Category: Post Visit

Sunday, May 20  John started the day with many chores (usual and different).  His major different one was spraying two gallons of Weed-B-Gon around the yard.  Of course, there was a sprinkle, but hopefully not enough to strip off the stuff.  I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with a 52-year-old cousin from my GA days.  He has worked many years for Shell Oil, most recently spending 5 years on Sakhalin Island, Russia, north of Japan.  Now he and his wife (she doesn’t work for Shell) have been transferred to Kazakhstan since January to a little northern city above the Caspian Sea, below sea level!  He is back visiting in Austin, TX with his two sons, 32 and 23.  One is an electrical engineer and just finished college, and the other is a corporate attorney, with two children.  John is my cousin’s name, and he is the youngest son of my mom’s youngest sister, Mary, who stayed with my parents the first 6 years of their marriage.  My mom called me Mary most of my life, so I grew up answering to both names.  Today we went to a birthday lunch at our neighbors.  We had roast beef, salad, blueberry muffins, and carrots, with peanut butter pie for dessert.  Boy it was good.  Then came home and found the next chapter of our feral cat story.  An orange male cat is recuperating from his neutering, still in our house.  His mom (orange) and sister (dark brown & black) are back outside all spayed and healed.  John is still putting food out for them.  This afternoon I was talking on the phone, looked out, and saw 3 cats, two orange ones.  What a surprise!  They all three went happily into the hayloft and were eating and drinking together.  We don’t know where that extra orange cat came from.  Therefore, we will have to trap it and take it to the vet.  We also don’t know if the one we captured actually was the yearling who has been around here; could be that it is the one we still need to capture.  I suppose we are helping with the cat population increase in our neighborhood.

Monday, May 21  Started the morning with a big rainstorm while John was exercising the dogs.  He had already fed the neighbors’ horses, and moved ours to the upper “pasture.”  I called the vet to see if it would be all right to release the neutered cat, and we managed to do that chore.  The rain had stopped before John carried him out in a dog crate to the hayshed.  Just had finished, when his sister Peggy called about having a portable keyboard with 26 keys that you make play by blowing in it.  That should be helpful for lungs.  It is a Hohner Melodica (German made), in a case.  She wondered if I would like to add it to our music collection.  She’s going to check into the shipping costs via UPS.

We think we neutered another cat from our neighborhood, not one of Sue’s.  He is a very noisy/vocal cat.  Now we see the yearling back running around with our Woody who along with her mother was spayed.  So, I paid $ to neuter a neighborhood cat !  At least he won’t father any more kittens.  Now we have to catch the orange one we have fed all winter, Little Sioux.

Tuesday, May 22  Yikes, I was swamped today even after awaking early with a good night’s sleep not interrupted with howling cats.  I went to town stopping at the old building where I last had an office before moving to the new building in 2008, and I got a mouse to replace the one that died on my computer.  While there, I turned in my old Mac Book laptop that died in January for them to destroy.  Gave the cords and power supply to my geography colleague who got her Mac Book the same time I did in 2007.  Then met her and the candidate for a geography job for lunch at the Soup Bowl, across the street from my bank, where I parked in their lot.  I had a half tuna/egg salad sandwich and a small bowl of tomato/roasted garlic soup.  I was worried about the garlic, so they let me taste it and it was fine.  From there I went to the music store to pick up my microphone (but they hadn’t been able to fix it).  While there, however, the luthier and electronic expert explained what was wrong, and how if I found a working mic I could use the parts of mine.  Also, I asked him a question about the tuner I bought for John a few days previously, and he showed me better how to use it.  I had had trouble tuning two of the strings on John’s guitar.  Meanwhile, my friend who bought the microphone and stand at the surplus sale called home and John answered.  He told him where I was having lunch.  It was about 3 blocks from his house, so he brought me the microphone he had donated to his church and they weren’t using.  He walked into the restaurant and handed it to me!  Wow.  It was free, and he gave me the connector cord to hook to the amplifier he also gave me earlier.  I will take it tomorrow to the Food Bank to help project our voices.  Then I returned to the parking lot outside Dean Hall to wait for the talk at 2:00, but it was raining hard.  I just sat in my car and made some calls on my cell phone.  It stopped raining long enough for me to go in the building (I didn’t have an umbrella along or in the car).

John says the unfixed cat is sleeping in our old camper out in the yard behind the shed where I park.  I had seen a yellow cat there (on the ground) yesterday.  All 3 fixed cats were happily eating in the haymow this morning.  We got the binoculars to check their clipped ears.  All were clipped, so, I guess the new cat, Cashew, has decided to stick around.  Perhaps he’s been around all the time, but we have never seen but two orange cats at one time.

The annular solar eclipse was not visible from here.  The best views were from Utah, in a little small town with few services where 2000 photographers showed up.  We had friends also on the edge of it in CA who went with their physicist friend to photograph the eclipse through a telescope, but they were off center there, and they only got crescent shaped images not a ring.  Still, I suppose it would be neat to view, considering it won’t happen again till 2023.

Wednesday, May 23  Today was another really full day.  Got my microphone, cord, extension cord and amplifier together and took it to the Food Bank to set up for the two of us to use.  It was a lot of carting in and out stuff, but it worked well.

Then on to exercise, and to a thesis defense at 3:00 of a former graduate student assistant of mine, finally ending with a 4:00 talk by a candidate for the chair of geography.

Thursday, May  24  It has been another crazy day.  John went with me to lunch in Kittitas (10 miles from our home).  We met 7 riders from the trail riders club who made the trip on horseback, along the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, from Ellensburg, to Kittitas, and another 6 of us used car horsepower to get there.  I had my favorite Taco Salad (minus olives, substituting tomatoes), and John had a Taco burger, but it was nothing like he expected.  He should have had Tacos or a regular hamburger with fries.  It was not a burger, but some of the meat sauce from a taco, spread on a hamburger bun with shredded lettuce and a little tomato!  Then he dropped me off at the post office to mail my broken Toshiba mini mouse to CA for a replacement.  This mornng I finally got the paperwork for the invoice I needed from Toshiba Direct after 45 minutes on the phone going from person to person.  They would not accept the Order Status from their own web page, even though it had all the information on it.  We tried using the post office in Kittitas, but it was still closed over the noon hour at 1:05.  So drove to EBRG to the post office and got it sent off before John took me on to Hearthstone Cottages to entertain with our music group.

While I was playing music, he went shopping and got lots of good stuff for much marked down prices.  Butter, frozen dinners, soft drinks, low salt potato chips, chicken, and something else.  The receipt claims we saved $30.37, but that’s actually not true, because we wouldn’t buy them at the higher price!  He came back as we were finishing and they gave us tea and cookies.  I grabbed four cookies (3 peanut butter & one shortbread type) and brought them home.  I ate most of them, but John had a part of one and also warmed a donut I brought home yesterday.

We needed to stop by the hospital for a blood draw for my INR test.  That we did, and it shocked me to walk into the main front desk and be called by name.  Hi Nancy=from one of the guys who has worked there a long while.  That’s when you know you have been at that hospital TOO many times.  One has to check in to be recognized and get a paper to take to whatever department you are going:  Imaging, lab, outpatient services, or the pulmonary unit.  They always need your birth date and to check your family physician or the doctor requesting the work, plus ask if anything has changed.  I know all the questions so I just sit down and give the answers before they have to ask.

John has been considering driving 20 miles past Stevens Pass to do some trail work in the Foss Creek watershed, a place where he worked last year.  In our 2011 greetings, there is a picture of him there on a bridge and also one of a huge fir tree, which they cleared trail around.  He told me I should charge up my computer battery and drive along with him.  I was seriously considering it.  It is very pretty country up there, and the only reason for staying home is to clean stacks of boxes, and who wants to do that ?  He came in awhile ago when it started raining (now the sun is out) and he is back out planting yellow bean seeds he got today.  I cannot eat dark green veggies, but yellow should be all right, yes?  I told him I was considering going along, but he said that really wasn’t a great idea, because it was 20 miles from the ranger station with restrooms.  Okay.. I won’t go.  Later, he decided they no longer needed Assistant Crew Leaders, so he wouldn’t make the trip this time.  He’s got enough brush removal and fence building to do around our place.

Friday,  May 25  This morning early, I got a call from my doctor’s office that my INR was 2.1.  That’s a good thing.  Maybe it has stabilized again.  I hope so.  It’s nice not to have a blood draw but once a month rather than 2-3 times.  Only problem with the next one, will be that it will be while I’m in Georgia.  I’ll wait until I return.  Yesterday they wanted to prick my finger, but I prefer blood draws to that.  It affects my playing the violin.  Today was an interesting day.  I called about dental insurance, after chewing off my enamel cusp from my upper tooth last night.  I have been considering buying the insurance while it is still the month of May, so that it will pay for my work in June (cleaning is all that was planned, but now I have to have this tooth fixed).  I headed out for lunch and exercise picking up my 87-yr-old friend, Lois.  We went to the luncheon.  It was neat with table clothes and cloth napkins. They fed us fried fish (first time in a LONG time I have had tartar sauce), Cole slaw, a large flat hushpuppy that looked like a pancake (strange with no butter or honey), potato wedge, and a chocolate mousse for dessert.  They served ice water and coffee or tea.

From there we drove to exercise and had a hard workout.  Then I drove Lois to Fred Meyer for her to pick up some necessities for the long weekend.  She will have to fend for herself because the bus (Hope Source) to pick up people in town doesn’t operate on weekends or holidays, and the Senior Center where she eats Monday lunch will be closed for the holiday.  She asked me to help her read her meter on the propane tank.  I opened it and screamed because there was an active wasp nest with 3 wasps I saw, before slamming it shut.  She will get her son to come over (he lives next door), and bring a spray to kill them and then read her meter.

Once home, I walked around the yard with John and the dogs, and petted ALL the horses (except Ebony who must have been somewhere else in the pasture).  We didn’t succeed in capturing the orange cat last night.  Now there is a holiday and we have an appt for next Tuesday.  Cashew is sticking around and is good friends with Rascal, sharing canned food, and the cat house, as well as playing together in the yard.  Woody has gone back to buddying up with Little Sioux around the camper in the front yard. They do come back to the hay loft to eat, but I think John will move the trap out to the area around the camper.  Our weather today was in the high 60s and pretty nice, with a cooling wind.  John also showed me around the garden(s):  reviewing his blueberry plants, the yellow bean seeds he planted today, the asparagus coming up, the strawberries (blooming nicely), but all his squash and tomato seeds he planted into little boxes did not make it.  Also, he showed me the yellow (Anne) raspberries he planted.  We walked up to get the paper, and he showed me where our Rocky Mt. Maple trees and Rose of Sharons (Althea) had died.  The latter were never strong and seemed to dessicate.  Previous winter we covered them with snow but this past winter there was never enough snow to do that.  A couple of the maples lost all their leaves to frost and another couple may make enough new leaves to survive.  If they survive through next spring they might become established.  They are common in other parts of the county – just not here.

Saturday, May 26  I started out early this morning (8:00 a.m.) logged into an online real-time streamed video from Ohio, by Christian Howes about techniques of playing the violin using different ways to improvise and complement group playing.  I watched it for almost two hours.  I learned a lot, but I did not have an easy way of showing it on a screen and also playing along on my violin.  During the time, he talked about his website and a workshop he does each year in Columbus, OH, and about his Creative Strings Academy on line, for learning all sorts of string musical things.  He mentioned at one point how a person could subscribe for 3 free days on the site that costs $30/month minimum to participate.  Perhaps one day I will feel comfortable enough (I doubt it) to go to his summer workshop in Ohio, for a week in June.  For adults it costs $750, so I think at my age and condition, I’d be better off to subscribe to the on line version that’s $29.95/month.  I believe the workshop is mostly for kids, in fact, for kids it is only $159 for the week.  There they study improvisation, composition, and non-classical styles in an experiential learning context through the week long workshop.  The folks registered work with world class artists every day learning RnB, bluegrass, freely improvised music, and others.  (description from his website,  http://christianhowes.com/ ).

After watching the lesson this morning, I wrote Chris a thank you note and requested a copy of his Harmony Handbook which members of his Creative Strings Academy receive.  He sent me the link to download a .pdf file, and I have done that.  Now I have something to work on that will assist me in playing with the groups I do.  Also, our Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association (WOTFA) week-long workshop 10 miles from home for $100/student seems a better summer alternative for me.

If you are interested in seeing his online US-streamed videos, follow this link, and look for “So you want to play fast?!.”  There are 3 other videos there.  He does one of these every month for the public.

https://www.facebook.com/christianhowesviolinist/app_196506863720166

All of the ferals (well, 3 of them) were with Rascal in the haymow this morning.  After lunch, we had a little excitement when Rascal brought a small snake onto the back patio.  So that it didn’t end up in our hallway, John put on a glove and retrieved it, throwing it over the back fence into more suitable habitat.  If it wasn’t too injured, it will survive.  Now we are resting again, and plan to talk to John’s sister tonight.  We had a nice conversation with Peggy and caught up on all the happenings in her life, and we reported on ours.  Then we walked up the drive for the mail and for John to show me the pollen cones or “flowers” on the different pines.  This link has some examples but ours are not included:

http://www.growsonyou.com/bluespruce/blog/7837-conifer-cones-flowers-yes-flowers

We can take some pictures of the unusual purple and yellow colors and link to them for next week.

Hope your week was a good one.

Nancy and John

Still on the Naneum Fan

 

This is Nancy trying to recreate what was started this past weekend, because this Thursday afternoon my computer Laptop died completely via a virus yet unknown.  We took it in right away, but the computer gurus have not been able to solve it.  The initial problem was that it is a MAC but running MS-Windows and we needed the password for the Admininistrative Mac part that I never use and didn’t know.  I was able to reach someone at CWU who told me.  Anyway, the virus hit an important  xxx32.ddl file, which is serious, and they expect they may have to completely reinstall the operating system, but were trying other solutions first to keep our costs down.  They are not open on Saturday, so I will have to wait till Monday for solution.

My blog entries for the week are on that computer and inaccessible.  It wouldn’t even allow me to turn it off and log back on.  I had not saved copies of it anywhere off that laptop.

John has taken off for another trip to work on trails, at Gold Creek, this side of Snoqualmie Pass.  He left at 7:00 a.m. and told me I would have to make a brief blog version to post tonight, when he gets home.  Instead, I’m going back to some emails not written on the home account, but on Gmail, to friends around the US, to reconstruct our activities, plus depending a little bit on my memory and what’s written on the calendar.

Last Saturday I was a little sore from my first therapeutic massage on my back, arms, shoulder, & neck the day before.  I’m not used to reclining on a table (even though probably padded), on my stomach. He did put cushions under my legs, and beneath my shoulders, but it still was awkward from what I’m used to.  My head was on a cushion, but I must leave my eyes closed, and I don’t like that.  Later, I turned over, (under a sheet the whole time), and he worked on my head/neck.  I would have liked to have had a pillow under my head, but that was not possible until later.  He moved my left shoulder back and around and put pressure against it, with my having to do the same.  While on my back, there was a cushion roll under my knees.   His recommendation at the end of the hour with all my very tight muscles, was to consider acupuncture on intermediate weeks.  After talking with my family physician about my being on Coumadin, he said it was all right but to be aware I might have some bruising.

John took off again for working on trails in the hills (last Saturday).  I was left to sort plums he picked last night, but I just picked out six good ones for us to eat, and have arranged with my neighbor to come pick up the bucket (a plastic one from ice cream), full to use for plum jelly, and also to put some in his mom’s dehydrator for us.  When he came, he brought a long handled picker and picked a lot of plums himself.  Then he added our bucket of plums to his box.

John fed the horses before he left, so I just have to worry with the dogs and kitty.  Rascal is regularly using the doggie door.  He chased and caught a grasshopper and brought it back in the house.  It was dead, so John took it from him, rather than have entrails all over the rug.  He goes out in the morning for several hours, and then comes back in for a couple-hour nap.

I also had to honcho receiving one Harobed load of hay from our neighbor 2 miles down the road.  John made it home all right and the traffic was not as bad as yesterday’s mass exodus from the Puget Sound region.  Really, you don’t want to be on the Interstate on Friday afternoons.  He’s not tired out enough, so is out working on hay unloading.  It was stacked in the middle of the front corral – easy in and out for the delivery and close to its destination in the barn and shed.  There is a flat spot in the middle for stacking the 56 bales of hay.  You learned about how a Harobed works, in last week’s blog.

John stopped with the hay and went looking for some gifts (ceramic suns) we have bought over the last year at garage sales for our friends that we decided to visit tomorrow at the Paradisos del Sol winery in Zillah.  They had one of our Brittanys from a pup, but he disappeared at about 5 years old.  He was a great addition to the winery and loved all the people coming through.  They had another older Brittany and a little mixed dog.  This weekend is their 11^th anniversary, and they always celebrate by inviting people in for 3 days, and there is a discount given, according to the number of years you have been married.  The largest discount this year was to a couple married for 61 years.

Sunday.  We left for the lower valley and stopped first at Costco, before the onslaught of people there.  That’s another place to avoid on the weekends after a pay day.  Been there, done that!  I picked up some allergy meds for a gal in my exercise class, while John got carrots for the horses, cookies & strawberries.  We were there recently and didn’t need much but will freeze the berries – our new plants in the fenced area are producing just a few this year.

We got to the winery to visit just before noon and had a looonng visit.  It was nice.  We really hadn’t seen them since summer of 2008, when we were on a field trip there with our class.  They followed this blog through all my illness and the lady there has also had some medical issues she shared via email.

We took a tour of their garden (regular, and flowers, and trees, and cactus), ate a handful of golden raspberries, visited with their dogs, and then stopped by McDonald’s for a ¼ pounder and fries on the way home.  We were starved and needed to eat something, but not to pay $3.89 each for a small hamburger (nothing large about it, and nothing on it, as is on BK Whoppers).  Also had to pay almost $2 for medium fries.  There is a problem with living long during inflationary times.  We remember when both gas and burgers were a quarter.

The ride down (except for bumpy construction on the Interstate) was fine.  Temps were 83, and we came back to find the dogs and cat fine.  Rascal was in my recliner on my pillow.  I moved him to a different spot and he took off out the window for the yard.

Last night, John SAW him come over from the wood pile, climb up the slanted pole on one side of the 6′ fence, and turn coming  down the other pole into the backyard.  John made that setup for Sunshine, but has never shown Rascal.  He figured it out himself.  Smart little dude.

Monday, Labor Day.  It’s a holiday for most working folks, but it was a working day for us.  We like to stay away from town and the chaos that occurs with rodeo and fair on Labor Day weekend in Ellensburg.  They had good weather and big crowds at both rodeo and county fair – simultaneous events only the organizers understand and fight about.  The local merchants were pleased.

We have now determined why Rascal was coming and going from the wood pile.  Rascal is playing with the brown wild kitty underneath the wood pile, but coming back and forth himself to the house to eat and sleep.  He slept for many hours today, so is still out tonight.  As long as an owl or coyote doesn’t swoop in and get them, it will be fine.  John took out dry food and water for the wild one.  This is the brown one of the two he had seen earlier behind the shed where he was cleaning brush.  We are afraid a coyote or owl took the yellow one because it has not been around at all.

John moved the rest of the hay from the yard where it was stacked, part into the barn and part into the shed.  Also we shook the plum trees and had garage sale quilts on the ground beneath, to soften their fall, and then we picked them up and put in boxes.   We started the sorting process.

Tuesday.  I had to go for a fasting blood draw, so that I did early in the morning, and John stayed home to honcho 3 horses getting trimmed by the farrier.  I was up at 7:00 or a little after, and John was too, letting out Rascal from his “bedroom”.  He came out, ate his morning rations, and took off to visit his newly found friend.  The wood pile food and water was gone this morning.

Rascal stayed out till 10:44 am, and just returned meowing and getting up to his feeding ‘station’.  I fed him, and he first laid down next to me on a pillow and started cleaning himself, but then just walked over and got on my chest.  I petted him, he purred, but now he has settled down to sleep.  I told him I was happy he was coming back and forth and playing with the wild brown kitty.  I doubt he can convince him to befriend us, but we can always hope.  Meanwhile, he has someone to keep him company (both do).

He (Rascal) will stay in for a few hours and return outside again.  Last night he left at early dinner time and didn’t return till our bedtime (and his).  Slept in all night in his bedroom.

Before retuning home, I went by the grocery and got two 1/2 gallons of Chocolate milk for my pill taking, and almost a dozen apple fritters; filled it out with 3 old-fashioned chocolate covered donuts (one with nuts) for John.

After John was done helping with the horses, we sorted some more plums into containers for different people.  Those plums less nice went to someone planning to make jelly.  The others went to people who wanted to eat them raw, or to dehydrate them.  We delivered from 6 to 12 pounds of quality ones to the folks (4 families) wishing for eating dried plums, and another huge box, probably 15 pounds ? to a family wanting to make jelly.

Wednesday.  We predicted correctly that this would be a very wild day.  Both of us were running in different directions.  John took Annie for her stitches to come out ; she was good and it went well.  The vet was pleased at the healing, and did not have to puncture the hematoma to drain it.  It is reabsorbing into her system.

I went to two different venues (music at the Food Bank, Soup Kitchen), and my exercise class.  I was worn out by the time I got home so tried to take a nap but was awakened by a phone call 35 minutes into it.

Later our neighbor brought over some dried plums and strawberries, so we had to put them up in the freezer.

John thinks we’ll have to go sit by the wood pile–this kitty is old enough to be too wild to tame, but we will try.  It has a very cute face.  Rascal still visits him in the morning and evening, but sleeps in most of the afternoon.  John is taking the wild one (I have named Bronco), hard food and water, twice a day, and checks midday, when he is home.  As of the end of the week, Bronco is coming out from under the wood pile, to watch, and allows us to talk to him.  He’s still very skittish, but he’s sticking around, eating, and playing with Rascal.  We expect the wood pile is a safe haven.  I hope he tames before winter, because we have no way to keep water from freezing outside where we are putting it.

Thursday.  I got home from playing music this afternoon, sat down, read some emails, went to the web to a Burger King site to fill in our experience today for a free Whopper coupon.  While on the web, a virus entered my computer and I could do NOTHING… it wiped out all my starting applications; even took the picture off the back of my screen (I have a pair of Mallards in a pond, taken in Calif).  I tried running my antivirus and my Spybot and my Malware, but it locked me out of any application I wanted to use.  It also wouldn’t let me open my Norton Antivirus to run a disk check.  So, I turned it off with the switch.  When I tried to restart, it wouldn’t allow me back on–just showed a blinking white cursor in the upper left of a totally black screen.  DAMN.  It was 4:30 p.m. so I got the phone book, called my computer gurus and they said to bring it in.  We did.  They worked for 20 minutes going from the Mac (it’s a Dual operating system) side to try to get to the XP Windows side where the problem was residing.  They were going to close at 5:30 and let it run all night and tackle it in the morning.

Well, that is a bummer.  I have a massage appointment from 2:30 to 3:30 Friday, and hopefully they will fix it by then so I can pick it up.  They are not open on Saturdays.

Thursday night while John was in town for the KV Trail Riders meeting, I went outside to try to get Rascal in, and he came across the fence on top of a shed and jumped down to a cable table (electrical wire spool) propped on its side.  I reached up and got him and tried putting him down in the yard so he could come in the doggie door, but instead, I think he was spooked by the dogs running around the yard, and he climbed my shoulder, scratching my neck on the way.  I leaned over for him to climb up and over my back.  I doctored the scratches on my neck, and it turned out leaving a huge bruise at the top deeper scratch, with smaller scratches below.

Friday, I didn’t do anything till getting to town for my 2^nd massage.  This was cutting it short on leaving town (described below), for a dinner party tonight.  But we made it.  My laptop was not yet fixed, as mentioned at the beginning of the blog.

Meanwhile, I will better describe my therapeutic massage plan that now includes acupuncture.  Several of you know the problem of range of motion I have had with my left shoulder and it has continued to get worse.  My family physician said he would refer me to an orthopedic surgeon in Yakima, but I told him I didn’t want to go there. No more hospitalization for me, and I have heard about the long recovery period for shoulder surgery.

For the past several months I have been taking advantage of a free massage at the Adult Activity Center (20 minutes long).  The last time I was in a couple weeks ago, the therapist said my muscles were tighter than ever and I really needed a full hour of work.  She is not a preferred provider for my Group Health insurance, and Medicare doesn’t pay for it.  I got a recommendation for a place and person here in town where Group Health will cover my sessions with a referral from my family physician.  All that happened, and last Friday, I had my first treatment (for an hour).  I am approved for 10 weeks on my insurance.

At the end of the treatment, however, the therapist suggested that I needed more work on my tense muscles and he would recommend acupuncture on alternate weeks.  I found out that I could get eight of those along with my massages on self referral and not have to have my doctor involved again with the paperwork.  I called him to ask about the chance of bleeding with my being on Coumadin, and he said it was no problem, and the worst that might happen would be bruising, but otherwise encouraged me to give it a try.  John, as in all things, is skeptical.  My first acupuncture is 1.5 hrs. long, and it is in their Cle Elum office, 40 minutes away.

More on Friday’s evening event.  We celebrated my birthday a week late, by going to an enjoyable evening of food, fun, and music.  It was at White Heron Winery north of West Bar (and Crescent Bar), on a hill north of the Columbia River looking down the Gorge.  It’s about 70 minutes of driving time from our house.  This is the place where John helped prune wine grapes this spring.

It is a yearly event and the best of their complete offerings, outside the winery in a small amphitheatre, overlooking the Columbia River.  Three local chefs (this is between Quincy and Wenatchee), come to cook special things.  It is called a Chef Extravaganza, and that it was.  All the produce, meat, fruits and vegetables come from within 30 miles (or a bit more) of the winery from the Quincy Valley.

One chef had grilled peaches with goat cheese, honey, and lavender – topped with blackberries.  The goat cheese came from a place near Twisp (80+ miles away):

http://sunnypinefarm.com/

There was a jazz band who were really good.  They call themselves Mugsy’s Groove, and they claim their style is Cascade Mountain Funk.  You can find them on the web at:

www.mugsysgroove.com

Wine was available by the glass or bottle.  We had two glasses (plastic cup), a Chardonnay and a Syrah.  I drank no more than 2 ounces total tasting each, and John had the rest.  I liked the Syrah better and had more of it.  He brought the empty cups home and measured them to find each one held 8 ounces of wine.  I took two bottles of lemonade but only drank one with my meal.  I did the driving home.

Here’s the menu of food cooked and served (all you can eat):  Large Rainbow Trout cooked several ways, grilled, with blackberries (my favorite, and I tried them all), one with peaches, and one with corn meal and seasonings.  There were many tomatoes, including many varieties, and a yellow Tomatillo (grilled).  Some tomatoes were fixed with a topping of sirloin ground beef.  Some little sirloin hamburgers, called sliders, had a peach topping.  Grilled peaches (previously mentioned), with blackberries and goat cheese piled on top was another delicacy.  John had two of those.  There was a large cup of a parfait:  applesauce on the bottom, a layer of blueberries, with peaches on top.  There were two types of soup, bean and meat, and a chili-like soup, also a pasta (I didn’t try that  nor the chili), then fresh corn with Kohlrabi shaved on top, white beans and tomatoes, and the list goes on.

We left home at 4:15 p.m., and got home after 9:30 p.m.  The traffic was not bad the directions we were driving, and we left the Interstate to go the back roads most of the way there. There was a special guest there and the winemaker passed the fellow to us to spend the evening.  His name is Bill Gross (not the $$ bond king), but a UPS airline pilot (farm raised) who started this:

http://farmrescue.org/

We found his international flying as interesting as the “farm rescue” and kept him answering questions all evening.

Saturday.  John took off this morning to work with WTA on the Gold Creek Trail, which is this side of Snoqualmie Pass and heads north into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.  He has returned just after 5:00 p.m. and I have been working all day in the house.  It was 97 outside and I saw no reason to go out.  It has finally cooled down at 7:00 p.m. and I turned off the a/c.  Rascal came in at 6:30 p.m. having been out all day since before John left.  He ate a lot of canned food, slept a little while, and now just joined me in the back computer room, eating more of his hard food, and now has settled in my lap to sleep.   I expect he will go out again this evening after dark, and come back in, during the middle of the night.  Last night it was around 1:00 a.m. and he slept in till 6:00 a.m., ate some canned food, and went back to see Bronco.

I will close for the day, and when John has rested and cooled down some, he will edit this and put out on the blog.  He never got to this, because he was feeding and watering Bronco, and feeding the horses.  He’ll be back here soon.

For dinner tonight we have BLTs planned.  Our friends have been keeping us in tomatoes.  Our tomatoes are still green.  They’ll never make it this year, and we are NOT fond of green tomatoes.

Best from John and Nancy

on the Naneum Fan.

I got the day right but missed the time.  Last week I had to pick a time to get the car serviced and hoped to combine activities, thereby having to make one less trip to Yakima.  So, I said to the man, “Sure, lets do it Wednesday.”  Then I estimated they would discharge Nancy right after lunch and picked a 10 A.M. appointment with the service shop.

There was a problem.  Magnesium (Mg).  This element is used by the body in many chemical reactions.  It is an important electrolyte along with sodium, calcium, potassium, and chloride.  The last is discussed here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloride

Magnesium is discussed here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium

… where it claims it to be the 11^th most abundant element by mass in the human body.  Scroll to “Biological role” more than half-way through the page.  Well, the point is that the doctor decided Nancy was a quart low and as long as she was in the shop, why not just top-er-up some.  Why not indeed?

Time is why.  Slower is better.  Look at this: “Supplementation with 1 to 4 g of MgSO4 over 1 to 4 hours is usually adequate, depending on the extent of deficiency; the administration rate should be slower for infusing increasing amounts in nonemergency situations to avoid hypotension.”

http://www.heart-disease-bypass-surgery.com/data/articles/35.htm

Hypotension simply means abnormally low blood pressure.  Sure thing we don’t want to do that to Nancy, so slow it is.  So, over lunch and into the afternoon Nancy was infused with antibiotics and then switched to a slow drip to bring her Mg level up to the “full” line.

Long-story-short:  She exited through the front door at 4:05 P.M. and we were home at five o’clock.  She is feeling good.  Sleeping.

It is 6:30 as I write.  Nancy has been resting well and improving.  The cardiologist felt she need not be on constant monitoring and so they moved her to the 4^th Floor into a big room with windows and a potty.  Except for sky there isn’t much to see out the windows unless one stands up on the sill and looks over the SW wing of the hospital.  Still, the view – any view –is much better than in the ICU.  Likewise, having the ability to use a real bathroom is, compared to a bed pan or movable stool, a major improvement.  It also brings increased movement – we want no regression on the lack of muscle tone.

She is still on a liquid diet in anticipation of procedures to rule out (or in) possible sites for blood loss.  The INR test suggests this could be done on Sunday, but not Saturday.

While I was there this afternoon a blood-draw was done for the purpose of checking on the bacterial infection.  Her color and vital signs suggest a rapid improvement since she went to the ER on Tuesday.  I want to know more about the bacteria and what they measure.

I still haven’t met the infectious disease doctor this go-round.  Last December I sat at opposite ends of the same table with her when I was being briefed by Nancy’s nurse and the doctor was reviewing files.  Later the nurse told me about the doctor but Nancy’s issues at the time did not involve bacteria.  Anyway, Nancy may have to ask for a page or two of notes as the names and spellings of the critters is beyond us and so I have no key words with which to search.

That’s it for Friday.  John

A correction to a previous assumption is in order.  Our thoughts on the ICD have focused on V-fib and that is what we assumed happened.  Upon reading the data stored by the unit we now know the thing fired-off because it sensed a too-rapid heart rate, namely, 188 beats per minute.  This is called tachycardia.  The term tachycardia comes from the Greek words tachys (rapid or accelerated) and kardia (of the heart). The gizmo on the dash of a car that gives RPMs is a tachometer and has the same Greek word origin. Tachycardia typically refers to a heart rate that exceeds the normal range for a resting heart rate – for folks over 15 years this would be any rate over about 100 bpm.

Nancy’s rate had been running a bit high (I thought) during the past few weeks, frequently 80+.  She has had frequent atrial fibrillation …

from the Mayo Clinic:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/atrial-fibrillation/DS00291

“During atrial fibrillation, the heart’s two upper chambers (the atria) beat chaotically and irregularly — out of coordination with the two lower chambers (the ventricles) of the heart. Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow to the body and symptoms of heart palpitations, shortness of breath and weakness.  Atrial fibrillation can also cause fatigue …”

Monday’s report explained how the “King of Hearts” monitor was rendered useless by the frequent A-fib, and the need to switch to a Holter monitor.

[Small world story: Friends (Brittany related) write:

“Hi. Just read your latest comments and thought I’d share a bit of trivia with you guys. Dr. Holter was born and raised in Helena, MT. In fact, his home was 2 houses south of ours. . . he was a native son, the local history museum had a special display with his old stuff, photos, etc….”]

Now back to the main story:

When (on Tuesday) the ICD sensed the tachycardia it pulsed twice and converted the abnormal rhythm to a regular sinus rhythm.  Nancy was on the kitchen floor and shifted about until she was leaning against the oven.  She thought I was outside and sat there awhile thinking I would come back.  That plan didn’t work because I was down the hall sleeping.  From where she normally spends her time (a recliner overlooking the back forty**) she gets me awake or from the computer by activating the ringer on the house phone.  There on the kitchen floor she didn’t have that capability, so, after about 45 minutes of rest and frustration she yelled for me hoping I was near enough (outside) to hear her.  Had I been outside that likely would not have worked but being only a room away, it did.

**————skip, if you know “back 40”———————–

“back forty” is a reference to plots of land of 40 acres established by the USA’s Public Land Survey System (PLSS) –good explanation here:

http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html

The settlers house would be located close to the public road that went by the ‘front’ of the property and frequently near the better farmland.  Some claim that if a salesman or other intruder visited the house and the spouse felt there was no need to bother her husband, she would tell the person that the entire crew was out on “the back forty” – far from the house and could not likely be found. (no cell phones then)

————————————————————————

Now it is Thursday afternoon — several phone calls later.  The INR is coming down but the colonoscopy won’t be done until Saturday.  At 1.7 INR the doctor can remove any suspicious polyps.  So we wait on that.  She has had antibiotics, blood infusions, and other liquids pumped into her.  Her fever is gone and her heart rate lower and steady in the high 60s.  She called after having the TEE (see Wed. posting) that did confirm something (filaments of bacteria or ‘vegetation’)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocarditis

on the mitral valve (donated by a pig) .

Here’s an assumption:  When bacteria in the blood inflames the heart it is called endocarditis.  Nancy’s medical problems flared last spring when this happened and she went to the ER in Ellensburg. If you look at the list of symptoms on this site

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/endocarditis/DS00409/DSECTION=symptoms

there are several that she has been experiencing (again), namely, fatigue, fever, weakness, and weight loss, blood in urine (microscopic).  To me, this appears to be a slow-motion version of sepsis and septic shock.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sepsis/DS01004

http://hopkins.portfolio.crushlovely.com/reference/article/septic-shock

The cocktail of antibiotics has been upped to four (to cover all possibilities I assume).  She is feeling much better except for a bit of raw throat from the TEE.  That and a liquid diet in anticipation of the colonoscopy.  She isn’t happy with the lumpy Jell-O just served and she questioned me on how one screws up making Jell-O.  I don’t know.  Too little stirring or the water is not hot enough, I guess.

It is almost 6 P.M. here so I have to send this to the cloud.

Bye.

John

There should be a sign above Nancy’s door.

While in the Ellensburg ER a test revealed an anemic condition so a unit of blood was started before they transported her to Yakima Regional.  She also had a high white cell count.

The latter is likely caused by a bladder infection – now being treated.  The cause of the low red-cell count is thought to be internal bleeding.  Why is not known.  An upper gastrointestinal (GI) exam is planned, as is a colonoscopy.  With all that is going on with her body the INR (blood clotting test) reading is high so that has to be brought down before any invasive procedure. That is being worked on.  When that reading is where they want it, then those tests can be done.

An  echocardiogram or ‘echo’ revealed something on her heart valve, possibly a bacterial growth (she had this last year).  A blood culture revealed two strains of bacteria in her blood so they started a 3-drug cocktail that may be adjusted when the exact strains of the little devils are known.  However, to get a better look at the valve and its hitchhikers they scheduled a transesophageal echocardiogram or TEE, where the echo transducer (sound producer) is placed in the esophagus or food pipe that connects the mouth to the stomach.  This gives a much clearer “picture” of the inner heart as the waves do not have to travel into the body from the surface. See:

http://www.heartsite.com/html/tee.html

So with all that has been done and all that will be done on Thursday there is a steady stream of nurses, doctors and more doctors, blood takers, blood infusionist, menu bringers, cleaners, and others lining up at the door to get in and question, prod, poke, stick, listen, and so on.  They get in each other’s way.  She needs that sign.

Take a number.

Today I’ll continue with the “life happens while you are making plans” theme.

Nancy woke up long enough to take two pills and is now sleeping again.  It is cold and windy outside and I need to feed horses and uncover my garden – that is, 4 tomato plants.  I’ve about given up growing veggies and things here but figured I could handle 4 plants.

We had below freezing temperatures Friday and Saturday nights.  The first week of the month it was so cold that all the main buds died on the walnut trees (both black and Carpathian).  The black walnut trees are about 18 years old and the others about 10 years and all were producing.  Just this week they were starting to push out new leaves from secondary buds.  As neither are native to this area and frosts are common here at 2,200 feet elevation, I have to keep this in perspective.  If they do not recover I can try something else or just photograph the naked trees and call it my contribution to folk art.

Nancy’s sore throat and sniffles are fading so won’t threaten the implantation scheduled for June 1^st, a week from Tuesday. Meanwhile she has gone through several boxes and sorted out a few keepers but most of the stuff will be recycled or go to the “covered” transfer station – the place we take our garbage.  Times change.  Years ago the place where one took garbage was called a dump, was outside, and was home to rats and mice.  My father (when young) and a friend would each get a nickel and buy a box of 22 ammo for a dime, go to the dump and practice shooting.  After tiring of hitting cans and bottles and a few rats they would hold sticks out with their hands or with their teeth and try to hit what the other was holding.  About the time I got big enough to try such things they closed the dump and Father and older brothers monitored shooting activities more closely.

Two months ago, when I thought I was monitoring our dogs closely by closing our “in-season” female into a bedroom – I goofed.  She was in a different room.  When I let the male in from the yard he ran down the hall and found her and we had a mating before I had the sliding-glass door closed.  Oops!  So as fast as Nancy could clear away a stack of boxes I replaced it with a new set as I made space for whelping quarters for our expectant mother (that would be “b—h” in dog language).  Luckily the mother-to-be has gotten too wide to crawl under the bed so I have a chance to get her to accept the whelping pen (this has inside panels so she can’t crush a puppy against the inner wall) as the preferred birthing place.  She may attempt to carry them under the bed afterward (when she is thinner) but I’ve seen that trick before and will be firm in refusing her intentions.

There are lots of other things going on this week so we do not need and did not want this puppy-thing.  At least the births will happen a week before Nancy’s ICD is implanted.  That’s good.  I will have to contend with week-old puppies and their new mother while Nancy spends two days in the hospital in Yakima, 50 miles away.  I’m having a hard time finding the good in that.*  It must be there so I’ll keep searching.

————————————

*To read “The Pony in the Dung Heap” visit the link below and scroll down to the “Michele W—- on December 30, 2009 at 3:48 pm” entry.

http://goodvibeblog.com/2009/12/qa-how-to-deal-with-multiple-difficulties/

A visiting doctor thought Nancy might be experience gastroparesis.  This translates to stomach paralysis.  Test will be on Thursday.

Here is a link and the first paragraph there from:

http://www.gi.org/patients/gihealth/gastroparesis.asp

>>Gastroparesis literally translated means “stomach paralysis”. Gastroparesis is a digestive disorder in which the motility of the stomach is either abnormal or absent. In health, when the stomach is functioning normally, contractions of the stomach help to crush ingested food and then propel the pulverized food into the small intestine where further digestion and absorption of nutrients occurs. When the condition of gastroparesis is present the stomach is unable to contract normally, and therefore cannot crush food nor propel food into the small intestine properly. Normal digestion may not occur.<<

Today’s events:  All was progressing well today until after lunch.  I had been talking to the nurse about having Nancy do more than just be in the bed.  Could she walk around some?  Was there a 4-wheeled walker around or could I bring one in?  That sort of thing.

There was a CWU EMT student there for the day so the nurse agreed to more exercise after she and the young man checked Nancy’s vital signs as she moved about – sitting, standing, in and out of a chair.  That all went well.  So after a little exercise she got back into bed and I started to leave.  At that point she expressed some stomach discomfort – like she had to burp.  I urged her to sit up straight and do so.  It was more than a burp.  It was all the liquid she had consumed at lunch.  She has learned to keep a pan handy and so all the mess was contained.

Shortly thereafter the visiting “hospitalist” came in and talked to Nancy and the others that had witnessed the event.  She was less than surprised and based on Nancy’s long stay in bed before and after surgery expressed her opinion that this would not be uncommon.

She wanted Nancy to eat (mostly liquid and soft food tonight) and then nothing until they start the examination tomorrow.  They will give her food with ingredients that will show on an X-ray and then over several hours and several pictures determine if the food stays in the stomach overly long.

We will learn more tomorrow.

Pneumonia was not confirmed.  No fever and no sign of the right germs or whatever it takes in one’s coughed-up material, which there was almost none of anyway.

A couple of weeks ago with Nancy seemingly stable the diuretic was eliminated from the drug arsenal.  But as she was not eating the right stuff, combined with the less than robust heart function, she began to retain fluid again.  To Nancy, currently, the ideal food is Lipton or Campbell noodle soup with a fake chicken aroma and lots of salt.  Sometimes she even eats the noodles.

I can’t hardly buy anything she will eat that isn’t loaded with salt.  I guess the next thing is to buy a grinder and get pieces of things small enough that she will swallow them.  The local hospital calls this a soft mechanical diet.  Think of a chicken salad sandwich without the bread.  Such pureed foods are sold, I think, in the grocery store under the heading of baby food.  That probably won’t do.

Before they kick her out of the hospital tomorrow I will have to have a plan in place.