CCCC or C4

Sunday, June 26

Celebrations, Crew Work, Consultations, Cherries

For June 25 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 5 hrs 24 min with AHI=1.30. Events: 0 CSR, 7 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 22 L/min). Oximetry: both SpO2 and pulse good.

John left at 5:40 a.m. for Mt. Rainier. We’ll add some photos from his day on the trail below my trip to town for the baby shower report.

I slept a couple more hours, and then fed all three outside cats (Woody, Sue, and Lemon), and one inside (Rascal).

Around 10:45 a.m., I took off for town with my gifts for the baby shower, including three things: a gift bag full, a plastic container full, and a stationary baby seat for the floor.

I don’t remember when we started eating, but it was after playing several games and drinking tea and lemonade. Games included guessing the prices of baby necessities from the grocery, baby stuff (from her baby registry requests) in brown paper bags, and guessing the gestation period for a number of different animals. We all decided a few of the larger ones (such as an elephant) was way too long. All through this everyone was visiting. Another game was measuring a piece of yarn string to come the closest to the number of inches around Jess’s middle. After all that fun, we ate a fantastic meal including a large variety of veggies and fruits, meat, sweets (cupcakes, chocolates, almond-poppy Bundt cake), and chilled dishes of various sorts. I loved the fresh cut figs, as I have not had one in over 50 years. We had a fig tree in our backyard, where I grew up in Atlanta, GA. I’m sure I left something out of the food fare explanation. I forgot to take my camera, so I have no pix except those sent to me at my request (by Jess’s sister Julie). Collage below.
00-CollageAtBabyShowerJessSwedbergLeft: Nancy with Kathy & Lynn Swedberg. Middle: Grandmother, Lorene Swedberg in pink sitting in walker, Jess Swedberg middle behind her. Right: Jess with her yarn to measure her circumference.

After lunch, we opened gifts. I have pictured my contributions below (pix taken before I left home).
01-CollageJessSwedbergBoyBabyShower2of3On the left in the collage above is one large gift bag with blankets and an animal towel, and clothes in the bottom. The left top is a skeleton suit with pants and shirt and little shoes and kitty stocking socks. The right is a plastic container full of clothes from newborn “onesies” to rubber diaper pants, bibs, the Monkey blanket, some baby safety swabs, and various clothing to 9, 18, and 24 months. All this stuff came freely to me from the Buy Nothing site (except for driving all over the area to pick it up).
02-StationaryBabyInfantSeatCollageThe collage above is from the web to describe my third gift wrapped in a garbage bag, with the overhead thing disconnected. I had checked this out in advance with Jess to be sure someone else in the family was not providing one (as was the case with a car seat).

John’s trip was to the White River (east) area of Mt. Rainier. The park is divided into 4 sections for trail maintenance. This is on the Owyhigh Lakes Trail.
03-CollageOne-WhiteRiver7-26-16The main project was building a turnpike, replacing a buried one, and creating a new part over the wet spot on the trail. John is the one with the orange hat (Assistant Crew Leader), and the yellow hat is for a trail worker for the Mt. Rainier National Park. Note the black plastic culvert.
04-CollageTwoWhiteRiverThree shots: Andi with John; middle called the long view with green hats (volunteer workers) up front, and John way in the rear; right with the crew sitting on the almost finished project. “Almost” because it still needs about 100 buckets of mineral soil to fill in over the rocks and between the logs.

Monday, June 27

For June 26 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 8 hrs 36 min with AHI=0.47. Events: 0 CSR, 4 H, 17 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 20 L/min). Oximetry: Excellent all night.

We did morning chores and left for an appointment at the vet to get Annie taken care of. She was not feeling well for the past couple days. I intended to take my clippers along because she needed to be completely shaven to access and treat the injuries, ticks, and cheat grass, but I forgot my container with the clippers and the instructions and we were 12 miles away, having driven the truck & canopy with a large kennel in the back for Annie. The Doc gave her a tranquilizer and we stayed with her awhile. After 20 minutes, she settled nicely, and they walked her back to the surgery room, where she was anesthetized for the procedures. We used to help with such things but now they kick us out.

We left for lunch and received a phone call on my cell phone from the assistant because the Dr. wanted to report in, and she knew we were going to lunch, intending to come back. That was a nice touch saving us time and travel distance. At the time of the call, the doctor and the assistant had worked on one side of her. They said they needed to keep her overnight to give her an injection for the infections they found. She was running a fever of 104° (normal for a dog is ~102°). They cleaned an abscess on her neck (apparently from running into barbed wire), cleaned cheatgrass from both ears that had been embedded for a while and were infected. She said they had taken off several ticks, and that they had trimmed the one side and done her toenails. They were going to complete the shaving, but give her injections for the infection, and wanted to keep her overnight. When that is the case, for best results, they do not wish to send the animal home. They also found a rash on her tummy apparently from the infection in her system.

Here is the after shot, at home the next morning, worn out from her overnight at the vet.
05-AnnieAfterVetOverniteWiped out from a night of little sleep, we imagine. All trimmed to the toenails. Cheatgrass also was removed from between the toes. She had an amazing amount of thick hair removed from her entire body. It is cool this week but she will likely be more comfortable when summer heat arrives.

Tuesday, June 28

For June 27 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 9 min with AHI=0.16. Events: 0 CSR, 1 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 12 L/min). Oximetry: Just fine, all night.

We left to pick up Annie. She is looking good all trimmed up and doctored. She had a lot wrong. Final bill was $243, which included anesthesia, grooming all hair off to access the doctoring of the abscess, several other abrasions, exposing ticks to take off, (meds for a month, one NexGard chewable pill costing $26.00). I figured I could find more for a lesser price on line, and we’re working on that. I paid for overnight boarding because they gave injections they wanted to check in the morning when she was out from being under. They gave her one 500mg Amoxicillin and enough for twice daily ($15) for a week. I had some of that at home, but went ahead and took theirs and paid for it. As mentioned, the vet removed several pieces of cheat grass from both ears. Annie had a rash (little red spots caused by her infection) and the abscess on her cheek. They put on a diaper rash cream, and we bought some today at Bi-Mart to continue the application.

I have been arranging for the celebration we are playing music for early, in honor of the Fourth of July, at the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center (the Senior Center). We have provided the entertainment for well over a dozen years, at 3 different locations in town (starting at a park south of town), near the Yakima River.

We went back in (John drove me so I could take a Percoset) for my hour’s PT evaluation assessment after 5 weeks of treatment. Medicare requires these updates. I have to show improvement to be able to continue. I am scheduled Thursday to visit my family physician, to approve the sessions twice weekly for another 6 weeks. I managed to improve in my numbers for range of motion and strength of resistance. The Physical Therapist will complete the report and FAX to my doctor’s office tomorrow. I will go by and receive a printout of the angles measured and the complete report.

I removed all data from Oximeter and CPAP for last night and recorded. It was a good night, with the lowest AHI in awhile.

Thinking music, I went back in tonight and stopped at the bread room with 2 minutes to closing, drove on down to Super 1 for my prescription pickup (got 2 of 3), and picked up 1/2 dozen donuts marked down – nice Boston Crème in the middle of chocolate frosting over the doughnut. I went on to the Rehab, visited with a few people, and realized it was the wrong night of the month. Oh me oh my. I gave my apologies to the staff and left to fill up my gasoline tank before the prices go up for the 4th weekend. I paid $2.519/gallon and came on home. WA gas tax goes up 4.9¢ per gallon on July first, and next year again. Roads and bridges need repaired. Costs have gone up, so over 3 years the tax increase will be 11.7 cents. There is a need for a replacement bridge to span the Columbia River between Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR. Money for that will come from another way – if they can decide when and how to build it. After if falls down?

Wednesday, June 29

For June 28 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 6 hrs 22 min with AHI=0.31. Events: 0 CSR, 2 H, 12 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 11 L/min). Oximetry: both readings good all night.

John started by picking strawberries and now is running Annie. She was anxious to go, and hope it will not expose her to any potential problems (i.e., cheatgrass). She’s had her antibiotics.

I am getting ready to leave just before 11:00.

I stopped to pick up two sisters to take with me to the Food Bank and to SAIL exercise. We enjoyed our day together and picked up some bread for them at the bread room. Shirley was all excited to find roasted garlic bread, and they got nice sourdough and French bread loaves. For lunch, we had a nice white sauce pasta chicken dish without a lot of garlic, making me happy. The meal included bread, salad, dessert and drink. From there we went to SAIL exercise. Once done, I needed to go pick up the medicine not refilled yesterday, and we dropped by a house for me to leave a bag of toddler clothes for our mascot Haley (see below) to try on.

Thursday, June 30

For June 29 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs with AHI=0.00. Events: 0 CSR, 0 H, 25 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 15 L/min). Wow… first time in many months I had a perfect reading of ZERO. Oximetry: both fine all night.

We drove 45 minutes to the 9:45 appointment with my family physician, Dr. Schmitt, in Cle Elum. He gave an okay on progress from PT and paperwork to continue. He noticed a change in what he noted of my range of motion from my previous time in his office about 6 weeks ago.

After taking the Percoset, I left with John driving me to my PT session appointment. While I had my appointment, he bought a weed sprayer to replace one with a broken air-pump handle. The new one has a filter and the old one did not. That’s the up side of old things breaking. John picked cherries.

Friday, July 1

For June 30 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 56 min with AHI=0.00. Events: 0 CSR, 0 H, 11 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 10 L/min). ZERO again. Oximetry: OK.

I slept in an hour, and then for another hour cleaned many dishes, fed the cats, and gave Annie her medicine. More cherry picking for John. We made it to the AAC by 11:00, with two large boxes of cherries and all the music stuff needed.
John had packed cherries of different types (Rainier, Queen Anne, and Bing) with stem on, into two large flat boxes probably close to 5-7 pounds each. The kitchen crew was willing to wash only those that would be eaten today, and will dispense the remaining to people in bags to take home and refrigerate (they’ll last for at least a week), and we told them NOT to wash them until they were ready to eat them.

We stayed around at the end and John helped “hang up” the chairs on stands and put away tables. We received many compliments for our music, and the group sounded good with a responsive audience. I am sorry I don’t have videos of any of the music, but John took his camera. I will post a few collages below.

COLLAGES at the AAC Fourth of July celebration early.
06-KittitasValleyFiddlers&FriendsTop shows Nancy’s introduction of the program to the audience (of over 60 people) who had the lyrics to sing along to 13 songs. A dozen of us performed for over a half hour, ending with everyone standing, saluting the flag, and singing our National Anthem, acapella. This is a moving experience every year.
07-CollageAudienc&UsSinging audience, part of Kittitas Valley Fiddlers & Friends, Nancy with our mascot, Haley in her Sailor suit.
08-CollageAAC7-1-16CelebrationAnother collage of the day.
09-CollageSailorHaleyFinal collage shows Sailor Haley smelling the flowers outside the Ellensburg Adult Activity Center on her way inside, where she danced and visited with the audience.

John is out working in the yard, and thankfully the wind has lessened – not 40 mph gusts as yesterday. The winds today have been in the 30s, with a high gust of 35 mph.

Tonight, our friends Helga and Charlie Firkins are bringing their visitor (for the next 5 weeks) to pick cherries from our trees. John will cut branches from the trees and the rest of us can pick while sitting. We did this with their visitor 9 years ago. The visitors are part of the Children of Chernobyl program held in Ellensburg. There are usually 6 teenagers brought over to participate in a week of business classes at CWU and to get free medical visits, and treatment, as needed. A different group comes each summer and this has gone on for a number of years sponsored by local community members. Charlie and Helga have hosted from 1 to 3 girls in past years, since 2000. Our music group always shares fun times with them.

Deer Greeting Firkins Cherry-Picking Visit

Cherry pickers 10-CllageCherryPickers
Cherry deliverer 11-CollageCherriesRoyalAnne&Bings

Saturday, July 2

For July 1 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 4 hrs 45 min with AHI=2.31. Events: 0 CSR, 11 H, 9 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 23 L/min). Oximetry: Battery ran out; no report.

John was up and out of here by 5:25 a.m. and saw the fawns and mom in the orchard eating cherries when he went to start his car, load boots, and lunch. They were dining on cherries from our picking yesterday. John only had to drive to Ellensburg to carpool (in a truck, does that mean it was truckpool?), with another WTA volunteer, Bill Weir. Bill and John shared one previous trip, and plan for more to come. I appreciate knowing he is not driving the whole 236 (round trip) miles to Mt. Rainier and back alone. The last one they visited together was not as far, being just west of Yakima. We don’t have pictures of the trip but below is the view from the work site – yellow dot on the lower right.
Emmons Clacier via Google EarthThat’s dirty ice in the lower left (Emmons Glacier) with Mt. Rainier (14,411 ft.) on the upper right. The center peak (rock & snow) is Little Tahoma, 11,138 feet. John was at just over 5,000′.

I helped with a few things but was still very tired and went back to sleep for 3 hrs. Guess I needed it. I had not slept well the night before, and yesterday was another busy day.

Now I began this morning with chores on and off the computer, have closed up the house at 70° outside, gone out, and fed one of the ferals, Lemon. Washing dishes, processing photos and videos for the blog, planning to package raspberries for the freezer, and take cherries off a few branches John cut last night late – and put in the fridge. He washed a few and took a little sandwich bag full for his trail work lunch and snacks.

Sunday, July 3

For July 2 CPAP. Reported figures. Time on 7 hrs 9 min with AHI=0.70. Events: 0 CSR, 5 H, 10 RERA. No major mask leaks (max= 23 L/min). Oximetry: Nothing unusual all night.

We awoke with nicer temperatures, but found a very windy day with 41 mph gusts highest thus far, probably occurring during the time we were out with our new (southern edge through one other property) neighbor. John has picked cherries by the multiple pounds for neighbors unable to get out, for us, has worn out his picking-hand (left), and is now at rest.

I have been sorting and packing as he brings them in, and trying to continue taking the movies and pictures off my camera.

Our new neighbor down-ditch from us, who shares our irrigation water, drove up with her son in his truck, to carry away a bunch of limbs from two different trees for their visiting relatives to sit on their porch and pick.

Sherri Fought & Son Derek Limbing Royal Anne Cherries, 7-3-16

This video link above shows dropping the first large limb from a Royal Anne Cherry tree. John cut it off while Sherri steadied the ladder, and Derek grabbed the limb to carry to the back of his truck. During the time they were here, we were getting winds 26 mph + with gusts during that hour of 36 mph (measured 5 miles south of us at the airport). Just before 3:00 this afternoon, we had 43 mph gusts.

12-CollageSherri&DerekNeighbors arriving.
13-CollageJohnSherriDerekNeighbors leaving. (short box truck)

Hope your week was fine.

Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan