Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #22 – Making Progress, Making Plans, & Making Our Escape!

Monday, Mar 16^th, 2020……  Things remain much the same as Lydia progresses. They have her on dialysis on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Her nephrologist is in the room most days and last time she told me she was getting good urine levels.  Back in her room, the physical therapy continues and she is doing better each day. Still can’t walk but she has a little more control of her legs and can stand on her feet now and can shuffle her weight a bit. The goal is to get released from the hospital and go to rehab to work on her strength so she can move around well enough to go to off-site dialysis from there as well as from home. Meanwhile, I continue to do the two-a-days back and forth to Corvallis. I’m good with that but it will be nice to get her moved to another facility soon. 

  

Tuesday, Mar 17^th, 2020……  We had been working with Dynette, the case worker assigned to the oncology floor. Unfortunately, she is out sick right now and Georgia is now filling in. I liked Dynette and don’t care too much for the fill-in. But we worked together and now have a plan – she has told us about short-term home care, which is covered by insurance, and includes home health, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.  Since there is no medical need to be in a rehab facility (other than physical therapy) Lydia would be a good candidate for this in-home care. So, we set that up. Georgia was tasked with finding a service for all of those needs. She will also be working to get all of the necessary medical supplies/equipment authorized by insurance. I have a wheelchair and a toilet assist bar and a shower chair, but we will need a walker and I will probably have to buy a bedside commode (which they said is likely not covered). No worries.  Later, after I left, the doctors cleared her for release so, after dialysis tomorrow, she can come home. That’s perfect since I had already hired Linda, my sister’s housekeeper, to come start cleaning our house. She starts tomorrow.         

Wednesday, Mar 18^th, 2020……  Sis called me to let me know that our Costco did not get their shipment of toilet paper last night. We were planning on being there this morning to shop and that was an added bonus. No rush - maybe tomorrow.  I will wait until Lydia gets home and then she can help me with a shopping list for there and for the grocery store. We have heard about shortages in Calif. but we seem to be ok here. I was in Walmart yesterday and they have most everything (except sanitizer, tp, cleaning supplies, etc.). I will stock up on whatever we need. We are lucky to have egg ranches around here so we can always get farm fresh eggs when we want, which we like.

I straightened up the house a bit – mostly to get all of Rylee’s trip hazard toys off the floor!  We are ready for Linda. I have to go get a battery for the tractor so I can get it ready to mow the yard. We have had several nice sunny days and the forecast is for no rain until next Monday, so I want to get everything ready for our first-of-the-year mowing party, hopefully on Saturday.  Kirk has our other mower but he will be bringing it back here in the next day or two so sis can help get the job done.

We headed off to the hospital and met with the physical therapy guy. The doctor came in and told us that if she didn’t feel that well and wasn't up to going home today since she had dialysis, that she could certainly wait until tomorrow. She chose that option which is actually better for me as well. We still didn’t know what services was going to authorize in the way of home medical equipment and I only have the wheelchair and the shower chair right now. What she needed to come home today was a portable commode for next to the bed. Anyway, we left and headed off in search of a lead about an organization that you can contact and pick up what you need. When you no longer need the equipment, you take it back for reissue to someone else. Problem was they are only a volunteer group and have shortened hours and may be closed due to the coronavirus. We drove by and they were not open, so we checked in at St. Vincent de Paul’s to see what they had. We found one, with the tags still on it, and it was only $15.  So we are set for tomorrow.   

Thursday, Mar 19^th, 2020……  FIRST DAY OF SPRING!   Yaaay!  First thing planned this morning was my labs prior to my Reclast infusion (for my osteoporosis). I needed to go to the hospital for that. But I got a call from my sister that our Costco had toilet paper so we headed over to stand in line to get in. I was really appreciative of the way they set up the store entry. No one way in any big hurry – they had us get in line with 6 feet between us to wait till they opened. Once that happened, they moved a cart out for each one of us and we all pretty much walked back to the back of the store where there was a guy handing us each one package. Then we were free to go get whatever else we needed. I stocked up and totally forgot to use my gift card and reward certificate at check out!  Oh well, next time!  Meanwhile, Lydia had called and said it would be later in the day when she would be released. They did labs and said everything was good but she needed another bag of platelets before release. So, I went out and found my tractor battery (didn’t find it yesterday) while I was waiting. We went through the check-in process again but found that the hospital was in full lockdown. So, we had to wait until they got her prepped and into a wheelchair so they could bring her out to us. We maneuvered her into the car and we came home!  Lydia was happy to see the sun again!  Rylee was a happy girl!  Grammy is home!! Grammy is home!!