Visitation

During rounds, the attending ICU doc was asking about breakfast. The nurse said she didn’t eat anything, so the attending stepped in and asked if it didn’t look good. Amanda told her to “Go ahead and look at it.” It was a tofu scramble, the doc said I’ve heard of that in disapproval. I told her that we had a friend coming and was bringing breakfast, she said, “I like that!” Amanda’s biggest goal is to get the NG tube out, but she’s not eating much. The big issue right now is the bowel regimen they have her on. Let’s just say it’s time they back off, and any blockage has been taken care of.

Beverly had gotten back from vacation yesterday and was coming to see us this morning. She brought a breakfast sandwich and a peach green tea lemonade from Starbucks for Amanda. The drink was taken care of quickly, but she didn’t eat much of the sandwich. Amanda was a bit ornery today, and Bev and she were teaming up on me! We chatted for a while until PT came by.

PT came to get Amanda up for a walk. She was doing well, and her BP had been holding well. They gave her a unit of blood earlier in the morning, thinking it would help to give her a little volume. The problem was that they stopped the CRRT machine for the walk and didn’t return the blood it held. From what I’ve gathered, it holds about a unit, so it was a wash when she got up to walk. She stood and got very dizzy, her BP bottomed out, and she even had a hard time hearing. They upped the IV BP med, but she had to sit back down. Then her BP rose high, and they backed down on the medication. She stood up again, backed up in the BP med to maintain, and she made it about 10 steps or so before she felt too bad. Her strength is there; it’s just the BP holding her back right now. 

I went to get Amanda a PT prize, fries. I can’t believe she hasn’t wanted them sooner. So, I went to get the best fries around. Hopdoddy was the place, just some plain fries. Brett was at the bar, so I just ordered from him. He was excited about a song he was working on. It was a love song about his new girlfriend, who had no idea of the song, and perhaps not even about his feelings. He sang the chorus for me and gave an idea of what the tune and riffs were like. When he had a minute, he showed me the lyrics off his phone and sang them out as he was going over them. It was good, I liked it, and I can’t wait to hear it with a guitar. He’s offered multiple times to help with anything at the apartment. With David and me and the smaller load they are bringing up, I don’t think we’ll need help. It only took Nathan and me 30 minutes to unload the bigger load. I knew Brett had the day off on Tuesday, and he also mentioned that the new song’s namesake was out of town, so I invited him to dinner that night. That’s when Brittany and Larry arrive, so the first thing on my agenda with the night off was to cook. Brett said, You cook? Yes, sir, I do, he’s in for a surprise. I already have an RSVP for my first meal at the apartment! 

Amanda ate a good many fries. I fed them to her like a mama bird, one at a time! She was still having issues getting them down. That damn NG tube, I’m sure she thought! We have a friend from church, Leann, here in Nashville visiting her new grandbaby. She had wanted to come see us over the last couple of days. I coordinated with her to come and stay while I went to the apartment to get a few things done. While she was here, the nutritionist came by, and Amanda told her about the NG tube causing problems. She said that they could pull the tube and see, worst-case scenario, they put it back in; I think Amanda would take the chance at this point. Leann came bearing some hummus and pita for Amanda and a couple of falafel tacos for me from a Mediterranean place she loves. We all chatted and ate for a bit, then I took off to the apartment. It was good to see a familiar Texas face. 

I needed to get some things unpacked, and I didn’t know what was in the totes. First on the list was washing clothes. I’d planned to go to the apartment to wash days ago, I was tired of double-wearing chonies! The tote with the laundry stuff wasn’t in the first load, so I had to make a run to the store to get some detergent, but it wasn’t far. Next on the list was the guest bed. David and Renee will be staying in the apartment when they come in on Sunday to drop off the last of our things, so I wanted to make sure they had a bed set up. Before I got started, I remembered the wifi box wasn’t working.

I thought it was a password issue and needed to be changed, so I plopped down on the floor next to the box. I was glad it wasn’t a difficult issue to fix, as I had expected. The internet here is smoking fast, at least. I felt my age after sitting on the floor for a while. I was grunting like an old man getting up! That wasn’t my only time on the floor. After trying to figure out what went where, I put the bed frame together. I got nothing from the totes put up. I sent a pic to Beverly and said I hardly got anything done and would take her up on helping unpack before Sunday. I didn’t even realize today was Friday; I thought I had a few more days.

Leann had texted about an hour before I left to head back to the hospital, saying she was leaving and they were swapping the CRRT out for one with a warmer. I was gone a lot longer than I’d anticipated. I figured it would be a while before washing and drying a load of laundry, but not as long as I was gone. I didn’t feel very productive. It was super humid in the apartment, also. 73 is what I had set the AC set on, and I was still sweating. I was already looking for a dehumidifier before I left. 

I made my way back to Vanderbilt and got some soup from the Panera in the hospital soon after returning. Amanda thought she’d be able to eat that more easily. She did eat that a little better and more than I thought she would. Since I got back, she’s been a little demanding, wanting me to do things that the nurse is perfectly capable of, I think it’s time for me to go to bed!