I wish I was one of those people who reacted to stress by curling up in a ball and watching trash t.v. But no such luck. Tonight I decided it was a good time to clean out more closets and gather up clothes donation bags and then clean out the refrigerator. Because if your kidneys fail it's very important to at least have a clean refrigerator.
Jack is hiding in his room to avoid more chores where he is no doubt enjoying his perfectly organized and cleaned out closet.
Erik is sleeping. He is doing ok after the surgery. Sort of tired, sort of sore, and sort of entertaining when the pain meds kick in.
Yesterday I did call our friends over to enjoy the side effects of someone who has a very low tolerance to pain meds. Unfortunately, by the time they got here he was on the tapering off side of the deal.
This was after he shared some pretty graphic surgical incision stories with the poor homeless college students who came over for Easter dinner. Stories that started with "this is gross, but I'm going to tell you anyway." He holds his alcohol like a 17 year old girl slurring her way through her second peach wine cooler so I'm not too surprised that his first adventure with prescription meds is a perk for the rest of us. Cheap fun.
Erik still can't drive so tomorrow I am playing the role of dialysis buddy. I have a list of questions prepared since I am hearing new information from him, hourly, and figure I need to go right to the source.
I did learn that he doesn't have to do the cattle call dialysis in a room full of bored talkative people. He gets a private room. I was listing off all of the good things I must have done to earn him a private room when he blurted out that it's simply because of the type of dialysis he chose. Whatever.
Things I do know:
He is getting trained for the overnight home dialysis so he basically has to lay down for 8 hours every day he is there. I offered to read to him but he's not into young adult drama and pretty much that's all I read.
He will go daily for anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks.
The dialysis people need to do a home check before they release him to home dialysis. I guess to make sure I don't stick him in a stuffy room with 20 cats and garbage? Anyway, there are all sorts of rules I am just hearing of. The location needs to be on the first floor, sanitized, no pets, no clutter, etc etc. I think he should take back his annoyance at my cleaning spree in his office last week. And when I say "my" I mean the fabulous people who find joy in cleaning the homes of other people. There is a special place in heaven for them.
His office will become his combo home office dialysis center. I may or may not have made funny references to Kathy Bates in Misery that only one of us thought was hysterical.
Dialysis is not as simple as plugging in and turning on a machine. There is a lot to learn and do. I have my pink spiral notebook, my scented gel pens and my color coordinated tabs. I'm ready for the challenge.
Have some nice thoughts for Erik over the next few weeks. Laying down and doing absolutely nothing all day is pretty close to the bottom of his list of things he likes to do. Add people poking you and talking at you and I'm pretty sure he would rather be anywhere else. He hasn't complained once. I'm guessing I voice all of his complaints for him just fine.
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