We’re Not In Kansas Anymore

Another difference in our house now that Tony is in the hospital and I am at home?  I can keep the thermostat as low as I want.  Right now?  It’s set at 62.  See, I am always hot, Tony is always cold.  Obviously I keep the house as warm as Tony wants it, which is at . . .75.  Yes, you read that right.   The thermostat is set at 75, we can have the wood burning fire place going and Tony is under an electric blanket.  Meanwhile you would think it was the 4th of July in the middle of November because I come home, feel the wave of heat as I walk in the back door, and proceed to put on shorts and a tank top.  I will even have boob sweat when I am finished cooking.  You’re welcome for that visual!

But yesterday, I may have bumped up the heat just a smidge.

But I have to agree with my blog friend Tia who lives near me.  As bad as 5 degrees is, see that it’s 5 degrees and feels like 5 degrees?  That means no wind chill, and that makes all the difference.  It’s not only been cold but so fricken windy – and yes, I get that we live in Chicago, the “windy city” but come on!

So with Tony’s transfer to the new hospital, there was really no way I could visit him before work.   I got the text from him at 5:00 telling me his room number but that was about it.  So I went about my day.  It was a named partners birthday, so there were treats.  I usually make him my whiskey bread pudding, but there was just no time.  I brought donuts, and the other girls brought fresh fruit and bagels.  Well, when it comes to bagels, I am hands down an everything bagel girl.  Asiago cheese is a close second.  But the carbs!  Nothing spikes my blood sugar more than bagels.  Damn sugars!  But I scooped out most of the inside of the bagel, so it came in at 2 ounces, compared to the typical 4 ounces a store bought bagel usually is – so my bagel sammie was 30 carbs instead of 60!  I used my microwave cooker to cook egg whites, baby spinach and pepper jack cheese for the middle.

I haven’t carried my DSLR with me for a couple weeks.  I don’t want to leave it in the car because it’s so cold, I don’t want to have it in the hospital room, so I’ve been relying on my iPhone 4 camera.  So that photo was taken as is, but below is the picture after I use the Photo Toaster app.  For a $2.99 app, it’s not bad!  I am still using iTunes gift cards the kids never used to pay for apps. All I did was crop it, use the “vibrant” setting, and put a border on it.  Took me like 30 seconds.

I ended up freezer diving again for lunch.  I threw some type of soup in my bag and let it thaw on the office counter in the morning.  When I looked at it a couple hours after it was thawing I saw lentils.  Huh.  I tried to remember what soup I made recently that had lentils in it, and went back to my blog achieve to figure out what it was, and then I realized.  Fuck.  It was lentil bolognese!

So since I was leaving work at 2:00 to go to the hospital, and my breakfast bagel held me for such a long time, I decided to pick up Jimmy John’s from across the street when I hit the road.  I had them cut it in half. I ate half in the car on the way to the hospital.  I was driving, so no pic of that.  The hospital is on the near west side of Chicago – you can see the Sears Tower in the distance.  I don’t care that it’s Willis Tower now, it will always be the Sears Tower to me.

So I did text Tony a couple times before I left.  I was worried how the transfer went, how the new hospital was, I was really on edge by the time I got there.  I just needed to get there and make sure he was alright.  That’s kind of like my job.   Um, let’s just say that we’re not in Kansas anymore.  There was strict security at the front desk.  Everyone needed a wrist ban.  There were security people everywhere.   At the old hospital I pretty much could walk anywhere I wanted, no questions asked!  Maybe it’s because they thought I worked there – ha!

So imagine my surprise when I walk into his room and . . . he’s not there.  Just an empty room, no bed and a recliner chair and the t.v. was going.  I went to the nurses station and found out that he had been taken to dialysis an hour earlier.  Damn.  It isn’t like the old hospital where they dialysis comes to you, you go to dialysis at this place.  And I couldn’t go down to where he was, so I just had to wait it out.  He finally came back at 7 p.m.! 

Has back was hurting, so not long after he returned, he got his pain meds and was peacefully sleeping.  Every once in a while he would wake up, look over at me and see my face, and then lay his head back down.  I brought some of the fruit from work, because normally that’s what he eats at home.  He woke up for about 15 minutes and I was able to get him to eat about a cup of fresh fruit.  He told me that they made rounds earlier in the day and he said “about 10 medical students followed the resident in – lots of people.”  We knew that going in, which is good!  While I was waiting for Tony to come back to the room, food service dropped off a tray for him.  I know for sure Tony had no say whatsoever about the dinner – do you know what was on his tray?

1. BBQ chicken
2. Baked Potato
3. Corn on the Cob (makes sense since its November)
4. A dinner roll
5. A container of skim milk
6. A 12 ounce glass of fruit punch
7. butter/pepper/salt free Mrs. Dash

He wouldn’t eat all that if he was even feeling well!

He wanted the lights turned out after his pain meds, so an hour or so after he came back, I ate the other half of my Jimmy John sandwich that was in my purse wrapped in napkins for the last few hours.  I ate it in the dark.

I wish I would have remembered to put my fit bit on yesterday – I bet I would have had 13,000 steps at a minimum.  Seriously since Tony has been in the hospital, work has been so busy!  Which is good, because the day goes by fast, but there isn’t a lot of down time in my day.  So you better believe after driving 105 miles to work, to the hospital and back home in one day, I had a glass of wine when I got home.  Yep, I am klassy and put my boxed red wine over ice!

So I have to fill up my tank before heading back down town this morning.  Not sure when the rounds are on the weekends, but the nurse gave me a number to call in case I miss them.  I don’t know if this hospital is like our local hospital where not a whole lot goes on over the weekend or not.  I guess we will see!

At least our weather is supposed to be in the low 50s today – gotta love that!  I may wear flip flops!  Have a great weekend.  Hugs!