Sunday, May 1 May Day brought many surprises
For Apr 30 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 44 min with AHI=00. Events: 1 CSR, 0 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 17 L/min), but then got an additional 3 hrs sleep off the machines. Oximetry good all night.
John left at 6:38 a.m. (He arrived too early yesterday, and is going to the same place, with the same volunteer crew).
I’m staying home to tackle projects. We published the blog last night. I took my camera out to record some of our flowering trees and bushes.
Here’s a collage of the crabapple tree:
Our lilac tree is adjacent to the crabapple.
Here’s a video of Lilacs Blowing in the Wind May 1, 2016
Those are just across the fence from the Mountain Ash tree that you will hear more about later in the week.
I heard back by email from Natalie Joyce, Owner of Canyon View Physical Therapy to whom I had written my situation and whether or not she was willing to evaluate my shoulder problem, with lost range of motion and pain, to see if Physical Therapy would be a possibility. I am unwilling to go through shoulder surgery. I had tried 2 years of massage therapy and acupuncture that improved it but only to a point.
She got back to me via phone and email:
“Thank you for reaching out Nancy. As I stated in our (telephone) conversation, I will wait until after your consult with Dr. Schmitt and then touch base with you. I will give you a straightforward answer about whether or not PT is appropriate and/or if I think I can help once we have a chance to sit down together for an evaluation. I certainly am impressed by your grit! It is an amazing story and I am glad you are here to tell it. I’m looking forward to meeting you.”
All the best,
Natalie
Today I spent working on a number of projects. I arranged the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends schedule for 2016 to share with a new singer who hopes to join our group. She will start next week. I contacted the director of the Issaquah Singers to have her approve my videos I took last week and share with her group, washed clothes and dishes, filed a few months worth, paid bills, and did my normal removal and display of data from CPAP and Oximeter.
Whoopee..I received an early call from John at Manastash Ridge, just before 4:00, on his way home, as they finished early. Nice.
Annie was surely happy to have him home to take her for a walk. I took her out with me when I went to take photos and that little jaunt made her happy, but she prefers going longer distances with John.
We have now had our dessert treat, and I’m returning to my chores.
Tonight, we had a visitor, who we suspected was living under our shed.
Monday, May 2
For May 1 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 57 min with AHI=0.72. Events: 1 CSR, 5 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 8 L/min).
Oximetry good all night
Dealing with dishes, bills, and John with yard chores. Now he is resting.
A little after five, our new neighbor (purchased the place last fall) downhill from us, with whom we will share irrigation water, came to meet us, and to have John show her around the hydrologic neighborhood. He spent quite a bit of time, and took her up to show her the diversion control, but later with more time he will show her a structure farther upstream where there is a split of 1 into 3 (streams). Two miles on up, Naneum and Wilson Creeks are joined for (historical) permitting of a grist mill. Then they are split into Wilson (on the west), and west and east Naneum. Two miles down from us, the 2 Naneums come together again. Just down from the 1-to-3 split, the water spreads out, slows, and drops rocks, gravel, and sand. Over the last 100 years this has made a mess of the stream structure. John hopes to move before there is a serious decrease (or increase) of the water coming our way. We came 27 years ago.
Tuesday, May 3
For May 2 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 1 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 1 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). Good nights with little activity seem to follow being worn out during the day. Oximetry good for the time.
Heading for Cle Elum to see my family physician about my shoulder. We arrived at 11:30 and were taken back at 11:32. John went with me and we both met with our doctor. We are sad he is retiring – phased now, full in December. He’s been my doctor since 1988, John’s since 1989. We had a nice visit and he will have his staff set up a referral to the place in Ellensburg I wish to go for Physical Therapy on my left shoulder. We also discussed transferring me to a medical doctor in Ellensburg rather than having a PA there in Cle Elum. But he will be around part-time (is now), and they are hoping to hire an MD. Before we left, I made an appointment for 7 weeks out to check back on my progress with the PT.
I came home and called the Internal Medicine folks about getting in to be seen by Dr. Kelly Noyes, new in town. No more new patients have been considered since December. Further checking revealed that she doesn’t take Group Health insurance, which is a requirement in my case. Here’s hoping they will make a good hire up in Cle Elum and we get auto-transitioned to her/him.
We enjoyed our drive up Hwy 10 with all the yellow wildflowers on the south-facing slopes and the white ones on the north-facing.
Wednesday, May 4
For May 3 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 16 min with AHI=0.16 Events: 1 H, 3 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10L/min). Oximeter ran out of charge before midnight.
Today’s activity on the Naneum Fan was noisy and fragrant. Our Mountain Ash tree in the front of our house is alive with the sound of bees pollinating. I attempted to catch the noise to share. Please, turn up your volume and visit the link below.
I picked up Gloria and went to the Food Bank & SAIL class. I drove by a gal’s house on the way to exercise class to deliver a bag of clothes. Some of the clothes I was giving to her and her daughter, and a couple I was leaving with her to fix for me. She is a seamstress who does all her work by hand. After our class, I showed one of my friends how to put on a CPAP face mask properly, adjusted it to her head, and sent her on her own to try it overnight. Found out the next day, it worked very well for her and she got the first good night’s sleep in a long time, without leaks keeping her awake. For that I am very happy. I like the mask very much, except for the air pressure hose attachment to the top of my head, but her machine is set up at a different level. Perhaps after she gets her own, I will move mine lower and return to using my mask.
Doreen Harrington (Ruth is her mother-in-law) gave me a square scarf on the BNE site. I have to pick up from Barge (actually Kamola), next Tuesday, after Jazzercise. Ruth organizes the CWU lunches that raise money for scholarships.
Stacee P. gave me a Chef’s Mark knife set (well, of the original 20-piece cutlery set, she had 17 knives left, minus 2 and without the scissors).
Thursday, May 5
For May 4 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 34 min with AHI=0.15.
Events: 1 H, 15 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=6 L/min).
John drove me to town. We went by S. Willow and picked up four tank tops. 2 purple, green, and an orange & white striped. Those were given to me to use in my physical therapy classes so my shoulder joint can be seen and the tissue reached, if necessary. I had a black one given to me last week, and this one asked if I would like some colorful ones, so I thanked her and accepted them. Now I have one for every day of the work out week. John let me off at the back door of the Rehab and went on for other errands – to Bi-Mart, Super 1, and to AAC to deliver my Toppenish Murals book for people to view/read who are going on an upcoming trip (I’m not going). I gave the staff a copy of my photos of art in geography and geography as art, and the text of the paper I wrote and presented in 2005 at a Geography Conference in Denver, CO. That was a memorable stay, on my way home. We were snowed in at the airport and lived on the floor for 3 days. I was not a happy camper. The airport provided blankets, toiletries, and kept the food places open so we could buy food. I had just gotten my cell phone, and it made it possible to rearrange my trip back, once the snow was cleaned from the runway. Years ago, John left a Denver area meeting ½ day early just to miss an approaching storm. When that storm got to Iowa it shut the place down.
John also got gasoline for his weekend WTA work trip and picked up my medications at the pharmacy. We had 9 players there today with a full room of audience, plus Jeanne in her wheelchair in our circle.
We came home by way of North Water to pick up the set of knives given to me on the Buy Nothing site. They are probably not the best cutting knives, but we’ll try them awhile and see what happens. The Fingerhut web site for these Chef Mark ones, made in China, sold for $40, and published bad customer reviews, which are still out there to read. The company no longer stocks them. Most of the buyers stated that none of them cut well, and could not be sharpened. I have found a similar situation with a couple I have tried. The steak knife did not do a good job of cutting my pork, but pulled it all right. The bread knife worked on chocolate bunnies, but not well on bread. I plan to try some more of the specialty ones. Check Saturday, when I tried another. John says maybe they aren’t worth sharpening but he has been to busy to worry about them.
Through the week, we received photos from the WTA field trip folks, so I will put a few of those into a collage for today.
WTA Boulder Cave Trail work, done April 30 and May 1.
Intro photo: looking out of Boulder Cave, a wildflower, and two little hikers.
Crew Leader Lisa Black, John, and others at creek. Bottom right: cleaning an asphalt trail in a picnic area. Top right: John and crew closed a long cut-off going down hill shown by orange dots. Below: On the left is the decommissioned cut off (orange dots going up) filled with rocks, branches, and old logs.
Middle photo is water damage from the trail going down toward a board walk near the cave entrance. Right side is a reconditioned piece of tread that had many rocks and multiple threads. All the rocks are gone and out of view and the tread smoothed.
Friday, May 6
For May 5 CPAP Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 29 min with AHI=0.80. Events: 1 CSR, 6 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=10 L/min). Oximetry was off for 2 hours – I must have knocked it off my left hand finger.
I arranged for annual physicals with Dr. Schmitt in Cle Elum – not until November this year. Last September the front desk scheduled us for September again. That, somehow got lost in a computer software update. No one seems to know why or how that happened. I received a note with my recent prescription Thursday, which alerted me to my not having a doctor’s visit set up this year. I called to question it because I thought we were scheduled to be in, after Sept 21 (has to be a year after the last). We might have missed a last visit with Dr. Paul or showed up when they were not expecting us. So the prescription alert helped. +1 for that.
Worked on my replacement for my Oximeter, which appears to be dying (its battery), and I am not sure if it can be replaced or if I just have to get a completely new unit. It is not quite 2 years old, but I have used it every night to assess my percentage of oxygen content in my blood as I sleep, and also keep track of my pulse. Some meds I’m taking lower my pulse when I sleep, and the SpO2 is enhanced while I sleep, by the CPAP machine I have to use. It makes me happy to have an oximeter to record my data, because CPAPs do NOT report the very information I need and for which I am on it.
Saturday, May 7
For May 6 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 4 min with AHI=1.81. Events: 5 CSR, 11 H, 8 RERA. No major mask leaks (max=11 L/min).
Oximetry: normal all night.
John took off a little after 6:30 a.m. for his WTA work day near Naches, and will be returning to the top of Manastash Ridge and call me from the viewpoint, so I can call in an order for pizza he’ll pick up on his way through town.
Will be a 3-topping for $7.99 take out — Philly Steak, Pepperoni, Canadian Bacon. John used Discover for a 5% cash rebate, and the clerk gave us a $5.99 special coupon on 2 toppings through this week, adding a topping, and saved us 40 cents more. Nice.
The gasoline is still $2.23 at both 7-11s, so he will jog through Ellensburg, because the price in Naches is $2.29. John’s lunch Sunday will be a slice of pizza, part of an orange, pecans, and some junk food.
I have been busy doing mostly computer work, dishes, working on the blog, and feeding cats. I did boil eggs to put with some tuna fish for my lunch salad. I tried another skinny knife from the set that looked like a knife to cut tomatoes, but I used it to cut my hard-boiled eggs, and it worked fine. I wrote the retired geographers about John’s and my conflict with an eye exam that will conflict with the end of our meeting Tuesday morning. We will have to be pulling out of Hearthstone on our way to the doctor by 10:45 at the latest. It will work. My guess is our guest speaker, Elvin Delgado, will be completed by then.
When I went out to feed the cats early morning, I saw the petals from the mountain ash tree falling to the ground. What a difference three days make! Look back at the blossoms on May 3. I took a few photos today and put into 2 collages:
This is on the tree in two different places.
This contrasts the tree with the petals fallen on the wooden deck.
Hope your week was fine.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan