Home Again, Home Again Jiggety Jig - Day 4

Well, we haven't killed each other yet :)

I wasn't so sure we would make it this far on Saturday. Neither one of us slept worth a darn Friday night. I suppose we were both wondering what, if anything, would happen with Gene upstairs in bed when the bathroom was downstairs with 13 steps in between them.

We both got up somewhere in the middle of the night . . notice I didn't say we woke up . . . not sure how asleep we were. I knew I wanted to be with Gene on the stairs when he went up and down them so I went downstairs too. I honestly can't remember if we drained the "hand grenades" that are at the end of the drain tubes. But I do know that we both spent the rest of the night on the living room sofas. 

Poor Indy, wanted to sleep on the love seat with me. When I would move to stretch out as much as I could she growled. Totally unlike her. She was, I am sure, still trying to figure out what was going on . . . Gene home after 26 days and we are both on the sofas, not upstairs in bed.

During the day I found out that neither one of us had much patience with our "situation." But, again, we survived.

Can't really remember Sunday so it must have been a smooth part of the road on this "journey" we are on.

Now Monday . . . Oh, Monday! 

Gene decided to wash up. He still isn't to sure of his leg getting into or out of the shower so he did his home version of a hospital bath. Then to shave. Since he is still on a for of Heparin he can't use his normal razor to shave. So he got out the electric razor I bought while he was in Roswell. He hadn't cleaned it out while there so he took it apart to clean it. That wasn't bad but the putting it back together was a Royal Pain ! ! ! ! !

Now, while he is trying to do all of this I am trying to:

1. Test his blood sugar to see how his Pancreas is dealing with the fat/sugar in his diet. This has to be done before breakfast, lunch and dinner.
2. Record blood sugar level in a daily log and get the Insulin Pen, wipe for the skin and gauze to wipe off the 1st blood before the blood test ready just in case he does need the insulin.
3. Get the one shot ready . . . can't remember what it is for BUT he only gets it once a day so that is one plus!
4. Get the 1/2 dose of the Heparin like shot out of the refrigerator (needs to be kept cold and away from light so it is not only in the fridge it is in a brown zip-lock bag. (This is a three time a day shot no matter what.)

Two of the worse parts for me in the morning procedure:

1. Getting enough blood out of the "stick" for the blood sugar test. I have reset the depth of the stick so, hopefully, we can get the blood easier.
2. Giving the "fridge" shot. This is the one shot that hurt Gene while he was in the hospital. It never got any better. It just stings no matter where we "shoot" him. It also is a harder syringe to use. When I give this one my insides "cringe". For some reason my mind seems to hear the needle push into the arm. Then, I can actually feel the liquid going under the skin when it is injected. Makes me cringe just  thinking of it.

I know I will be giving him these two shots for some time. Doctor said the Pancreas will seal/heal itself so it will quit leaking but I have no idea when/if he will be able to quit the insulin. Hopefully he will not need to take it from now on. Yes, if he has to it will happen but if I had a preference . . . . 

Gene goes back to the doctor this Friday (Feb. 26). I must remember to ask him how long he will be getting the "fridge" shot to prevent blood clots. 

Last post I mentioned that he walked all over WalMart the afternoon he got out of the hospital. Yesterday we went to Sam's Club thinking we could find the small packages of cereal, individual fruit juice drinks and different fruit in natural juice like he got at the hospital. (We are working so hard to get him 2000 calories with 40 grams of fat a day into his diet.) We walked the entire Sam's Club food section and were amazed at how little they had that we wanted. This was a real bummer. The one we used to go to in Indiana had a deli (this one didn't so no turkey breast for lunch), items packaged for restaurant sale (like the cereal we were looking for) and small appliances (our toaster broke . . . unless you physically hold the "button" down so it will toast which must take 5 minutes to toast a slice of bread now and this Sam's only had one toaster oven WAY to big for our house.)

So yesterday was not to great for us in the shopping area for Gene BUT we did find cat food and dog chews so it wasn't a total loss :)