Joyce's KP Adventure mikepasini.com headlines
The Week Ends
1 April 2022
The week ends with April Fool's Day. Somehow that feels about right.
On Thursday Joyce discovered you can't do a video chat with Kaiser from a moving vehicle. But I remembered the Covid test appointment itself was more important than the time pf the appointment so if we were a little late that would be OK.
But not too late because Julie the Physical Therapist was coming at 10.
As it turned out the video call with the nurse practitioner about her Friday surgery was brief but thorough. When the nurse practitioner saw what time Joyce's Covid test appointment was she cut the chat short.
So after the 8:40 call ended just at before 9:00, we dashed across the city to French Hospital for the test. And miraculously arrived exactly on time at 9:10.
We even got home by 9:30 in time to get Julie's call that she was having trouble getting the office to confirm the order to see Joyce today.
But eventually she did and arrived at 10 a.m.
It wasn't a great session. Joyce wasn't cooperative, preferring to stay in bed watching TV and refusing to take a walk outside in the sunshine. Julie was very good with her, not pushing anything but offering other suggestions that were not very taxing and even telling Joyce she was free to ask her to leave.
But the point of the therapy is to get Joyce moving. So Julie stayed and got her to do some exercises at the kitchen sink and walk up and down the stairs.
At noon we went to St. Francis for her oxygen therapy. I spent the session on my laptop doing end of month tasks for the Web site.
When I was done, I discussed Joyce's night time panics (she had two this week) with Jessica the RN who suggested it may be a side effect of the antibiotic.
When we got home Joyce rested on the bed watching TV while I finished working downstairs. She was in poor spirits, not wanting to do anything at all any more.
When I came upstairs after doing a little more work, I asked her to put some bratwurst in the toaster oven and we had dinner.
I did get a call from the hospital telling us to be at there at 3 pm Friday. So we'll have plenty of time after he 9:30 oxygen session.
Today she washed her hair in the morning before we left for St. Francis at 9 a.m. She didn't want to go but finally agreed.
I don't have the heart to tell her she's been approved by Kaiser for 20 more sessions.
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WE SPENT a quiet couple of hours at home before going to Kaiser for her surgery. I parked on the street two blocks away and we walked in.
I was able to keep her company for five hours in pre-op before I had to come home to make dinner. It's my only meal of the day and I had a ball of pizza dough rising for those five hours.
Pre-Op. She had another long wait as an add-on surgery.
Her vitals signs, whether at St. Francis or Kaiser, are always textbook. But they had an impossible time putting an IV in her. Carlie the traveling nurse from Texas couldn't see anything wrong with the one she put in the crock of Joyce's arm but Joyce was screaming with pain. Another nurse took a look and agreed it was fine, the IV dripping constantly.
But half an hour later, when Carlie's shift had ended, Ruth the RN saw the IV wasn't confined to her vein but was leaking into the surrounding tissue. She removed it and Joyce's pain subsided.
She had trouble herself on the other arm getting a needle in. Joyce screamed again. But Ruth warmed her arms to get the veins to pop and anesthetized where she poked her and got the needle in without causing any pain.
By the time I left at 7 p.m., she was going off shift herself. But I was there when she handed Joyce off to the next RN and we discussed the situation so he was up to date.
Both Carlie and Ruth had checked the surgery schedule, finding Joyce was set for 10 p.m. That's only a very rough estimate. It might be sooner, it might be canceled. The woman in the gurney next to us was sent to a room after her surgery was canceled for the second time.
You never know. You just lie there hoping you don't have to go to the bathroom again.