IPOP Odyssey

One of the nice benefits of writing this long and meandering narrative is that I get occasional commentary by text and email. Tonight my sweet cousin Eric told me that he has decided this is the IPOP Odyssey. So then I had to quickly look up what the themes of The Odyssey were again -- journey, homecoming, loyalty, faithfulness, divine intervention (according to the most succinct Sparknotes). Well, I think that is a fair comparison, although there is no lyric poetry here -- and I think that if there were divine intervention we would not be astute enough to recognize it. 

This morning when I called the shuttle it was a whole new experience. She asked my name, my phone number and confirmed that there would be two seats available. And then I got about five texts telling me how close it was.  The other times, they never had a record that I called and the driver just spluttered and complained about never getting any warning but he let us get on. 

Because Jon coughs a lot and has RSV, they keep assigning us to the fifth floor where there is a room with a door to close. So we have had the same nurse for three days, which is unusual. Naturally, Jon asks her lots of questions. He has been curious about whether they all have to sleep in the hospital during this snow event. Rachel, the nurse, said that they fill the hospital beds and then the overflow goes to the local hotels at a subsidized rate. Last night she was assigned to sleep in the IPOP, in one of the rooms with a door. Her shift starts at 7, so she got up and cleaned up and got organized by 6:30. But she could hear people snoring behind the curtains and she had to wake them up because she needed to have the clinic clean and ready by 7. She is very personable and we talked at length about the cost of drugs as we tried to figure out the best way to get a refill of a prescription if we can't get to Kaiser right now.

The only information that was new today: the top of one of Jon's lungs is clearer than it was. There is still gunk in the lower lungs. His neutrophils are climbing slowly. The rest of the numbers seem to be mostly the same.  I asked Rachel what she thought about our walk home yesterday and she said well, if you felt fine after that, I guess it was okay. Then I asked the Nurse Practitioner the same question later (even though Jon glowered at me) and she said, oh it's too cold outside for your lungs. We didn't tell her we already did the walk yesterday.

This time we used the wheelchair to get to the hospital door, saving Jon's energy, and then he kept his mask on to warm up the air going into his lungs and we walked home again.  It was sunny and windy and ten degrees warmer than yesterday. The sidewalks were clear and he pulled his own oxygen concentrator, thank you. Since then he has been on the couch, in his usual sleeping or reading position. Coughing but not as viciously. 

I would say today was not a great day for Jon. This recovery is moving at a glacial pace, both his blood counts and his pneumonia.  (Okay now we are watching a pickup truck hooked to a long trailer with a loader on the trailer -- he was trying to go around a corner but the truck slid sideways into the snow bank on the curb and once again it seems to only have two-wheel drive -- what are they thinking? They were blocking a whole intersection but they quickly fixed the problem by taking the loader off the trailer, picking up the trailer with the loader and changing the angle of the weight behind the truck. Problem solved.)

It is hard to keep your spirits up while coughing for such a long time, probably like Odysseus but a lot less epic.

In the afternoon when Jon was resting, I went out in search of groceries. Had to climb through lots of squishy snowplow piles at the end of the blocks. Everything was closed everywhere. The sidewalks further from our hotel were deep with snow. I came back and bought juice and ice cream at the trusty 7-11 across the street. 

Luckily there is still the restaurant with the airplane quality food upstairs. "Roasted Vegetables" turned out to be microwaved carrots and peas out of a package. I was appalled, but then I see that Jon finished them off, so I take it back. Maybe that's okay then. It's not really dinner, but it's better than nothing. He can eat the other leftovers later.