This year is almost over.... I'm looking forward to great things in 2013.

NO plans for tonight.  Pretty sure <g> I can make it to 8:00, but between the the two of us it'll be quite a contest to see who can stay up until 9:00....

A little kid and a sweet dog.... how can you go wrong?
Enjoy your AWWW for the day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA8VJh0UJtg&sns=fb

Mary and Patti and I enjoyed Les Mis this afternoon; I knew it was a musical but hadn't realized that the entire movie was an operetta. We came out 3 hours later to slimy, wintery weather (hey, it's winter as far as we here in Phoenix are concerned!)  Glad I wore a nice, heavy sweatshirt. 

Before I left I'd asked Tom is there was anything I could get for him.  He thought soup might be good in a bit, so I got out a pan and bowl, and left his 3 'first choices' of canned soup on the counter.  

After the movie I came home to everything just as I'd left it; it turns out he decided he didn't want soup, and so went out for a bite to eat.  Who took him?  

Since Alex was still asleep (I left here at noon) Tom drove himself... so much for following doctors' orders and not driving (or even sitting in the front seat!) for 6-8 weeks.  He was never one for following rules (rules are only for other people) but you'd think he would want to do everything the doctors have told him to help his body heal.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  He spent the day following his vasectomy moaning and groaning on the couch 

but the day after that he was in the backyard moving boulders and working on the rock wall (so much for avoiding heavy lifting for 6 weeks...)

I've been trying to catch up on stuff around the house, and yesterday I leafed through the Goucher Quarterly, the magazine from Lisa's alma mater; it's always interesting to find articles that mention people she has mentioned over the past 4 years.  Aside from a mention of one of her favorite professors (whom I got to meet at graduation) there was little of interest, until I came to the page "five creative works by alumnae/i and faculty".  And listed there was You Saved Me, Too, a book I'd just put on my library Hold list after hearing an interview with the author on NPR earlier this month.  (As of this morning I'm now #1 for that book - and 2 others - so should have it soon.)

(Susan Kushner Resnick graduated from Goucher in 2000.)

In a little bit I'm off to see Les Mis with Mary and Patti.  

I know it didn't get stellar reviews, but I'm easily entertained.

Tom is doing better this morning; a good night's sleep (thank you, Lunesta!) certainly didn't hurt!  He's currently napping on the couch (he got tired of napping in the recliner) and maybe when I get back from the movie he'll be up for a short walk outside.

 I made it to the library today (while they were still open...) to pick up my book.

But just for the record, the automated check-out machine at the library will not scan a grocery store card.

Ah, time to clean up the oven from yesterday's mishap.  The drippings congealed nicely, and here are scraped to the front for removal.

  

While the oven cleaning foam is (hopefully) doing its job over the next several hours, I think I will take a shower and get on with my day.  That includes a trip to the library, where I have the perfect book of comedic relief waiting for pickup: 

Now it's clear what my problem was yesterday with regard to the turkey pan in the oven.... I should have used a forklift!

http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=34305

and speaking of "fork lift"... here are the forks I used yesterday.  

The top one survived; the bottom one not so much!

I haven't posted since we brought Tom home Wednesday around lunch time.  It's been crazy.  

I started the following entry yesterday but never posted it.  

However, since this is my 'diary' I thought I might as well.  

However....

This is going to be a negative post. WAH WAH WAH!

Mainly I just need to vent somewhere and get it all off my chest. 

Feel free to skip reading this particular post. 

Wednesday I zoomed over to hospital after Tom called about being discharged, just to 

which translates into listening to him gripe. 

Once the mountain of paperwork in the room was done

and both IVs were removed, he would not wait for the wheelchair to take him downstairs to check out. He would not wait out front on the bench (with the tub of all the stuff I was carrying) while I got the car - and then he wanted to take the stairs in the garage instead of waiting for the elevator (like I needed him to have another heart attack before we are even off of the hospital grounds!) 

The flower/fruit basket was delivered as we were pulling into the driveway (thank you for that - it was lovely!) so the guy left it on the wall out front. We were right inside the doorway - I hadn't even helped Tom sit down - when he asks if (!) I am going to go get the fruit basket. (No, I think I'll just leave it outside for the birds....)

As soon as I helped him into bed I headed over to the drugstore to drop off his 12 Rx. Of course there was a long line; when I finally got to the counter I said there was no rush on 11 of them but he needed his pain one right away and I'd wait for that. She said it would be about 15 minutes. But when they called me up to the counter 20 minutes later it was because of an issue with his insurance (of course his card was in his wallet at home so I called and got that info from Lisa) and once the number was cleared up in the computer I waited another half hour. In my haste I had not brought a book which might have helped.  (My back, which did well throughout this entire ordeal, has been bothering me quite a bit since we've been home, and I'm guessing sitting on the pharmacy chairs for an hour did not help!)

Came home and helped Tom take a shower and then went back to pick up the other 11 meds and 'grandpa' ahead of me in line took over 15 minutes, talking on and on about this and that. 

I came home to (another) major issue between Lisa and Alex, at which point both of them said nasty things to me. No surprise I had my own meltdown.  

Later that night Alex came home from work talking on his cell phone up to the front door (outside 'my' bedroom window less than 3 feet from my head) and HE had the chutzpah to be unhappy when I nicely pointed out that he woke me up. 

If it weren't for fact that I need to be here to watch over Tom I would be out of here NOW.

Little sleep and big stress and I am a basket case. I just want NEED to be around some positive energy. Lisa is unhappy because all of her friends are out of town for the holiday. Alex is unhappy because we expect him to remember that other people live here. Hey, I have had a pretty crappy past 10 days myself.

Things did not improve greatly on Thursday.  Tom did not sleep well even though he was home in his own bed - plus Alex woke him when he left early to go snowboarding. He says food stills tastes crappy and even his coffee was disappointing.I needed to go to the grocery store (which I hate doing even under the best of circumstances.)  So it didn't surprise me that I discovered, while checking out, that I'd forgotten the margarine.  After paying I headed back to the far back right corner (where butter is at Wal-Mart) and of course realized once I got there that Fry's (where I was because I needed to get the cranberry celebration Tom likes) has butter in the far back left corner.
<SIGH>

I seem to have no patience left at this point for little things that really don't matter but seem to push me right over the edge. 

Got home and peeled./diced potatoes for mashers, made deviled eggs, got the veggies and bread ready, set the table - and when the turkey had been in for 4 hours I went to turn it to brown the other side for the last hour.  Flipped it without much trouble (although it did bend one of the big cooking forks) but 'somehow' when I went to push the rack back in I pushed the pan instead of the rack - and dumped the turkey and all the drippings onto the bottom of the oven.  It was not a good scene over here.  

I rescued what I could (by now the turkey was in pieces) and took it over to the back house to finish cooking for an hour, and then took out some of my frustration by cleaning the pool, which was all clogged.
(Yes, I had asked Alex to do it again.  No, he hadn't.)  When it came time to eat I just put the pan of pieces directly on the table in all it's 'glory'.... Dad (who always did such a masterful job of carving the turkey) would turn over in his grave! 

I think I have done very well this past year, but right now I am feeling very sorry for myself.

Thursday evening did go a little better and we opened some presents.

Now it's Friday morning.  I woke up around 2:00 and finally got out of bed to find Tom up.  He hasn't been able to sleep, he can't get warm, he still doesn't have much of an appetite and everything still tastes terrible, his rash (from the meds?) isn't getting any better, etc.  He took a couple of percocet in the hopes that it will work like a sleeping pill and I tucked him back in.  In the real morning we'll call the doctor and make sure everything is normal for this stage in his recovery.

OOOOOOOOOOOkay....I think I'm finally (!) done complaining

and will now return to being grateful.

I just spoke with the nurse to see how Tom's night went. All he wanted was a good night's sleep (is that too much to ask?) but we all know that rarely happens in the hospital....last night he had an ultrasound at 2:00 a.m.... 

 At least he's sleeping now (due to Percocet at 4:00 a.m.?) 

 I'll get the bedroom ready in hopes that he gets sprung today, and then head over to the hospital. With some luck my next post will announce that he's home.

I just left the hospital this evening, and Tom is doing well considering he'd really, really, really like to be out of the hospital! He's getting in/out of bed better, and quite ready to be miserable in his own bed. Still in a lot of pain (and sneezing tonight did NOT help!) but otherwise well on the road to recovery.

As of late this afternoon he has been cleared to leave the hospital by the doctors. But since he's 'declined' to transfer to an in-patient rehab facility the hospital will only release him if Home Health will make visits. That (of course) needs to be cleared with our insurance, and today being Christmas that just didn't happen.

We are both hopeful that tomorrow will bring his long-awaited release! I am pretty wiped out, so it's a quick soak in the hot tub and then to bed for me.

So much to be grateful for; Tom is well aware of just how lucky he was in regard to the way the whole 'episode' went down!  And (at least) two former smokers have quit because of Tom's experience.

Tom is out of ICU! He still has a private room with a couch so I am triply happy. Life is good! :)

I got a good night's sleep, and woke up too late to check in with his night nurse. But I did speak to the nurse on this latest shift, and apparently around 4:00 the fog started to lift on his 3-day delirium. 

 Then I got to talk to him, and he does sound like himself again. After I shower I'll head over for the day. 

Just got home at 10:00 after another 14-hour day in ICU. Tom still does not know where he is or what year it is. That's three days now he's been someplace else; here's hoping tomorrow he will come out of his fog and return to us! 

Lisa spent much of the afternoon and evening there with me (and brought homemade cookies with her.)  There was also an aide in there all afternoon, and another one this evening who will stay all night, to make sure he doesn't try to get out of bed. Alex just arrived there, and called to say that Tom's 'awake'.

After Lisa came to the hospital yesterday (she's just arrived home for 2 weeks) I went home to shower and eat something.  Then I took Marilyn's sisterly advice and took a nap instead of heading right back to the hospital ("since Lisa was there with Tom, and Alex would be heading over after work".)  I decided not to set my alarm, figuring I'd wake up when Lisa and/or Alex came home.  NOT.  So I definitely got in a good 'nap', sleeping in my own bed from 2:30 pm until almost 8:00 pm.  

It was almost 9:00 before I was able to speak with his night nurse Chelle.  Apparently sometime in the late afternoon (after Lisa had left) Tom's mind took him off to other places again (he's been in Texas and LA, among other places) and she was trying to get him settled in for the night.  I was back in bed at 10:00 and (with a little help from Lunesta) slept until 5:30 this morning. It felt good to get out of the ICU room for a few hours, but now I'm ready for another fun day.

I talked to Chelle around 5:30 am and Tom had a so-so night. He's still confused and has  tried to rip the IV out of his arm. I'll be heading over to the hospital shortly and see the situation for myself firsthand.  Obviously he won't be coming home today or tomorrow as planned - we still haven't been able to move him out of ICU to the step-down unit! But he's obviously NOT ready to come home, and we'll just celebrate later in the week.

  

Estera brought over a casserole last night, so if/when I end up spending any time at home (!) I won't starve.

You may be wondering why I didn't post an update last night. That's because I never came home. 

 Tom was doing well medically yesterday, but was SO disoriented and confused; it was funny at first - he thought he was all sorts of places, and was saying incredibly bizarre things.  

But as it continued they were worried he would try to get out of bed (NOT a good idea!!!) especially when he seemed to think we were on vacation somewhere, and kept  insisting we needed to get an early start in the morning. So I stayed the night, and 'slept' on the couch, getting up with him throughout the night and sleeping an hour here and an hour there.  

He was still quite confused this morning (no, it's not 1989, and you're not driving on the LA freeways) and Jose, a burly nurse's aide, was assigned to sit in his room to make sure he didn't hurt himself. By lunch time Tom was (mostly) back with us. Lisa arrived, and after visiting with her for a bit I headed home for a shower and something to eat.

Originally Tom was supposed to be moved out of ICU yesterday, but obviously that wasn't going to happen in his state. However it's possible that by the time I head back over he may be on a different floor.

Onward and upward!

Well it looks like the world hasn't ended yet (although it's still dark outside, so maybe it has and I just can't see it.)

I spoke with Tom's night nurse, and unfortunately he didn't have such a good night, due to those !@#$% hiccups. There is a med they can give him for that (it starts with a 'B') that helps... but they can only give that 3 times a day. He had it at midnight, so he's not due again until later at 8:00. His chest pain is (paradoxically) worse just because he is in such good health; they had to cut through his muscles to get to the heart.

But medically, he's way ahead of the curve, although that's small consolation when he's in so much pain.

At lot of you are also worried about me, but let me assure you that I'm doing fine. Having a couch in the room is wonderful, and allows me to rest (almost) like I'm at home. 

In fact I almost dozed off yesterday, although with the noise (his machines have been going off constantly, mostly because he's moving, and there's also a lot of activity past his door) and of course there's a steady parade in and out of his room of doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists and people pricking him to check his blood sugar and who knows what else.  

Lisa comes home late tonight, and once she's there I won't necessarily have to stay all day.

I should have more news after the Discharge Class this morning on when he'll be released to a step-down unit (maybe today?) and when they expect to send him home. At that point, I may need extra prayers... Tom has never been a good patient, and until his pain subsides he 'may' be cranky. While I know he will feel much better at some point, pain is never any fun! Here's hoping that is soon just a dim memory!

Onward and upward!