Saturday, June 4, 2022

Saturday, June 4, 2022

                      

   

I weighed myself when I got up. I hadn’t eaten much in two days. I was expecting to have lost weight. Instead, the scale showed a three-pound increase. I could understand it if there was no reduction but a three-pound gain. Could it be the implant? I checked the Internet. Sure enough, The implant weighs between 3 -5 lbs. The only information on the natural femoral head was “a little less.” One pound? Two pounds? Or three pounds?    

     I spent most of the morning dozing. I set my alarm for the pain pills and stool softener. Because I wasn’t in much pain, I set the alarm for six and a half hours instead of six. I’d see how it went. I was good at 1:30, so I set my alarm for 9 pm, with a seven and half hour gap before my next pill.    

   I spent most of the day in bed. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I moved to my old-lady chair. I worked on the Blog updates and my email updates. I had missed two days by now.   

     Shivani and Sidney wanted to go to the beach. I wanted them to go to the beach. I didn’t want them confined to the house the whole weekend. I texted Judy, Paulette, Mei, and Lutz to see if any of them could be on call if I needed it. Lutz responded. He had called earlier to ask if we needed anything from Costco. He was about to do a run. He told me he had just returned home when I sent the text asking if anyone could be on call if I needed it.  

    Shivani stopped off at Target on her way home to pick up a few things. One of them was a new toy for Sidney, a squirt gun with a backpack to hold the water. It was hard to convince him to wait until he was outside before using it. When Shivani got home, she made chicken cacciatore. We ate late because she baked a cake with Sidney. He wanted the icing to be blue and yellow to represent the ocean. He called it an ocean cake for Elsa.  

    Sidney’s aunt Tara asked him what his favorite part of Hawaii was. The answer was Elsa, even though Elsa annoys him by constantly asking him to throw the ball for her. Before he arrived, we had bets on who would give out first on Elsa’s favorite game, chase the thrown ball. It was Sid. Elsa took a few rests but was up again in a few minutes.

  I have been adding half an hour to the time between my Vicodin pills. They make me woozy and cause constipation. I figured if I was in dire pain by the time of the next pill, I had to stop adding to the wait time. I didn’t have any problems.  

   My upper thigh was still numb. It must be the effect of the spinal block. Today, I experienced some pain at the incision site when I got back into bed. That move stretched the site. I know there are no stitches; they used superglue. As my surgeon said, “Very expensive superglue.” I was to remove the bandage in seven days. The glue would dissolve. There were no stitches to remove.   

   I texted Jana that I wouldn’t be able to meet today. I wasn’t up for a long conversation. Jana is one of the Step Up Tutoring volunteers who was very taken with my method of teaching reading and asked me to mentor her. We meet every Saturday at 5 pm Hawaii time and 8 pm LA. She texted me that she had her first tutoring student for pay. She was excited about applying my method to a first-grade student. She texted a few questions. Then she texted, “I’m watching your Phase I video again. Extremely helpful.”     It is wonderful to have someone respond so positively. I joked she was my first apostle. I only need eleven more.

  Sidney was not thrilled to have me home. He whined and demanded his mom’s attention. In all fairness, this is quite an adjustment for him. He’s an only child. Whenever his mom visits others, she is still his priority. When he visits his grandma and aunt, he is doted on by all the adults. I haven’t been able to pay attention to him. I couldn’t get on the floor like Alexandra did and engage in his construction play. Then, he was asked to stay away from me to protect me from his cold. Now, after the surgery, his mom is taking care of me. This is quite a change for this young man. 

Friday, June 3, 2022

 Friday, June 3, 2022

 

     I slept for most of the night, waking around 7 am. I didn't have to get up and go to the bathroom because I was given an external catheter. What an invention! I learned they made them for men too. Why didn't they give that to Mike when he was in the hospital?   When I asked, I learned they only became available right before Covid. They placed a cylindrical object in my crotch. When I peed, it sucked up the liquid the way saliva gets sucked up at the dentist. I could imagine developing a bad habit if I had it long enough.   

      I ordered breakfast, half a slice of French toast and scrambled eggs. They were passable. I ate most of the French toast without syrup. It wasn't real maple. No, I wasn't expecting it to be. The French toast tasted better without the syrup. 

     For most of the day, I rested and watched TV. Someone came up to talk to me about my transportation home. He checked if I had a voucher for the cab back to the airport and advised me to be there by 2:30 for a 4 pm flight because it was tourist season.   

  I set my alarm for noon when I would order lunch, one pm when I would get dressed, and at one thirty when I would go to the pharmacy to pick up my postop prescriptions.   

    Shortly before noon, I ordered lunch, Panko salmon, some steamed veggies, and apple crisp made in-house. They told me to anticipate a 45-minute wait. They came much sooner, The salmon was excellent, and the veggies weren't overcooked. The apples were, but they were edible. Judy makes the best apple desserts.   

 I managed to get my T-shirt and sweatshirt on myself, but I needed help with my pants. A friend had recommended a brand of adult pull-ups. I bought them for this occasion. I wouldn't be able to sit on a toilet without the raised seat designed for people who can't sit on a regular-height toilet. I didn't want to worry about it on the flight home. No way was I going to be able to walk down the aisle, no less sit on their airplane toilet.

     I called Lutz to see where he was. He caught a  seven am flight and went to the German embassy to renew his German passport. I picked Lutz as my pickup person because I knew he was free during the day. I know Lutz from my evening walk. He is one of my walking buddies. I was thrilled to provide him with a free flight to renew his German passport. Win-win.  

    It took a while for the nurse to come to help me get dressed. There was a nurses' walkout that day. The remaining staff was stretched to the limit. She said she had to order transport,  a wheelchair, and a porter to push it. It came faster than she had anticipated. She quickly pulled out the IV tubes from my hand. I was all packed and ready to go.  

     I was expecting to be wheeled to the pharmacy immediately. I had to go to discharge first. The discharge clerk asked for my cab voucher and called the company. I could see Lutz walking up and down in front of the hospital. He couldn't see me because the window was one-way glass. While I was finishing the discharge procedure, the floor nurse appeared. She had my discharge instructions in her hand. She said I ran out so fast that she couldn't get it to me on time. There was no line for the pharmacy. I was called right away. I got Vicodin, aspirin, which I must take for a month, and a stool softener. The narcotics cause constipation.  

   The porter wheeled me outside. The cab arrived shortly. Getting in was a challenge. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time. It wasn't particularly crowded. Lutz arranged for a wheelchair and an airport porter. Since we were there early, he wanted to get on an earlier flight. It meant I would lose my extra legroom seat, but I figured someone would be willing to change seats with me so I could be on an aisle with my left leg sticking out; it's a short flight. The young woman pushed us through the first-class TSA line, which was shorter than the regular passenger line. We had priority because I was in a wheelchair. We went to Gate 18 as directed. Then we were sent to Gate 15 and finally to Gate 17. There were other passengers in wheelchairs, but I was the only one required a wheelchair to get to my seat. I could have hung on to the top of the seats, but I didn't want to risk it.   

    One of the wheelchair users was sitting right in front of me. I heard her say she fell 25 feet. I asked her for her story while waiting for everyone else to get off. She has a plumeria tree by her second-story lanai. When she couldn't reach them by leaning over the protective railing, she climbed over it and fell to the hard ground below on her right side. She couldn't call for help because a broken rib had punctured a lung. As she lay there, it started to rain. Her father lived in the first-floor ohana, and her husband was watching TV on the other side of the house. She lay there for four hours. Her dogs barked the whole time, but her husband was not in the habit of paying attention.

  Her husband first knew there was a problem when the EMTs knocked on his door. He assumed it was for his father-in-law. It wasn't. Her neighbor across the street had a young man living with him. He and a friend came home. When she heard them, she clapped to get their attention. They called the EMTs,  

   When we landed, I had to wait a while before the porter arrived with an aisle wheelchair. He complained about the incompetence of the flight attendants. They said they only needed one wheelchair when they needed five. They only required one aisle chair. Everyone else walked off the plane. They needed five of the regular wheelchairs. Once the porter was there, Lutz took off to get the car.  

    I asked the porter how he got into this line of work. I don't remember what he said in answer to that question, but he told me how he loved his work. He worked at Kona airport for only five years but started in the field in 2005. It's always a delight t hear someone enjoys their work 

   The porter and Lutz lower me into the car. When I got home, I went to bed right away. There wasn't too much pain. I was able to get myself to the bathroom and back to bed. I didn't need Shivani's help. I ran through my exercises before falling asleep for the night.