A Long Day

Thursday morning, My alarm went off at 3:30 A.M. I changed my alarm from The Rolling Stones, It’s Only Rock and Roll, to Brandy by Looking Glass. It is a much gentler wake up. It doesn’t almost give me a heart attack when the alarm goes off. Especially at 3:30 in the morning.

I always check the weather on my phone to see what the day will be like. The weather looked promising with lots of sunshine. We were headed to Nashville for a follow up appointment for Mark to check on the shingles. They are doing much better but we also needed to see what the new medicine was doing to his kidney function. Hopefully it was not disturbing it at all.

I ran downstairs for coffee and let Scruffy go out for a pee. I got the babies some food and me a large cup of coffee and a bite of breakfast. I had to boot Molly out too so that she could get a bathroom break in before we left. It was still be dark when we left so we had to put her back inside. I’m not taking any chance on coyotes.

We had to be on the road by 5:30. Our appointment was not until 8:30 and we gain an hour because of the change from the eastern time zone to the central time zone. It is about a three and a half hour drive for us and you never know what Nashville traffic may be like. The reason we like really early morning appointments is because we get in and out before the appointments start backing up. This gets us back home by around 2:00 PM.

I packed a cold pack with waters and a few snacks. Mark can’t have anything to eat or drink until after he has blood work. He sleeps on the way over. I sip on a yeti full of coffee and listen to my music and drive.

The drive over was uneventful, traffic was not too bad. It seems like we have made this drive a hundred times, probably have I have never stopped to add it up.

We arrived about twenty minutes before the appointment time and checked in. They told me that I would not be allowed to go back for the visit this time because they are only allowing the patient. I smiled and said nothing thinking oh yes I’m going, that happens to be my kidney as well. HA!!! And I did.

Mark and I were both concerned that the shingles were not healing as fast as they should be but the doctor reassured us that with him it was just going to take some time. More time than it usually does for the average person. She said the tenderness and some of the irritation could last for months. She also was not happy to hear that Mark was back to work full time she said his body was still healing and needed extra rest. All I could think was “preach sister” he won’t listen to me. When we asked how she felt this new anti-viral medicine that Mark was taking for the shingles was affecting his kidney, she said it should not affect it at all, for the length of time he would be on it. He will have to be on it for another week or so. She said his one kidney was functioning at the same level as anyone else with two kidneys. This is what you hope for of course but it doesn’t always turn out that way. Whew!!! we were relieved!!!!

Mark had to go to the lab and get his blood work and I made a trip to the Starbucks, located inside the hospital, to get him a coffee, his first of the day. Within an hour of arriving at the hospital we are out the door and headed home. After another hour the results from his labs started coming in on his Vanderbilt patient portal that he gets online. Everything looked great!!! The kidney, Baby Kay, was still going as strong as ever. What a relief.

I would like to say we zipped right back home but we ran into one delay after another, car wrecks, road work, road closures etc. We finally made it home by 3:30 exhausted but so relieved that everything was going well that it was all totally worth it.

I hope you week is going well.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!