So what were we going to do today? I wanted to go to the Mount Yonah Bookstore, and we both wanted to go back to the oil and vinegar store for more white balsamic peach vinegar. It was supposed to rain off and on during the day, so that limited where we could go with the power chair, but I figured we could just hang around the hotel. Heck, I didn't sleep well, so I could even take a nap.

James was waiting on the side of the bed while I used the bathroom and I heard him say, "What the hell? My pulse can't be 147."

But that's what his Fitbit said. Then it went back down to 80. Then it went back up to the 140s.

I said "Maybe you're hungry." My heart does tend to beat faster when I get hungry (but I gotta admit not that fast).

So we had breakfast and his pulse was back down to 80. Good. Me, I spilled milk all over the floor. (But I didn't cry over it.)

Except when we got back in the bedroom it was back to 147.

At this point I went out to the conference room to get Sue Lawson, who's a registered nurse. She took his pulse and said his heartbeat was very irregular, going fast and then going back to normal. So we called up Kaiser and of course you know what they said: go to the nearest emergency room. This was in Demorest, about a half hour down the road. I was about to freak and thankfully Jerry was there to help get me through. Hugs from friends work wonders.

I will draw a curtain over the boredom of the next five hours. They asked questions. We got put into room 19. They did an EKG (normal). They put him on a monitor, and, except for one instance, his heart rate stayed even in the 80s, which is where it's been since he came out of the hospital. His blood pressure was the same as it was at the dialysis clinic. His blood oxygen was in the lower 90s but improved. Then they took blood. Meanwhile we grew hungrier and hungrier, and although the nurse brought us grape juice and graham crackers (everyone was very kind, even the orderly), we were starving, and it didn't help that at 2:30 someone brought roast chicken into the emergency room. We could smell it through a closed door. That was cruel.

The upshot was that they could find nothing wrong. His blood tests were all good except for one enzyme which was high, and this enzyme is typically high in people with kidney disease. Instructions: keep an eye on yourself. Talk to your doctor when you get home. Yes, indeed, especially about the Coreg, which the Kaiser doctor pulled him off, unless his blood pressure is over a certain score. Coreg is a beta blocker, and you can't be taken off it abruptly like he was. I am wondering if this was part of the problem.

We left the hospital just as the bookstore closed. Today was just not our day.

So we rejoined the "family by choice" back at the hotel and eventually went with Alice and Ken, Sue, and Debbie to Bigg Daddy's for a very welcome dinner. James had the most yummy looking quesadilla. I had chicken wings. I could have eaten six more.

And now we are back in the conference room. Some folks are computing, or coloring, and there's a game going on in one corner. It's a happy place.

Labels: food, friends, illness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:19:00 PM

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