I woke up in pain on Wednesday morning. My left arm was killing me because I'd taken a nap on the couch and somehow slept on it wrong while Eric had cleaned the bedsheets. I wasn't entirely exhausted then, though, and felt mentally in a better place.
Eric gave me a bowl of grapes before I went to bed, and I woke up repeatedly in the night and reached over and took one, thus killing the thirst I was having from the fluid restrictions. It was nice.
The medicines I take in the morning are enough to turn me into a zombie for a few hours, at best, and put me into a virtual sleep coma at worst. The main medicine takes away my immune system so the lupus stops attacking my kidneys. The Satan Spit prevents other infections from attacking my lungs while I have no immune system. The presnisone does both jobs and many more unwanted jobs while I try to step up the first medicine. I also have a ton of medicines to keep my heart pumping, since that's also a concern. All of them together make me extremely weak and shaky. And the side effects are ghastly.
On Wednesday my insurance company called and I had a long talk with a representative about how KADLEC had treated me and whether or not I was satisfied by the care and attention I was getting. My insurance, Ambetter Coordinated Care, was purchased on the exchange (Obamacare) and seems to be a company absolutely determined to make people healthy instead of make a ton of profits. For me, both the hospital and the insurance actually seem to care that I'm getting better and neither consider me to be just a consumer of a product. That makes a ton of difference in how I feel, healthwise. If it continues, I might actually get through this.
Wednesday afternoon, life started to get stressful again as we needed some supplies from the grocery store before the next snowfall hit, and the car wouldn't start. When it gets very cold, the battery on my car just doesn't like it and Eric couldn't get it to turn over. He hadn't put the battery tender on because he hadn't thought we'd need it. I called a neighbor friend who rushed over and took Eric to the store before the snow hit, THANK YOU SARA, and we got the needed supplies, thus saving me a lot of pain and suffering.
I had been a bit worried about Eric's mental state for awhile, but I started to really be concerned after this incident. He's not a trained caregiver. This has been dumped on him fairly unexpectedly. He's working. And while the nurses in the hospital had a ton of experience and could practically read my mind, he doesn't know what sick-Laura needs. So, please continue to spare a thought for him as he works out how to live and survive on this difficult road.
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