Tuesday

Oh, it was a long day.

Last night I decided to do a little reading before bed.  I was able to borrow a book I liked because I'm a Prime member, nice.  I wonder how the author gets paid out of that.

I turned off the wifi in my Kindle and put it on to charge.  I have been having battery issues.

Then I went to bed.  I did not sleep well, Ron was fine, so were the cats, I just didn't sleep.  Frustrating, especially as we had a very long day today.

I got up very early and got dressed, helped Ron, put my pills and a shake in the back of the wheelchair, and off to work.  We worked for hours.  We missed the sandwich delivery.  We asked the other vendor to get it for us.

They agreed, especially as we were leaving early to take Ron to the pain doc.  We got there very early, about 2 hours before our appointment.  The office girl spotted us and called us back, and gave us a specimen cup for Ron.

Ron had had 2 and a half bottles of water at this point.  He went in the bathroom and "tried" and tried.  And tried.  I got out my Kindle and read literally half my book.  Standing outside the bathroom.  I would have thought 2 bottles would be plenty.  He finished the third bottle.  Nothing.

[Curses]  I talked to Ron.  He said it is not an issue of emptying the bladder, rather there was nothing in the bladder.  So he was dehydrated.  I gave him one of my bottles of soda and he started working on that.  About the time the doctor came by.  I asked if his assistant could "cath" Ron and the doctor said not to worry about it, they would just do the visit right now.

So I got Ron dressed and into the exam room.  Doc came by a little later, had the visit.  Ron's back is apparently a remarkable wreck, based on the pain doctor's descriptions and attitude.  Sort of a "I don't see how you're functional at all" perspective.  He wrote another prescription.

I still had the specimen cup and we were meeting my aunt for lunch.  I told the staff I would take the cup and if Ron could fill it, he would, and we would bring it back.

We went outside and my very punctual aunt was waiting.  We stuffed Ron in her backseat, I got the wheelchair in the trunk, and we figured out where we wanted to go for lunch.  We went.

Service was pretty slow but the food was good.  We had a good time.

She took us back to the doctor's office.  She would have taken us home but we would have gotten a penalty mark.  Besides, Ron still had to pee.

Sure enough, he asked for the cup when we got back to the doctor's office.  I took him in a different bathroom, showed him the grab bars and the toilet, gave him the cup (after he sat) and left.  He shouted for me a minute later, presenting me with a cup of brown, dehydrated, urine.  If mine looked like that my urethra would be burning.  Men must be a lot different.

I found the medical assistant and gave it to her in a plastic bag, so she wouldn't have to touch it ungloved.  She was happy to see it and said they were looking forward to seeing us next month.

THANK GOD.  Done with.

Then Ron called for our ride home and they came in about an hour.  I finally had a chance to sit down and finished reading my book.  I told him, next time I am plying him with drinks the night before his appointment, making sure he is good and soaked by the time he has his appointment.  I also said this is a cautionary tale for him, that it took 3, twenty ounce, bottles of water and half a bottle of soda to produce a small amount of urine, that he is that dehydrated.  I said I would be nagging him a lot more about his water intake and he said OK.

Our driver came, went to the wrong parking lot, but was a nice kid when she found us.  We had a straight trip home (very unusual to get a straight trip each way on a long trip like we had).  The brakes squeaked but otherwise a great trip.

Ron was so exhausted he could not get out of his wheelchair to ride in a regular seat, and rode home in the wheelchair.  I was worried about getting him into bed, but he managed.  I fed the cats.  Then he had to go to the bathroom, that was pretty ugly.

I want to put that safety frame on the toilet.  I will feel a lot better if I do.  He is too tired to check it out now but I will set it up tomorrow, let him try getting on and off, let me know if he wants it or not.

Ron and I have a very bad habit of not asking for help, or not accepting it.  We both need to work on that.

So I will try the frame tomorrow.

I'm off for a while.  I have a huge bucket of iced tea at my side.  I don't need to do laundry so my big goal for the evening is to learn the half Turkish get-up kettlebell move.  I think I would like to add it to my kettlebell workouts.

Tomorrow I get up early, do my workout, shower, take Ron to the dentist.  Hopefully it is cheap.

Torbie is lying by my feet, Biscuit is lying behind me on the floor.  Baby Girl is lying with Ron.

When I went to check on Ron a minute ago I saw blood all over his leg, he managed to scratch himself somehow and bled a bit.  I mopped all that up and disinfected him.  I need to remember to throw some peroxide or Dermoplast on him a couple times a day until that is healed, although he seldom gets skin infections.

I am running to the donut shop tomorrow after the dentist and will get 2 donuts only.  I think it is a fair treat for all the medical companionship I've been doing.

Especially all the urine drama.

Edit, cleaned out the garage some more, ordered 2 racks for garage (one for my fitness books), collected and took out the trash, took trash can to street.  Now I need to figure out my dinner.