September 8

Good day yesterday. I found some more comfy, pull on shorts at Walmart, some button up nightgowns at Target that babydoll treated me to (thank you, babydoll!), and some zip up hoodies at Family Dollar. The only thing I couldn't lay my hands on were more yoga pants. The two pairs I'm currently wearing on an almost daily basis, I bought at Family Dollar last year. They don't seem to have them any more. Although I'm hoping it's because they're seasonal. The rack where I found them before is currently full of shorts so maybe some time this month the shorts will get swapped out for pants. I'll keep checking back. The store is only a block over from my house and makes a nice little walk every now and then.

Picked up my scrips at Wegman's. The Roxicet was there. The extra week of antibiotic was there. And now that my thyroid med has been doubled, there was some extra of that to pick up as well. No med to help with the smell from my infection. Not sure if H misunderstood JoAnn or if she simply never made that happen. Either way, I'm okay with it. Babydoll said the smell has dissipated a lot over the past week so if he can deal, I can deal.

One of the three bumpers under my feeding tube fell off yesterday. No idea if it's supposed to do that but I tend to think they were a temporary thing to let the skin under the PEG heal. I'll have to ask about it while I'm in the hospital. I think the sutures holding the trach tube in are on their last legs too. I know that those are temporary because eventually I will be removing the trach on a daily basis to clean it. I had asked Michelle why the medical supply place had dropped off a boatload of trach cleaning kits and it turns out that's why.

I gave poor babydoll a heart attack yesterday. We pulled into the Family Dollar parking lot and I started coughing. I coughed up a clot but not all the way. I could see it in the trach tube but without my tweezers or Qtips being handy, I couldn't reach it. I then sucked it back in on my next breath and it went in the wrong way and started blocking my breathing. I motioned to babydoll that we should go home immediately. I ran into the house, dumped some saline into my lungs and suctioned. I managed to get the clot back up. Babydoll hurried down the stairs and got to watch the whole disgusting process. I have no idea how he forces himself to hug me with all this grossness going on. So now I have Qtips and a small pair of tweezers in my purse. I will be getting a longer, better pair of tweezers for my purse, shortly.

I then gave myself a heart attack. I hadn't showered since Monday. I know, ewwww. I can't help it, it's a HUGE PITA with this whole neck incision thing going on. Anyway, I decided that I really wanted to shower yesterday right before babydoll did his packing routine on the neck wound. This was not a problem last time because Dr. R had told us to bandage it pretty darned tight. I had forgotten that Dr. Brendan had told us to keep it loose but snug. So of course the bandage gets wet in the shower but it then falls down and covers my stoma! Ugh! All I know is I suddenly wasn't able to breathe and I couldn't figure out why. I kept thinking the little plastic cape that I wear over the stoma was doing something funny but tugging and adjusting it wasn't helping anything. I finally leaped out of the shower and looked in the mirror over the sink which is how I discovered what the issue was and was able to correct it. I told babydoll I want a big mirror hung in the shower with me. I don't ever want something like that to happen again. I want to be able to see my damn stoma every second that I'm in the shower. I've already started researching.

That was pretty much all the excitement yesterday. Although I did get my hospital bag packed last night with all my new nightgowns and whatnot. Today is going to be a mix of being a bump and doing a final cleaning on the house for Mr. Jamie. I'm really glad that I washed all of his bedding immediately after getting out of the hospital last week. That's one less thing I have to worry about today.

I'm off and running............