And no sooner had I posted the previous entry, packed up the electronics, and started readying myself for sleep rest closing my eyes than there came a knock at the door, telling me it was time to move to my new room NOW!

The journey was uneventful (and short), but I had to do a little unpacking when I got there, so it was well after 11pm before I made another attempt to fall asleep.

It was not very successful. When I awoke Tuesday morning, Apple told me that I’d slept 3 hours and 41 minutes; I think Apple was generous. Of course there were the usual hospital interruptions during the night; there was also a fire drill, which I completely ignored (I was awake, but nobody came to check on me – eventually, I called the nursing station who told me that all was well).

I was not energetic during the day and fell asleep about 7:15pm.

Wednesday morning was better. I’d slept almost 7 hours and felt nearly human! My nurse told me my vitals were moving in the right direction and there was a chance I might get to go home if all went well.

I was completely off the oxygen, and they took out the nasal canula. They took me out for a test walk with an oximeter monitoring my oxygen saturation – I logged it as a “indoor walk”: 0.06 miles in 4:17, burning 6 active kilocalories. I was movin’!

And the hospitalist agreed to let me go home (reluctantly – I’m sure he’d have preferred me to spend one more night in the interest of safety; I wanted to go home in the interest of sanity).

Diane came to get me, and the nurse took me through the discharge paperwork and made sure I understood my instructions and medication dosage schedule. I was thrilled to discover that there was no need to visit the Business Office – instead, a volunteer put me into a wheelchair, Diane brought the car over, and we went home!

It was great to be home; Diane had made salmon and salad, and there was some left over, so she warmed it up. It was delicious.

We went to bed about 9:45; I slept until 7, giving me nearly 8 hours of sleep. No one prodded, poked, or medicated me during the night. Lovely!

Today has been busy – I unpacked and put away the electronics and other things I hadn’t had the chance to deal with before going to the hospital.

I’m working on getting appointments with my PCP and with my cardiologist, and the Good Samaritan “Nurse Navigator” called me to ask how I was doing, whether I needed any help, and whether I had any questions…which she answered.

Rabbi Rafi at Shir Hadash called me to see how I was, but we had a hard time connecting – his calls went directly to voicemail on my phone without the phone ringing! I saw the voicemail of one of those calls just a few seconds after he left the message and was able to call him back, but I have no idea where to start figuring out what’s going on…so I just asked Siri AI for help, and it came through – T-Mobile’s “Scam Shield” categorizes Shir Hadash as a “Charity Call” and sends it to voicemail. I put the number on the “Allowed” list – I’ll see if that helps.

We made lunch and dinner, which was a pleasure.

It’s still going to be an early night tonight; I have almost 4,000 steps, which usually would mean I was stuck on an airplane or quite ill, but under the circumstances, I’m thrilled to see such a high number!

Tomorrow, I hope to have something more interesting to write about…like getting Home Assistant (home automation) updated to the current version.

I haven’t left my room in ICU since waking up here on Saturday; as a result, unless there’s a staff person walking through, I don’t get to talk to anyone. And this afternoon, anyone who isn’t vitally necessary has been at a Niners’ Watch Party, so it’s been very very quiet. I’m sitting in a comfyish chair just to the left of my bed, and I see the headrest out of the corner of my eye, and I keep interpreting it as a person watching what I’m writing (hmmm, maybe the DM is continuing to have an effect!). I haven’t asked it any questions yet, though I have considered it!

The morning was a different situation; I was visited by the phlebotomist before breakfast, then there was breakfast, a new first-shift nurse, a call with my brother Cliff, a pulmonary visit including giving me a smaller nasal canula (Face ID works again!) and less oxygen enhancement and a treatment with Pulmicort (inhaled steroid), and a visit from the Case Management Team to discuss any support I might need when discharged.

And then things got even busier with an echocardiogram (ultrasound), followed quickly by the cardiologist and my new nurse telling me that they plan to get me off inhaled oxygen and Diltiazem over the next 24 hours and start giving me Diltiazem (aka Cardizem) and Elequis (blood thinner) orally today because my heart and respiration rates are going down (good!) even though I’m still in A-Fib (bad and unsurprising). I can be discharged if I’m still in A-Fib, but not if I’m on oxygen or inhaled medicine. I won’t be going home before Tuesday, but I’m definitely moving in the right direction.

Which was good news to give Diane when she came over for a short visit to break up her lonely recovery at home! And then she was off to make lunch before the HVAC people arrived, while I had lunch on a tray table looking at the computer…at least I wasn’t on a conference call at the same time!

After lunch, my nurse began the titration process and gave me the first of the oral Caridizem and Elequis; I spent a few hours reading your wonderful notes on Facebook and on the blog and cleaning up email and even doing a little light coding to ease the annoyances of daily computer use. Undistracted time is a blessing, as long as there isn’t too much.

I also learned that I’m going to be moving from ICU to a regular room this evening (probably after I’m in bed). I will probably have a roommate, which will encourage me to want to get out quicker!

Cantor Felder-Levy tried to talk to me during all that and we finally made contact around 1:30pm – she’s afraid she’s coming down with something so she did her hospital visits by phone today. She and Diane talked a bit later, too.

There was other excitement at home when the HVAC people arrived; as I understand it, they sent three people to handle the problem, two outside and one looking at the inside air handler in the attic. And the problem was a little loose wiring in the attic, which he tightened. Then he reset the system and all was well – elapsed time maybe ten minutes. I don’t know if they got the fall checkup into that ten minutes – but I do need to get that done. :-)

The staff was setting up a watch party room for the Niners game tonight and I heard them talking about snacks and goodies. I’m on the heart-healthy-boring diet, but I asked my nurse if he could get me something anyway. He couldn’t, but he told me the not-so-secret number for dietary services (*3FOOD), said I should call them when I was ready for something good, and they’d tell me my approved choices. The brownie I ordered was by far the best thing I’ve eaten here. It was, of course, the only thing I’ve had with chocolate!

And they started me on yet another new medicine, Metroprelol, to keep my heartbeat down as they take me off the inhaled medicines. It’s as though they want me to go home or something!

I need to pack up my personal belongings before I go to bed (that mostly means the computer, phone, and charging kit); they’ll wheel me to the new room while I sleep away the journey (hah!). Let the adventure begin!