Sunday, January 30, 2022
Linda slept a lot today (understandable!) as she did not get much sleep in the hospital. She didn’t eat anything and didn’t drink anything except water. I made coffee (believe it or not!) but she didn’t drink any of it and asked me to warm it up for her tomorrow. I helped her with the bedpan and putting the foam wedge between her legs (in an effort to keep her right leg straight).
Monday, January 31, 2022
Well, today is the third day after surgery (on Friday). We’re waiting to be contacted by a home health care person who has to change Linda’s bandaging. We had a delivery of a bedside commode (which I have put together) but Linda has to be able to get out of bed safely to sit on it. She has been drinking water and kefir just to take pills, but she doesn’t want anything to eat (except Jell-O last night) and doesn’t even want coffee. When she was sick in 2020 (“mystery illness”) she went for 3 days with nothing to eat or drink and a whole month with very little to eat and she survived.
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Today I got brave and drove to Alameda by myself (because the first Tuesday of the month is Seniors’ Day at Walgreen’s). I also had to mail something at the post office and then go to Safeway. Well, all was fine until I was about 3/4 of the way through the store and I realized (with some horror) that my backpack was not in the baby seat of my shopping cart! I was all ready to report a theft, but I backtracked all the aisles I had been through until I got to the door—and then realized that MAYBE I left my backpack in the van. Duh. Well, I did, so all was well.
The home health care nurse did come by this afternoon and put a new bandage on Linda’s incision, checked her vitals, etc. A physical therapist is scheduled to come by tomorrow afternoon so he WILL make her get out of bed and walk!
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
Linda thought she would like eggs for breakfast, so I fried her usual two eggs in butter but she only ate 1 1/2 eggs. Emily is spending more time on the bed with Linda, but I’m trying to make sure I put her on her pee pad after she eats.
Today Earl, the home care physical therapist, came to evaluate Linda. And Emily had a fit! She was growling and barking at him as he approached the bedroom. She has NEVER acted that way about a man before! I had to go in and get her and take her out of the room. Earl told her the right leg was very swollen and had her put the leg up on that thick white pillow that she was using under her shoulder and back.
While Earl was here, Linda’s prescription for oxycodone arrived, plus the anti-nausea pills.
I was looking for a delivery from Amazon of a bottle of milk thistle that I ordered and was supposed to be delivered today. I even got a notification from Amazon that the milk thistle had been delivered, but it wasn’t delivered to my house!
Instead, I got a small flat package delivered by UPS NEXT DAY AIR SAVER (that’s what it said on the shipping label). Inside was a beaded bracelet. No paperwork. Nothing on the package except the words “Smart Watch Band.” When I looked it up on Amazon, I found out it was a beaded watchband for an Apple Watch (iWatch)! My first thought was that some anonymous donor had gifted it to me, so I posted on Facebook with a picture. Several have “Liked” the picture, but no one has PM’ed me. So it remains a mystery.
At supper, Linda asked for rice with refried beans and cheese melted on top. The Trader Joe’s Refried Beans has been in the pantry forever, but it had an expiration date of 2023.
Thursday, February 3, 2022
I set my alarm for 7:30 and got up after 8:30 a.m. Linda had one egg with cheese for breakfast and half a cup of kefir. And fresh coffee! After breakfast, Linda decided she didn’t want to have the occupational therapist appointment but she had no way of contacting her. So she asked me to tell her when she got here that she didn’t want to have the appointment. It was a very young white girl but she seemed quite pleasant. I apologized profusely. Then I took out the trash and recycling.
Linda and I have decided that UPS took my milk thistle to whoever ordered the Smart Watch Band!
However, I got the Dash hot air popcorn popper and a new 10-inch food cover for microwaving.
Linda had rice and refried beans again, and I had romaine leaves with bacon strips and tomato slices.
Friday, February 4, 2022
I set my alarm for 7:30 again because another physical therapist (named David) is supposed to come here at 11:30. So I made breakfast for all of us and took coffee and kefir to Linda. She had one fried egg with cheese again, then later (after David left) she had a mandarin gelatin.
David actually arrived at 12:30 p.m. Emily barked some at him but not as much as she barked at Earl. Still, I had to remove her from the bedroom so David could work with Linda. At one point, he had Linda walk (with her crutches) to the living room and sit in her black desk chair and do a series of exercises, starting with head and neck, shoulders and arms, then knees and ankles.
It has now been exactly one week from the day of her surgery at Stanford. And so we move forward!
