We have had some very long days, recently.

On the plus side, we missed driving from the city in the middle of a storm! The roads were clear while driving from the city, but in the time it took me to set my husband back up in his hospital room and start driving home, it hit. The storm came in from the south, so it basically followed us as we were driving. On my way home, visibility was down to 100-200 yards.

That kiboshed my plans to come back in the afternoon.

The photo doesn’t really show how much blowing snow there was, when I took this picture.

Previously, long range forecasts had us hitting +13C tomorrow. Now, we’re barely above freezing for the next couple of weeks.

When in the sun room earlier today, I noticed this.

This glass was cracked before we moved here, but now a section of it has been pushed outwards.

This is a double pane window, and the glass on the other side has no cracks, but now that the inner layer has exposed edges, we’re going to have to see about getting it out, just for safety. We wouldn’t want any cats to cut themselves.

A job for when we empty the room to clean it, later in the spring.

We have other things to think about, for now.

My husband is still in the hospital, and at this point, we have no idea how long he will be there.

When I was with him in the morning, two days ago, the doctor had said the bloodwork showed elevated numbers for his liver, and his liver is slightly enlarged. Not a major concern, likely has been that way a while, but they wanted to sent him to a nearby city for an ultrasound, just to check on it. This could be done on an outpatient basis, though, so they wouldn’t keep him beyond getting his echo-cardiogram done.

I went home after lunch, then came back later with the girls. We just needed to make a quick stop with the tax lady (that wonderful person who is fixing up the mess from last year – that’s a whole story on its own, but our taxes are finally done and filed!). Between there and the hospital, my husband got word.

They were able to book an ultrasound for him, at 7pm that evening! They were able to take the opening, knowing that I was able to drive him in, because there was no way they could have arranged transportation in such a short time.

So we found that out when we arrived. Which made for a short visit for the girls, then I took them home, then came back to take him for the ultrasound.

He was feeling well enough to take his walker, though he did have to stop and rest a couple of times on the way to the doors.

The drive itself was very uncomfortable for him, but not because of the shortness of breath or his back or any of the usual things. It was because of his catheter.

You guys reading this will understand that completely.

When we arrived, we skipped the walker entirely, and I borrowed a wheelchair to get him to ultrasound. We got there early, and that worked out, as they came to get him 10 minutes early.

By the time I got him back to his room in the hospital, it was about 3 hours past when he would normally have gone to bed! He wasn’t allowed to eat before the ultrasound, but they made sure to set his tray aside. As soon as they saw he was back, they heated it up for him. When we got to his room, his bed was all made up with fresh sheets and pillow cases, and there was even a fresh glass of ice chips waiting for him!

I get the impression the staff like him as a patient, because they were going all out to make sure he was all set up, fed, medicated, all required tests done, so he could finally go to bed.

When I came back the next morning, I just missed the doctor’s visit. The plan had been for me to visit in the morning, go home, the girls and I would load up the van for a dump run and we would get that done on the way to bringing them to visit in the afternoon.

Plans? What plans?

It turned out, they got word that there was an appointment for his echo-cardiogram.

At 11:45am.

It was about 8:30am when I got there.

Now, they were supposed to transport him, but they didn’t have a higher weight bearing stretcher for the ambulance. He doesn’t even need a bariatric one, really. They brought in a chair scale to weigh him, and he’s just over the limit on their stretchers.

Would I be able to bring him in?

I brought up how painful the drive had been the other night, and said it would be preferable not to. They checked, but to get a higher weight bearing stretcher, it would have to be brought in from the city.

Which is more than an hour away.

There was no way they’d be able to bring a stretcher in from the city, and get him to his echo appointment in time.

So I drove him.

While we were waiting on word about the stretcher, I found out about the results of the ultrasound on the liver.

Nothing new on the liver, but they found a pocket of fluid, deep in his abdomen. It had not shown up on the Xrays or local ultrasound tests.

Which meant he was not going home after the heart tests in the city. Instead, they would be taking some of the fluid out, late in the afternoon, and send a sample out for testing.

That was very discouraging.

We left quite early for his echo appointment, which was a good thing. For starters, the ride was brutal. At one point, we had to pull over so my husband could open the door for leg room to adjust his position. This time, we didn’t bother with the walker, and just borrowed the big wheelchair. I also put it in the back, instead of the middle, of the van, which allowed him to tilt his seat back further.

No matter what he did, he was still feeling every bump and vibration. :-(

The hospital we were to go to is basically downtown. While trying to find the correct entrance, I could see “full” signs on the nearby parking lots, so I had to drop him off, getting him into the vestibule, then clear the drop off zone. Knowing I would have to drive around to find parking, I told him to go on ahead, if he could find an assist.

I finally did find a two hour parking spot, several blocks away. When I got back, he was gone, so I figured that was good; he’d found someone to help him get to where he needed to go.

It turned out he had had to get out of the wheelchair, walk it through the second set of doors, get himself to the information desk to find out where he needed to go, then request assistance to get there.

When I got to the information desk and found out where he was supposed to be, a volunteer guided me there. Which was awesome, because the hospital is a complete maze, and I never would have found it on my own!! It turned out my guide was the same person who helped my husband, so he knew exactly where I needed to go. :-)

By then, my husband was in a lot of pain, so it was awesome when they came to get him, 10 minutes early.

Now, we had been told that they would do the echo-cardiogram then, based on the results, also do an angiogram.

Nope. That was not going to happen.

I was able to stay in the room during the test and talked to one of the techs. He was able to say, based on what he could see of the tests himself, that it was very likely an angiogram will be needed, but it was not going to happen on the same day. The tests would be sent to a cardiologist (which got done before we even left) to look over, and the report would be back at our hospital by the evening, and that’s when we would know about whether further testing was needed.

Which meant we could go back after the testing was done.

My husband had hoped to visit his dad while we were in town, as he lives just a few blocks from this hospital, but he was in no condition for anything like that. Which turned out for the better, since if there had been any delay, we would have been driving right in the teeth of the storm!

Instead, we had a smooth and uneventful drive back. I got him to his room and he was so exhausted, he went right to bed. I was going to come back with the girls, but then the storm hit, so we just stayed home.

The storm even knocked out our internet. It turned out to be due to accumulated slushy snow on the satellite dishes.

Later, we found out that the draining of fluid did not happen that evening. Now that they know exactly where to look, they were able to find the pocket of fluid with the portable ultrasound that they use.

What they couldn’t find was a safe path to get at it.

So that got cancelled.

I came in earlier this morning, so I could be there when the doctor came by, and hear about the echo-cardiogram results. Our doctor isn’t the on call doctor anymore, though – in fact, he’s going to be away for the next while.

The other doctor never came in.

So the most we could get information on was that they will, at some point, try to use X-ray guidance to get to the pocket of fluid to draw a sample.

We know nothing about the echo.

We have no idea how much longer he will be.

However, he has a test booked next week, in the same hospital he got the ultrasound done at, and he has to prepare for it in the days before it. He’s already rescheduled it once, because of the weather and our van freezing up as much as it did. This is not something that should be rescheduled again. If he’s still in the hospital, they have to prepare him for it, as far as medications that need to be stopped and other things that need to be done 1, 2 and 3 days before the test itself. They will also arrange transportation. With a week’s advance notice, they can actually do that. :-/

So when we come back this afternoon, I’ll be bringing the preparation sheets they’d given him when the test was booked.

One thing I ended up doing last night was draw up a flow chart. With so many people checking on him, and so many different people, they keep asking all sorts of questions, and things get mixed up and forgotten. Plus, his original reason for being on disability, which is the root cause of all the problems he’s having now, seems to be getting forgotten. Particularly the pain.

So the flow chart I made has almost all the things he’s been dealing with, with arrows showing how A causes X, while B causes Y, but X then contributes to C, D and E, while Y makes F a problem. On, and then there’s Z, which complicates B, C and F…

It really hit home, when I drew it out, just how complicated my husband’s situation is, but in the end, it all comes down to his original injury, and the pain he is in. Everything else just radiates from the pain.

I’m already glad I did it. I’d put it up on a cork board in his room. A nurse had come by and was asking the usual questions, so I called her attention to it. That led to more questions, she added some notes to his file, and even it led to discussion of one of the side effects of one medication that I’d forgotten to include on the chart.

I hope it comes in handy for others; if nothing else, it saves time trying to explain things.

I will be back again this afternoon with the girls, and hopefully, we will have other news or information by then.

Today, at least, will not be as long as day as the last two! No driving him around elsewhere. Which is good, because he is so wasted, the shortness of breath is back, because of it. :-(

The Re-Farmer