A Rocky Start to the New Year

January 5, 2015 – A Rocky Start to the New Year

This tells you what my new year has been like.

At times these past few days, I’ve felt as if I’m running the Thompson Convalescent Center.  The first patient, Elliott, has been experiencing increasing difficulty breathing for the past few weeks.  He seemed to get tired from relatively minor exertion and spent much of his time in a horizontal position. To make matters worse, one of his hearing aids broke about a week ago and had to be sent out for repair. 

When Elliott is forced to curtail his activities, his appetite plummets, and he becomes understandably cranky and demanding.  His respiratory condition worsened over the weekend, when a simple walk from the bed to the bathroom resulted in several minutes of panting and gasping for air.  I was so concerned that I suggested taking him to the emergency room right away.  It didn’t surprise me when he refused to go.  However, as soon as he got up on Monday morning, he called and made an appointment to see his pulmonologist (lung specialist) the same day.  

The doctor examined him and found no cause for major concern.  While Elliott’s blood oxygen level was lower than it usually is, he showed no sign of pneumonia.  It seemed to be a simple flare-up of his COPD, which can occur from time to time.  Elliott started on a 10-day course of prednisone and is still taking it easy.  We’ve also ordered an oxygen concentrator, a piece of equipment that extracts oxygen from the air and delivers it to the patient through small plastic prongs placed in the nostrils.  In the event that Elliott experiences shortness of breath again, he’ll be able to supplement his oxygen intake and reduce his stress level. 

In addition to his breathing problems, Elliott has been suffering from back pain.  At times, it was so bad that it immobilized him.  This is probably due to the resistance he developed to his pain medication.  The only way to alleviate his pain now is to take the painkillers more often.  After some experimentation, he finally came up with a schedule that seems to work.  It requires taking pain pills six times within a 24-hour period, including at 4 o’clock in the morning.  Since he’s afraid he’ll forget to take a pill, I have five reminders set on my phone.  At least for the 4:00 a.m. pill, he came up with brilliant plan that allows me to sleep through the night.  He sets an alarm on his cell phone and sets the phone to vibrate.  When he gets into bed, he puts a glove on one hand and slips the phone into the glove.  He wakes up when it vibrates in the palm of his hand. 

And now for the second patient who’s currently convalescing in our house – Marshall.  My stepson fell on our front steps little over a week ago, and didn’t mention his accident to us at the time it occurred.  He figured the pain in his ribs would go away in a couple of days.  But it didn’t.  In fact, it got so bad that he couldn’t sleep at night.  So last Wednesday (New Year’s Eve), he decided to make an appointment at Kaiser to find out if he’d fractured anything.  Of course, in his condition, he couldn’t drive, so he put in a call to the Thompson Patient Transport Service. 

X-rays showed that Marshall had badly bruised ribs but no broken bones.  The doctor gave him a prescription for a strong painkiller to make him more comfortable.  We were all starving when we finally left Kaiser, so we went out for New Year’s Eve lunch at La Cote d'Or, a charming French restaurant in Falls Church.  Since it’s impossible for Marshall to drive, we suggested that he move in with us until he’s feeling better.  It wasn’t quite the New Year’s Eve I’d been anticipating.  

Mussels with pommes frites for Elliott

A slice of buche de Noel helps Marshall forget his pain.

On New Year’s Day, after caring for the two patients, I was eager to escape from the house – actually, I was desperate to escape from the never-ending football on TV.  I called Matt and asked him to meet me at a new Chinese restaurant in Fairfax.  Hunan Taste purports to serve “authentic” Chinese food in addition to the more familiar Chinese-American favorites.  I’m always interested in trying new types of food, but one look at their menu, and I started to reconsider.  Fish maw (whatever that is), fish head, fish tail, pig ears, ox lung, pig blood, tripe, pork intestines, chicken gizzard, spicy frog, and soft shell turtle didn’t sound very appetizing to me.  Fortunately, I found a delicious vegetable dish (baby bok choy and mushrooms) and a version of Kung Pao chicken that were quite satisfying.  Our friendly server (whose English was extremely limited) must have told the chef to tone down the heat level because the dishes weren’t as spicy as we were expecting.  Matt and I agreed that Hunan Taste is worth a return visit.  

One of the "safer" dishes on the menu at Hunan Taste

Of course, when I came home, the boys were still watching football on TV, and it went on well into the night.  The television has been on almost non-stop since Marshall arrived.  Thanks to Marshall, I now know which channels show classic movies, British comedies and murder mysteries, and English soccer games.  The pain medication gives Marshall some relief, but he still can’t move freely.  Since he has perfected the art of leisure, he seems quite content to spend his days on the sofa. 

As for Elliott, he’s still spending a lot of time napping.  It will take time for him to regain his strength.  I’m trying my best to tempt him to eat a bit more – offering juice, ice cream, cookies, and other calorie-rich goodies throughout the day.  Everyone is on a different schedule when it comes to breakfast and lunch, but we all sit down together to eat a multi-course dinner.  At dinnertime, I feel as if I’m running a restaurant single-handedly.  Some of the items that have been on the menu at Café Thompson in recent days are moussaka (yum!) – along with stuffed grape leaves and Greek salad; split pea soup; roasted beet salad with chevre; flounder fillets with a sauce Aurore over spinach; and braised red cabbage.  About that cabbage dish – it’s so sweet and delicious, I could eat it for dessert.  

This red cabbage is unbelievably delicious.

While I’m enjoying the cooking, I hope Elliott and Marshall will recover soon.  Nurse Robin’s patience is starting to wear thin.