tina_black

I called his child on his phone, and left her a message to call his room.  She called, and then she came there.  I said

Oh yes.

When I move this over to LJ most of it will go behind a cut.

On Monday, John and I went to get a marriage license.  Since he has started falling, Jim and Paula Murray came with me, and we used a wheelchair to get him to the office.  Yes, the rules are that both of you must appear in person - and so we did.  We all went back to his house, got him back inside, moved a bed downstairs, and put him into it.  We were due to get married on Sunday, 11/1. 

Around 4 PM John said "I have a bad feeling about waiting to get married.  Can we bump it up?"  I said "Sure, we can do it right now if you want to."  And so Jim went home to clean up and change.  We dragooned Cindy N into coming and being our second witness (Paula being the first AND the photographer), and as soon as Jim came back, he performed the ceremony, and John and I were married.

Well of course, I then declined to leave him and go back to my house for the night.  I was worried about him.  I woke up once and changed chairs, and then when I woke a second time in the middle of the night, his head was hot.  I took his temperature and it was 99.9.  So since I could not cope if he was really sick, I called 911.  He went by ambulance to St. Lukes.  They did a chest x-ray, and found what they thought was pneumonia -- which explained a lot about his constant naps and shortness of breath feelings.  So they admitted him.  They gave him a shot, and whatever was in it made him agitated and  -- almost hallucinating.  I told them whatever that was, he was never to have it again.  The shot to calm him down made it worse.  I told them no more of that either.

I called his child on his phone, and left her a message to call his room.  She did, and then she came there.  I didn't say hi, just "Your dad and I got married yesterday" and I left the room so they could be alone.  When she emerged, she was very upset because he was confused.  I said "I promise you that this is a bad drug reaction, and that he is still all there.  When it wears off you will see."  The next morning when she came there he was almost back to normal, and she was much cheered.  I suspect she is also much cheered to know that she will not be going through what's coming all alone.  I was her godmother from birth -- and now she's my stepdaughter.  She knows I can make the trains run. 

That night his temperature climbed to 101.8, and they started IV antibiotics.  He has had them until this morning, and now he has moved to oral antibiotics. 

meanwhile, his doctor ticked me off big time, and on the third morning, I had a Come to Jesus meeting with him, and required changes in both regimen and behavior.  I told him he had been both negative and dismissive, and he had to stop that.  He had been attributing the confusion to cancer instead of to bad drugs -- a mistake -- and acted like I couldn't observe.  I told him I'd seen lots of people die, and of lung cancer, too -- a dozen in one year -- and while that might not be as many as he had seen, it was still plenty and I'd know when it had gone bad for real, because I've already seen it.  And I would thank him to listen when I tell him something, and not act like John was a goner while he was still fighting and maintaining.  He had suggested hospice -- and John is absolutely not ready for that yet.  My, he pissed me off.

He wrote the things I thought John needed into the orders, and come Monday John will be going to rehab to help him recover from a couple of weeks in bed.  The whole week before he spent "napping" almost around the clock -- getting very sick, in other words.  He wants to work at wellness -- and I  am going to make sure he gets the chance.

So here we are and it is Saturday.  Monday he moves to rehab, and maybe I will sleep in a bed again, at his house after today since I'm moving my bed over there.  It has been quite a week.  I actually went to work 12 hours or so!  Imagine!