Thursday June 7 2022

Editorial Team / Admin · Jul 7, 2022

Congrats, Joe, on the award! AND on testing negative!

Tweety, I would LOVE to go on a cruise, but as dh and I have discussed, now is not the time for us. Just to risky, with covid still rampant, in whatever form it chooses to take. Symptoms don't seem to be bad, but the iso would be a big bummer on a cruise. Sorry for your friends having to go through all that!

No Stars, good the MRI got done, good the fluid got drained, and good your dh was kept another night! Hope he is doing better today, and that you and Nannie are weathering things at home.

Yesterday I attended the jam and then went out (as it was a LITTLE cooler, probably 86 degrees rather than 88!) and trimmed the front bushes. Decided not to walk after that (took about 1.5 hr). I came in hot and dirty and sweaty, and immediately took a shower. Relaxed the rest of the evening.

Today I need to go see if the grocery store has Alkaline water, as they were out when I shopped a few days ago. Might get some items for a new recipe, a zucchini crust-less quiche.

Have a good day!

No Stars In My Eyes · Jul 7, 2022

Joe, Congrats on your nomination for an award ? <(couldn't find a "Blue Ribbon" award among the emoji's.) Glad your COVID test was negative. Now, if you only could see a bald eagle! ? (No eagle emoji, either.)

dianah, I'm not sure I would get on a cruise ship if you paid me! Don't care for large groups/crowds of people, have NO interest in using any of the cruise ships' water attractions (slide, pool, etc.) Won't do any sun-bathing any more. Don't want any kind of viruses, don't want to get stuck out at sea, or worse yet, stuck on the boat in a harbor and not allowed to get off....and more of the same! Now, I would consider a river cruise, but then there is always the question of co$t.

Tweety, I just love the name "Bixby"! The actor in 'The Courtship of Eddie's Father' (on TV) was Bill Bixby. I liked the movie better, Ronnie Howard was the kid and he was a fantastic actor! I might name one of my next pets BIXBY, if the shoe fits (the paw).

Got up at 10:30 AM, gave Nannie her breakfast yogurt and pills. Made myself stay awake instead of going back to bed. Hubby called at 11 AM and said they are talking about letting him come home sometime this afternoon. Y'all know how THAT goes, discharges involving all they do, before someone can get driven to the door in a wheelchair. I really don't want to bring Nannie with me, so I may do as I did yesterday, have her get up and pee and get resettled in the recliner before I leave to go get hubby. Will pick her up some lunch, and MORE of those bless'ED #6 pads to have ready for the next time she runs out. I am emptying that bathroom wastebasket every 24 hours. (Rolling my eyes out loud at the # of pads she uses up; but they ARE wet through and through.) Speaking of which, I have to do some of her laundry so she'll have clean, dry pants to wear. OY!

Welp, guess I'll do that laundry while I await 'my master's call'. (HA!)

Editorial Team / Admin · Jul 7, 2022

No Stars, the only cruises we have been on have been associated with bluegrass events, which involves lots of jamming while we are at sea! Nope, don't do the pool or gambling or the art auction, or the lounge shows, or the jacuzzi or the bar scene. Just eating, reading when not jamming, and seeing the sights when we are anchored. IF we want to disembark. If not, we stay on board and eat/read/jam. THAT is my idea of a fun cruise! We have been on probably 10 such, what I call the Cruise To Nowhere. Carnival leaves from Long Beach, and you wake up in the morning in Catalina, then leave in the afternoon and wake up in Ensenada, then leave in the afternoon for "a day at sea" and wake up the next morning in Long Beach. We have had lots of fun jamming on those cruises! EXCEPT that Carnival line is *known* as a party ship, and they have lots of music (TOO LOUD!!) and activities: wet t-shirt contest, longest beard contest, bingo, midnight buffet, lounge shows, etc. Too loud, as I said. But we survived, and made our own noise!

I hope things work out for your dh to come home today. AND that he is feeling well enough to come home!

nursej22, MSN, RN · Jul 7, 2022

Congratulations, Joe, on your award. It is well deserved, I am sure.

Stars, I hope all goes well for your hubby and is discharged with a good plan. Hopefully they give some written discharge instructions so you can assist with keeping follow-up appointments.

It is cool and misty today. My co-worker who is training to our program is starting to sense the chaos that is our work. Crazy co-worker makes up her own policies and forms, and makes decisions that may be out of her scope. Very nice OCD co-worker can never finish anything, and has to rework how she does anything. For instance, a medical office will as for guidance about what to do with a positive QFT result, and she will spend a day writing a full page, single space email, and then attach 4 forms about TB screening that she rewrote. In the mean time, she is not following up on her patients.

We went on a cruise once, and I'm not sure I would ever do it again, due to awful motion sickness. Hubby won/earned the cruise through work. We sailed out of San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. While there, we went ashore and took a four wheeler excursion, then returned and shopped a little. I think I visited the pool once, and we watched karaoke and line dancing. I spent most of the time either puking or zonked out on Dramamine. I think it was only 3 or 4 days.

No Stars In My Eyes · Jul 7, 2022

Picked up hubby from the hospital around 2:30 PM. He feels much better. There is a 'plan' for how he is to wean off the booze (he said he was drinking from about noon until bedtime -- how much that adds up to, I don't know.) But on the way home we stopped at the ABC store and picked him up a 'sleeve' of little vodka bottles. They are each about 50 cc, I think. I told him to line up the five (to start with) bottles for the day, and space it out so that much will last and will be sufficient for that one day. He is to cut the # of little bottles down---I forget how, but he has it written down; then later in the process he will drink a small amount every other day. The docs do not want him to go into the DT's.

He does have some appointments set up, and depending on how long it takes for the pressure to build up, they will drain him again, and possibly insert that little cath and bulb thing (I can NOT remember the name of it! Does it start with the letter "J" ?) so he can (or I can) empty out the bulb and keep track of the amts we get, and let the doc(s) know at the next appt.

They told him the bottom of his left lung gets partially collapsed when the fluid builds up, He said he knew two days before he called the ambulance this time, that there was fluid squashing his lung and keeping it from expanding. They also said that his problem with his bowels is probably from the pleura also pressing down on his large intestine or something adjacent to it, and keeping things from 'moving right along'. Anyway, now that (he says) he can recognize the symptoms, he won't wait so long to have it seen to, "the next time."

So, no fever, no ulcers, no growths, no tumors; just a wonky left lung that gets marinated in some fluid which causes discomfort -> pain depending how much he has 'leaked' into the pleura.

Hubby went to get himself a sandwich and some fries. Nannie and I are kinda tired of bread/sandwiches and fries, so we are having some Beef Stroganoff from ? Panera's? (I get 'em at the grocery store) And steamed broccoli. But since Nannie ate her Subway favorite around 2 hrs ago, she isn't hungry yet.

Okie-dokie! All for now!

(PS: The mail carrier hasn't come down our street yet today. Sometimes we get our mail as late as 7:30 PM. USPS is understaffed and overworked.)

nursej22, MSN, RN · Jul 7, 2022

Our mail carrier works late too, I've seen them out at 8 pm. I think a lot of people are still using Amazon for shopping, and they use the post office for a lot of local deliveries. A neighbor was complaining on facebook how the postal worker refused to deliver a 30 pound package of cat litter to the door. ?‍♀️

Are you thinking of a J-P/Jackson-Pratt drain? A JP looks like a little hand grenade and applies a little suction. I've also seen little Pleur-Evacs for home, but they are just to gravity.

No Stars In My Eyes · Jul 7, 2022

YES! Jackson-Pratt! Thank you for helping me fill in the blank!

Forgot to report the weather here: 94 but with a "feels-like" of

103!

Editorial Team / Admin · Jul 7, 2022

No Stars, good he is home, and with what sounds like a sensible plan (for the lung and for avoiding DTs).

nursej22, ugh, getting seasick the whole cruise would certainly sway my vote to never do it again!

Oh, and Tweety, "Bixby" = thumbs up!!

I did go to the grocery store but got ingredients to make one-pot pasta. That is done, and sitting on the stove waiting to be "et," and the leftovers put away till tomorrow. Dh is busy with the online jam (I elected to cook instead).

Nothing much new here.

Have a good evening!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 8, 2022

Good evening.

Stars, all the best with everything.

I've been on a couple of short cruises and they are okay, but not my normal thing. The best was a cruise of the Greek Isles.

My friend stuck on the cruise wants to break quarantine and fly home and then quarantine here at home. Apparently the recommendation is 10 days before getting on a flight and he wants to wait five days only. I told him it doesn't make sense to get on a crowded plain and then quarantine at home. His husband is a bit more reasonable and is trying to talk him out of it. Most likely he'll do what his husband does.

I stayed to 8pm charting. Lost my name tag. Again. I'm hoping it shows up as I need it to get in and out of the garage.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jul 8, 2022

Ugh, hope you find your badge.

How is your friend's quarantine enforced, if at all?? I guess he COULD choose to 'break it.' TPTB might have something to say about it... However if he is symptom-free... gosh, I don't know what the rules are, and how they apply here. Agree with you, though. Doesn't make sense to get on a crowded plane.

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Jul 8, 2022

Good evening, everyone. I'd do more individual responses but I am lazy about typing on this phone!

Joe, I do want to congratulate you on the award nomination. That's great!

One of our ER nurses is out with Covid and the manager was covering her shift today. But he had a couple of interviews to do. Seems like a never-ending job to keep our little hospital staffed. So I filled in for him while he did interviews. Which means I had to miss my appointment with my therapist. *sigh*

Out of 22 ER patients yesterday, 4 had Covid. One was hypoxic and transferred out but the others mainly feverish and achy.

Twin A stopped in Norman and brought home Arby's. Now he and Twin B are at a movie. Hubs and I watched The Orville and I texted briefly with my sister and brother. When I left work the thermometer in the truck said 104 and the bank's sign said 106.