The day after

***Continued from All trick no treat.

I don't know how I fell asleep but I did. My alarm went off at 8am and I awoke not realizing the precarious situation we were in. I turned off my alarm by slapping my phone a few times and rolled over to doze off again. With in seconds reality hit me and I sprung up to action. I checked my phone and there were about 40 texts, dozens and dozens of social media messages. So much love and outpoor of support from family, friends and even strangers. I had updated everyone of the sad news before I went to sleep. People must have woken up on the east coast and seen what happened and reached out. I was trying to play catch up with responding to people while also getting ready. 

My best friend Emily and her amazing mom Lea Ann, had already booked flights to come out that night to be there for us. They now had to deal with canceling their flights. There were phone calls to make and people to update. But, that would all have to wait till I got to the hospital. I literally booked it out of the house, I forgot to put on socks and had to run back in to grab them. I flew to Trader Joes to get flowers to make Rima a bouquet. I have a serious problem with most flower shops, they are either over priced or basic flower arrangements. Rima needed something extra ordinary. So I got a few different options to make one myself. I got to the hospital in record time. I would have one hell of an explanation, if I were to be pulled over. "Sorry sir, but was your sister tricked out of a double lung transplant last night? No? Then please sir, let me be on my way. I bid you  good day. Good day."

I got to the ICU and found her room after some very nice nurses pointed my frantic tush in the right direction. I was trying to beat the clock. I knew Rima would be awake around 10:45am and probably wondering where I was. She would never request me to be there by a certain time. She didn't have her phone, so that was second reason I was rushing. After the last 24 hours, being all alone was not what the doctor would have ordered. Phew, she was still sleeping as I crept into her private room. I set the flower bouquet down on the tray table by her so when she opened her eyes they would be the first thing she saw. I sat down across from her and started to respond to the numerous people who cared so much about her and our situation. About a half an hour later she stirred. Her eye fluttered open and she gazed across at the flowers and then me. "When did you get here" she whispered. 

The next hour consisted of some tears. Lots of hugs and lots of words of encouragement. I was still the rock. I was not allowed to crack, nope not under any circumstance. Buck up Laima bean its game time! Her nurse let us know that if Rima was able to walk around for a little and do some vest and neb therapies the doctors were okay with letting her go home. This is huge, because a lot of people need to stay a few days after an ordeal like this. Yes, ordeal...I can say that now. Now that I've had multiple medical professionals use that word to describe what we just went through. We're not alone in this, other people on the transplant list go through similar dry runs. But the percentage of this ordeal happening is small. They said it was a rare percent that actually get put to sleep and have the breathing tube put in. So of course we went through it. Rima always seams to get the short end of the stick, from insurance issues, to medications, to unknown medical issues. Figures we would have the dry run that is not common. 

Rima being Rima insisted on being discharged that afternoon. She went on a walk, did all her therapies and bugged every staff member who entered her room about going home. Yep, that's why I love her. I would be the exact same way. Get me the hell out of here! Finally mid-afternoon she was set free. The ride home was pretty quiet. Both of us were still trying to process the last 36 hours or so. We got home, I unpacked the car got Rima settled in bed. I was not planning on sleeping. I had drank 4 coffees and had taken some adderall. After watching Rima laying in her comfy bed my brain pooped itself. There was no point in fighting it, I needed some sleep. I crawled into bed and passed out for a couple hours. 

The rest of Tuesday consisted of unpacking and reorganizing from the last day. I had gotten home the night before and kind of just thrown my shit all over my room and living room. Rima decided that she would go to the pulmonary rehab the next morning, even though she had a valid reason for skipping it this time. But, returning to our normalcy was the best way to move on. Something like this happening again and soon was very possible. We needed to work through these emotions quickly. 

Wednesday she forced herself to go to pulmonary rehab even though she was exhausted. After we got home and she took a nap. Then we decided to do something fun. We need to be cheered up! A couple weeks ago I came up with the idea of going to an animal shelter and playing with the dogs there, if they allowed it. I called the Human Society located eight minutes from us and they were so into people doing that, so that's what we did. When we showed up the volunteers were so excited and happy that we just wanted to play with dogs. Apparently not a lot of people know you can do that, I mean we didn't till very recently. We got to play with two different dogs in their outdoor fenced in yard. The first dog was a little hyper. The second one had no interest in catch but was such a love muffin. 

Rima was pretty tired by the end of it so we opted out of a third dog. We will definitely do that again, personally once a week would be ideal for me! The rest of the day was lazy and quiet for us. Thursday we had a doctors appointment at MNU with some blood work and PFT's. This has become a weekly occurrence for us. These appointments always last us a good chuck of time. At least 4-5 hours. It might have to do with how much we talk and our questions, but that's doubtful. I think the back and forth of Rima and the doctor going over what IV's to give her and what she's allergic to takes up at least an hour. It makes my head spin every time. I need to record the next time this happens. It starts off with the doctor going over what medications she is currently on, then what she thinks she should be on, then it progresses to what Rima can't take because her body has become resistant to it or now is allergic to it. I'm going to low-ball this but there are at least 6-9 names being tossed around like a baseball between Rima and the doctor and may I add, super casually. As soon as I memorize one ridiculously named antibiotic they come out of left field with a more ridicules named one. WHO'S NAMING THESE THINGS? UGH!

Just call them A, B, C, D and so on. You don't have to make them sound like some sort of alien babies name from Mars. Honestly it's kind of rude. People who take these many drugs and medications already have mushy brains from the drugs so why make it even more difficult. RUDE! It's seriously impressive hearing their banter of brainstorming over drug cocktails and why she should try oral, IV, inhaled, pilled, blah...blah...blah. That's what it sounds like to me at the end of each meeting. Thank goodness I'm not being tested on this shit, I'd fail and miserably. Like I said before just name them A, B, C, D and so on, it would make everyones life SO much easier. There, I've spoken my peace (mic drop...)

The doctor wanted to try a new inhaled antibiotic on Rima that she had tried in IV form but had negative side effect with, mainly joint and muscle issues. Before giving out a prescription of this drug they required that Rima try a dose in the hospital under medical supervision, to make sure she didn't have any negative side effects. We made our way down to the second floor and got put into a  private room for the testing. We were in there for over an hour. I can tell you that we were not the happiest of campers with this. Both of us had hit a wall and wanted nothing more than to be home and in bed. I guess recovering from Monday's "ordeal" was going to take a few days. Rima didn't have an negative reactions with the Ceftaz so she got a prescription for it. I need a pie chart or flow chart to remember all these damn alien baby names!!!