemaker lead. It could all change we haven’t talked with the surgeons office yet.
Now that we’re home for a while the plan is to just chill for a while. Amanda needs to be walking a little more, I’ll try and get her up and around tomorrow if she’s still feeling better. We’ll probably try and find a binge worthy Netflix series too, suggestions appreciated!