Filling Holes and Yanking Lines
Our dialysis story — chapter 22
The contractor forgot about our repairs — the holes in the walls and the jackhammered floor from our plumbing woes. He came in early June, put up temporary covers, and promised to return soon. Then . . . silence. I texted him on July 10, more than a month later. He admitted he’d forgotten. Feeling guilty, he squeezed us in that week.
Initially, he said the job would take two or three trips. His guilt about forgetting us motivated him to finish all the work in one day. He and his helper were in our house for six hours. The work they did was excellent but didn’t include painting. He doesn’t want to paint. I’ll do it or hire someone.
It’s a relief to have our home looking almost like it did BPD — before plumbing disaster.
But now I have a new issue — our dryer isn’t drying. It gets hot, but clothes take two hours to dry. My friend Gina thinks the dryer vent and line need to be cleaned. She has the tools to do that and will come by on Thursday. If the dryer still doesn’t do its one and only job, I’ll have to call a repair company, and just when I thought I was done with household repairs — at least for a while.
Last Tuesday, Ben was released by the surgeon who did his fistula surgery, and the dialysis nurses began using his arm rather than the temporary dialysis catheter. The catheter consists of IV-style tubes inserted to the left of his right shoulder. They’re wrapped in gauze and dangle down on his chest. Showering is tricky since the tubes and dressing aren’t supposed to get wet. No matter how well we cover and tape, they always get damp.
Next Monday, the dialysis center’s managing nephrologist will remove the tubes. The scheduler who called to make the appointment said:
It’s a minor procedure. He can have it done and go straight to dialysis.
Yesterday, the dialysis center gave us pre-surgery instructions from the doctor, whose office is across the parking lot.
Pre-surgery instructions? Huh? What surgery?
What I read does not sound minor, and it does sound like surgery but surgery in reverse.
Ben can’t eat for six hours before his 10:00 am appointment. That means no breakfast. He can eat a snack before going to bed at 9:30 pm, but by the time we reach the doctor’s office, Ben will have gone more than 15 hours without a real meal. That wouldn’t be a big deal for me, but he’s diabetic, and the instructions say he also can’t take his diabetes medication that morning.
From the pre-surgery instructions, the procedure is more complicated than I was told. There won’t be enough time between the procedure and Ben’s dialysis to go to a restaurant for a meal. By the end of his dialysis four hours later, he’ll have gone almost 19 hours without a meal.
I called the doctor’s office this morning and spoke to a nurse about our concerns. She checked the schedule and said:
He’s not on the schedule for 10 am next Monday. Are you sure that’s what you were told?
I replied:
Not only is that what I was told, but that date and time are written on the pre-surgery instructions that your office gave to the dialysis center to give to Ben.
She had to check with the scheduler and call me back.
It was a darn good thing that I called because the scheduler had Ben’s appointment for 11:30 — the same time as his dialysis! What the heck?
All is straightened out now — his appointment’s been corrected to 10 am, and the nurse says he can have a light breakfast at 6 am.
But what if I hadn’t called? We’d show up at 10 am, and his procedure would be scheduled for 11:30. That would be a mess.
So, next week his lines will be yanked. One more step in the process.
Speaking of processes, I notified my largest client last night that I want to start the retirement process. With Ben’s dialysis and his short-term memory issues, I need to be home more. My retirement from that office is a process — not just a two-week notice and I’m out the door. It’s much more complicated than that. I gave a deadline of November 2024 to be completely done, but I’m hoping for a sooner out-the-door date.
All the changes we’ve experienced since the first of the year feel staggering. I wish I could take some time off to rest and regroup, but that’s impossible. In fact, I’ll be working longer hours as I take on the daunting task of training someone to replace me.
On a side note, today we received the latest Covid booster, which came out in mid-April. I scheduled our shots for May but had to cancel due to Ben’s hospitalization to start dialysis. It’s a relief to know we are now current on our vaccines. Next up, our annual flu shots later this month or in September.
One step at a time . . .
© Dennett 2023
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