The Hospital Stay
In late March of 2021, Jeff was admitted to Jackson Memorial Hospital. It was one of those things where they see your lab work and you get a phone call saying “if you can be here in three hours to admit yourself, that would be wise”. Something wasn’t right, and they wanted to troubleshoot it as soon as possible.
(Due to Corona Virus being rampant at the time, and the fact that we didn’t get married for another four months, I was sadly unable to be there to support him for what turned out to be a seven day stay.)
We FaceTimed a lot, I sent him pictures of storms from the back yard, and kept him company whenever I could. The morning after he returned home, we had to turn right back around and do the 3-hour drive to Miami, to pick up all the updated medication they assigned him.
This was a reality check for both of us, that some diet and lifestyle changes needed to happen, and fast. The visit to Jackson made it clear that his transplanted kidney was slowly starting to fail. A lot of stress and poor diet over several years had only made it worse, and we had to find ways to hold it off as long as we could.
I knew cleanliness was helpful for his immune system, so I held down the fort at home that week. When I wasn’t working, I was moving furniture to vacuum, wiping fan blades, washing sheets and curtains, and making sure things were nice and cozy for his (then unknown) return.
As I look back at some brief journal entries from 2021 and 2022, it feels as though I am looking at someone else’s life. I was blissfully unaware of SO many things.
During this time (besides the hospital stay), Jeff was having some really rough days at home. Whether it was a medication imbalance, an overdose of certain foods, or an electrolyte shortage, we always had something to work on. It didn’t even mean he was eating bad foods, but sometimes things like spinach and carrots could elevate his vitamin K too much, causing side effects.
We learned a lot about communication as a 2-person team. I never wanted him to feel like he was going through this alone, so with diet and routine changes, I would always participate.
And I will share more of these specific changes in my next post!
