Sunday, we were supposed to have the same nurse as the day before, Justin, but he came by to help in the morning, saying he was a help-all and not our nurse. I joked with him on Saturday that he was in the running for my favorite nurse and tied with Jackie. I told him I’d decide after we had him another day; I already knew he was my favorite, though! He is very patient and explains everything in detail. Even knowing most of what he would explain, it was informative and helped my brother-in-law understand things better while he was there. He also told us about swapping out nurses if we ever had an issue, joking if we wanted him gone. He wore cowboy boots, had a man bun, a beard, and spoke of getting sunburned from welding too much without a hood on. Needless to say, I had a lot in common with him; we even liked the same style of beer. I’d definitely go out to have one with him when he was off duty for sure. The nurse we had after him was good, but just ok.
CRRT, like all other times, clotted the filter off around the 18-hour mark. I just don’t see why they don’t start the anticoagulant every time. So, early Sunday morning, they had to restring the entire machine. This was done by a new nurse, because there is always someone around here who needs to get one of their three certification strings in. The team likes to try to stop things when things need to be restrung after the mandatory 72-hour change. So, we got an extra 18 hours of the CRRT this way is how I’m lookin at it. I think she needs two full strings, 6 days worth. They tend not to want to do it very long and transition to regular dialysis because she can’t go to the step-down unit and need CRRT.
She looks significantly better after a day on CRRT. Her arms are still puffy. They’ve spoken of wrapping her arms, but he has too many lines going in and says that it’s not possible. Some of the fluid in her arms is located in the muscle and not in the bloodstream they’ve explained. So, it can’t be pulled out by dialysis or diuretics. She needs protein to help push it out and make it accessible so it can be pulled off. While Britt was here, they found that Amanda liked to take her pills with protein shakes. The thickness helps the pills go down easier. The nutritionist brought us a whole case of plant based ones, so we have a good stash. I had the nurse print labels and have been stashing the shakes in a fridge to have them cold and ready to go. She gets 20 grams of protein with each shake and takes them twice a day. Plus what she is eating, so I think we’re covered in protein intake.
I got Torchy’s for a late breakfast, and Amanda has been liking their egg, potato, and cheese tacos. I grabbed StarBs on the way back. I was glad to see a notification that I had 1200 stars to burn by August 1. I thought we were good till September, so I made sure to get our drinks on stars, and I’ll be making a few more treks to the real deal by the end of the month. I also made sure to get the most out of my stars by getting a 6-shot $11 latte for free; don’t worry, I split it into two drinks to stay away from a caffeine overdose!
Amanda was cold and sleepy all day Sunday. The CRRT machines without a warmer do not agree with her. She had two different warmers and was wrapped like a burrito, minus the warming lamp. She requested to be taken off the muscle relaxer to alleviate the drowsiness. We also tried to watch some TV. When I came back from getting dinner from a nearby dumpling house, they were bathing Amanda. With her uncovered, I quickly noticed not only her arms being puffy, but her breasts as well. Not a fun kind of fullness, one may be proud of, but an uncomfortable-looking fullness. She had mentioned how, along with her arms, her chest felt so heavy it was hard to breathe. This fluid has just been distributed in such an odd way compared to before.
As it got close to shift change, I hadn’t paid attention to Amanda because I was watching the incoming nurse. As I was verifying that with our day nurse, Amanda got my attention, mouthing that she was the bad nurse. She was the one who was hard of hearing, struggled with understanding English, and was very rough with Amanda. When I looked back, Amanda was in tears, anxious about the incoming nurse. We’ve had bad nurses, but never seen Amanda act like that about one. It was weeks ago when we had her. I’m surprised Amanda even remembered; it was that bad, I guess.
When the day nurse confirmed she was our night nurse, I quickly told her ‘That isn’t going to work.’ She promptly called the charge nurse after I told her that, but they didn’t answer. So we marched down the hall to find them to get things swapped out. As we walked by the other nurse, I never even acknowledged her; she stared at me as my height loomed over her I emerged from the door. No words were needed to get my point across, I’m sure my face said it all!
It reminded me of a time when my father and I went out to Alamo Village, a spot where many western movies were shot, featuring a western town and a replica of the Alamo. We’d been catering a movie and providing craft services, snacks for the cast and crew. The producer of a movie being filmed there was good at writing bad checks to many in town, including our restaurant. We stormed the main street of the western town on a mission to collect our money. My father was no small man, and at the time, I was not only tall but also big, having just graduated from culinary school. Both of us donned cowboy hats, starched jeans, boots, and walked with a purpose; we only needed a couple of Colt pistols on our side to set the mood more appropriately on the dirt streets we walked. If you knew my father, he was in one of his “Imma whoop someone’s ass moods!” I was there to make sure the job got done. We swung the salon’s door open and were met by a sheriff’s deputy guarding the producer. Word had made it quicker than a Pony Express rider to the producer, conveying why we were there and what we came to get: money or a piece of someone’s ass! Let’s just say we left with cash in hand. Sorry, I chased a rabbit there, but it was a great memory with my father that brought a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. I felt as though my walk with the nurse to the charge station had a similar tone about it.
The charge nurses were in a shift change meeting, but once they noticed us, one made the change happen quickly, and I didn’t even have to explain anything. On my walk back to the room, I saw our nurse from Sunday, Justin, my new fav. Since he’d told me about swapping nurses, I thanked him for letting us know. I briefly explained, and he knew who the nurse we had issues with was. He said if you paid for any service anywhere else, you’d be able to swap and get the service you want, and not to feel bad about it.
This morning I didn’t get to sleep in as I’d hoped, the nurse who came in to help our night nurse was as loud as she could be. During rounds, they still plan to let the CRTT ride till the “circuit” is up. That will give us till Wednesday morning. I hope it’s long enough to pull the fluid off I just wish they wouldn’t be so quick to take her off, especially if she isn’t making urine when they take her off. When they were about to wrap up, the ICU attending asked me what I thought about how Amanda looked, since I was with her all the time, he said. I told them that she had responded to this round the best out of all of them, and she looked better only a few hours in this one, and I thought we were headed in the right direction.
P/T O/T came by to get Amanda up and walking. She did well getting up and still hasn’t had any IV medication to maintain her blood pressure. She is taking a pretty hefty dose of oral BP meds to keep it up, but at least we aren’t on any IV meds. Even during her walk, she didn’t need any. This walk was the farthest she has made yet. The occupational therapist was running the show on this one. She appears to do this, but at other times, it seems the physical therapist will take the lead. She is excellent and a big encourager of Amanda, a great cheerleader. She asked me to get Amanda’s nail stuff so she can help Amanda do her nails as part of OT. Since I brought it in, she mentioned she’d come by in the next couple of days to have a nail party.
The afternoon was pretty chill. I was trying to keep Amanda up, but without constantly bugging her, she couldn’t do it. The cardiologist came by; she was the one who had Amanda during rounds prior to transplant while I was gone. It was good that she had seen her prior and knew she was petite and noticed her arms and being so big. It’s just hospital days and nights now. She’s improving; I’m praying we don’t take any steps back, or at least not too big of ones. As it’s slowed down and after my time off, I’ve decided to post every other day or so. I’ll still keep you updated, maybe just not in as much detail. Without much going on today, I don’t foresee much happening tonight either, so I’m going to wrap this post up. I am going to sneak off and go to the open mic tonight. The girl who sings there and duets great with Brett has a thing for him, I think. She wasn’t a fan of the new song, which was about another girl. I like the tension, awkwardness, and subtle drama; it keeps me entertained, a distraction from hospital life!
Response
Wonderful news! ?❤️