Bill has been discharged and is now home. He decided this morning that he did not want the ultrasound of his gall bladder. It would have been an unnecessary test, and insurance probably would have covered it he didn't think that would be fair to the insurance company. The dr. did not try to change his mind and since he hadn't thrown up since yesterday morning he said there was not reason to keep him. Sent him home with a script for Keflex and Phenergan. I doubt he'll need that one, but it will be good to have around.

I took the scripts to Walgreen's since it is closer to our house than Wal-mart. The locally owned pharmacy we usually use has been bought out by Kroger and right now it is a nightmare to get something filled. When I handed the girl at Walgreen's my military ID card as the insurance, she told me that it only applied to drs. and not pharmacy services. I'm still really ticked off about it and haven't decided what to do yet. I'm considering contacting corporate to complain to them. We've used that card at pharmacies all over the country to fill precscriptions. So, if you are retired military and want to have your meds filled at Walgreen's be prepared. I was just tired and stressed enough today to just take the script and leave instead of pushing the issue.

I still have to let Kim know that he has been discharged and I have the bedclothes in the washer that I need to check on. I think it will be a very early night for both of us tonight! Bill has to check in with out dr. sometime next week so I'll let you know how he's doing then. I'm not sure if I'll get a weekly one in Saturday, that remains to be seen. If I don't Happy New Year!

Bill has turned a corner!!! He was still throwing up when I walked in the door this morning they again took away everything. His mouth was so dry that he was practically begging for water, so after an hour we gave him a little and he kept it down and then had some more with his meds. 

He walked to the bathroom about lunchtime and back and didn't get nearly as winded as he had before. He said that his lunch didn't even smell good, even though I thought the pork chop looked pretty good! He did eat some of the applesauce he had though. The dr. came in then and suggested that the throwing up was not due to the breathing treatments but his gall bladder. Now, I have had gall bladder disease and you just don't throw up a little bit. You are in extreme pain. He then said that since he was already in the hospital they may as well do some tests! So, he said they would schedule that and there would be a consult with Yale University and walked out the door! Oh my, that sent him into a tizzy! I finally got him calmed down and told him they were not going to cut on him. I did some research with Yale and our hospital and the surgeon attended Yale medical school. So the other dr. was just trying to impress us...it was time to play the Mayo Clinic card! Of course any surgery would have to be done at a transplant center and not the local hospital.

He finally ate some cereal this afternoon. The surgeon came in and agreed that any surgery, if there was any, could not be done there. He checked his belly and doesn't think his gall bladder is involved, but said to have the ultrasound to be sure. He's a cardiovascular surgeon so he was very interested to hear about the transplant and the LVAD implant. Bill was much better by then.

When his dinner came he ate most of his baked fish, some of the broccoli (which looked revolting), but I don't think he ate any of his rice. He said the broccoli was tasteless and I told him it was just cooked to death! He saved his grapes for a snack. After dinner he wanted to get out of bed and sit in his chair, but his oxygen tubing wasn't long enough. That was an easy fix and while he was in the chair they changed his bedding. He again went to the bathroom and back. He stayed up until it was time for his meds and then he got back into bed.

I talked to Kim at Mayo today. She was covering for Stephanie. She then talked to his nurse. She seemed satisfied with the antibiotics he was getting and answered the questions I had about his other meds. She told me just to let her know when he was discharged so that she could order his records, but maybe she set that up when she was talking to Autumn.

There was a huge difference between the week-end staff care and today's care, as far as the day nurses are concerned. Since he had the same night nurse both nights he was cared for. I don't know who his nurse will be tonight. I came home before the nurse came in. But, it was much better care today.

So, that's it for tonight. My pizza is done, I've talked to my mother and updated her, so I'm going to eat, unwind and then go to bed to do it all over again in the morning. Keep the good thoughts and prayers coming, they're working!

Another long day. Bill did not have a good night. Of course you never have a good night in a hospital. He got a breathing treatment every 4 hours, plus IVs hung and labs drawn. He still felt horrible after I got there at 7 to give him his meds.

He didn't want breakfast and dozed off and on all morning, but they were still in and out. We kept the room dark and quiet so that he could rest. The dr. came in right before lunch, just as he was starting another breathing treatment. He said that the pneumonia was only in the right lung and wasn't a very big area. His labwork had already improved so he was hopeful that in the next day or 2 he could go home. He was going to try to eat lunch when it came but when he sat up he threw up. It was all clear phlegm but that wore him out. He was able to sleep for quite a while after that...until the next breathing treatment that came right before supper. Before they even got the tray in he threw up. This time it was green and nasty looking. He got a shot of phenergan and they changed him to a liquid diet. He ate his jello and Italian ice but not the broth. Within and hour and a half his stomach was bloated and he said it was really cramping. By 7 he was again throwing up. His night nurse is the same one as last night and he's wonderful. He said that he was holding all fluids, even water. He gave him another push of phenergan and told him to just rest. He was also going to get him some cough medicine to give his body a break from all the coughing. The breathing treatments have been discontinued and I don't know what the treatment will be now.

I did find out this morning that they didn't get all of his meds ordered so I need to add another one to his anti-rejection ones. The one they didn't order is the antibiotic for the heart mismatch. I'm to bring it tomorrow, but I think I'm going to wait until I talk to Stephanie before I give it to him. It may interfere with the other antibiotics. Something else to ask her. Marty told me tonight that they are also giving him heparin and I'm not sure why. I'll have to find out tomorrow. It may have another use other than a blood thinner that I don't know about (like I know so much anyway).

I'm not quite as tired tonight as I was last night, but it wasn't an emergency day like yesterday was. That's not to say I'm not tired because I am. Our friend Ron told me that he will bring me breakfast in the morning. He also said he'd bring something for Bill but Bill told him no. But, he was working on the 3rd time around when Ron was there so food didn't sound good. It may be a different story in the morning, and if I know Ron, he'll have something for him just in case.

I've restricted all visitors except family (and Ron). Bill thinks he needs to be "up" if someone is there. Today I even met Emily and Ryan at the front door of the hospital when they came. So far everyone as understood and is staying away.

It was 72 when I left the house at 6:45 this morning. At noon it was 50 with a brisk wind. It's 48 now and is supposed to be colder through the night, with severe thunderstorms. It was raining pretty hard while I was walking to the car. I don't hear any rain now, but there was some thunder a few minutes ago. There has been a lot of flooding in the area, and tomorrow is the day we're supposed to get the bulk of the rain. We have a wind advisory tonight and a flash flood watch for most of the week. I'll be lucky not to get sick!

All for the night. I'll update again tomorrow.

I am finally home from the hospital. Bill was pretty uncomfortable when I left, but it was time for another breathing treatment. He's still getting winded when he tries to do anything. The respiratory therapist this afternoon said that the treatments are working and he should start feeling better tomorrow. They are going to continue them through the night.

They can't do the transplant meds so I'm giving them to him. I just have to tell the nurse that they have been given. Once I told them that I've given them to him every day for 3 1/2 years they were more comfortable with me doing it. I could have just given them the meds and told them when they were scheduled, but who knows if he would have gotten them, or when!

I don't think much of the dr. Our family dr. doesn't have hospital privileges. It's a long story, he doesn't like the Chief of Staff so he revoked his privileges. So, we have to see the hospitalist. But, the ARNP at the office who I have switched to, and Bill was going to if he would have gone when I wanted him to, does have privileges. And, since Emily, our daughter works at this dr. office, she was going to see if our dr. wanted the ARNP to check on him since it's a family member of an employee.

Bill didn't eat anything until supper and then he ate half a hamburger and a few fries and some pineapple. But, that was enough to make me happy, at least for tonight. We'll see how he does in the morning.

I still have to call Stephanie at Mayo, but I won't get her until Monday. I'm going to call and leave her a message tomorrow because Monday is biopsy day and she'll be busy in the biopsy lab. But, it I leave her a message, she should get it early in the morning. We'll just have to see.

I'm almost beyond tired now since I've been going since 5 this morning. I'm sitting here in the quiet eating some peanut butter toast and then I'm going to hit the bed.

I'll update this again tomorrow night after I get home. I'm not going to take my laptop with me and it's too hard to do on my tablet. The keyboard covers the space used to type in and I can't see when I make a mistake. So, it will probably be this time tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a little earlier, but I had a lot of phone calls to make tonight. Won't have as many tomorrow, they can read about it here!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. I'll try to update about that later.

I don't know what this is going to look like and today I don't really care. Bill has been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. I tried to get him to go to the Dr before Christmas since the offices were closing early but he wouldn't do it. So this morning when he got very winded going to the bathroom he finally agreed that we needed to go the hospital. 

He will probably be here 3 or 4 days.  It's really hard to update this on my tablet so I will do a better job when I get home tonight. 

As if last week wasn't busy enough, this week was a doozy! Monday we got McKenna from school and then it was the night of Brianna's choir concert. They did a good job. There are so many kids in choir this year they were able to break it into 3 different choirs.

Tuesday we again got McKenna from school as it was her band concert. The high school jazz band opened the concert and there are a lot of kids in the middle school band. The beginner band actually sounded better than the other one. I know they were playing much easier music, but their overall tone was better. 

Wednesday I went to the church and helped pick music for the kids Christmas program tomorrow. I also finished shopping and got what I needed for our Christmas with the kids tomorrow afternoon. When I got home there was a strange car in the driveway. Some good friends had stopped by...to show us their new car! We had a good visit with them. Floyd even helped me carry the groceries in and Bambi helped me sort out the things that needed to go in the fridge/freezer.

Thursday I got the CD burned with the music. My best friend's mother passed away Sunday night and her visitation was Thursday evening, so off to the funeral home we went. She is handling things pretty well. She's an only child and her father passed away a couple of years ago. She also doesn't have any children so it all fell on her. But, with the help of friends, she's making it through.

The funeral was yesterday and I ended up not being able to go. The furnace repairman came early in the morning to change the filter and I was kept busy getting things for him. I knew where the things were, Bill didn't. Last night was our church Christmas dinner at a local steak house. We had a good visit with everyone, but the place was freezing cold and most of us sat with our coats on all evening. They didn't turn the heat on in the party room until we started arriving!

This last week has tipped Bill over the edge with his cold. He is now coughing really hard and the cough medicine seems to be making it worse instead of helping. I think he's also starting to run a little fever. So, whether he wants to or not, he's going to the dr. Monday. I tried to get him to go yesterday, but the nurse practitioner wasn't there and I think the dr. we've seen for years would just brush it off. He and his nurse are afraid of treating Bill now since the transplant. Depending on how he is when he gets up, we can always drive the hour to Jonesboro to the walk-in clinic. I so wish we had one here!

I'm sure that Stephanie would not be happy with me for letting him go so long without being seen, but again it's walking that fine line between caregiver and spouse. I know I've written about that before...we have to live with the patient and not just care for them. But, when I told him last night that he would be at the dr. Monday morning, he didn't argue with me, so I know he feels bad now. Before he still felt pretty good, but now he doesn't.

Today is "goodie" making day, although I really don't have to with all of the goodies we've gotten from friends and family. Then tomorrow morning is cooking the hot foods for tomorrow afternoon...unless we have to cancel it like we did last year. I'll make that call later today!

So, there you go. Next week should be a breeze as far as activities go. Christmas Day will just be me and Bill and I told him we may have what we had for our first Christmas together...hot dogs. That was all we could afford! I want to wish anyone reading this, whether for the first time, or whether you've followed it from the beginning, or sometime in between, a Merry and Blessed Christmas. If you look hard enough, you can find blessings in any situation, even bad ones, as this blog has shown.

Merry Christmas!

Another week in the books! We are both still fighting colds. I think we're just passing it back and forth. I finally gave Bill and ultimatum this week, he either started taking some OTC meds, went to the doctor, or I call Stephanie. He opted for the meds and, other than a lingering cough which isn't frequent, he's feeling better. I felt good all week until Thursday evening and then realized that my throat hurt and I had a headache. I woke up yesterday with the headache, a weepy eye and all stuffed up. So, I took some more meds and feel a lot better today. There are so many sick here and these colds are lingering 2-3 weeks. So, even though we are trying to stay away from as many people as possible, it doesn't always work.

We had fun with grandkids this week. I picked McKenna up from tutoring on Monday and Wednesday. We always know what's going on with her because she talks nonstop, flitting from subject to subject. She wanted a snack and never did eat it because she was too busy talking!

I had to take something to our former daughter-in-law's house Monday evening and Kiyann handed me a piece of paper and said her class was going to view the Christmas lights on a hayride and wanted to know if I could take her. Her step-dad was going to be working and they only have 1 vehicle. I told her that I could and she was so excited! She said "I ain't never been on a hayride before"! This was going to take place on Tuesday night. Our town puts up a huge display that is becoming pretty well-known outside of our area. It's called Lights of the Delta and it's a drive through the old air force base golf course. We hadn't been for several years and they have added several different displays. It also helped that Tuesday night was 1/2 price night and it was only $5 to drive through. So Bill, Kayden and I followed the haywagon. The kids had the best time and it wasn't too cold for her to be out.

Wednesday, in addition to McKenna, Brianna came over after her orthopedic appointment in Memphis. I don't know if I've said anything about that here or not but she injured a knee when she played basketball in middle school. Softball has aggravated it and she has undergone several physical therapy sessions. It has improved enough now that she has been released from the dr. It has not healed, but the only alternative now is surgery which may or may not help. In addition to playing softball, she also made the dance team, which in my day would have been a pom pom team. So, if she can do all of that, I think she'll be OK. They've just told her to wrap it before games.

We did manage to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic and the tree put up. The only other decorating I did was hang our stockings. I hung them from the dresser the TV is on instead of the mantle. We got a lovely poinsettia from our lawn service and that with our wooden sleigh to hold Christmas cards and we're done. I just didn't feel like dragging it all out. I got all the cards addressed yesterday and got the Christmas checks mailed along with a couple of packages. Most of the gifts that I ordered have come in and they are all wrapped and under the tree. I still have a little more shopping to do and Bill hasn't done any even though he talks about it every day.

He was going to go Wednesday after he got a haircut but came home instead. It's a good thing he did because he left his glasses at the barbershop! So, we hopped back in the car and went to get them.

It's very warm today, 70 at 6:30 this morning. We're to have some storms and heavy rain tomorrow and with it this warm I thinking that the storms may be more severe than they have predicted. I remember a Christmas Eve tornado from several years ago. We spent that Christmas in Illinois with family (although I don't remember if it was before Bill and I were married or not). Anyway, I hope we don't have a repeat of that.

That's about it, I think. Our family Christmas is going to be on the 20th so I'll spend the coming week making some goodies. I think we just going to "graze" as far as food goes. Just appetizers and munchies. The kids never want to really eat anything and can always sent things home with them. Also saves on clean-up!

Have a good week everyone!

We finally have sunshine! After rain straight through from last Friday until Monday, and they clouds Tuesday, we finally have had sun for the rest of the week. What a difference it makes it attitude...at least mine. I'm finally back to getting up earlier and having my quiet time before Bill gets up.

On the other hand, Bill has slept later all week. He's caught my cold and can't quite shake it. We have been going 'round and 'round about taking some meds for it. Since it has been nearly a week I've told him that Monday he goes to the dr. He's got some congestion with his and is doing a lot of coughing. 

We're going to try to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic today. We can get the boxes down since I can slide them down the ladder to him. But getting them back up there is a different story!

I did most of my Christmas shopping on line this week. Except for a few things, it's done. A couple of things were cancelled and are not going to be replaced, but the bulk is done. Bill has been adamant about going shopping and that I needed to give him a list. So, I got online at Walmart and found some things and then printed out the pictures of them for him to take. I know they have the items in the store because I've looked at them there. So that should help him. He's said every day that he's going to go and then doesn't. I don't know if it's because he hasn't felt well or if he's apprehensive about going alone. He does get confused in stores, especially when there are lots of people. So, I don't know what he'll do. Our friend Ron would go with him I'm sure.

That's all for this week. I'm still finishing making some gifts and it's time to get back to my knitting!