 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Thursday, January 30, 2025
Long Day's Journey into Long Days and Longer Nights
I've been blogging much longer than I've ever been on social media, but those little dribs and drabs of posts are so much easier when you've been busy with other things, whether health chores and household duties and just wanting to write, so I was hoping I could make a resolution that I would write at least once a week in this blog and keep up with it, not just dump three to five posts at a time in a racing game of "catchup." January 2025 has punched us both in the face, but it's James that took the brunt. Back in December he started to complain about feeling irritated in the groin area. I duly examined him, both back and front, several times. He does tend to get little fungal infections where the flesh of his abdomen meets the flesh of his thighs, and we keep miconazole powder in the house for that problem. It usually clears up little skin fissures or reddened, sticky skin in two to four days. But I didn't see any signs of skin fissure down in the areas he indicated; I examined very slowly and carefully. There was no redness, no swelling, no open sores, and no pain. Since James has mobility problems, I'm the one who cleans up down there nightly, and I kept on the lookout for redness/swelling/abraded skin or open sores. He finally got on Kaiser mid-December to get an appointment to get it looked at, but of course that wouldn't be until mid-January. In the meantime we just kept racing to get him that "cement" procedure on his fractured vertebrae and arrange physical therapy afterwards and him getting to dialysis three days a week, just run, run, run to doctors' appointments and when we weren't doing that we were staying home because we were both just so damn tired. We missed Christmas dinner because dialysis two days in a row made him sick; the only nice day we had was going out to Canton on the 26th for books and pizza. On New Year's Day I notice he had a small lump on his backside under the skin, about the size of a big green olive but elongated. Again, it wasn't red, swollen, abraded, and not particularly painful, but he could feel that I was touching it. We agreed we had to mention it to Dr. Mobley. I kept checking it every night and it wasn't getting larger. On January 4, he had blood in his urine. Of course, we thought, he's got another UTI. We went to Urgent Care on Sunday the 5th. James had no signs of UTI that day—his urine was even yellow again, although with doing the intermittent catherization, it's never very clear and often had an odd smell. We were told that was common in both IC and with him having dialysis because he's on a restricted fluid intake. That was the shortest time we had ever been in Urgent Care! They did a urine test, gave him oral antibiotics rather than an IV as they almost always do, and also gave him some pain medication due to the "UTI" making him uncomfortable. I did show the doctor the olive-sized lump near his right buttock. The doctor replied that it was probably a small abscess and that the antibiotics (four big pills a day for ten days) should take care of it. We stopped for ice cream on the way home and the cashier saw my "Unapologetic Fanfic Writer" magnet on the driver's side door and since there were no other customers, yakked a minute or two about fanfic. She was a Supernatural fan and I recommended a story to her. That was the last nice thing I remember happening. To get the urine sample for the UTI test at Urgent Care, I had brought along an unwrapped catheter and lube. The doctor at UC let me take the sample after I'd washed my hands and put on gloves and used the wipes. I noticed that I had a little trouble getting the catheter in, but thought it was the angle James was sitting on the stretcher. When I went to cath him that evening, however, and when I washed him, I noticed with some dismay that his scrotum was swollen. I told him about it, and he said he had noticed some discomfort. He had dialysis the next day, and I told him the moment he was finished, we needed to head back to Urgent Care. He agreed. About two minutes later he asked me to rinse him off quick; his legs were feeling a bit wobbly. I did, he took one step out of the shower, but his left leg would not follow after his right. I tried to hold him up, but instead he slipped down, in a very painful looking crouch, with his poor crotch ending up on the doorstop on the shower compartment. I lost it completely. I was so hysterical on the phone the 911 operator had to tell me to breathe. I could barely talk without my teeth chattering and I was shaking almost too hard to hold the phone. The firemen showed up and somehow one of them got in back of James and one in front and got him out. James said he was okay and sat on the toilet and they left and he finished drying off and successfully limped into bed. About four a.m. he got up to use the toilet and his knees gave out again. The same firemen came. They got James to the end of the bed, and the head officer said, "If this happens again, he needs to go straight to the emergency room." At six a.m. (Monday, January 6) I called DaVita, who basically said that if he couldn't walk he couldn't come in for dialysis and we needed to go to ER. We slept a little more and then called Kaiser and they said the same thing. So I called for an ambulance and they had to take him out of the bedroom in a little folding chair, then got him on the chair lifts downstairs, then took him on a stretcher to the ambulance. In the meantime I uncovered Piper, put the TV on for him, made sure Tucker had food, ran him outside while the ambulance drivers took stats and set James up, then packed up some things really fast (we have an emergency room bag with plugs and stuff) and followed them to Emory St. Joseph. He was in the ER most of the day, half asleep, while I repeated what had happened several times, and finally got a room in the evening. They eventually put him on the fifth floor and started pumping him full of antibiotics. This is liable to turn into War and Peace if I let it, so suffice it to say James is still in the hospital as I write this and will be for the forseeable future. After a restless day on Tuesday, January 7, during which we watched the State viewing for President Jimmy Carter, James' situation gradually worsened. Even though he still had no fever, he started talking off his head, just complaining of pain only and saying nothing else coherent. I was told a serious infection sometimes does this, even without a fever. I could do nothing to comfort him and, indeed, at least once the hospital staff had to call me to see if I could talk him into taking his meds because he was spitting them out. On Wednesday evening, as she was cleaning James, one of the nurses discovered something disturbing on the underside of his swollen scrotum and took a photo to call the doctor, who ordered an ultrasound and a CT scan after I left. I had already been worried because I had noticed an odd smell several hours earlier. On Thursday, January 9, they transferred him from Emory St. Joseph to Emory Decatur because the Kaiser specialty urology doctor was located at the Decatur location. He was taken to Progressive Care rather than the ICU as St. Joe's had ordered, and I was at my wit's end when the nurse said she couldn't find his files. Finally about ten o'clock (at night; they had transferred hospitals right in the middle of rush hour and it had taken me an hour to go thirteen miles) the surgeon (Dr. Chen) came rushing in, demanding to the nurse why James wasn't in ICU prepping to go to the operating room because he needed surgery right away. He was pissed off that St. Joe's had not noticed what the nurse noticed when he was admitted and why they'd frittered away three days. Alice had come over earlier to put Piper to bed and give Tucker a short walk and do lights out, and I headed home just as they were taking James to the OR. I had no way to stay overnight; there wasn't even a recliner and, although I had my heart pill for the night, we were about to get snow and I wouldn't be able to get home. I was "snowbound" at home for two days from three inches and Atlanta's abysmal snow prep. I'd like to say I was industrious and took all the Christmas decorations down but all I could do for two days was cry and mope around the house. (I finally got the Christmas stuff down during the freezing rain day I had to stay home during almost two weeks later.) James was incoherent for pretty much a week and then slowly began getting his senses back. It was so bad at several points they had to restrain him because he was trying to pull his trache tube and even his dialysis ports out. He had one more OR foray while he was in ICU and had to stay on the breathing tube for two more days after his heart rate spiked and blood pressure dropped after coming back to the room. At the moment he's graduated from ICU to a step-down unit and today had another session in the OR to remove dead skin from what turned out to be Fournier's gangrene. You can look that up yourself; once was enough for me. What do you do about something the doctor tells you is "catastrophic"?
Pretty much all he can do is lie in bed and be patient and/or in pain. I can't even leave his phone and/or his tablet with him to amuse himself because his right arm is swollen from having IVs stuck in it and, about ten days ago, after I returned from that "freezing rain" day, his left arm swelled up like a stuck pig. Supposedly it's from fluid retention because he can't have a full dialysis session, but they really don't know what's happened; he had an ultrasound and a CT scan on it a week ago, and they came around to do another one today, but that was after he left for the OR (the ultrasound tech said he would come back). Someone—sometimes me, sometimes the nurse—has to feed him, and they have to turn him every two hours because he's basically sitting on his wound and there's no where else to position him. Physical therapy has come around and it's scary the way he's weakened from doing really well after the first surgery to two weeks later where he can barely move. I have "homework," too, to smooth his left arm from hand to shoulder in an attempt to "push" the fluid out. He can't even make a fist or grab with that left hand right now. I'm not sick, but the toll is...immense. It's a fifty mile drive round trip, I'm buying gas every five days, traffic is frightening, my car isn't in all that good a shape, and I'm exhausted. By the time I get home I can barely warm up or cook supper and spend a few scant hours with the fids before it's time to go to bed and start the whole rigamarole over again: gobble breakfast, feed and walk Tucker, make sure Piper is watered and fed and has the television on, and leave. Some friends have asked if they can come visit and take me to dinner. I don't know what to say because by the time I get home I'm flat out of energy. I sleep but don't sleep well; two nights ago I woke up disoriented and thinking I was in the hospital but it was all dark and James was missing and I was screaming "Where am I? Where is my husband? Why doesn't someone come when I call?" until I crawled out of bed toward the light coming around the bathroom door (from the nightlight) and realized where I was. My eyes hurt all the time and I can't rest except for the couple hours a night I lose myself in Law & Order: Criminal Intent between calling up the hospital to get a nightly report on James (and sometimes get to talk to him). And sometimes it's like he just gets to feeling better when they have to do another procedure and everything starts all over again. But he's back in the room now and not intubated and they say he's doing okay for now and he's even hungry (which he wasn't at all from the 9th to the 19th!).  » Sunday, December 29, 2024
Dialysis Blues, Lone Christmas, and Farewell to a President
 James had dialysis two days in a row this week. Since Christmas fell on a Wednesday this year, and they obviously didn't want to take the dialysis patients away from their own celebrations, they scheduled James for Monday and Tuesday dialysis. Monday went fine. I bought last minute foods at Kroger and made gravy with boneless pork ribs for Christmas Eve dinner. James watched Landman and Battlebots on his tablet.Tuesday seemed to go as well. James had dialysis. I did some last-minute grocery shopping. We had spaghetti and pork ribs and watched The Homecoming and some of Midnight Mass. We had plans with friends for Christmas which went down the drain on Wednesday morning. After making and eating breakfast and post gift opening, James suddenly got lightheaded and giddy. It happened twice. His blood pressure was something like 83 over 45. I looked it up and this often happens after consecutive dialysis sessions. So we rustled the emergency turkey out of the freezer, paired it with Yukon Gold potatoes, and a cucumber salad, and had a Christmas dinner on our own after giving James some salt and more liquid, and we both had a nap. Then we watched this year's Call the Midwife special, which was fabulous; there were several intertwined plotlines, including a tense but sweet incident involving Reggie, the young man with Down Syndrome. Before bed, it was time for The House Without a Christmas Tree. A quiet ending to a quiet day. Thursday we had a better day: James was feeling much better and we drove out to Books-a-Million and then had lunch at Brooklyn Joe's. We got a large pizza and once again brought half home. [Later: We had it as another meal several days later.] On the way home we stopped at Barnes & Noble. Early Friday morning we got a call from DaVita. They were shortstaffed and couldn't accommodate James at Bellemeade that day. They had found a seat for James either that afternoon in Hiram at three or Saturday in Douglasville at 10:15. We chose Hiram even though it was a chilly, wet day because Douglasville was just too far to drive. However, getting there at three meant James wouldn't be out any earlier than 6:30. It's only fourteen miles, but it would be in the dark. I wasn't driving back that distance in the dark. Driving the two miles to the one near the house had been bad enough. So I basically packed up the laptop and planned to spend most of my time in the lobby waiting for James. We got there and they were slammed. Two ambulances delivered patients that they weren't ready for yet. One of the ambulances would have to wait until 3:45 and they were expected in Douglasville at 4 p.m. and the driver was fit to be tied. Anyway, after 45 minutes they finally called James back. I took the truck back down a mile and gassed up at Sam's Club. I have never seen that Sam's gas station when it wasn't five to eight cars deep at each pump! Today, only ones and twos--maybe the damp, chilly weather? Next I went to the next shopping center over, got some candy and a cool gift at Five Below, then went to Michael's. If you're not looking for anything on clearance after Christmas, Michael's has to be the most depressing place on earth. I did get James a storage box. Went next door to PetsMart to get cheered up only to find all their budgies gone and one poor little lone conure left; I feel bad that I didn't stay longer and keep him company. Finally I bit the bullet and went to Walmart because I was out of yogurt soon, then went back to DaVita. The Hiram location is in an area with all doctors' and dentists' offices (except for a gym) and parking was wide open. The waiting area at the Hiram DaVita had a lot comfier chairs, at least (Bellemeade has nasty bucket chairs). They had a sofa, but there was no electrical plug at either end, and my laptop is old enough that the battery only lasts about an hour. There was a plug at a chair next to the Christmas tree, so I sat there. (No one turned on the Christmas tree, either, so I did that, too!) James got home way after seven, at which time it was raining lightly. We stopped by Dragon 168 and had Chinese for dinner. On Saturday we didn't do a blessed thing except I made a meat sauce so we could have spaghetti for dinner and Tucker got his two daily walks. Watched season one of Law & Order on Hulu (this began on December 16 and I've been looking forward to it, because as many times as I've seen the show on USA, WEtv, Pop, BBC America, and Sundance, I've never seen them in order and, indeed, have actually never seen some episodes at all, as first season proved), and then the final three episodes of Bull. I liked this series pretty well; it was enjoyable watching most of the characters grow and change, especially Chunk and Dani and Taylor. Jason Bull himself wasn't the most likeable character, but Michael Weatherly made him fun to watch. My absolute favorite character in the series was Geneva Carr's Marissa Morgan. It was nice to see her get her due in the final episode of the series. On Sunday we found out that Jimmy Carter had passed away. Of all the presidents, I think he has had the most notable post-presidential career, and was just all around Good Folks. God bless, President Carter. You're back with Rosalynn at last. Labels: Christmas, errands, events, food, health, outings, sickness, television, weather » Sunday, December 22, 2024
Pancakes, Mysterious Happenings, and More Doctoring
Sigh. James' restless legs have done it again. Now he's torn a hole through the dark blue sheets. So I had to go to Walmart on Monday to buy new sheets because I needed a bottom sheet, and had to change the bed again, although I just changed it yesterday. Plus Walmart's "hotel quality" sheets aren't as good as when I bought the first two sets a couple of years ago: they now have a satin quality that, even with the deep corners and thick elastic band on the bottom sheet, makes the sheet slips on the mattress (and I can't find my sheet "garters," even though I know I still have them). Plus they no longer label the "top/bottom" on the bottom sheet so you know the short end from the long end. Faugh.On Tuesday we were thinking of going to Canton, but we simply just went to Woodstock and had breakfast at the IHOP. Do you know they no longer have silver dollar pancakes for adults anymore? You can only get them on the children's menu now! The waitress was really sweet and said she would say I was ordering a short stack, but ask the cook to make me silver dollars instead. Except the cook didn't and I got the short stack, but the waitress talked to the manager and they gave me a complementary order of silver dollar pancakes! We tipped her really well and, as I could barely get through the short stack, brought the silver dollars home. [Later: We had them for breakfast Christmas Day!] Wednesday I finally gave Tucker a bath. He was overdue for one when he got so sick last month. On Thursday something baffling happened. We went to see Dr. Ahmad at the Doctors Building at Emory St. Joseph. This was basically a waste of our time as we had already seen Drs. Hobson and Keel; all he said was that he concurred with their diagnosis. (Well, if we could, we'd get it done, because now Dr. Keel is saying James needs a current echocardiogram because he hasn't had one since 2022. That is bullshit because he had one in the hospital in June when his kidneys failed and another either in July or in August. [Later: it was August.]) Anyway, when we left the Emory garage, the power chair was fine. The back was folded down. We left the garage, paid the attendant, the barrier came up, and we were on our way. We made the mistake of going to the Trader Joe's on Roswell Road rather than our usual Trader Joe's at Market Square. There was intense road construction right before Roswell, and we had to inch along for what seemed like ages. I went in by myself to get more orange chicken and other Christmas goodies that will disappear on December 26. This is a big open parking lot, no overhangs. Then we went to Kaiser Cumberland to pick up some prescriptions for James. Again, big open parking lot, no overhangs. When we got home, the head rest of the power chair (remember, the back of the chair was folded down so it was over the seat) was bent 45 degrees. This headrest support is made from steel. All James can figure is that when we went through the exit gate at Emory, it somehow caught on the head rest and bent it. How? We don't know. Why wasn't the rest of the chair damaged? Dunno, but thank goodness it wasn't! Saturday we were planning to go out, but James didn't sleep during the night, so we slept late and had Zaxby's for supper and watched Christmas stories. Sunday we did go out, then went to Big Lots because we heard they were going out of business. The line was very long, but the two cashiers were very efficient. We got some cool bargains. I'm bummed with Big Lots going out of business, though. Where will I get my shampoo now? Labels: chores, Christmas, doctors, events, food, health, shopping » Sunday, December 15, 2024
I Give Christmas My Best, But It Isn't Much
We had fun with friends this week; yes, these days it's such a rarity that I have to headline it. On Saturday we went to Hair Day, although we were the only ones there except for John Campbell. So we had some quality time with Ron and John while Sherii clipped hair. The house seems so large and echoing without Lin there. It must be so hard for Ron, still cherishing the house they shared but living with the silence.Went home to wrap gifts and then had Game Night at the Lawsons. I was still feeling a bit sad from the morning and preferred to spend the evening talking with Jerry, David, and John Bouler rather than game playing. Alice and Ken couldn't come because poor Ken had another kidney stone. We munched on pizza and came home with enough leftovers to have pizza for another meeting. Wednesday was my 69th birthday. I'd like to say I did something really special, but I didn't. I hit a couple of stores, but the most important thing I did was go to Drivers' Services and renew my driver's license. Because I was over 65, it said I had to go into the office and have an eye test. I had an eye test in May and tried to send them the info, but I apparently didn't have the correct info. Well, to my surprise, it took me exactly one hour and one minute, per Life360! Now, we're only four miles from the Drivers' Services building, so that was no problem. I took my iPad with me, but I hardly had a chance to look at it. I got the friendliest clerk, who noticed it was my birthday, and she was nice to talk to, and then it was done. I had a paper license to carry until I get the new license. Did manage to put up the 1940s Christmas village, minus the Christmas tree lot, and a bit squished together, on the mantel shelf rather than on the longer board that usually goes on the mantel shelf. Strung line for the Christmas cards under the mantel shelf (the rest of the cards went on the medial bookcase) and brought up the stuffed Max and Rudolph and the Charlie Brown tree (missing the red ornament to dangle on it) to sit on the hearth with Rusty the deer in a Christmas bauble collar. Finally did put up a Christmas tree: I used the new tree I bought for the library, the four-foot tree. I decorated it only with the glass ornaments that came in boxes (the satin balls, the holly balls, the old McCrory's ornaments, the "snow dusted" red ornaments, etc. and a few of the cellophane wrapped "presents" and two pine cones. I put "Little Blaze" the star at the top and tinseled the whole thing in layers of icicles. It was set on a temporary circular table with a silver tree skirt I found at Hobby Lobby for half price, with the manger set underneath. I managed to crowd most of the manger pieces on the table or in the stable itself, but five figures didn't fit, so I tucked a small teak table that sits in that corner all year under the circular table and covered it with the tree skirt and put the remaining five figures (two wise men, a camel driver, a camel, and the boy piper) on that. It gave the whole thing a nice 3D look, and then the wrapped gifts went around the base of the table. In annoying medical news, James went to see Dr. Keel, the guy who's supposed to do the "cement." Look, I'm glad this dude is being careful. I don't want him "just winging it" on this procedure. But now he's saying we need permission for James to go off his blood thinner for a week. Until he gets that, no treatment. Sigh. Did a whole bunch of usual chores this week. Braved Walmart for yogurt, since neither Kroger nor Publix carry my flavor any longer. (Food Depot doesn't, either. I checked. We don't have an Ingles close by.) James got an early seat at dialysis on Friday, and got approved for an earlier seat starting Monday. 10:30 is too early, but it's better than my picking him up after dark. Labels: birthday, chores, Christmas, Christmas decorations, friends, games, health, illness » Sunday, December 08, 2024
Christmas and Treatments Trickle In
Well, it was a bad week for medical solutions for James.Dr. Connally was very firm that she wanted James to undergo some kind of aquatherapy, so on Tuesday we went to the place where he would have the therapy. This turned out to be a swanky retirement home that included a fancy dining hall with white tablecloths, flowers on the table, and Muzak; a little coffee shop type place, meeting rooms, a big gym, and a huge pool with a lift. The therapist was very nice and said because James had trouble walking he would probably be better off going to their other location (on Dallas Highway) because their pool has only stairs and the Dallas Highway pool has a ramp. She said she was very confident that, especially once James had the "cement" in his vertebrae, the aquatherapy would help him regain some mobility. Except he can't have the aquatherapy now because he has the permacath and it might get wet, even though he's only going into the pool waist-high. Which we kinda figured. Then we saw Dr. Connally on Thursday. She was pissed off that James hadn't had the "cement" yet, as she had ordered that something be done immediately. James thought she was being unrealistic. I've managed to rouse minimal interest in decorating for Christmas inside this week. On Wednesday I cleaned out the foyer of Thanksgiving decorations, ditto with the dining room and other bits of upstairs, and then later in the week did the foyer, and then the gingerbread-and-candy cane kitchen decorations and the dining room old-fashioned feather tree and the "1910 tree." I put up what was left over in the dining room boxes on the media bookcase in the living room. In useful things, I got and used bolts to fix the hand truck (the last time I tried to use it, a whole bolt and nut were missing—how?—and another bolt was missing its nut), and also dropped off two full shopping bags of toys for Toys for Tots. I cleaned my desktop keyboard. I got my car inspected so I could renew my registration. I've tested out the Christmas tree; there are still lights out on it. I don't feel like putting it up at all. Labels: chores, Christmas, Christmas decorations, donations, exercise, health, illness » Sunday, November 24, 2024
Tucker's Odyssey
After two meltdowns on my part, and Tucker finally being so fed up with me that he started growling and snarling at me, he slowly started to get better. On Tuesday he voluntarily ate small bits of meat. I had gone to Kroger and gotten cheap pre-made hamburgers out of the managers' special bin. I cooked the hamburger and fed it to him in quarters. First he ate the burgers alone, then with rice, then with vegetables and rice. A little bit more each night. One night I left miniature Milk Bones out. He ignored them for several days.One morning they were gone. Then he started eating his dog food again. He wouldn't eat the chicken flavor at first, just the beef, which was very puzzling. But he ate it, and that was a victory. And by Saturday he was dancing around begging for after-walk cookies again! We also finally saw the film Hidden Figures and loved it! The scenes where Johnson has to run back and forth to another building just to use a "colored only" rest room made the point about prejudice so perfectly. The other news wasn't as good. James' fistula is not "ripening" properly and he will need to have a catherization in which any blockage in the fistula is cleared. This will be done in January. » Sunday, November 17, 2024
The Dreadful Week
There was no warning. It began fine: I had bought James a new duffle bag for our anniversary to take to dialysis (the old bag was falling apart). It has a separate compartment intended for gym shoes or a wet towel/swimsuit, and we have put his blanket in there. He doesn't really needed it, because now that he's on dialysis, he's not cold all the time. There's a compartment for his sugar-free mints, one for his snacks and visor, one for his water bottle and a juice box, one for his TV schedule, and then the inner compartment has a pocket into which he has two paperback books. The central compartment now just holds his noise-cancelling headphones (dialysis clinics are loud), his neck pillow, and his tablet (charged daily so he can watch Battlebots and whatever that Sylvester Stallone show is).Tuesday was a disaster. James twisted, thrashed, and kicked because he was in pain all night. Needless to say I didn't sleep, and we went to Hanger to get his back brace fitted in very ill tempers. As we pulled out of the driveway a car stopped in front of us and the driver got out. I've talked many times about Tucker's adversarial relationship with Max, the German Shepherd on the corner. I don't know how much I've mentioned his relationship with Champion, the German Shepherd down at the end of the street. His people rent a house in the lower cul-de-sac. I watched Champion from when he was a young dog. He has always approached Tucker with curiosity--"Oh, look, what a cute little dog!"--and Tucker approached him back with his head up and his tail wagging obligingly. It was obvious they both wanted to play together, but of course his person was walking him one way, and I was walking Tucker the other. It was Champion's owner who stopped to talk to us: Champion DIED on Monday; he said they didn't know why. We couldn't go home afterwards because James was scheduled for the bone scan at Kaiser, so we spent about a half-hour in Barnes & Noble before heading to Townpark. I was quite woozy and sick; we were going to stop at Walmart for yogurt and I was so sick we didn't. I did manage to get us a couple of treats in Bernhard's Bakery. I was feeling better Wednesday, so after finishing the Lidl/Publix/Kroger grocery route, stopped at Walmart on the way home for the yogurt. In the evening I finally bit the bullet and ordered new phones. My current cell reboots at odd times and loses connection on local streets, and it's beginning to eat battery. I got James a desert tan color and I got a red one. Maybe it will be easier to find. Then...out of nowhere, James got up Thursday morning, went out to make breakfast, and found out Tucker had vomited on the floor. Sometimes he does just get an upset stomach and vomit. But Wednesday he only ate one dog biscuit and a mouthful of rice in beef stock. He was listless and his eyes were tragic and he'd only drink if he licked it off my hands during the day. He drank more at night and ate a couple more dog biscuits. By afternoon I called Riverview and made him an appointment for the next day. Thursday Tucker wouldn't even walk down the stairs voluntarily. I scooped him up and carried him on his back in his blanket and he just lay there. He hates being held upside down. His breath was raspy. He stayed at the vet the rest of the day and overnight. He had a high fever (105℉!) and diarrhea and had IVs getting antibiotics into him and helping his dehydration. We went to pick him up but he was limp and listless on Friday. I had to feed him with Hill's Urgent Care soft food with a syringe, and this was the only time he struggled. He has a dangerously low level of white blood cells in his body, can't go near other dogs and we have to watch him because he's susceptible to sepsis. It was so bad Saturday night I had a meltdown. This is too fucking much. First it was Oliver, then James in the hospital, then James at home, then the falls, and now it's poor Tucker. I felt totally helpless. Sunday was a little better, as I did get some stuff done, but a real struggle to feed Tucker via syringe (I mean, I get it! I would hate it, too!). Labels: dogs, food, health, pets, shopping, sickness, smartphones, technology » Sunday, November 10, 2024
The Turn of Events
We saw our first Christmas lights Monday night, November 4! I love Christmas decorations, guys! But, too early!Tried to avoid election coverage on Tuesday by watching a movie, but after the film curiosity got the better of us and we stayed up until midnight watching the returns. I will admit I am not happy, although I disliked both candidates. When your new "leader" nominates an anti-vaxxer to run a health organization there is something wrong. Our parents worshiped the ground Drs. Salk and Sabin walked on, because their children were not crippled, were not confined to an iron lung, did not die from polio, all because of vaccines. Smallpox was a dreadful thing. Just not right. Chores for the rest of the week, and a visit to Dr. Salazar on Friday ended the week. We had not yet seen the orders for the tests, but he assured us they were in the system. So Saturday was a very busy day: we were up early to get in line for free electronics recycling day. Yay, that stupid microwave James keeps barking his leg on is gone. Also my venerable vacuum cleaner, which gave me much joy. The new one works wonderfully, but it's still too heavy. Then we had Hair Day and got to see Mel and Phyllis! We nipped home afterward for a meal (James made pork chops and we ate at three), and then went to Kaiser Townpark. James had two CT scans starting at 5:40, and then we had to wait the hour until his 8 p.m. MRI. It was a relief to get home. It was chilly and cloudy on Sunday, such wonderful weather! Tucker and I had a long walk, me clad in my favorite fabric, flannel! Later I put up the upstairs and foyer Thanksgiving decorations Labels: Christmas, election, events, exercise, friends, health, sickness, Thanksgiving, weather » Sunday, November 03, 2024
Changes in Space and Findings Whilst Shopping
James has finally seen the spinal doctor at Emory!Not that it did him much good. The appointment was wayyyyy over at the old Executive Park complex which used to be a rabbit warren of little buildings, many of them rented by CDC. I had attended meetings and classes at Executive Park; the plus of going there was that it was near a plaza that was filled with restaurants, including a Chinese place we were very fond of going to for Friday lunch. All of the buildings are now gone. In its place are the big Arthur Blank Hospital, part of Children's Hospital of Atlanta, a bunch of construction, and the Emory Muskoskeletal and Spinal Center, which was us. The building is shiny new, with a very nice-smelling cafe at the entrance. They have an interesting system of elevators, too. When you get there you register, and they give you a ticket telling you where to go: Level 4, for example, and then Aisle E. Then you go to the elevator bay which has a central panel. You tell the elevator you're going to Level 4, and it tells you what elevator to take. There are no buttons in the elevator; it's kinda spooky. Anyway, we saw Dr. Hobson, but nothing was done that Thursday; she wanted a battery of tests first: a complete spinal CT scan, a complete MRI of the spine, and a bone density test. She doesn't want to start a treatment for his lower back that will screw up his upper back. She also prescribed a back brace, which we'll get from Hangar Orthotics, and hydrotherapy. When we got home we tried to set up the CT and MRI immediately, but the orders weren't in the system yet; they did not go in until Wednesday and James made appointments on Saturday evening the 9th at Townpark, but he couldn't get the bone scan until the following Tuesday. But it will be done quickly, so we can hopefully get James some pain relief. This wasn't our only appointment this week; we also went to see Dr. Coyle. The fistula still isn't "ripe." You know, we were told, both times, that this thing would be "ripe" in six weeks. Now they tell us six weeks to three months! In happier trips, we drove out to the Costco in Paulding County again. We got supplies, but there was no ScotTissue! We also stopped at the Walmart out there and I was able to find twelve cans of the recently discontinued Harvest Tomato soup, which I use to make chicken cacciatore. I think this is the only big haul I'm going to be able to get. I now have 20 cans, and then we will need to find something else. I'm very sad. James had already filled in his mail-in ballot, and I did mine on Wednesday. When we left dialysis, we drove past the Smyrna community center where they were having early voting. This year they did allow me to deposit James' ballot along with mine; last year they insisted he do it himself. I put up the outside Thanksgiving decorations on Friday only to discover I had no Thanksgiving flag! I ordered one immediately, a very beautiful surround of autumn leaves surrounding the word "thankful." Then I drove out to the Walmart near Roswell Road and Cobb Parkway in hope of finding more Harvest Tomato soup. No luck there, but they did have slip-on canvas shoes that I use for dog-walking at night. And just in time, too, because when I got home and swapped out the inserts in my old dog-walking shoes, I discovered the soles of both shoes were cracked! This Walmart is next to Sam's Club, so I went in for ScotTissue. Thank goodness, they did have some! They also had—oh, my ears and whiskers!—poultry gravy. It has been like pulling teeth to find containers of poultry gravy; you can get brown gravy all the time, but not poultry. I ended up paying something like fifteen dollars to get a canister of McCormick poultry gravy mix from Amazon, and there they were at Sam's Club for $5 each. So I bought three! Uploaded a new fanfic as well: "Haunted." Labels: change, clothing, food, health, shopping, sickness, writing » Sunday, October 27, 2024
Back to This
James finally had an appointment with the pain clinic, even if it was just a video visit. After looking at James' spinal scans, Dr. Connally thinks he needs outpatient treatment on his back immediately, something called "an injection of 'cement'"? He has a fracture in one of his lower lumbar vertebrae that is probably pinching one or more nerves, causing the terrible pain and the interference in his sleep. So he will be getting a call from Emory about seeing a specialist there.I have been working on a fanfiction called "Quiver" all of the week and uploaded it on Saturday. I had Michaels credits, so we stopped at the Heritage Pointe store on Sunday afternoon and now I have a new 4-foot tree for the library. Otherwise it's been the usual chore-filled week. I did get a brighter light bulb for the library and was able to install it myself using the full-sized ladder. Leaning on the ladder makes me feel secure and I can stand being on the second step. I also replaced the long light bulb in the airplane fixture in the downstairs hall. This was a special gift to James from his mother, so we both cherish it. I found to my surprise when I got up there to replace the bulb that the old one was completely burned out! I could only get long light bulbs—they're called "radio bulbs" because they look like old-time radio tubes—in a four-pack, so I just replaced it with a regular-sized (A19) bulb. Fit perfectly, and damn it is bright down there now! Labels: Christmas, health, home repairs, illness, shopping, writing » Sunday, October 20, 2024
Infections and Outings
This week's high even had a disappointing low. On Sunday we went to the Apple Festival and, while it was nice to walk the fairgrounds, it was very tiring and I was suffering from lack of sleep, and feeling very woozy and out of it.We made a short stop at Panorama Orchards for the necessities of life: fresh Granny Smith apples, blackberry spread, the tea sold in little wooden crates (but they quit making the ginger peach), sugar-free taffy, and a few other things. Then we decided to stop in Canton to eat, hoping to go to the Thai place, but they are closed Sunday and Monday. Brooklyn Joe's was slammed, so we went to Cheeseburger Bobby's. This was really good: you got enough meat in the burger and the onion rings were excellent! It was pretty expensive, though. Stopped at Books-a-Million briefly, then got stuck in traffic on the way home. ::sigh:: The week started badly because we had to see Dr. Coyle on short notice. They noticed at dialysis that his fistula incision was weeping and had been giving him IV antibiotics on his last two visits. She said she didn't want him having that much vancomycin. She put him on oral antibiotics and told me to put Betadyne on the incision and keep it covered. [The Betadyne did do the trick eventually, but we can't figure out what happened in the first place as we followed all her instructions on caring for the wound to the letter.] Just chores for the rest of the week, including cleaning out decrepit emergency toilet-flushing water bottles from the garage. » Sunday, October 13, 2024
The Roller Coaster is Exhausting
Well, what to do about the faucet problem. Despite the fact that I was washing dishes in the bathroom and filling pitchers of water there, James used the kitchen faucet a couple of times and it didn't explode. However, it did need to be fixed. So while scrolling the internet, I found a company called "Steve's Handy," a handyman service. Steve had all five stars from people who used him.So I called him and he was supposed to come Monday afternoon, but the previous job ran long. We made an appointment for 10:30 next morning, which was neat because now James could talk to him. He showed up promptly, then showed us some faucet options. We picked a Glacier Bay with a spray unit in the faucet head. He then went to Home Depot to pick up the faucet while I cleaned out under the sink. He came back with the faucet and installed it. Well, I've had this "punch list" of small things that had needed doing for years, like the light in the bathroom downstairs. I asked Steve to look at the items. Folks, he took care of all of them. * We haven't had a light in the downstairs bathroom in years. When James tried to fix it, back when he could still climb ladders, he could not get the light out of the cowling it was in. Steve was able to fix it—it turned out when James tried to replace the light bulb that burned out, the glass cover on the fixture was so tight he actually pulled out the whole fixture, which is why he couldn't get the light bulb out—Steve was able to get the clear cover off and just screwed in the light bulb. * Steve used a special needle-nosed plier and got the broken light bulb base out of the overhead ceiling fan light in the library. This has been out of commission almost as long as the bathroom light, and it now has a bulb back in it! The cover is even back on it and the pull cords for the fan and the light back on. The screws that hold the cover were lost, but, since Steve had to go back to Home Depot to get a plug to cover the spray hose hole, he also picked up some generic screws so the cover could go back on. (It's not bright enough for the library, but I didn't have a 100 watt equivalent bulb that would fit.) * I finally got our "Wizard of Speed and Time" poster reframed in the better frame I bought for it at least five years ago and Steve re-hung it in the foyer. * Best of all, he got up on a ladder and was able to move our Leaf indoor antenna up as high as it would go (another four feet to the west and higher by at least 16 inches), and now we are getting Georgia Public Broadcasting again and Ion TV (I think we may have lost the better signal on "the Loop" which shows old black and white TV, though...oh, well). I re-scanned the television only two days ago and came up with 80 channels; scanned it again today and got 95. I've only reached 92 scanned channels previously, during the winter when the leaves are off the trees. Usually, once the trees leaf out we lose GPB completely. Steve is definitely getting five stars and more from us!!!!! (Also, he's a theater person and tech-y and knows the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company!) So if you're in the area (Cobb County, Georgia, from Smyrna north to Acworth) and need some work done, check out Steve's Handy! These are all the things Steve does, per his Yelp listing: Handyman assembly Circuit breaker installation Electric installation or replacement Wire installation Faucet installation Garbage disposal installation Handyman installation Outlet installation Handyman painting Plumbing repair Sink installation Switch installation Toilet installation Water pipe installation Handyman caulking Electric inspection Electric repair Wire repair Faucet repair Garbage disposal repair Light fixture repair Outlet repair Plumbing installation or replacement Handyman repair Sink repair Switch repair Toilet repair Water pipe repair Well, all this high had to have a downward slope, didn't it? It's the way things go these days. When James went to dialysis Wednesday afternoon, the PA looked at his fistula wound and thought it was getting infected. They put antibiotic on it and sent a tube of it home with him, and gave him IV antibiotics. They also said if it was worse by Saturday we would have to go to the emergency room. Yes, I freaked. I did notice it was a little red on Tuesday. We have been doing just as the doctor ordered since the surgery: soap and water washing only, pat dry, a little Mupirocin on the incision. No bandaging necessary, even though the wound would rub against his shirt. Well, it's going to be bandaged from now on, until we see Dr. Coyle next week (James called her immediately). So at night we are cleaning it out with wound cleaner, covering it up so the shower doesn't wet it, then re-cleaning it, putting Mupirocin on it, and bandaging it. DaVita gave him more intravenous antibiotic on Friday as well. They said it didn't look any worse and, since the doctor said I was treating it the right way (we sent her photos), just rebandaged it. (I hate the way they rebandage it. They put tape on his arms that pulled off some skin. In good news, we got some stuff done on Thursday, and then on Saturday took a long drive up to Cumming to celebrate Jessica Clerici's 31st birthday. I loved seeing our friends, but Mellow Mushroom sat us outside so there was room for all of us to sit together. In the sun. In almost 80℉ weather. I had a migraine that kicked in immediately and with the glare and the heat, I had to retreat to a shadier seat. Juanita had bought the coolest candle for the cake. It looked like a flower with long yellow pistels, but they were wicks. You lighted it in the middle and all the wicks ignited and the "petals" fell open and rotated while it played "Happy birthday." We were in walking distance of a Barnes & Noble, so we walked around it for a few minutes and I bought a Christmas romance and something called A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire for Hallowe'en reading. The moment we got home we both took a nap. Sun takes so much out of us. Sigh. Today I did a bunch of little chores including cleaning out the cart where I have all his bandages and medicines. With grim irony James calls it his "crash cart." Steve left a tool here and is supposed to come back to pick it up. Maybe he will put up the new light bulb I bought at Home Depot on Friday. I walked in there and came face-to-face with Christmas! They had nearly two dozen Christmas trees (they're all so tall; what happened to six-foot trees?) and I actually liked a slim-line one, but I don't think it would fit all 200 of our ornaments. I suppose I could get rid of some...but I love them all. Labels: birthdays, chores, Christmas, events, friends, health, home improvement, home repairs, illness, medication, purchases, television » Sunday, October 06, 2024
October at Last...and Off to a Bad Start
I look forward to October every year. It's my favorite month except for December, although the leaves here don't really turn until November, but there's such a possibility in October...that it might be cooler, that it might be colorful, that we can make all the wonderful things coming up like the book sale and the Apple Festival.It started out on a bad note Tuesday. We'd had a nice day: went to Sam's Club for gasoline for the truck, went inside and found some nice sirloin steaks for a semi-reasonable price, and some nifty dark-chocolate covered nut clusters. Nuts are good for kidney patients, and these turned out to be really tasty, with flaky dark chocolate on them. We also went by Dunkin Donuts and got two more apple cider doughnuts, and James made chopped steak and ramen noodles for dinner... ...and forgot to check behind him to make sure the chair was there and sprawled out on the kitchen floor. We had to call the firemen to get him up, and he said he was okay—he didn't even scrape an arm or a leg like he usually does and start bleeding!—but over the rest of the evening he started to hurt worse and worse around his chest, and off we went at 10:30 to Urgent Care. Even though there were few customers, it took us until 3 a.m. for him to get an x-ray and then another 90 minutes for them to look at it. I had a screaming headache most of the time there; had taken three ibuprofin before we left the house and it barely touched it, and someone's alarm was going off constantly, and there was a baby crying, and it was hot in the little cubicle we were assigned to. We were so miserable we both considered just walking out, but we had to check... So, they said no broken anything and sent us home on a couple of hydrocodone for James and absolutely no energy for me. We got into the house and just crawled out of our clothes and fell asleep on top of the bedspread with a couple of fleece throws at about 5:30 a.m. Ever since now he has this pain around his torso when he twists (can't figure out how it happened since he appeared to have landed on his left side), coupled with the pain in his back that has been so intense he has been taking, in ones and twos, the hydrocodone Dr. Coyle gave him for post-op. I have been wakened every night by his moaning in pain. So, whap, apparently it was now my turn; tried to get in bed early Thursday night for the book sale on Friday and instead suffered nightmares and knee pain and nausea all night. It was a whole lot of fun for both of us. I staggered up long enough to help with breakfast and feed and walk Tucker, then crashed on the futon until it was time to get up for dialysis transport. I went straight to the book sale and bought thirteen books, and didn't feel fully human again until after supper. So James ended up going to his club meeting online again, after making it successfully last month on his own (sigh...). Over the week I also finished putting up a couple of more fall decorations, put the new signs up on the front porch (hopefully the plague of roofers will go away), brushed Tucker, updated my blog, and finally put away the charged power supplies (and sorted out the little woven crate they're in). I also, happily and sadly, finished the very last Maisie Dobbs book, The Comfort of Ghosts. I've been reading the series since 2007, when I read a great review of the first book. Maisie started out as a thirteen-year-old servant whose thirst for knowledge was so great that she would get up at three a.m. to study in her employer's library to further her education. Her employer educated her, and she went to college but didn't finish due to serving as a nurse in the Great War. Now World War II has ended. Maisie is at the end of a long journey. It was a satisfactory ending, but how I will miss her! Also, back in the day when James was working, one of the things we used to watch at lunchtime was the New Zealand-produced "reboot"/follow-on of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds. They did a lot of fan service to the original series and we enjoyed it. However, Amazon Prime only showed two-thirds of the series. I just found out the remainder of the series was on Tubi. Alas, now it seems our kitchen faucet is either broken or giving up the ghost. Like we haven't spent enough money. Labels: accidents, autumn, books, dogs, health, illness, shopping, television, treats » Sunday, September 29, 2024
A Week So Busy...
...that we may have to break it into parts.
Might as well get the nastiness out of the way first. Hurricane Helene was in the news a lot starting September 24. Supposedly this monster was due to gather a lot of strength and not lose it after it crossed the Florida/Georgia line. I immediately began gathering every small power supply we had in the house just in case we lost power for more than an hour, as our internet and main computers are already on APC power supplies, as is the television and Roku, but they would be needed for emergencies. On Wednesday it poured and we took the rollator to dialysis because the power chair isn't supposed to get wet. On Thursday we heard that a 15-20 foot storm surge would probably hit Tallahassee when Helene made landfall, and then the damn fool thing was going to come directly up I-75 and hit Atlanta head on with 75 mph winds. These were the conditions predicted when we went to bed on Thursday night. Instead, we slept almost soundlessly until five, when rain lashed at the windows and we could hear the wind raging outside. By the time we got up it was sprinkling, and then partly cloudy, with some very blue sky visible. Just south of us the storm had turned east, so Atlanta and Chattanooga were marked "safe" except for some downed trees around town. Instead Helene barrelled into western North Carolina like a gigantic watery freight train. All the beautiful towns and villages there were lashed and pounded. The "Rainbow Bridge," a little tribute place where you could fasten a memory of a beloved pet, was washed away. The gatehouse at Biltmore Estates was 2/3 covered in water. The little town of Chimney Rock was completely washed away. Big chunks of the freeway in eastern Tennessee and western NC are gone, as well as smaller roads. The Blue Ridge Parkway has been chewed up in many places. In fact so many roads are out that they cannot bring in supplies to many places and are resorting to helicopters, small planes, and, in one case, a mule train! Mountain Mule Trackers have been using their mules to get supplies into that part of the state. Fall is the time when much of western NC and eastern TN make money due to leaf peepers. They'll have no business this year. Dolly Parton personally donated a million dollars to recover efforts. James' sister, in Gaffney, South Carolina, lost power, but they are in the country and have a generator. [They only had power restored on October 6, thanks to tree cutters shipped in all the way from St. Louis, Missouri, followed by the local linemen. Electrical linemen are the GOAT. These folks need to be paid more money, not overstuffed politicians and performers.] So while Nature was doing her damnest, we were able to carry on: I cleaned out under the bathroom sinks and used shelves to get extra storage space; we stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home from James' surgical followup and found lots of fall goodies; Thursday it was cool enough for me to go for a full walk!; on Saturday after Hair Day we drove out to the Costco in Paulding county, gassed up my car, and found more Belgian chocolate mousse in the handy little glass containers as well as lamb chops for $5.99/pound; and stopped at the local Walmart and finally found some of my yogurt! I bought two weeks' worth and need to check the local Wally Worlds for more. In James news, Dr. Coyle seemed pleased with his fistula so far, even though he complains he cannot feel what they call "the thrill," the buzzing that a successful fistula makes. I can feel it plain as day, it vibrates like a purring cat. The skin around the surgical area has also swollen up like it's supposed to, which the original fistula did not do. Oddly, his blood pressure was rather low on the visit, but she did not seem concerned. And Friday he got lucky and got an early chair at dialysis! Sunday he got the nicest surprise of all. His best friend J.P. called ... um, from wherever he and his wife are living now; I've totally forgotten. You should have heard them on the phone exchanging their health challenges. Apparently J.P. also twitches in his sleep and has been diagnosed with narcolepsy. We had some of the lamb chops tonight, in the air fryer, with mint jelly. So good! Labels: chores, errands, food, friends, health, local, relatives, sadness, shopping, sickness, storms, weather » Sunday, September 22, 2024
Medical Mutterings and Spending Money
It was another doctory week, but not overwhelmingly so, like the "day of three doctors' appointments." James had dialysis the usual three days, on Tuesday we went to see Dr. Mobley and on Thursday James had an MRI on his back, ordered by Dr. Mobley, to see what's going on with his back. Friday before dialysis we had a visit with James' cardiologist and had enough time to stop at the Perimeter Barnes & Noble and stopped by MicroCenter on the way back to get a new bluetooth keyboard for my phone. My faithful Freedom Pro seems to have given up the ghost.The house also had to see a doctor, or rather the garage did. There are thin, taut metal cables on either side of the garage doors that roll up when the door rolls up, and then unspool and stay taut when the doors are down. One, on the truck's side of the garage, had quit spooling up over the weekend, and the other quit as the week started. Apparently this is Very Bad and can warp/break the garage door panels. So we had to have "Don't Panic! Garage Door Repairs" come to fix it. It cost nearly as much to fix as the garage door panel repairs back in 2014. Gah. So, we had some good things this weekend: while we had to give David's birthday party a miss (my lower GI was in an uproar) on Saturday, we had a great time at Aubrey's birthday "do" on Sunday. The cake was based on Hazbin Hotel, a fandom I hear about on Reddit, but haven't investigated, and, best of all, the company was wonderful. Alice made it so we could take the power chair up to the back door and then James was able to limp in on the folding walker. I also finished and posted a story I began on September 15, finished on the 18th, and posted on the 21st. It seemed to be well received. In a very annoying development, DaVita will not allow me to go back and help James set up his stuff any longer. They say it's against the rules. Now, when we first started going there in July, the rules clearly said that if the person having dialysis could not get to the chair by themself, they needed to have a helper come in with them. James can get from the power chair to the dialysis chair if the power chair is next to it, but he cannot park the power chair out of the way and walk the few steps to the dialysis chair without help. The nurses are not supposed to do this, so he would get out and I would park the chair, then help him get his stuff set up, wait for James to get a finish time, then leave. Now the clinic manager says I can't do this anymore. If I want to do this, I have to get a doctor's note. Once I have the doctor's note, we have to take a conference class, and then answer a questionnaire...what the absolute f*ck? Just to help him pull stuff out of his bag? The funny thing was that when I went to pick him up, the clinic manager had gone home and the nurse on duty just let me in. She didn't want to deal with the power chair and didn't mind me coming in the back at all. So it's just one person with a stick up their butt... Labels: annoyances, birthdays, books, computers, friends, health, home repairs, sickness » Sunday, September 15, 2024
Surgery Week
James had his fistula surgery this week, on the 10th.
The week itself did not start auspiciously; James Earl Jones died. "The Voice," and the talented man attached to it, is gone. End of an era indeed. Monday evening we stuffed James with food at about 11:45, then valiantly tried to get 3 1/2 hours sleep. If was mostly fruitless, and we could have waited and gotten up at four anyway, as the freeway was totally clear and we got to the surgical center so early that the only people there were the security guards. So we parked and closed our eyes until the lights went on. We weren't the only people there early, either; there were about six other patients...well, patiently waiting. James' surgery was scheduled for 7:30, but he had to be here for 5:30; I think we waited a bit longer than that. Finally they brought us back to a room and I helped him undress and waited under unforgiving fluorescent lights until they shooed me out. They would send me texts on James' condition, and I could also look on the electronic board. The café was open by then and I had something called "breakfast porridge," a bagel and cream cheese, and milk. I couldn't finish the porridge. I didn't mind the Cream of Wheat texture, but it was apparently pumpkin spice and virulently sweet. Well, here my long wait began. I was so sleepy, but there was nowhere to sleep, I was too woozy to write or even to read. I finally perched myself on a sofa on the other side of the waiting area, which was lit brightly with obnoxious white lighting (I mean, I tried sitting everywhere, even in the children's waiting center, but it was too damn bright), and half dozed. I got a text at ten saying he was in recovery, and Dr. Coyle said if they started on time, James should be ready to go by 12:30.
Alas, no, because he had the same blood pressure problem as last time, and also felt like he couldn't breath when they turned the anesthesia off, so they put him on oxygen and then a Bi-Pap to help him get the anesthesia out of his system. Worse, the recovery room nurse kept trying to call me, but I wasn't getting her messages because my phone was tagging them as spam. So I kept calling her, which must have been annoying for her. Didn't get to see James until 3:30 p.m., after which they'd turned both the oxygen and the Bi-Pap off. Guess when we got released. Yes, you guessed it: rush hour. It took us over an hour to drive the 24 miles home. Despite the delay, he seems to be doing fine. The doctor gave him some pain medication, but he only used it that evening and the next day. He did report some burning at the surgical site during his first dialysis after the surgery, but that was all. After this, trips to dialysis and the rest of the week was a breeze. Put the flag up for September 11, then next day stripped all the summer crap down and put up fall stuff. Since I finally found the rub-on letters, I finished the signs for the porch, and now I just need to spray them with a clear coat. I also bought a cute stuffed sheep. » Saturday, August 31, 2024
And Even More Medical Stuff
Went to Kroger this afternoon as has become my habit since James started dialysis to find the dairy cases completely rearranged and my favorite flavor of yogurt nowhere to be seen, and no more space for it on the shelf. First it's disappeared from Publix and now it's gone from Kroger. After I came home, I checked Chobani's website to see that they still do make the flavor, then called Publix hoping I could order it. The manager said he would look into it for me.Tuesday we had to go back to Kaiser Townpark for James to get the examination on his eyes to see if the Plaquinel is affecting them (it's not, so far). We discussed the computer glasses and were told that his distance glasses—the ones with the transitional lenses that "have to be trained"—are the ones he should be using for the computer. Wednesday was another dialysis day, and then, success on Thursday! I finally found the rub-ons I need for the porch. They were in the same places I had already looked a couple of times. Perhaps it's the little blue guys again. In the afternoon we went back to Townpark so James could have a new echocardiogram. We had lunch at Pacific Buffet and I bought some books at Barnes & Noble. James bought a DragonCon streaming membership and we were able to see a little bit of the convention this afternoon: a Star Trek: the Next Generation reunion panel and then the John Cleese panel. I believe Cleese is here for the entire convention, but he is only doing one panel, and this was it. Sunday has its own entry... Labels: conventions, crafts, food, health, sickness » Sunday, August 18, 2024
More Medical Muddles
This week we had a new wrinkle: James' pulse has been slow. We called up Kaiser and they got us an appointment on Tuesday with a Dr. Carpenter. We thought for sure he would ship us off to Urgent Care, which was, providentially, empty, but he ordered an X-ray and a blood test, and then took an EKG. He said because we were going to see James' cardiologist the next day, he felt safe just doing that. And so we did; Dr. Shash said that dialysis needs to take more fluid off of James. Both he and Dr. Carpenter think he should be on some kind of diuretic to help him shed fluid, but DaVita doesn't think so. They did take him off his high blood pressure meds, which they thought might have been the cause of the low pulse. He really doesn't need the medication anymore due to the dialysis.I hate that DaVita and Kaiser don't talk to each other. It's Kaiser I'm paying for medical service and to keep James healthy, and I don't like DaVita sticking their fingers in the pie. In happier news, we went downtown on Thursday and wandered about, visiting the new Italian grocery and goodies store, the candy store for sugar-free candy, and the Corner Shop (the British store). The only other notable event was a horrific thunderstorm on Sunday; everything got dark, the wind whipped up and the rain lashed down. But it cleared up in time to reveal a beautiful full moon! » Sunday, August 11, 2024
A Week of On and Off
It was an okay week, although we are worried that James' lungs may be accumulated fluid again. When we saw Dr. Salazar on Friday we asked him to listen to his heart and lungs. He said they sounded okay, so we're going to leave it to DaVita to take the proper amount of fluid off him per day.We did have a couple of fun excursions this week. On Tuesday we went to Ollie's discount outlet to get new vinyl bungie cords for the big trunk we keep in the back of the truck. The sun rots them after awhile and we have to buy a new set. We bought two sets, so we'll have a spare next time when the new ones get broken and can go looking for another set while still having a usable set. We also got a new bungie cord to go around the tarp cover for the power chair. The last one rotted out. On Thursday we drove out to Canton, went to Books-a-Million, had dinner at Uncle Maddio's, and finally stopped at BJs for fruit cups, maple syrup, and also AAA batteries. Remember when everything took double As? Now it's almost always triples. Friday we got a call that the infectious disease doctor at Urgent Care thought Augmentin wasn't good enough for James' UTI. They want him on Fosfomax again. Sigh. The Augmentin was doing well, too. I could tell the the Fosfomax isn't going to work. It will kill the UTI for a week and then things will start up all over again. I spent Sunday looking for the damn rub-on letters I need for the signs on the front porch ("Dog loose in house" and "No sales or solicitors"). I'm getting so tired of those fripping roofers knocking on the door at least once a week. Still can't find them. Labels: annoyances, excursions, food, health, shopping, sickness » Sunday, August 04, 2024
Three Strikes: Everything, Sadly, Normal
Empty. The house is empty, even though Ollie didn't chirp all that much
in the beginning and didn't make many noises even when he was sick. No
one to share my peaches and plums with. No one to eat out of my oatmeal
spoon. "How quiet, how quiet the chamber is..."
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