Roberto had a bad day yesterday. He started feeling nauseated again yesterday afternoon and most of the evening. He lost his appetite yesterday during the day, but did manage to eat a little for supper last night (and keep it down). But he spent the evening heaving into a pink plastic basin. This continued this morning as he threw up his six a.m. meds. They re-dosed him at 8AM. Plus he told me that his fingers were feeling “tingly.” He promised to let the doctor know about this and about the constant upchucking (hence the title of this post). I’ll update with what I find out.

I stayed overnight at the hospital last night so we could leave for home as soon as Robert felt like it. He had to wait around for his morning medication, and then get his “take outs” for the day. Curfew was easygoing, the nurse said “Anytime before 9PM.”

He had another UTI, though, which they were treating with Levaquin. Robert knows from experience that some of his UTIs don’t even notice Levaquin. He may as well be taking M&M candies for all the good it does. But when the culture comes back early next week, the doctor will know what exactly is causing the infection (E. coli? something else?) and will be able to treat it more appropriately. But for now, they’ve prescribed the Levaquin.

I went ahead and got him started on D-Mannose, which is a natural sugar, so it’s easy on the diabetic. It’s great for a UTI. I used to be plagued with them all the time, at least four or five times a year. Until I started taking D-Mannose. It was the best $35 I ever spent. I haven’t had an UTI since, and it’s been almost two years.
It’s been developed by Dr. Jonathan Wright, a Tacoma, Washington, physician. Read about it here. It’s not junk science at all. But if it completely eliminates recurring bladder infections, can you see why the medical community wouldn’t be all that interested in touting its effectiveness?
Enough about that. About Robert’s day out. He had me cruise down 288 (South Freeway) just because he wanted to see how the car rode. He hadn’t been in it before, except once last week to practice a car/wheelchair transfer. But we didn’t go anywhere, obviously.
He enjoyed his ride and we then came home. It was a piece of cake getting the wheelchair in the back door. He was able to move around the kitchen, hallway and elsewhere. The only problem is going to be our teeny-tiny bathroom. But the Occupational Therapy Department at TIRR is working on solutions to that for us.
I fixed him the lunch he had requested when he first knew he was coming home, his favorite salad (in fact, the only salad he will eat!), Hill Country Salad, which is just romaine lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, bacon, hard-boiled egg, fried chicken strips (we cheated and got the chicken tenders from the Church’s drive-through to save time and they were great, plus no mess to clean up!), grated cheddar cheese and (this is crucial) honey mustard dressing.
He had his meal, washed it down with Diet Coke and sat back and watched a little TV and visited with “his” cat, Sunny. Sunny was all over him like a cheap suit. He really missed Robert and it was great to see them interact. The wheelchair confused Sunny a bit. But he’ll get used to it.
Because of the UTI, Robert ran out of steam pretty quickly, so we packed up and headed back to TIRR around 4PM. I think Robert enjoyed getting out of the hospital for awhile. And the weather? We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day if we’d ordered it out of a catalog! The fates were definitely smiling down on us today, considering how ugly and wet and dreary this past week has been!

Good news to report. I sat in on the weekly team meeting this morning. Robert’s pain has subsided. The doctor is 99.9% sure it was a muscle sprain. Let’s keep fingers, toes, eyes crossed on that! He had a CT scan yesterday to rule out other possibilities. We should know the findings from that CT scan later today or tomorrow.

We also practiced a wheelchair/car transfer on the Honda out in the parking lot this morning. It was a piece of cake!

Plus, the best news of all: Robert is getting a day pass for this weekend! Yayness! I am like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. I bet he is too. Well, that’s all for now.