Sunday, Jan 31
For Jan 30 CPAP. Reported figures 5 hrs 3 min with AHI=0.99. Events: 5 H, 0 CSR, 6 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time and additional 3 hrs -24 min, with lower SpO2 off the machine and normal pulse.
Monday, Feb 1
For Jan 31 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 1 min with AHI=0.71. Events: 5 H, 1 CSR, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min); oximeter on entire time with fine stats.
John took care of the animals, I took a shower, and then we both soaked and washed our feet for the 10-week trimming via the doctor and helpers up from Yakima, saving us a long drive. Being still early in 2016 our Medicare deductible hasn’t been paid so this comes right out of the bank account. We got there and were taken right in together, although we are scheduled 15 minutes apart. We get to visit for 30 minutes about all sorts of things because the trimming doesn’t occupy much of his mind. He had been to meetings in Chicago. He learned about genetic/DNA variations and combinations of viruses and bacteria and how standard exams find the most prolific agent and miss many others. When the full range of biological agents are identified, better treatment is possible. I’ll see him on the Ides of March and follow up, for laser surgery, after we are down in Yakima to see my cardiologist. Nice when we can combine trips. We’ll hit Costco too.
I had worked in the morning setting up a pickup south of town on a freely given bar stool that matches one we got last year. We managed to pick it up today, after going by Safeway pharmacy and filling out the paperwork to get my Telmisartan medicine at 1/3 the price. I mentioned it in last week’s blog that we’ll pay $62.90 for 3 months, rather than $206.01. Then we went to Super 1 for some ground beef for dinner, and some cauliflower on sale for $.88/lb, after buying some last week, at Safeway for thrice the price. Seems folks are eating more cauliflower just as bad weather decreased the harvest. John plans making a casserole for dinner.
On home by Grocery Outlet where we get great prices on a couple of food items we use regularly, and then I stopped at Brooklyn’s Pizzeria and bought a nice pizza for John’s birthday (from a coupon sent to us on a reward program I joined on my birthday last year, but couldn’t use until 2016). While waiting for them to cook it, I took a $4 gift card into a neighboring business that I thought was ONLY selling a buffet of Frozen Yogurt with a variety of toppings. I was surprised to find out that the shop had sandwiches, drinks, and pastries. I checked them and found a large brownie (4″ square) and a very large peanut butter cookie. I bought them for our dessert for lunch and dinner, using my gift card plus $.23.
Once home, John had planned to clean out the Chinook wood stove, and I took a video of the process. It’s below. It lasts for 7 minutes and is a little longer because the ash-plug didn’t fall into its hole easily, possibly because of a piece of charred wood that had not dropped.
John Emptying Ashes from Wood Stove
Because some of the fragments were still hot, the whole lot got dumped in a foot of snow, above a pile of yard litter. Later the mixture will be widely dispersed in the garden. There won’t be a lot of ash, so this will not be a problem.
Wood Ash in the Garden
Tuesday, Feb 2
For Feb 1 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 44 min with AHI=0.70. Events: 4 H, 0 CSR, 2 PP, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=15 L/min); oximeter on entire time, 8 hr, 5 m, with an AHI=0..49. The extra.3 hrs were okay with high SpO2 and normal pulse.
John got all the morning chores done, and came back in to heat up leftover pizza from yesterday’s lunch. I frosted the large peanut butter cookie for dessert. Our day was organized based on a 3 P.M. appointment in west Yakima.
Nice trip down, with John driving. We left about 12:30 and took an hour to get to Costco, where we filled up with gas (only 7 gals @ $1.699/gal) — WOW. Too bad we couldn’t fill up the Ford Truck at that price. For once, the parking lot was not full. John went ahead of me and I stopped off at the return merchandise desk to ask a question about an SD card (for my camera) I bought the last time. It was not as large as advertised, at 64 Gigabytes. One has to read the fine print, ’cause what’s on the front is not the whole truth. I should have known that (I sort of did), but the drop seemed excessive. When I got through, and caught up, John was talking with a sales person about new laptops currently on sale. They have a nice one for $150 off until March 3. John’s going to investigate. It seems one should spend time typing on the keyboard for suitability for the user (me). Most of the rest of the stuff inside is very similar (at like price), commoditized, and likely has more capability than I need.
We had a list of things we needed and also needed to get 3 items for a friend. For a change, everything we went for was in stock. We were happy to find strapping tape (we use a lot of) on sale for $7.00 off a package of 8 rolls. The automatic dishwasher gel we like was also on sale, so that was nice. Apple strudel was as well, so I bought a box of 16 for the Emeriti Geographers meeting I will attend alone this coming Tuesday. John will be starting his wine grapevine pruning that day at White Heron. Good we took and filled up his car.
From there we drove west to the Oral Surgeon’s office, west on Nob Hill Blvd. We spent 2.5 hours there in consultation for two dental implants for me, on the bottom back left, for the gold crown I lost Christmas eve, and the one missing in front for over a decade. I decided then not to have a bridge installed, and I’m not sure implant technology had reached the level it has today.
More about that later. I had previously completed a long medical history for them and the chief assistant had been in contact with Dr. Schmitt (personal Phy.) for his assessment. Basically, I have to wait 3 months from my defibrillator surgery to begin the tooth surgery. So we are looking at after March 18. It will take about an hour, and John has to drive me down, stay in the building during the procedure, and drive me home. Part of the procedure is to build new bone in my jaw by adding bone fragments and my blood platelets to promote growth of bone to seat the screw implants. Then it has to “grow & heal” for about 3 or 4 months. After the waiting time, and approval, my own dentist will construct a crown for it.
In the image below, the left side is natural, the right side is the reconstituted view.
From there home, taking some pretty sunset photos, (a bit different from the one at our house in last week’s blog).
These above are views from I-82 and on the right is descending into the Kittitas Valley, with the Mt Stuart range in view, and Mt. Stuart on the far right, with a peak elevation of 9,415 feet.
We were hoping to arrive before dark but barely made it. Ebony was in her station waiting for grain, apple, and carrots. John took care of them, fed the three outside cats, and hauled in all the groceries we had purchased.
Once home, we had a treat of a frosted brownie with two cashews on top. Then, for dinner, we had leftovers of beef casserole, with peaches, and a Honeycrisp apple. For our final dessert, we had some Dutch cherry pie to go with ice cream. No comments from anyone out there.
Wednesday, Feb 3
For Feb 2 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 52 min with AHI=0.64. Events: 5 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=20 L/min); oximeter on entire time, AOK.
Started with John doing his normal feed the animals chores of the morning, and then he has to turn around and do it all again in the evening, but Ebony only gets her special vittles in the late afternoon. Deer are sharing hay with the horses and eating the needles as John trims the driveway pines. We should send a bill to the wildlife department. [Actually, providing feed is not advised. It causes problems.]
I took off before 11:00 to pick up my friend, Gloria, to take around town today.
Food Bank start. We had several extra singers there and a nice visit with friends and newly met folks. I was asked by food bank personnel (who know where I live) to carry away and deliver a large amount of food for neighbors. On our way to SAIL exercise, I dropped off 4 of John’s smaller shirts to a gal who gave us a bunch of cinder blocks last year. Then by the US Bank for Gloria to get some cash for paying for her bus rides to see her hubby in an assisted living facility in Cle Elum. On our way to SAIL exercise class, I dropped off an old Pyrex dish from the late ’70s to a gal who just had her 7th child. It was a special promotion by Parkay margarine, made by Pyrex with a spring pattern, in 1977.
SAIL was fine with about 17 people there. After that, I had to go by the hospital lab for a blood draw for my INR. A call later in the day noted the value was 1.9, a little lower than they would like. Too bad I didn’t have some wine with dinner last night (it raises the INR). Unfortunately, I have to go back in 2 weeks for a repeat draw. Then off to Bi-Mart. Gloria needed a couple of things, and my neighbor did too. By then it was snowing quite hard and I took her home. Earlier when I picked her up, I had given her things we brought for her at Costco. She had made nicely frosted chocolate cookies to send home with me.
Thursday, Feb 4
For Feb 3 CPAP. Reported figures, 6 hrs 31 min with AHI=0.61. Events: 4 H, 2 CSR, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min); oximeter on entire time.
While washing dishes this morning I sliced my right ring finger on a cat food can. I couldn’t stop the bleeding with pressure, but managed to slow it and John wrapped a Band-Aid on it. Glad it was not my violin fingering hand, but just the bowing hand.
I went to REHAB for Fiddlers & Friends music with eight players. We had a good bunch and a happy audience with about six people participating well. Little Haley entertained the crowd, dancing around the room visiting people, and showing them her coloring drawing book.
I delivered a Seahawk’s colors basket to a birthing room in our hospital. It was my first time in that hospital wing. It was for a someone on the Buy Nothing Ellensburg (BNE) group. On by another home to drop off two bags of clothes to be sorted for our BNE clothing share.
Home to a nice warm wood stove heated den that John started in my absence.
John fixed a nice pot roast for dinner with beef, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes, and mushrooms,with gravy. He toasted some slices of rye with sun-dried tomatoes and put butter and parmesan cheese on top. I took a photo as it was a very pretty dinner.
Friday, Feb 5
For Feb 4 CPAP. Reported figures, 7 hrs 42 min with AHI=0.78. Events: 6 H, 6 CSR, 18 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=14 L/min); oximeter on entire time, AOK.
I finally managed to talk to a person to get my WA Delta Dental login username and password fixed, so that I could see my benefits and claims history activities.
We found clothes to wear today for the ’50s party at the AAC (Senior Center. It was a potluck, so I put cut-up squares of zucchini bread with pineapple in a 1950s spring patterned Pyrex vintage dish. They served us Tuna Fish Casserole as the main dish.
This has both of us smiling in the top photo, but it is out of focus. You can see I have on a mink hat (was my mom’s she got in Canada), and a red wool jacket with black velvet collar I don’t know where I got, a fifties lapel pin and John’s in his black leather jacket with black pants and shirt. We both have on silver jewelry give to us by a former student and his wife — howling wolves motifs from the Wolf Preserve in Northern Idaho.
I added some other collages from the day:
Today I saw another doctor in my eye doctor’s office because my regular one wouldn’t return until 11:45 next Tuesday. I had a bump on my left eyelid that needed attention. Turns out I have Blepharitis, and an external hordeolum (feels like a stye but is a clogged oil gland), but not draining or big and red. I’m now set back $17.98 for an ointment to apply 3 times a day, and a $22 box of 30 scrub lid wipes to use twice/day. I have to put a hot compress on throughout the day. The ointment is Maxitrol. I applied it last night to the outside of my lid, because that was what I understood in the office. However, after reading the accompanying literature and checking on line, I found:
To apply the ointment:
Hold the tube in your hand for a few minutes to warm it up so that the ointment comes out easily. Tilt your head back slightly and pull down gently on your lower eyelid. Apply a thin film of the ointment into your lower eyelid. Close your eye and roll your eyeball around in all directions for 1 to 2 minutes. If you are applying another eye medication, allow at least 10 minutes before your next application.
Do not touch the dropper or tube opening to any surface, including your eyes or hands. The dropper or tube opening is sterile. If it becomes contaminated, it could cause an infection in your eye.
Maybe I will get competent with this procedure after a couple of days. I’m supposed to do it 3 x / day for 2 weeks.
Happily, I no longer have to go to Yakima for my CPAP supplies (every 3 months), because the company has opened an EBRG outlet. It is close to our preferred grocery store. Today, while I awaited my prescription, I went over for replenishment of supplies: new mask, tubing, and filters.
Saturday, Feb 6
For Feb 5 CPAP. Reported figures, 5 hrs 42 min with AHI=0.53. Events: 3 H, 13 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=14 L/min); oximeter on entire time, AOK.
We had a great brunch today of sausage, eggs, heated buttered zucchini bread with pineapple, left over from yesterday’s party, and some pears. The pears came from Grocery Outlet and were grown in China. Neither of us liked them – except the price.
Doctoring eyelids & eye, while John’s out taking care of yard chores.
I’m working on the blog and on photographs to include, while also entering my medical data for the day.
That last picture goes back to memories of high school sweethearts (in the center of the picture) from North Fulton High School in Atlanta, GA, from which I was graduated in 1961. Four years later, in 1965, I traveled to Europe on a Geography Field Trip for 9 weeks, and came back to enter graduate school in Cincinnati where I met John. That same year, the sweethearts from GA were married August 15, 1965. They are Camille (Clements) and Jimmy Sudderth. This past year, they celebrated their 50th Anniversary, and had the beautiful professional photograph taken with their family. Today was Jimmy’s birthday, and when I sent a birthday card, I realized I didn’t have their anniversary date, so I asked for it. Thus, the arrival of the picture in email. 🙂 We are 4 years behind them… well, closer to 3 years now.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan