Lifes Crossroads part 4

I was resigned to the fact that I needed to be in the hospital to get well again, but I was not resigned to how long I would wind up remaining there. This being only my second day I worked to make the best of it. I spent a good deal of my morning answering texts. It was nice to see all the people who cared and I wanted to be sure to communicate with them. I picked what I could from the breakfast tray and then sat in the chair and did some more reading. The days kind of started blurring together and were pretty much the same so some of these recollections may have been the first day and some may have been the last but you’ll get the idea. I didn’t get to many visitors; most people realized I was immune compromised and if they even thought they might be sick they stood away but stood in touch. Kathy took off one day and stayed with me making sure everyone was doing the right thing for her dad. One day someone dropped the ball and did not put in orders for my blood to be drawn. I mentioned this to Kathy when she came by and she went to the nurses’ station to check on why that would have happened and I think before she got back to the room there was a lab tech walking into my room to draw blood for a stat blood test. Kathy actually saved their hide because one of the reasons I was there was for the Dr to monitor my blood levels daily to see what was needed for treatment. I think the staff soon realized that I had a support system here.

            In addition to Kathy’s visits Don was very diligent in making sure he came by to visit regularly, and call or text when he didn’t come by. Even though I often felt alone I was never really alone. Another valuable lesson learned. Of course I got a daily visit from Kim my lovely, tired, stressed out wife. It was really great to see her even though I felt bad for her. Because her co-worker was still out of work Kim was working extra hours and taking care of everything else that needed to be done. A couple of nights she got a sandwich and we had dinner together when my dinner was served. One evening my friend Ken Bristol stopped by with takeout BBQ, saying he figured I was probably getting tired of hospital food. He sure was correct and Kim was tired of sandwiches so I ate the chicken BBQ and she ate the dinner I had ordered and it was a treat for both of us. I also got a visit from my friend Robert and his wife Dawn. That was a surprise visit I did not expect. It is at times like these that you really find out about people. They offered to help in any way possible and I know they meant it.

            During this time I actually didn’t feel to bad so it was hard for me to understand why I needed to be in the hospital. I even asked the Dr and he said I was still very sick as my WBC’s were still at less than 1and my red count was very low. He said he wasn’t sure if it was just IV antibiotic that was keeping me healthy but we needed a few more days to be sure. I did not want to hear that I would be in the hospital a few more days as we were approaching the weekend and I had every intention of being home for the weekend. Ok, now I was starting to get depressed. I did a lot of walking the halls and early on I found out that there was a room that had fresh coffee available. This made my breakfasts more palatable as the coffee they served with breakfast was cold and weak. There you go, another bright spot. Since this was becoming a longer stay than we expected Kim started bringing little things from home that made the stay more bearable. You never know what you are going to miss till you don’t have it. Some were personal items, others special food items, reading material, laptop and things to remind me of home.

            The only good thing about the weekend coming was that Kim would not be working and wouldn’t be as stressed. She was able to do some of the other things she needed to do as well as get some extra sleep. When she came to visit we were more able to actually enjoy each other’s company. By this time in my stay I was finally getting some sleep at night. The nurses kept telling me that the Dr had prescribed a sleep aid for me but I didn’t like all the side effects associated with it. During my stay at this fine establishment I was given antibiotics, IVIG, blood transfusion, saline drip and other things in bags hanging on my pole flowing through tubes attached to my arm. Those I had no say over, but I could say no to a sleeping pill and by golly I did! I figured some of the things I was dealing with could kill me so I trusted the Dr in those matters, but lack of sleep, though physically draining, was not going to kill me.

            With all of these liquids being pumped into my body I experienced two side effects. The first most obvious was that I had to go into the bathroom on a very regular and frequent schedule. This was both day and night so even when I could sleep I couldn’t sleep much. One day I went to put my slippers on and they wouldn’t fit. I looked down at my feet and they looked like they were twice their normal size. Looks like even with all the bathroom visits my feet were not giving up their share of the fluids. I started keeping my feet up more as that seemed to help some and the Dr reduced the amount of fluid dripping into my arm. It took some time but eventually my feet returned to normal. As we got closer to my release date I was able to be freed from my pole since we did not need to have fluids constantly dripping. I still needed to have an antibiotic IV every eight hours, so they would come in, hang the bag and re-hook the tubes to the IV still in my arm. I made sure they had the port capped when not in use, as Maria taught me, and made sure they cleaned it good when they hooked it back up. The procedure took about an hour but it was not without incident. More than once when the infusion was complete and the machine started beeping no one heard it. I would call the nurses’ station to let them know and a couple of times I had to call again since my nurse did not respond. One time it got so bad that I had to call a third time when I saw blood backing out of my vein into the tubing attached to my arm and the machine was beeping incessantly. In a slight panic I told them I needed help quickly. Soon my nurse arrived and said she was never told I called. After a couple of these types of instances I knew that I really needed to get out of there and do my recuperating at home.

            Finally the day came when the Dr agreed with me and said there wasn’t much more they could do for me at the hospital, even though my #’s were still not good, and I could go home. These were probably the best words I had heard in eight days and actually brought tears to my eyes. I called Kim and asked her to come and get me. The nurse took the IV out of my arm and I started gathering my stuff, got dressed and waited for Kim. When Kim arrived the nurse called transport, I sat in my chariot and off we went to the great outdoors. When we got outside I never realized how much I enjoyed fresh air and sunshine. It was beautiful! Kim brought the car to where I was waiting and I practically jumped out of that wheelchair and into the car. She drove me to the far end of the lot where my car had been parked for 8 days and I got in my car and we both started toward home. The sun was shining, the air was warm and I was just thanking God for His mercy and grace. May I never forget the many lessons learned.