Living In A Heat Wave

I’m living in a heat wave.  July in Arizona is here.  It is HOT!  June wasn’t much better.  We were supposed to start on our RV excursion on July 1st.  Unfortunately, that has been postponed.

It’s now been over a month that Dennis went to the emergency room because he had a very sore swollen knee.  Instead of just getting an x-ray and told to call his orthopedic doctor, they admitted him to treat a staph infection in his knee.  A month later we still cannot figure out how one gets a staph infection in their knee, especially since there are no recent open wounds.

For the past five weeks Dennis has been pretty much confined to the house.  Every eight hours he hooks himself up to an IV infusion sending antibiotics directly into his circulatory system.  He has one more week to go, if all goes well.  We will know for sure next week, after they run another weekly blood test, if next week will be the last week for these crazy antibiotics.  

I have to say I am super impressed with how Banner Home Health operates. It is probably like any other home health company, but I have never experienced anything like this.  The day before he came home from the hospital, Banner Health showed up at our door and delivered a big box of supplies for me.  I had to refrigerate the medicine and the other items were just put out on the kitchen counter waiting for Dennis’s arrival home and the visit from the nurse.  Within a couple hours of Dennis arriving home, a nurse showed up at our door.  She set up the IV pole and the pump and proceeded to teach us how to attach the tubing and the medication.  Then she walked us through actually giving the medication, which included clearing out the tubing with a saline wash, then connecting the tubing with medication to the pic line on Dennis’s arm, then clearing the line again with saline, and adding heparin to keep the line open.

After a few times of fighting with the machine, we became friends, and around the clock, every 8 hours, a bag of antibiotics goes through the tubing into Dennis’s arm through his heart and to his veins.  

We never thought this process would last so long and it would take so long before Dennis can actually walk without help.  He still uses a walker and promoted himself with  a cane.  He’s practicing at home for a bit before he ventures out the door with just a cane.  We are happy to see this progress.

Because of all this, we could not leave for our RV trip as planned on July 1st.  We have gone to Plan B by starting about five weeks later, and picking up the trip at our half way point, which is to be a wedding on the beach in Pensacola, Florida.  Since the beginning of our trip was to spend five weeks in Missouri, where we are both from, we will drop the part of the trip to National Parks out west, and finish off our trip in Missouri.  By the end of next week we will know if Plan B will be doable.  If not, we may go to plan C which would be waiting until later in August and go directly to Chicago, then drop down to our weeks in Missouri.  This would be a very abbreviated trip.  We don’t want to think about Plan D which would be no trip.

All of these plans are still up in the air.  Not only does Dennis have to be off of IV medications, his leg has be been healed enough for him to handle going up and down the stairs into and out of the RV, along with the ability to drive long distances, and do all the set up once arrived at our locations.

At this point there is a 50-50 chance we will be  going or not going on our trip as planned.  A healthy husband is more important than a trip around the country.

How do we beat the heat?  We stay indoors.  I have been working out in the swim spa almost daily.  Dennis cannot do any of that.  I realized he was needing to get out.  We went to the movies this week.  I needed to find a theater that had the reclining seats so he could elevate his leg.  It went well, though a first outing can also knock the stuffing out of you, as it did him.  

This week we went to church.  We have been watching church online and really miss seeing our friends there.  It was so good to be there in person again.  There are a couple more movies we want to see in the theaters, so we will try to do that again.  

In these five weeks, not going anywhere, I have made three quilts, and two hooded towels as gifts, and started on some projects for me.  I have done the grocery shopping, cleaning, taken two cars in for oil changes, and ran any errands that needed being done.  

Dennis feels bad I am doing all this work.  We usually share all the home duties.  I told him this is my job—I promised to be there for better or worse, in sickness and in health.  I know he would do the same for me.

Well, Arizona heat, I guess we get to enjoy you for a while yet.  

If you are the praying type, we would appreciate your prayers for healing for Dennis and even possibly the ability to do our shortened RV trip.

We are in God’s hands, and we both trust where he will lead us.