Category: recovery stage

[Tues. was the 9th; this was posted on the 10th]

At noon we left for Yakima Regional Medical Center to visit the fine folks of the ICU.  I was simply amazed. As we entered the parking lot John spotted the nun that floats around the wings, wards, and operating rooms offering support to all.  She showed up in the operating room just before my open heart surgery to see me off.  I couldn’t get out and run so John had to maneuver around rows of cars, other visitors, and a few in wheelchairs and caught up with the lady just as she was crossing a grassy strip and leaving the grounds.

Then, back at the front entrance, John dropped  me off, unloaded the 4-wheeled walker, and left to park the car.  I made it through the large double automatic entry doors to the front desk and there found the young woman that delivered all the e-cards ya’all sent.  After she paged the ICU Director for me I turned and encountered 3 of my caretakers. One had just delivered a patient in a wheelchair to a family’s van; the other two were just passing through.

Before we made it to the elevator we met my early morning blood drawer – she showed up and poked a needle in me most mornings at 5:30 and so John had never met her.  We had an elevator cage to ourselves but when I stepped into the hall we got an echoing “hello” from way down the hall from the mom  of one of my former students.  She is the nutritionist that keep me fed via a tube for many days and then kept after food services to see that I was served proper meals.  At the phone outside ICU where one has to call to get “buzzed in” a male nurse was pushing through the doors on his way out. He had been with me for many 12 hour days when I was in my worst condition and was always cheerful and helpful.  He meant so much to John and me through the stay.

Finally we made it through the doors.  This is a difficult place to “just visit” because every bed is occupied by a very ill person and those on duty are committed to keeping them alive.  Knowing this, we were amazed to find folks squealing with glee to see me walking again.  I got many hugs, and even John did.  It was a special day.  The on-floor doctor was about the only person that did not know me and he seem amused at all the fuss.  Nurses came out of several of the rooms, gave me a hug, and quickly went back to their patients.  We stayed no more than 15 minutes because we didn’t want to take folks away from caring for those needing the care as I got while in there.

Back in the hall we headed for the elevator.  A person had just turned into a door way, backed up, and addressed me with —  “Nancy, is that you?”  Well, I was in street clothes, up right, and walking – none of which she had seen from me before – and it has been 6 weeks since I was there, and still she knew me.  We met another nurse outside the big doors with a freshly emptied wheelchair and a flipped over name tag so I couldn’t see her name.  She knew me though and gave me a hug, remarking how good it was to see me walking.

Off to grab a milkshake for me and a hamburger for John, and then on to my surgeon’s last check up on me after the Dec 29^th surgery.  It was another great meeting when my progress was noted as “exceptional”.   I think the surgeon and the nurse are exceptional too, but they are professionally through with me.   They will now pass me back to the cardiologist – that visit is for April 14^th.  After that I should be released to our family doctor (in Cle Elum), also known as my primary care provider.

Finally, we hit the road for home with no further events, except a stop to get some lemonade for me.  Arrived home just about 4:00 p.m.

There I had a phone call reminding me about a play date, so we left for town again at 6 for me to play music with The Connections.  It is mostly singing (& playing) religious music, plus sing-alongs by the residents with anthems from a book that has the words.  Tonight someone chose The Old Rugged Cross, and Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, and others.  I still do not have a singing voice, but the others did fine and have strong voices.  I played my violin on all songs.  It was great to be back.  We ended with Amazing Grace.

Nancy

Today started with leaving at 9:50 a.m. for Cle Elum for a doctor’s visit.  We spent a long time with him, seeing a change in some meds, review of my bettering condition, and finally more blood drawn for lab work there.  We stopped afterwards at the accountant’s office for John to ask questions about Medicare A & B and changes, if any, to our relationship with the Clinic beginning April 1 when the group health policy via the University will no longer be our major provider.

My weight is holding steady and my body parts are healing nicely – they are all in good shape for the shape they are in.  Still, finding a good place to stick a needle to draw blood  took a bit of searching.  I’m thin where I haven’t been thin since the mid-60s.  My lower legs are attractively thin but not pretty – the peeling or scaly sun-damaged look is gone but the flesh tone is more red than bronze.  There are reasons for that and we’re working on them.

I might as well have been in a cave for the past three months, so, short term, I’m taking a mega dose of vitamin D, extra calcium, and iron.  Those are in addition to the several other things related to the heart issue.  We bought a 4-times by 7-day multi-chambered plastic pill box.  Now John and I can fill that once a week and cut down on sorting through the containers and the strange names.

This next isn’t part of my story but it almost caused me to pee my pants which I would have done 10 days ago – progress.

John wanted to find the waste treatment facility because they have recently installed a new set of instruments to report weather data.  An on-line atlas of weather stations is being completed by volunteers and this site, operational only since last September, has not yet been included.  The place, though easy to see, is behind a gate and the protocol is to have permission.  Getting permission was easy enough but took a little time.  Across the road but within sight was a store.  The lady inside didn’t know what to do but she did know whose land one had to cross to get to it.  She called Andy (names are changed to protect the … just kidding).  Andy said the gate appeared to be locked but usually wasn’t and, anyhow, the combination was WXYZ.  So the lady called the Chamber, which we visited by driving back across town and the ladies there said they didn’t control it but to see Bill in city hall.  Bill was eating lunch but Jane called Tom at the sewage treatment plant.  She held the phone up and Jane, Bill, Tom, and John discussed the issue.  It is a small town – John was the only stranger.

Soon we were headed back across town, opened the gate, drove in, closed the gate, signed in, took notes and pictures, back in the car to the gate, opened the gate, drove out, closed the gate, and headed to the nearest gas station/mini-mart because the Subaru and I were very thirsty.  Almost as soon as we passed the “leaving town” sign I knew I had to go.

John said if I started to do so in the car he would reach across, open the door, and roll me out.  He didn’t say he would stop first.  I’ve already told that I made it home.

Just one more little accomplishment on the road to recovery.

Slept in again, but won’t get to tomorrow a.m. because I have an appointment in Cle Elum at 10:45 to see my regular doctor, or as current jargon has it – my primary care physician.  John and I both go to Cle Elum because when I first arrived in Ellensburg the office being touted as the place to go wanted $25 just to have me complete a survey and still would not commit to seeing me.  We like our doctor and so have never thought of switching.  We keep telling him not to retire.

Today, I played the fiddle at a skilled care facility called Royal Vista with the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends.  We had a lot of people there:   guitars, violins, accordion, flute, clarinet, bass fiddle, and banjo.  One of our group works at Royal Vista and she joined us with both a flute and a guitar but not at the same time.  We interspersed Irish music as we are practicing a few tunes we are not familiar with.  In a prior post I mentioned we have been asked to play at Briarwood, four days before the “wearing of the Green.”    [For fun:  http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day-symbols-and-traditions ] We actually worked on Danny Boy twice because of a resident’s request.  It’s a favorite of many, but seems sad nonetheless, although the meaning and history are somewhat muddled: http://www.karlsenfineart.com/article-Ireland-song.htm

Afterwards I had to go to the Kittitas Valley Community Hospital for a blood draw (supposed to be a standing order) to check my INR for Coumadin dosage.  Of course, when I walked to the laboratory, they had no record of a request, so my wait time increased while they contacted my doctor.  Now I know what to say the next time.

Came on home and never took a nap, but we caught up on emails.  Also had a phone call from my doctor reporting on the blood draw showing an INR of 2.4 which is in the good range of 2.0 to 3.0 for a person taking an anticoagulant and so I continue the dosage of 2.5 mg of Coumadin.

[ This link explains about the test and INR:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prothrombin_time

the next one explains about rat poison, er.,  Warfarin, and Coumadin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warfarin

and the history section in this is interesting.   JFH ]

John’s cooking supper (meat loaf) as I write this.

So for me, each day shows some improvement.  Hope you all are well.

Nancy

We had light rain all last night but lovely weather today, becoming sunny with billowing puffy white clouds around the blue sky.  The drippy and gray early sky made for a great morning to sleep in so I did.  Then I had a late breakfast, followed by pills, and then I worked on the laptop awhile still catching up on emails on a couple of accounts.  I still need to check all those messages saved by John in my absence.  Also, they keep coming in to nancyh@ellensburg.com — still the best contact for us.

We skipped lunch during the noon hour and headed to out-patient physical therapy for an hour.  Did well, happily.  I completed several walks around without a walker and then climbed high-riser stairs.  While resting from that, my therapist set up an obstacle course.  It had things to step over, then I had to walk on a foam cushion (springy) the size of a single bed, step up on a high stand, and then over another circular piece and finishing via a serpentine route through a set of cones.

After that I rested again to stabilize my heart beat, and then I went to a recumbent bike-like machine that includes both arm and leg (stepper) functions.  Legs first for 5 minutes and then another 5 with using my arms.  Finally, after resting from that, I did one more balance with my eyes closed and the therapist pushing my body in different directions and I had to regain (sustain) my balance.  I did well on that.  Then he had me raise one foot and stand only on one.  That is a bit harder, but I was doing better on the hard foam pad than I had last Friday on the hard floor.  So, I’m making improvement.  [Unlike some others there with whom improvement is barely noticable and, sadly, seems destined to continue as such.  JFH]

We came on home for a late lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with a backlog of things, especially online.  John was sorting through a stack of papers and found letters to each of us from Medicare that had arrived a few days before Thanksgiving.  They had a form they wanted filled out and returned within 10 days.  Oops! I called and worked through a phone-tree to a real person.  Then we answered the questions.

I’ve been getting an afternoon nap but it didn’t happen today with the late morning start and the trip to physical therapy.  We’ll have lights out early tonight.

Nancy