Kidney Group

Mandy and I walked 4 miles along a new route to The Original Pancake House this morning, and met up with K for lunch. K said she was reminded that she really likes driving my new car (Uh, oh... ;-) The walk seemed to fly by, as I was chatting with Bob and Mikele for most of it. I really do think cell phones, free weekend minutes, and bluetooth ear pieces (when used responsibly ;-) are just the cat's meow of technology!

We went to a meeting of the Front Range Kidney Patients' Association at Porter Hospital this afternoon. For information contact George Bravdica at 303-934-0077 or gp134b@yahoo.com. We heard some interesting stories by people who have been in dialysis for years. One fellow was wearing a "House of Blues" baseball cap, which had me wondering if he went to Chicago for his transplant. We were even able to relate a tale or two ourselves. We learned some more about peritoneal dialysis, and why it might be a very attractive alternative to hemodialysis. For one thing, it can make traveling much more possible. For awhile, I was finding it difficult to get completely immersed in the dialysis scene, with the potential for a transplant (hopefully just) around the corner. However, hearing stories of transplanted kidneys failing after a few years brought home the reality that dialysis will always need to be an option. The most important thing I heard, was a reaffirmation of the thought that K needs to always stay on top of the caregivers at the dialysis center, and immediately elevate any problems to the next level, when she's not being treated appropriately. This was in response to the issue that arose with the IV antibiotics last week. The worst part of that event was when they just plain weren't listening to her.

Nauseous

Still hanging in there. K's been nauseous most mornings lately, no idea why, and hasn't been able to think about breakfast. I think she's liking her new MWF dialysis schedule. Mandy and I ran some errands on Friday, and visited her in dialysis. The nurse shooed M out right away, but I came back later for a short visit. I like that the room is bright and seems more cheery than the last place. She wasn't pleased to discover they haven't been giving her the IV antibiotics that were prescribed after her surgery. She is so wiped out by dialysis, that she generally sleeps through it, so she had little opportunity to notice if they were doing it right. The instructions had transferred over from the Lakewood center OK, but apparently no one actually read her chart when she arrived at the Littleton center. Even when she asked about the specifics, they assured her they had no instructions for it, until the nurse from Denver Nephrology looked into it. By that time, it had been a week, and it was too late to restart it. The good news is that most of her foot wounds are still healing up, although slowly. Her Kaiser primary care doc has assumed some control of the wound management, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on how it goes next. He's going to determine when to take out the stitches that were left after the surgery.

I've still got a dry cough from the cold I caught in early January. I've got plans for a business trip soon, and am struggling with how to make sure K does the right things while I'm gone. Any support in keeping her on track would be much appreciated.

This is shaping up to be the year of home improvements. Last year, we had our friend Mark finish up several smaller improvement projects, including making our crawlspace usable for storage. Now we're looking at some big projects - recovering the roof, finishing the basement, refurbishing the deck, and maybe even adding a trellis or something, to shade the sun. It's hard for me to imagine doing all that, with the possibility of a transplant looming in K's near future, but that's the plan.

Littleton Dialysis

K switched over to the Littleton Dialysis center this week. Hooray, she's saving 20 minutes of driving each way! She's feeling good enough about her feet healing, that she's back to driving herself to dialysis. She went to Lakewood on Tuesday and Littleton on Wednesday, so she's been well dialyzed by today! We got a few inches of snow early this morning, and expect a few more this evening. Our darling niece Dorothy was released from the Santa Clara Valley rehab center in San Jose today, with the expectation that she'll be living at home, visiting a local rehab facility, and returning to school as soon as it's practical.

Feet Still Healing

K's feet continue to heal. A nurse comes daily, checks her feet, and changes the bandages every visit, which sure makes me feel better about her being home, instead of laid up in the hospital. I am occasionally around when the bandages are off, and K showed me yesterday that most of the smaller wounds are almost gone. The big one on her right foot is still very much there, but looking better. The antibiotic beads are still stitched up inside, but are probably mostly absorbed by now. She's still on oral antibiotics for another few days.

Windy

It's been blustery today, really since last night. We were out at an appointment this morning, talking to someone who wanted to meet her husband up at Beaver Creek, but it didn't look like she was going to be able to get there. Apparently the I-70 corridor to the ski areas has pretty much been shut down for some time, because of harsh windy conditions - blowing cars off the road, that kind of stuff. K's visiting nurse just left, talking about moving to Texas. With her job, she's out in the weather all the time, so it affects her far more than most people. The nurse said K's foot is healing pretty well, but they're watching a new crack that's developed on the bottom of her foot since last week's surgery.

K learned yesterday, about an opening at the Littleton dialysis center, which is only 10 minutes away, instead of 30. The time slot was at 5:45 AM MWF, which gave us pause, but then we decided to go for it. We were even beginning to look forward to the change to our daily schedule that it would bring. By the time we got down to the center to talk to them this morning, they'd given that slot away, and instead had an 11-3 MWF slot to offer. Even though that takes a big bite out of the most useful part of the day, leaving little time for other medical appointments, we think it's worth the trouble, at least for now. We're hoping they'll have a 6:30 AM slot available soon.

She's Home

The surgeon said as far as he was concerned, K was ok to be released today. She can use her feet - she should walk flat, and distribute the pressure evenly. They had her ready to go by 2. Mandy was waiting in the car for her, and rode home on her lap. We stopped at Spicy Pickle to pick up soup and sandwiches on the way home. We had our lunch, and now she's settling in.

Whirlpool

K did her Saturday dialysis in the hospital this morning. Then they took her for a warm whirlpool treatment on her feet. That's supposed to help with circulation, and also do some gentle debriding. She got to see her wounds after surgery, and was relieved to see they weren't very deep. Other than that, I think she had a pretty quiet day. With all my coughing, and our interrupted early morning, and K's sleepiness, we decided I should stay away from the hospital today, and just let her sleep whenever it hit her, which was about the time we were talking. Ken and Freddie came by, and we took Mandy for a medium sized walk down to the Littleton light rail station. We sat in their little waiting room, and drank coffee while Mandy had dog treats. Mandy got the dreaded cold foot syndrome a few times during the walk, but each time after a short foot warm up, she was back on her feet again. We were ready for a nap when we got home, and did so while the 1954 movie, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was running on the TV, which was a slightly surreal experience. Ken and Freddie came by later, and we went out to dinner, then played several rounds of Rummikub. K called just after they left, and reminded me to get to bed early, so here I go...

Opportunity Missed

Day 4 at St Jo. I was awakened at 5:34 this morning by a call from the University of Chicago. They had a possible pancreas/kidney transplant match for K. I was terribly disappointed to have to tell them that K is in the hospital fighting a foot infection with antibiotics and surgery. This was (in more ways than one), a wake-up call for us. We were told our first call might be as soon as 3-6 months, but in fact it came in 2 weeks. I didn't feel like we were ready to go, but K had a completely different perspective. Sitting in her hospital room at St Joseph, she felt like she could just as easily be in Chicago. She told me to call them back, while she checked to see if her doc at St Jo would release her. The docs on both ends agreed this wasn't a good time, so we missed this one, and will plan to be ready for the next call. K was heartbroken at the bad news, and is very mad at her feet right now. She morosely wondered if the next call will ever come, and I asked her to focus on being ready when it does. I was going to sleep in today, but now that I'm all fired up, I figured I might as well let you all know what's happened.

Friday Night

I stayed with K until the late afternoon, then headed home to try to get an early night. I found some nice flowers in the gift shop, and delivered them to her room while I was waiting for my car to be retrieved. Our caring neighbors Ken and Freddie have been graciously watching Mandy while we're away from the house, so she's a very well cared-for pooch. Considering how much she seems to like those guys, I'd say she hardly misses us, but that would just be wrong. She spins in energetic circles when I walk in their door, which makes me feel very much missed and welcomed at the same time. At night before we fall asleep, it's clear she's wondering where K is, as she sits on the bed, and goes on alert at every noise. She wants her K home, as do I. On the other hand, I'm really glad she's in the hospital, and practically under armed guard that won't let her leave her bed. That's the most important factor in getting these wounds to heal, is to get off her feet. We got a light coating of corn snow this evening, while we were playing Rummikub after dinner. I'm still dealing with a dry cough from the cold that hit me 3 weeks ago. It sure will be nice, to be completely over that one.

Back in Room

K's back in her room. I waited 90 minutes for her to get out of a supposed 20 minute surgery. It turns out the waiting room attendant messed up in adding my name to her list when I'd arrived, and so no one knew I was waiting, and I got no updates on what was happening, or even the final debrief from the doc. The waiting room was very full, more so than I've ever seen, after several occasions of being there, and I didn't want to bother people unnecessarily by asking them about her every 10 minutes, but I guess I should have. After they sent her back to her room, someone finally came out, and asked if anyone had shown up for her. I said I'd been waiting an hour and a half, and they were caught completely off guard, thinking no one would respond. Boy, did that get me fired up. It's bad enough having this all happen, and worse to be completely in the dark, when they were supposed to be keeping me updated.

The surgeon didn't find the need to amputate anything today. He debrided wounds on both feet, packed antibiotic beads into the wounds, and bandaged up both feet very securely. The infectious disease doc came by to tell her that they'll have the results of the deep culture sample by Monday, and then they'll know what kind of antibiotic to use, to target the infection. So it looks like she'll be here awhile.

Out of Surgery

She's out of surgery and in the recovery room. No word on how it went.

Into Surgery

Day 3 at St Jo. The Ortho doc read the results of the MRI scan of her feet, and has scheduled K for surgery this morning, to address the multiple wounds. He expects to only do some debriding, and not any amputation today. The decision for that will rest mostly upon the blood circulation in her feet, and he'll get a sense of that during this first surgery.