2023 August 02 Wednesday in Leander WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE

It was an odd beginning to our day.

I WAS jerked awake by Ella’s panicked, “Tom, get up! We need to take Beket!” We’ve been taking our grandson to his work for the last couple of days. But not today. It’s his day off.

NOW that I was awake I went to the bathroom. That’s when I noticed that the dressings over my pacemaker were bloody. I told Ella we needed to go to the emergency room. That was part of my discharge instructions from a week ago tomorrow.

LAST Wednesday evening I had a pacemaker implanted in my chest. This morning there was blood. {WARNING photos at bottom of post are graphic} the blood was not from the pacemaker incision but about 3 inches below that area. I thought it looked like a drain tube spot but the ER doctor though it was skin torn by the adhesive  bandage.

THE entire bandage that was applied in the operating room was removed and a small gauze pad was taped over the small wound. A salve was ordered. It isn’t clear to me if this for the wound area or the incision area or both. As long as the bandage is in place I’ll smear the salve over the pacemaker area.

THIRTY minutes and ninety dollars later we were on our way back home.

COFFEE AT THE HILLS

WE prepared and ate breakfast and then went for coffee in the community room. We weren’t there long when someone told us that a maintenance man was knocking on our door .

BEFORE we even reached the apartment he had finished installing a new light bulb in our oven. Yay! Now the food won’t be afraid of the dark. Or I should say, the casserole won’t be chicken. Sorry. Bad dad joke.

GRANDIES had our Grandies meeting today. At first it was Anne, Ella, and I. Sandra came a little later. Ella’s plan for the day was to sort through our boxes, bags, and piles of greeting cards. They need to be organized into types such as birthday, get well, sorry for your loss, and so forth. However after it devotion and prayer and we began our roll call reports, it became obvious that all of us had been having serious situation over the past several weeks. We decided to shelve the during and move on to some ‘canasta therapy. “

WE had our Grandies meeting today. At first it was Anne, Ella, and I. Sandra came a little later. Ella’s plan for the day was to sort through our boxes, bags, and piles of greeting cards. They need to be organized into types such as birthday, get well, sorry for your loss, and so forth. However after the devotional and prayer and we began our roll call reports, it became obvious that all of us had been having serious situations over the past several weeks. We decided to shelve the sorting and move on to some ‘canasta therapy. “

I HAD a coupon for a free Dilly Bar from Dairy Queen. We drove through DQ and got my free one and purchased one for Ella.

WE headed into Leander to Walgreens to pick up some salve that the Emergency Room doctor had ordered for me. I was surprised to find a police car sitting sideways in the highway and orange traffic cones directing us down a side street. We saw no obvious reason – no accident. We made it to Walgreens, picked up the prescription, and headed for home only to be redirected to another side street. After a meandering drive we made it home. And we remained home the remainder of the day.

OKAY, this is your final warning. Below are photos of my chest that show where the pace maker was placed. There is lots of colorful bruising, and the open wound that caused our trip to the ER. If you are squeamish, do not scroll down.

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©2023 Thomas E Williams