A Day in the Life

I’ve always been a lover of to-do lists, which is fortunate because when you’re post-transplant, taking a plethora* of medications, and even worse, dealing with their multitude of side effects, to-do lists are essential. When you think of a to-do list, you probably think of tasks like buying groceries, scheduling the dog’s vet appointment, calling Grandma, etc., and I used to think the same way! However, nowadays my to-do lists are a little more complicated :). I’ve had to create to-do lists for cleaning, taking medications, and even eating, to name a few. For those of you who are interested, here is my daily medical-related to-do list (don’t worry if you don’t understand half of these terms; neither did I a year ago!):

Daily To-Do List

• 6:15 am: take out IV mag from fridge, call endocrinology
• 6:50 am: give Lantus shot, start IV mag
• Shower
• Before breakfast: Blood pressure check, glucose check, carb count
• Humalog shot (carbs + correction)
• Breakfast: pills
• 8 am: Steroid
• 10 am: Cyclosporine
• 10:50 am: unhook IV mag, heplock
• 
  
• Before lunch: Glucose check and carb count
• Humalog shot (carbs + correction)
• 
  
• Before dinner: Blood pressure and glucose check, carb count
• Humalog shot (carbs + correction)
• Dinner: pills
• 
  
• 8 pm: Steroid
• Lay out for next day: steroid supplies, BP cuff, pills, towels, clothes
• 10 pm: Cyclosporine
• Before bed: glucose check
• Sanitize toothbrush

Anytime (every day): yoga or Bosu ball, back stretches, Wii board, calf raises, lift weights

Mondays and Fridays

• 9 am: bring Cyclosporine, 2 heparin, alcohol, Humalog, food
• 9:30/10 am: Labs, Cyclosporine, clinic visit, IVIG and/or transfusions (Fri)

Mondays: cap change

Tuesdays: someone clean bathroom

Wednesdays: refill pills

Thursdays: dressing and cap change

Fridays: home pharmacy delivery (steroid, mag, supplies)

Saturdays: change sponge, sheets, and my towel; disinfect scrub brush

*I love Three Amigos...

Highlights of my latest hospital vacation

I’m going home today (yippee!) but wanted to share with you some exciting activities I’ve participated in during my hospital stay this week:

1. Hoarding hospital supplies: I know exactly what we need and stock up immediately upon arrival. This time I even came with a list. Yikes...I feel like one of those people on the show “Hoarding: Buried Alive” on TLC. I’ve never watched it because the previews alone give me the creeps.
2. Watching movies: I watched two new releases this week, The Tourist and Country Strong. Don’t worry; I won’t be one of those people who ruins the movie for you by giving away the plot, though I have to say that was CRAZY when Tim McGraw chased Gwyneth Paltrow with the knife in Country Strong! Just kidding :). The Tourist is entertaining though forgettable but ends in a cool twist. Country Strong is haunting but very real, and I better not say anything about the end.
3. Editing a friend’s paper: I was able to help a friend and fellow teacher edit his reflections for his Master’s degree program that were due this week. I’m one of those rare breeds who actually enjoys editing (my 8th grade Language Arts students will attest to this), so being able to edit from the hospital was a tiring but rewarding experience :). His work was excellent!
4. Watching the “premiere” of Hop: The movie came out in theaters on April 1, so technically this wasn’t the premiere, but I got to see a movie that’s actually in theaters right now (non-bootleg of course ;) ), and with Zack no less! A couple times a year, LPCH receives copies of movies that just got released in theaters for them to show to oncology and stem cell patients who, due to compromised immune systems and/or hospitalization, are unable to go to the theater in person. They bring copies of the movie around to those who are interested, and even though Hop isn’t at the top of my “Must See” list right now, I jumped at the chance. It was surprisingly funny, and even Zack enjoyed it! :)
5. Learning to play Plants vs. Zombies: We bought this game for the iPad a month ago and Zack’s been playing it, but I finally had him teach me last night. Let’s just say now I know why my sister became addicted to the game within the first half-hour of arriving to see me from Seattle. I also stumbled upon Flight Control but am pretty terrible at it. Zack was trying to teach me and kept having to intervene as all my planes converged on the same spot. Noooooo....
6. Becoming the oldest Bingo player at LPCH: I found out something new during this stay! Child Life holds a weekly Bingo game in the Rec Room that they televise so that even patients stuck in their rooms (i.e. me) can participate. Once I heard that prizes were being offered, I was all in. With my mom and I each covering 3 Bingo boards and shushing my dad so we could hear each number as it was called out, we frantically dialed in to announce our not one but TWO Bingos! Since I couldn’t leave my room to claim my prizes, they promised to bring me my treasures. I was reminded yet again of the abnormality of my 26 year-old self being treated in a children’s hospital when my prizes turned out to be a mini Beanie Babie teddy bear and a plastic tiara :).

Speed Bumps

The funny thing about speed bumps is that, while they’re annoying because they force you to slow down, thereby disrupting your normal routine, they’re in place to keep you safe. Zack and I experienced our own speed bump this week in the form of another hospital stay :/.

After feeling pretty great for the past three weeks since my last hospital encounter (I think I'm going to start calling it "vacation"...it's all about perspective, right?), I started feeling really wiped out on Sunday and developed a low-grade fever (100.3 is the borderline for stem-cell patients) that evening. Zack and I debated over calling right away, the fear of another hospital stay looming over us. Adding to my dread was the fact that it was Sunday night, meaning if I got admitted it would be through the ER rather than the LPCH day hospital. It’s like comparing a grizzly bear to a kitten.

Ultimately we just prayed that God would make it really clear what I needed to do to be safe and would give us the strength to go in if that was what we had to do, and then we called the doctor.

Long story short, I started IV antibiotics in the ER and got admitted around 2:30 am Monday morning. On Monday afternoon, I found out that I had urinary tract and kidney infections that were caught just in the nick of time. Even waiting until Monday morning to come in (which is what I had been advocating), thereby starting IV antibiotics half a day later, would have made me much sicker. I guess God knows what he’s doing even when it seems like craziness to us!

The whole experience reminded me of the scripture below that refers to the time God parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape from the Egyptians. You know they had to be thinking that walking through the Red Sea was craziness, but God had a plan the whole time.

Psalm 77:19 NLT
Your road led through the sea,
your pathway through the mighty waters—
a pathway no one knew was there!