The hospitalist was the first to come by this morning. We’re really getting to where we don’t like her. I haven’t liked her much from the start, but Amanda is just now getting on board. She is being such a pain with the pain medications. I understand she doesn’t intimately know our case, but when she looked at Amanda’s chart, you’d think we would know what would work best!
As I got ready this morning, I grabbed my jeans, which were hanging on a pipe connected to the shower handle. Though the water was never on, nor had there been any water on the shower floor, my jeans were soaking wet in the crotch area. My other britches were at the cleaners, too! I did have a solution: Amanda’s forbidden hair dryer. This commercial-style dryer gets crazy hot. It still took a while to dry the doubled-over zipper and waist areas.
With mostly dry jeans on, I headed out to get coffee. Dennis told me how he met the family friend. He said she’s good people, speaking of Brittany. Mentioning the ones who hang through the tough times are the real ones. Amanda and I could testify to that truth. I’d told him we might be leaving today, if not tomorrow. When I was leaving, we both said, “I hope I don’t see you tomorrow!”
After coffee and our Bible recap, I waited as long as possible for the cardio team to show before taking off for my podiatrist follow-up. The appointment wasn’t even two minutes with the doctor. Enough for him to ask about Amanda but not wait for an answer. He did, however, have plenty of time to stick a cotton swap in the two holes where my nail used to reside. It wasn’t just a clean-the goo out wipe either; it was a digging-around scrubbing he did! As I watched on in horror, it surprisingly didn’t hurt the bad. By the time I got the car, the soreness set in, though. It has been so sore all day, the worse it’s felt since I had it done.
I had to get gas, we needed a full tank for the long drive home. I stopped by Costco for cheaper gas, then decided to go in and get all the nonrefrigerated things off our list. We were completely out of everything at the house; there was no way we would make it home without a stop there. I made a pretty good load, a few hundred dollars worth! We’ll just need an HEB stop to stock up on veggies before we get home. Along with at least 4-5 pee stops if they hit Amanda with a diuretic dose right before we leave.
I had to grab my pants from the cleaners; I would have been mad if I’d left them! I walked in, and the owner said in his thick Oriental accent, “Hi, friend!” I then hopped over to the nearby Whole Foods to grab some sushi for lunch. This time, I didn’t have to deal with all the snobby attitudes—only because they had all been at Costco!
The cardio team had come by while I was gone. Amanda gave me the rundown as I was getting into the parking garage. Sadly, my favorite spot was taken, and I couldn’t find anything near the elevator. Of course, I couldn’t park close when I needed to make multiple runs to the car! The cardio team got some diuretics ordered for Amanda; her belly was hard, and it was so full of fluid. We’d already decided we wanted to wait til Tuesday to come home. Our cut-off on the drive home would have been 3 pm anyway. She needed a couple of IV diuretic doses first, anyway.
We still needed to get the hospitalist to iron all the go-home meds, too. That would prove to be a pain in the you know what. She got them called in, but we had an issue with the pharmacy filling one of the pain meds. I called to get it fixed, but they didn’t carry what she prescribed, and I’m not sure they even made it, just like the problems we’d had yesterday. I wonder if she knows what she is doing in that department or if she is just trying to be a pill. We called the nurse and got her to contact the hospitalist to fix it.
I left to take a load to the car. Our nurse passed me in the hall and said are y’all leaving. I told her no in the morning, though. She said well, I have discharge orders for you. The hospitalist had already put the order in earlier; the cardio team removed it, and then she put it back! I didn’t have time to figure it out with my full hands, so Amanda had to iron that out. I made my drop off to the Yukon; it’s a good thing we have an XL because the back is full. I still have a good bit left to take out in the morning, too. I was able to move to my favorite spot right next to the elevators, though.
I picked Amanda for a refresher on the way back. The doctor called in a fix for the medicine at the pharmacy but cut the dose in half! Half of what she’s been taking in the hospital. Then, she also cut the dose in the hospital in half and took away the morphine. This happened right when Amanda needed the dose after her shower. The nurse was able to get the morphine. Amanda was spent and emotionally done after that, too. She said “I’ve been here four weeks, we’ve been trying to get this all worked out for days, I get to go home tomorrow; I just don’t want to deal with this!”
Amanda said the cardio team said the hospitalist was also throwing a fit about directly admitting her for future Soliris treatments. So we’ll have to go to the ER the night before to get admitted that way instead. I told Amanda later that I really wanted to give the hospitalist a piece of my mind tomorrow morning. She told me we’d likely have to deal with her again, so I better not. And she is correct, but I really want to fire on someone right now.
Amanda’s chest was eaten up by the EKG monitor stickies. The nurse assistant noticed and got her some sensitive skin ones, which she said were so much better. I don’t know why someone else hadn’t told us about them. After a little break, she dried and fixed her hair to be ready to roll tomorrow.
We agreed long ago that we would have a celebratory dessert when we got out of here. The cheesecake from the steakhouse where we had Christmas dinner was the choice. I went to order burgers, and we thought getting them from there would be the easiest. They were prime burgers at the same prices as any decent place. Amanda wasn’t about to say no to fries, either.
I threw a fit when I opened the order and saw the cheesecake. I was less than half the size of what we’d gotten before, about half the size of a Twinkie. Usually, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I’d have been mad either way, but it was celebratory cheesecake. We got one for each of us and splurged on the price; they cost about as much as our burgers! The burgers and fires weren’t that good, either. Amanda mentioned that the hospital cafeteria fries were better! We may have to have a make-up celebratory meal.
Amanda just said it was crazy that we had been here four weeks and that she could hardly remember doing the PLEX treatments. It really doesn’t feel that long, but at the same time, it feels like forever when we think about being here through Christmas and New Year both. Surprisingly, Amanda hasn’t been too stir-crazy. She has been more alert throughout this hospital stay, too. Usually, she is out of it, either feeling terrible all the time or drugged or both. She hasn’t napped much, even after the biopsies or ablation. I think that has kept both of us from going stir-crazy. At least we are getting out of here tomorrow. It’s long overdue! I’m hoping we can leave before lunchtime.
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