. . . report since the ICD implant happened<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s really 19 days since, but who\u2019s counting.\u00a0 We have been very busy with various chores, besides dealing with the healing process and follow-up doctor visits and lab work.\u00a0 Will get to that in a minute, but for now I may tell you about something I left out of the device check write-up June 8th<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0 I did say that I will be part of a research study, but I didn\u2019t mention the fancy name.\u00a0 \u00a0It is called GALAXY, and the acronym, (don\u2019t we love those?) comes from this. \u00a0I\u2019ll try to highlight BOLD and CAPS the letters in the following phrase about the GALAXY Registry (LonG<\/strong>-term EvAL<\/strong>uA<\/strong>tion of the LinoX <\/strong>FamilY <\/strong>ICD Leads Registry).\u00a0 \u00a0How long do you suppose it took for someone to figure that out?\u00a0 It\u2019s really not any different from just going in every 3 months for a device check-up, but I had to agree and to sign paperwork to give them permission to put \u201cmy data\u201d in a research study.\u00a0 The purpose is to work toward improving the device technology for the future.\u00a0 I guess it is pretty good now, but I figured I would participate.\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t cost me anything and I have to go in for all the checks anyway.\u00a0 I\u2019m interested in participating in good things for the future of others needing the same help as I did.\u00a0 I have been grateful for all the comments from so many of you about success stories on friends and family who have had defibrillators.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how many are out there and have reportedly been operative for some time.<\/p>\n I am going to visit my cardiologist this Monday, and will be driving myself down to Yakima.\u00a0 John is staying behind to care for the mom and the puppies, and to help taking off the last of the shingles (old) on the roof of our house \u2013 the front part.\u00a0\u00a0 While there I will take a trip to Costco to pick up a few items.<\/p>\n So, there is not much new to report on my progress, except I seem to be a little stronger each day.\u00a0 I have been doing a lot of music venues, and turns out my fiddle would normally be held and rested on the place where the defibrillator is implanted.\u00a0 That wound is still there and still has on all its little Band-Aids (it has a fancier strip name, but I don\u2019t know what it is).\u00a0 They haven\u2019t rolled off yet.\u00a0 So, I moved over the fiddle to under my chin and lower down so I didn\u2019t have to raise my left arm too high.\u00a0 I still need to use it to finger and to hold the fiddle, so the past 3 days of fiddling have been tiring.\u00a0 My right arm is getting more use too, so it aches some.\u00a0 I\u2019m doing all right with Acetaminophen, just more than twice a day.\u00a0 People enjoy our music so much, and we enjoy providing it, that it all has a happy ending.<\/p>\n The puppies will be 4 weeks old this Monday, June 21st<\/sup>.\u00a0 That means they are ready for mushy puppy chow and their own water.\u00a0 This also means they are outgrowing their pen, so we will be moving them (probably Sunday) to new digs where they have more room.\u00a0 While I was gone to town to play for a 94th<\/sup> birthday party gig at one of the nursing homes, where they also gave us lunch, John took them out to play in the grass.\u00a0 One ventured away from the rest and into the raspberries.\u00a0 Then another went and almost got lost under the Nanking Cherry trees.\u00a0 Funny, but not so for John.\u00a0 He gathered them up and put them in a box and brought them back in ASAP.<\/p>\n I have not gone back to Physical Therapy because I\u2019m waiting to hear if my insurance will pick up the rest along with Group Health.\u00a0 If it is costing me $25 for 45-minutes on a machine, and I\u2019m already paying a couple hundred to have medical insurance each month, plus the cost of Medicare each month, it makes no sense.\u00a0 I am going to the SAIL class (earlier mentioned in this blog), at the Adult Activity Center 3 times\/week for an hour, for only $3 for 3 months.\u00a0 That\u2019s a fine deal.\u00a0 We get lots of stretching, strengthening and balance exercises each session.\u00a0 I cannot do anything with my left arm that causes it to be raised above my shoulder, but I still can do a lot of the exercises.<\/p>\n I have done a little bit of walking around our place.\u00a0 A couple days ago I walked into the lower pasture with John to retrieve the 3 \u201cnew\u201d horses.\u00a0 They now return to their pen on command from John, off the high grass.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing to me to see how responsive they have become to his wishes and commands.\u00a0 They also had not been fed treats before in their life and it is great to see them coming over to him for a carrot.\u00a0 The day I went, the youngest (4 years old), Breeze, came up to me for a carrot.\u00a0 (He has not seen a lot of me, so that was a rewarding experience.)<\/p>\n One of our recent times this past week was having the farrier in to do trimming on some of the horses.\u00a0 While John rounded up the new ones, I held Myst for her trimming.\u00a0 That was nice to be back in the thick of things around the \u201cranch\u201d.<\/p>\n Our roofing project is going well too.\u00a0 The barn was done in time to load it with hay last Sunday.\u00a0 Lucky for John our provider came with two large trailer loads and a person to help unload and pack into the barn, and a powered bale elevator\/conveyor.\u00a0 Had John had to do this alone as we have in the past, it would have required at least 10 trips in the truck and trailer, across the valley, and back, and also he would have to do all the lifting and packing into the barn.\u00a0 This was great.\u00a0 He had only to supervise, open gates (which he had just built) for access for the big tractor trailer truck, and open windows and doors on the barn, plus build fences and tarps to protect the hay in the runway from having the horses nibble and break into the bales.<\/p>\n Other chores around the yard have kept John busy as well as horse training.\u00a0 This is a year when we have had more rain than usual and the grass is high everywhere.\u00a0 \u00a0He has shifted the horses in and out of the pasture (and our backyard) twice a day.\u00a0 It also has been very windy.\u00a0 The temperatures have been down, however, which has made the yard work and roof work bearable.\u00a0 I have been able to join the two guys each day for lunch outside.<\/p>\n Another thing we\u2019ve been able to do is go to lectures at school and in the community.\u00a0 There was an interesting 6 lectures given in downtown Ellensburg by one of our former colleagues in the Geology Department.\u00a0 We missed two unfortunately, when I had this recent procedure, but we made the last one, and that was special.\u00a0 The topics have all been on Washington State geology.\u00a0 It is totally fascinating.<\/p>\n I guess you must be tired of hearing all this unrelated to the heart procedures, but to know I\u2019m back to doing some of this stuff is very positive.\u00a0 I\u2019m happy to be alive to enjoy my retirement.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still attending yard sales when I can and picking up bargains.\u00a0 I had to get a whole new wardrobe because of my weight loss, and while doing that I also have found a few items for John.\u00a0 There are pretty nice shirts out there that are almost new and of a quality we probably wouldn\u2019t have bought new.<\/p>\n Thanks for staying tuned, and thanks again for all your prayers and thoughts that got me this far.<\/p>\n Nancy<\/p>\n [from John: I\u2019ll add something medical but unrelated to Nancy\u2019s heart.\u00a0 In December, while Nancy was in the ICU, I developed a \u201cfloater\u201d in my right eye.\u00a0 This turned out to be something of a false floater called a Weiss Ring and of little consequence, especially for me as I am left-eyed.\u00a0 My right eye is of little use (sort of a spare) that would wander off until a couple of muscle-relocations brought it into alignment.\u00a0 However, my brain ignores the image that eye sends and so the \u201cfloaters\u201d in it are not noticed. Yesterday the left eye developed its own Weiss Ring and this one is going to take a bit more getting used to.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have it inspected this coming week because occasionally a small retinal tear occurs during detachment and that could be seriou<\/em>s.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" . . . report since the ICD implant happened Well, it\u2019s really 19 days since, but who\u2019s counting.\u00a0 We have been very busy with various chores, besides dealing with the healing process and follow-up doctor visits and lab work.\u00a0 Will get to that in a minute, but for now I may tell you about something … Continue reading “SATURDAY Nancy\u2019s 2+ week . . .”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p72iNf-8K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}