Archives for 2020

Started off the morning by getting our “house” in order, putting down the porch carpet, putting up the screen room, getting out the lounge chairs and generally making ourselves more a home now that we weren’t stuck in a puddle. I found that I was only about 12 feet shy of making the sewer connection, so I ran into Walmart and bought a 15 foot kit (I was hoping for just the hose, but it turned out the kit was a better deal, and they were out of just hoses anyway). That turned out to work beautifully, the attached end fit perfectly into the sewer pipe and I was able to do a good, long overdue clear out of the black water tank. Meanwhile, I got Hubby on his dialysis machine, and had another very good session, though still using one sharp. I’m pretty sure I can go to the blunt needle on Monday for his arterial, as both accesses are working quite well now. Feeling like “home sweet home” was now pretty well set, and looking forward to finally getting back to normal, albeit Hubby has a way to go to get stronger, but now that all the stress of the holidays and being in the mud is gone, we’re hoping he’ll finally be on the mend! Fingers crossed!

After being on low ground, and thus wading through water and mud every time I left the trailer (not to mention mopping muddy dog prints 10 times a day!), it finally dried out enough for Jeff’s friend with the big truck to come over and pull us out. We decided to back sort of kitty-corner in front of the pool, which was definitely high ground, with easy access to water, and maybe even close enough to the pipe by the house that dumps directly into his septic tank, which would make life much easier if we can manage to reach it. With that job done, with grateful thanks to Jeff’s friend, Hubby and I ran out to Ranch Feed for some hay and horse feed, then stopped at an Indian restaurant for lunch, which was quite a challenge getting him into with his very weak legs, not to mention his stiffness from the fall last night, but the kindness of strangers once again came through, and we enjoyed a nice meal with lots of leftovers. Then we headed out to the nephrologist’s office for his appointment, which was the usual but he did suggest using Benadryl as a sleep aid, since Hubby’s still having problems getting a whole night sleep. Stopped at Walmart to shop on the way back, and picked up some of that as well as some other shopping, and managed to get home just as it was getting dark, just in time to feed the horses and settle in for the night.

It was such a lovely day today, actually on the hot side, so Hubby agreed to come out and sit by the pool for awhile. He’s been cooped up for so long, he really needed some fresh air, so I grabbed Jeff’s little utility cart and drove him over to the pool where he got settled in for the day. There’s very little shade there, but Hubby reminded me that we had a camping canopy that we had bought many years ago and only used a couple of times, so I climbed up to the attic/hay loft and got it down and set it up by the pool, which helped quite a bit. We spent pretty much the whole day there reading, and I even jumped into the pool a couple of times to cool off, it was that warm a day! Just the kind of day you enjoy in South Florida in January, and precisely why we come here during the winter! It would have been a fabulous day all around, except for the terrible incident when we went back to the trailer. I managed to get Hubby up the stairs and into the trailer, and he was just one step away from his recliner when I went back to get some stuff out of the cart. I thought he was fine, but at the last second before getting into his chair, he lost his balance, grabbed onto a stool for support, but it was at the wrong angle and the stool started to fall over. Hubby fell backward into the screen door, which pushed open, and Hubby toppled down the steps onto the muddy ground! OMG! I tried to get him up but couldn’t, so I got Jeff to come out and help me get him back inside to his chair. He was a mess with a cut bleeding on his forehead, fortunately not very large, but I cleaned it up and put a couple of butterfly bandages on it. His big toe had a huge swath of skin ripped off, as well as on his calf and several places on his hands. I cleaned and bandaged them all, and was thankful that it wasn’t much, much worse, which it could easily have been. He’s going to feel like he’s been in a car wreck for a few days, but it doesn’t seem to be too serious, thank goodness! Well, after all that excitement, it took some time for us to settle down for the night, but eventually things got back to normal. Well, at least as normal as it can be with Hubby being so weak these days. Fingers crossed he’s on the mend!

Waking up to a new year and a new decade, we slept a bit late because of the late night last night, then mostly relaxed for the day, with only an other dialysis session on the schedule. I’m still having to use sharps on one of his access points to reestablish his arterial button hole, but hopefully I’ll be able to switch over to blunts on both by the end of the weekend. A beautiful day today, very much welcome after so much rain for the last few weeks!