Good News!

If all goes well, Mike will be coming home from the hospital tomorrow.  At least that is what the doctor said this morning.  They unhooked the IV this morning, since he is now eating and drinking on his own.  The fact that he has been complaining about the hospital food is also an excellent sign that he’s on the mend.

Yesterday he ordered baked fish for dinner.  It was truly horrible, way overcooked, and had the texture of shoe leather.  I didn’t taste it, but I could tell just by looking at it that it was not tasty.  He’s still complaining about that wretched piece of fish, to anyone who will listen.  He’d may as well make a gigantic led light sign that says DON’T EAT THE FISH HERE!.  When I called him this morning, he went on and on about that stupid fish to me, too.

Yep, a very good sign!

When he does come home, I will cook him a much better piece of fish.  Or, if he is up to it, maybe we can go out to a local seafood place, Turner’s.  After he comes home and takes a shower first, that is.  He’s kind of ripe due to not having showered for a week, sponge bathing just doesn’t cut it.  Or maybe I will talk to the nurse later and ask if he can shower at the hospital.  Now that he’s not hooked up to the IV thing any more, that is a possibility.

We will need to go to the CVS next to Turner’s anyway.  They put him on some new meds in the hospital, and no doubt he will have to continue with them after being sprung.  And it’s on the way home, so it would be nice if he could be clean so we can drop off the scripts, have lunch or dinner, and then pick them up afterward.

I can actually use a good meal out.  I’ve hardly eaten all week.  On Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, I had a corned beef sammich that Mike had bought at the Stop & Shop out in Sturbridge last Saturday, before all of this happened.  he was gonna eat it himself, but then he got sick and couldn’t eat anything.  On Wednesday, I had a tuna sub from Shaw’s and a diet Pepsi.  I had bought a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, too, but I didn’t eat them that day, I took them home.  Yesterday I had a diet Pepsi, a bag of Smartfood popcorn, some Nesquick milk, and a ginger ale.  When I got home from visiting Mike, I had the aforementioned Doritos.

I just can’t eat much when I’m stressed.  But now that things are getting better, I think I feel up to a real lunch today.  I think I will stop at Papa Gino’s on the way to the hospital and get a sub…meatball parm or Italian?  Decisions, decisions!

Now, I am going to tell you what exactly was wrong with Mike, and explain why I was so angry and resentful.  Yes, he did bring this on himself, and this whole thing could have easily been avoided.

The doctor said that he had something called Diabetic Ketoacidosis.  I had never heard of this particular complication before.  Mike has Type 2 diabetes, which usually doesn’t require taking insulin.  But then the doctor said he had to start, he went and got the insulin, but it turned out he was not taking it every day as I’d thought.  And that is how he got so sick.  We thought it was just a nasty stomach bug, but this is much, much worse.  He actually could have died from this, if we’d waited to call the doctor and go to the ER, he might well be dead by now.  The doctor thought for a time that Mike might have to be moved to Intensive Care, but luckily, that didn’t happen.  All they had to do was get him rehydrated (the reason for the IV) and get his blood sugar down to a manageable level.

So now I think he has learned his lesson, and will be taking his insulin religiously from now on.  Now he knows what happens when he doesn’t.

Now you know why I felt angry and resentful.  Let this be a lesson for all…if you have diabetes, or care about someone who does, take your insulin, or nag your loved ones to take it if they need it.  To not do so can be deadly.  As we learned the hard way, this is not something to fool around with.

Anyhoo, I need to get going soon.  I need to go to the Good Post Office to collect mail, it’s been piling up there for a week now.  And I think I’ll stop at the Michaels store in Burlington on the way, and treat myself to a new Cricut cartidge.  They’re on sale this week, and I deserve a treat after this rather hellish week.  Then I will get my lunch and go to the hospital.

See you later!