This was the week of the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Summer Workshop in Kittitas, WA, 10 miles from our home. I was starting it in a very run down condition, having gone back to not being able to hold down food and therefore not having caloric intake and proteins for stamina and energy. I had arranged for a doctor’s appointment Tuesday afternoon, meaning I would have to leave during the last break at Fiddler’s class. Classes go from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
I had missed an atrial fibrillation medication, Metropolol, which apparently had elevated my heartbeat to 124 with severe atrial fibrillation. That is way above my normal in the 80s. So that was the concern of most of the visit. The pacemaker attached to the defibrillator has nothing to do with regulating that heartbeat, and that is solely done through the one medication I missed.
The doctor did check my legs for fluid build-up (none), listen to my lungs, heart, and feel around the lower part of my body searching for pains. The only thing I had was tummy grumblings from no food. Everything else provided a good report. The doctor requested more lab blood work there before I left, to see if that showed any problems. I have been poked so much, it’s no wonder I’m anemic.
John and I left Cle Elum and went to Ellensburg to pick up the meds, and on home. I took the missing med and proceeded to throw it up along with my yogurt from lunch. This was at 5:00 p.m. I didn’t feel like eating any dinner, but I took all my night meds at 9:00 p.m. with chocolate milk and Lucerna, a high protein supplement for diabetics to rebuild proteins in the system, hoping that would give me some sustenance. (I had been on that while in intensive care in Yakima and then all the time during the time I was in the Rehabilitation nursing home from Jan 20 till Feb 26. because of the lousy food I couldn’t eat.)
My last entry to my stomach (all the meds included) did not last long. They all came back up. I had not retaken the Metropolol, and so decided to retake that medication only, at 10:30 heading to bed. That stayed down, so the next morning my heartbeat was back to normal. Still was having trouble with the stomach.
John, being the sharpest knife in our drawer of medical memories of all my health issues since last year (keeping this blog cemented things in his memory too), realized I was suffering the same symptoms I had in Intensive Care in March here in the Ellensburg hospital for 4 days, with fluid in my lungs. Then after throwing up a lunch 3 hours after I ate it, the visiting hospitalist from the Tri Cities prescribed me onto Reglan. The pharmacy did not have that in the records, so they requested a refill from my cardiologist in Yakima. They realized it was not in their records, so they called my doctor’s office in Cle Elum, but they also did not have it. Finally, late afternoon Wed. another doctor tracked down what John had already remembered (but the nurse calling for me earlier could not discuss with John because of privacy issues)—and so they ordered a refill. John went to town late to get it. I need to take a pill ½ hour before a meal. I have now been doing that since Wed. night this past week, and I am keeping all food down and gaining more stamina and energy. [From John: earlier posts about this issue are in late March beginning on Wednesday 3/24]
It got me through the end of the class and the Friday afternoon recital, in which our class performed admirably on “For the Love of Tara” a song written by Denis Lanctot to honor the death of Tara his sister in law who died in an auto accident at 22.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l33Mdji-4BA
takes you to a duet of the song played by Leahy and a fiddler friend; try to listen to it and I think you will understand our choice. Our class of 26 played both parts, with our teacher backing us up on the piano. Many people at the recital said it was the most beautiful “orchestral” piece they had ever heard, in an old time fiddling setting. We have a reputation for that in that class, this being our 16th year. I have been in the class all 16 years.
Our teacher, Roberta Pearce, from Nampa, Idaho found that Leahy performed this piece on ‘youtube’ and she transcribed it into music for us to learn. The whole class voted to play it as our one recital song from all the ones we learned all week, and there were sixteen total.
~~~~~~~~~~
The information that follows is by the writer of the song, Denis Lanctot – from Canada. “For the Love of Tara” is my third recording and it is very special to me. I dedicate it to Tara Lynne Touesnard, my wife’s sister, who died in a car accident on April 25, 1994.
This tragedy drove me to immediately begin working on plans to recreate the fiddle that died with her – a fiddle that had once belonged to me and then to Tara.
~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for going through my week and I’m happy to say I’m doing very well today, on Sunday. Yesterday we drove part way up Blewett pass toward Wenatchee, to meet the new family of one more of our puppies, a nice female. She is now in her new home with a huge backyard to romp in with her new buddy, a year old Beagle. They renamed her Co-Co.
We were hopeful in the last post Aug 1 that this would be a better news week, and finally it turned out to be.
See you next week. We are actually scheduled to be at a potluck for our trail riding club Sunday afternoon, so will try to get it out earlier in the day.