Things seem to be going well for the patients.  Pauline’s knee is definitely on the mend. She and her walker are getting around really well.  That makes me happy.

Cindy is also on the mend.   She is feeling much better today.  Her surgeon did an x-ray and CT scan yesterday and found that the fluid in the sac in her chest is down 40%.  If things keep going this way, she will not need another surgery.  Then she’ll be ready for physical therapy to get her back on her feet and then out the door.  Hopefully everything wll go as planned and Cindy will be home by the end of next week.

So the only thing not going to plan is my life.  I haven’t done anything about signing up for unemployment, looking into COBRA, figuring out our new budget, updating my LinkedIn profile or writing (except for this blog).  I’m too busy shopping, cooking, doing laundry, miscelaneous errands, and I’m not sure what else.  By the end of the day, I’m exhausted.  I used to go to work all day, come home and possibly shop/cook depending on how Pualine was doing and that was it. I was the Dad guy.  This week, I’ve turned into the Mommy.

I DON’T WANT TO BE THE MOMMY!!!

It’s too hard.

I want to go back to work.

Well, not this type of drain.  Cindy’s surgeon looked at the CAT scan from the previous day and found a sac in her chest that was filled with fluid.  The pressure from the fluid created the problems Cindy suffered this week.  This is not unusual after the type of operation that Cindy had a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday morning, he removed the fluid by making an incision just below where the sac is and inserted a tube into the incision.  This allowed the fluid to drain.  The process was painful and Cindy was not happy.

It was also time to change Cindy’s trachea.  This is done every few weeks to prevent mucous build-up and to keep the trachea clean.  The doctor waited to until Cindy was feeling better later in the afternoon.

Pauline is doing very well with her knee.  She is doing her exercises and walking pretty well with a walker.   Her doctor emailed her and told her that her lab work was fine (we thought she was anemic).  Unfortunately, Pauline is feeling very tired and she has sent her doctor and email asking why she is fatigued.

That’s it for now!

Another Fuzzie Minion visited Cindy this morning and is staying with her to keep her company during this hospital stay.  He is keeping a close eye on her and making sure she gets the best care.  He listened carefully as the doctors explained to Cindy what is going on.

It looks like they caught the pneumonia early and it has cleared up or there might have been an inflammation of the surgical site that can have the same symptoms.  The surgeon, Dr. Tsai and the pulmonologist, Dr. Ardilles, are in the process of doing a few procedures:

1. Ultrasound – They did an ultrasound of her abdominal area Tuesday afternoon.  This procedures shows the soft tissues and organs.
2. Bronchoscopy – This procedure was done Tuesday evening. Cindy’s doctors want to make sure her airwaves are open and that there are no abnormalities.  It is done by putting a bronchoscope through the nose or mouth.  Cindy had to be slightly sedated.
3. Esophagram (barium swallow) – They will do an Esophgram on Wednesday morning.  This test uses x-rays and a contrast agent.  It will tell the doctors if everything is flowing correctly through her esophagas and stomach.

With all this information, the doctors hope to figure out if there is a problem at the surgery site, her lungs, or any other organ in the area.

As for Pauline, her knee is healing well.  There is still pain at the surgery site, but that is to be expected.  However, she is experiencing a lot of fatigue and discomfort as she did this past weekend.  Her primary doctor asked her to get blood drawn and she did so Tuesday evening.  She should get the results tomorrow.

Hmmmm.  It seems I didn’t publish this post last night (Tuesday night).  Sorry about that.    So now you get the 2-for-1 deal.

As of Wednesday morning, none of Cindy’s tests showed anything.  However, by tonight, the doctors decided that they needed to put a drain in Cindy’s chest to drain fluids that have collected in a cavity where her stomach resided for many years.  The procedure will be done in the OR at 8 AM.

Pauline got the results of her labs.  The only test that came back abnormal was the one showing that she is still anemic.  Surprisingly, her doctor didn’t call her today.  Pauline is beginning to show the same symptoms that she had last Saturday night.  Hopefully, her doctor will contact her tomorrow.

That’s it for now.

This morning started off with a real bang – literally. There was a 4.0 earthquake at 6:49 that rocked the household awake. After checking to make sure everyone was okay I went to get ready for work. It took me a few minutes to remember I didn’t have a job. So I decided to look at my email and found some very sweet and supportive emails from friends and family.

The day continued to go well. My friend Marika called and we got together for coffee. It was a treat to sit outside and talk to a friend for a while. Rita texted me to tell me that Cindy was in the hospital. Cindy was retaining weight again and need to go the hospital to have the fluid diuresed (giving a patient diuretics through an IV). I returned home after that to make appointments with dentists and doctors since my insurance is going to run out at the end of the month. I even got an invitation to lunch by Rabbi Kelman. Edgar and I went to get new glasses since we qualified for new glasses. Then we went to the store, bought dinner and went home. I got home just in time to take my wonderful sister-in-law Lucy to the airport. I was certainly going to miss all her help with taking care of Pauline and making meals.

As Lucy was saying her goodbyes, I got a call from Rita saying that Cindy had a temperature and her blood pressure was very low. I took Lucy to the airport and then headed over to the hospital to see Cindy.

When I got there, she looked pretty bad. She was very flushed and looked like she didn’t feel very good. Her temperature was 104.1 degrees and her blood pressure was 68/45. The doctors weren’t sure what was wrong. They did labs and took x-rays. Finally they determined that she probably had pneumonia in her right lung. This explained why fluid was building up again (see Pulmonary Hypertension )

Cindy’s doctor had a central line inserted so it would be easier to give her medications, fluids, etc. An hour later, her temperature was at 102.9 and her blood pressure was at 80/45. By 9 PM, her temperature was a cool 98 degrees and her blood pressure had gone up to an acceptable 111/73.

Thankfully, the day ended well.

Pauline spent the night in the ER.  After doing an EKG and taking some blood work, it was determined she was anemic.  Anemia is what happens when your hemoglobin (red blood cells) is low.  It means that the blood can’t carry oxygen to the rest of the body.  For Pauline, that meant fatigue dizziness, low blood pressure, palpations and a very pale complexion.  It is often caused by internal bleeding.  They did an ultrasound and didn’t find anything.  Then they decided to do a CT scan.  Pauline is allergic to the iodine contrast so they had to pump her full of prednisone for a couple of hours.  The CT scan showed nothing.

The remedy to losing blood is to replenish it.  She was given 2 units of blood.  For some reason, Pauline had an allergic reaction to the first bag of blood and had to be given a double dose of Benadryl.  The second bag was fine.  By 9:30 the next day, she was ready to come home.

A few hours later, Pauline had her first Physical Therapist visit.  She did great.  It was mostly an assessment meeting.  He gave us some good tips for walking, icing, standing, sitting, and a few other important steps to Pauline’s recovery.

And Cindy?  She lost power in her home yesterday.  That meant no air conditioners or fans and it was very hot (for Northern California).  Thankfully, all her oxygen tanks were full.

That’s it for now!

Things were hectic today.  Cindy has been complaining of having headaches and not being able to see well ever since her surgery.  She couldn’t watch TV, work on the computer or read.   I got a call from her asking if I would be able to drive her to the Eye Doctor sometime this week.  I was happy to tell her that I could because I had a lot of free time.  Later on that day she called me back, asking if I could take her to an eyeglass place to get her eyeglasses adjusted.  She had been lying down today and her glasses slipped up.  She was able to see fine.  It seems that the last time she was in the hospital, someone had messed up the alignment of her glasses.  I took her to get them adjusted.   She is now able to see just fine.

But not all is well with Cindy still.  She is retaining water.  Her doctor wants her to go to the hospital to get the fluids removed from her system.  She refuses to go, saying she doesn’t want to go back to the hospital yet.  Cindy has an appointment with the doctor on Tuesday.  She promised she would go directly from the doctor’s office to the hospital.

So that leaves Pauline to be in the hospital.  I had gone out for my nightly constitutional.  When I got home, Lucy, Pauline’s sister, was on the phone with the advice nurse.  Pauline was complaining of severe stomach pain, nausea and light headed-ness every time she tried to stand up.  The advice nurse told her to go to the ER.  That is where we are now.  We have no news yet.

For the past few nights, Cindy has not been feeling well.  She has been having fevers at night and feeling sick to her stomach.  On Thurssday, she went for labs and Friday she went to see the surgeon.  Everything looked good,   The surgeon thought one of the medications he had prescribed for her was not agreeing with her and he took her off of it.  He also put her on antibiotics just in case …  Cindy is susceptible ot pneumonia and wants be precautious.  When I spoke to her this afternoon, she was feeling much better.

Also on Thursday, I was working from home.  Pauline was in the hospital and my kids were home so I didn’t go into the office.  Around 10 that morning, I received an email from my boss, saying he was coming into the office and wanted to meet with me.  He lives in Texas and had been in Chicago, so I knew this was serious.  I emaied him back telling him my situation.  He called me a half-hour later to let me know that my job had been eliminated.  This is the way a company in California says “You’re Fired” while  protect themselves from a lawsuit.  My heart was pounding since I am the breadwinner.  I told him I had to wait for Sarah, my daughter-in-law, to pick up Lucy and Emma, my sister-in-law and granddaugter, from the airport and would be in by 1 to clean out my stuff.

As most of you know, I have a hectic life.  Pauline has many health issues.  I have 2 special needs teenagers, and Cindy has a long way to go to recover.  Working full time and being a caregiver can be a challenge and stressful.  I wasn’t sure what to do with the news that I had just received.  Then I realized that one of the stresses in my life had just been eliminated for me.  I shutdown my computer and just sat there.  Then I realized I was beginning to relax.

When I went into the office I was bombarded by co-workers hugs and good wishes.  They all told me that I would have no problem finding another job with my experience.  I packed up my stuff, met with HR to get my severence package and drove home.    I thought about getting another job – updating my resume, making calls, using LinkedIn, etc.

I also thought about my family life and how I now have more time to dedicate to caring for them without the pressure of work.  I was likeing my new situation more and more.  I’ve been working on a memoir for a few years, but hadn’t been able to dedicate much time to it.  Now was my big opportunity.

So readers, you can expect more blogging from me about Cindy and Pauline.  I’ll also be sharing my writing progress and possibly some exerpts from the book.

Pauline’s knee replacement surgery went very well.  The picture above shows how much of her knee had to be cut.  The surgeon found that the problem was bone rubbinb against bone.  No wonder she was in so much pain.

The picture below shows a ball of medication that has a line going from her leg into her knee.  The rectangular object pumps the medication  in

to her knee to numb.   It has certainly reduced the pain she would probably feel without it.

Lucy, Pauline’s sister from Palm Desert, is visiting for a few days to help Pauline with whatever she needs.  This includes trips to the bathroom, a sponge bth and, of course, bringing her the other pain medications