What a day! First Hubby had me get up at 5:00 am because his arm hurt so much he could barely touch it. I thought that I really needed to take that last speck out, so I was preparing to put ice on it to numb it so I could get the rest of it out, but it was too painful for Hubby, so we decided that instead, since we were up so early anyway, we would get ready and go to a walk-in clinic before going to his cardiology appointment and have them numb it and finish taking it out. The clinic didn’t open until 8:00, but by the time I made coffee and got the horses fed, dawn had arrived. Fortunately Jeff is a pretty early riser, too, and once Hubby was dressed, Jeff and I had to get him out to the truck. He was weaker than ever today, so much so his legs were practically useless, and we had to get him into a folding chair and carry him out to the truck. He is getting so frustrated at his weakness, and the fact that so much of these problems seem to have begun at our last hospital stay. We arrived at the clinic just as they opened their doors, and proceeded to do exactly what I thought needed to be done, numbing and removing that little speck, than bandaging it before we left. From there we went straight to his cardiologist, arriving about 10 minutes late, but we had no trouble getting in, albeit in a wheelchair they provided. None of the staff seemed able to get a blood pressure reading, and Hubby started getting really short of breath. He’s been doing that a lot, usually after some little exertion, but now it was happening without hardly any exertion at all. After the doctor saw him, though, and checked out a few things, he firmly suggested we go straight over the Jupiter Medical Center and get him in to the ER. He called ahead to speed up the process, and in spite of Hubby’s aversion to hospitals at this point, he was more adverse to the pain and inability to breathe, so we headed straight over and got ourselves admitted. Lots of tests were taken, and while waiting for the results, his breathing got worse and worse. They put him on oxygen, first just through the nose, then with a mask, then with a machine that pushed air right into him, one step away from a full ventilator. That got him a bit more stable, but he was still having trouble. As the test results started to come in, it was decided he needed to be moved to the Intensive Care Unit, which happened about 4:00, give or take. Once up there he was surrounded by a bevy of doctors, nurses, and lots of others trying to make him comfortable. They put me in the waiting room, which lasted about 20 minutes before I insisted on looking in on him, and learned that he had almost crashed when they took him off the respirator to transport him. The whole time they were still trying to stabilize him, and were finally succeeding when I arrived. Whew! Close call! I stayed close for several hours after that, taking a short trip to the cafeteria for some soup and salad (the Snickers from the vending machine was all I’d had today), then just after I got back to ICU the cardiologist that sent us over here came by, and we discussed what some of the difficulties and options for care might be. I hadn’t planned on staying the night, but he said he thought I should, so after he left, I ran home to drop off hay (Jeff had already fed them for me), and left Lola for him to look after as well. I packed up some things, including a pillow and blanket for me, change of clothes and other sundries, computer, phone charger, the usual travel items, and returned to the hospital. With nurses coming and going, more tests being done, and lots of activity, I expect it’s going to be a long night! Here’s hoping things are better in the morning!

A cold front bringing some rain came through yesterday afternoon, so today was quite cool relatively speaking, so we spent the day relaxing after such a busy week, though I spent much of the time trying to solve another medical problem. Hubby told me his arm was hurting, and when I looked at it, it was very red and swollen, looking like it was infected, but with no pus or discharge coming from the buttonholes. I started him on some antibiotics we had leftover from his bronchitis episode a few weeks back, and put ice on it to bring down the swelling. He didn’t have a fever, so I wasn’t too worried, and the swelling did go down after awhile. Then I remembered that earlier this week, we had found a little speck on his arm that looked like a bee sting, and that maybe the stinger was still in there, so I did my best to get it out, but maybe I didn’t get all of it. Anyway, that speck seemed to be where the pain emanated, and if it was a bee sting or insect bite, it’s possible that it may have caused the redness and swelling, so maybe it wasn’t an infection in the fistula, which would be a very welcome alternative explanation. Since we were already doing everything that could be done, keeping the arm elevated, icing it and taking the antibiotics, we just hoped for the best and settled down for the evening. Onward, ever onward!

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!

Started the day by going up to the clinic in Port St. Lucie, spent more than an hour there trying to figure out how to help Hubby with his weakness. His blood pressure has been so low this week, and he’s been so weak, we finally had to call his new cardiologist and get him to drop the latest medication he put him on, so hopefully that will help. He got his injections, and our nurse confirmed she fixed his Ipad so it should work properly next time, then afterward we went to Panera because Hubby wanted a bowl of nice and salty onion soup, which we figured might help with his BP. Unfortunately, Panera had discontinued it, though apparently was bringing it back in January, but that didn’t help us now! We ended up getting broccoli and cheese, which was pretty salty, too, and he felt a bit better afterward. He sat in the truck while I went into Walmart to shop, a habit he’s gotten into lately since he’s gotten so weak, and soon we were on our way home. I originally had planned to go to Ranch Feed for some hay, but it was raining off and on all day, so I didn’t bother, which turned out to be a good decision as we hit a really big gully-washer of a storm just before we got home, which would have ruined it. Bad enough some of our groceries got soaked, but I put most of the ones that could be damaged by rain inside the truck anyway. Had to sit in the truck for a while till the rain let up and I was able to get Hubby into the trailer, but that was it for the day other than my usual chores.

Well, since we have to dialyze today, we weren’t able to go to our usual Boxing Day Party with old friends down in Lake Worth, so once again, we kept it a quiet day. His dialysis session once again went extremely well, with no access problems at all, thank goodness, so I’m looking forward to less frustrating sessions in the future. Still haven’t got the Ipad working, but hopefully that will happen soon, as doing these reports by hand are very tedious and time consuming, not allowing me to do much of anything while he’s on the machine. He’s been so weak lately that he’s requiring a lot more care from me, and I have to admit, it’s a bit tiring, so I’m not looking too hard for other jobs to do at the moment. I’m sure my energy will return soon and I’ll go back to being my workaholic self, but for the moment, I’m just happy to relax as much as I can whenever I can. We’ve had so much rain that we’re in a giant puddle all around us, which isn’t making things any easier, as Lola keeps tracking mud tracks in every half an hour. My mop is on standby, for sure! Hubby’s labs came back, and he’s very low on hemoglobin, so we’ve arranged to go up to the clinic tomorrow for an injection, so today, we’re just hanging out.