Joyce's KP Adventure mikepasini.com headlines
Lunch With Joyce
25 September 2021
It was a strange day. We finished our usual Saturday obligations and then drove over to the hospital around lunch time. We checked in (they've had a lot of visitors, the clerk told me) and went up to the fourth floor, which is still six about street level.
Joyce was sitting up in her chair, this time without the fentanyl, but she wasn't feeling very good, she said. She was a little confused about who had done what yesterday.
When the nurse came in to replenish her drip antibiotics, she set her up to take the pole for a walk. She moved the Wound VAC from the end of the bed to the pole and disconnected all three power cables.
She was free. So she took a walk around the floor. And this time she did two laps. It felt great, she said. And she seemed to get stronger the more she walked.
Then we went back to the room for lunch, which was the same as dinner the other night except she had vegetable soup instead of lentil. This time she complained about the salmon filet, but she ate it.
I got a second Kaiser call that I missed but this time Preston the Social Worker left his number, so I called him back. Routine stuff. Questions about how many steps to get in the house and if she needs help bathing. Stuff like that.
Help is available at $30 to $50 an hour with four-hour minimums. So at least now I know what to charge.
We took another walk after lunch. Two laps again. And she did fine.
We discussed the options Dr. Tong had brought up. She was inclined to leave with the Wound VAC and return for the skin graft rather than hang around a few more weeks and then close the wound.
I was telling her I had to go home to make pizza for dinner when my phone rang again. This time it was Mr. Mundstock. He had bad news. Alice, his wife, had been to my mother's house to bring her groceries and noticed the water heater relief valve was leaking.
But that's another story.