I’m back from two days from the hospital – tired and worn out and facing the last week of summer with a distinct lack of childcare during normal business hours. On the way home yesterday, Jeremy texted to me this photo of this completely adorable dog that showed up at the house. I was like – OMG! This is a sign from the gods that this is our new dog. As if a little poofy dog with a flower pinned to her ear is clearly un-owned and un-wanted. The dog was claimed and returned and we are still only a one-dog family.
I had a patient who had some bowel surgery and had been in the hospital for a while and I was discharging them. When one has bowel surgery, afterwards, you start out not eating anything, then advance to clear liquids (jello, broth), then go to full liquids (cream of wheat?) and then to GI soft and finally to regular food. I was discharging this person to go home as they were nicely progressing up the meal hierarchy and as I walked into the room, they said – I just had the most amazing poop of my life. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve pooped well? Forever. Literally forever. I wasn’t pooping well for ages before the surgery and now it’s been like 4 a days since the surgery. Can I tell you all about my poop? I said- it’s pretty much my job to listen to the status of your pooping, go on right ahead. And happily they proceeded to tell me, in great detail, all about it. Ha ha, that was nice. Don’t take good bowel function for granted. I keep thinking that the hospital work would get easier, but it’s not true. As you know more, there is actually more to do. Because once you know enough, you call the docs to fix wrong orders or to suggest courses of action or you see potential problems down the road and can see ways to prevent those problems.
I got home on Monday night and found Jeremy packing for his trip to Sioux City. He asked me if I’d be willing to give him a ride at 5 am in case he couldn’t get a Lyft. I said sure, but as the conversation continued, it became clear that he was anxious about the whole check-in procedure because he’s bringing his bike. Through careful internet research, he’s found a way to check a bike in as regular luggage which is about $30. But if they check it in as a bike it’s $150. He was willing to pay $30 and unwilling to pay $150, but if he took a Lyft and they were going to charge him $150, he’d be stuck at the airport with his bike and a Lyft ride to go home. I said, don’t worry about it, just check it for $150, it’ll still be cheaper than a bike rental. He said – I’ll just feel stupid paying $150. So then I offered to drive him to the airport to solve this problem. [He is generally anxious about this trip for various reasons, so I didn’t want this stupid bike check-in to take up any extra anxiety points in his life.] [[This is such a boring story.]] Then we told Vince that we were going to leave a sleeping Edda with (a sleeping) him for a few hours in the morning and that if he needed to flee the house, to please remember to bring Edda with him because we would not be home. Vince said OK, I’ll bring Edda outside and set her down next to the tree in the front yard. And then I told him to help Edda before helping Maxi and then Jeremy said that Max can take care of herself, just keep the door open.
