[Written over several days this week.]<\/p>\n
The infusions via the PICC will cease after Tuesday.\u00a0 It would be nice to have a way of preventing infective endocarditis (IE) by these bacteria because of the damage they cause and because the treatment is long, involved, and a pain in the arm.\u00a0 Having dental work, even flossing, is a risk factor and while there are antibiotics and oral rinses (Now using Chlorhexidine gluconate 0.12%.), The American Dental Association thinks that \u201c. . . only an extremely small number of cases of IE might be prevented by antibiotic prophylaxis for dental procedures even if such prophylactic therapy were 100 percent effective.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s not highly reassuring!<\/p>\n
After Tuesday we wait two weeks and have blood drawn and cultured.\u00a0 If Nancy\u2019s blood is free of the bacteria, the PICC will be removed.\u00a0 So while IE may be rare in the overall population, Nancy has had it twice.\u00a0 Our response is going to be extreme vigilance, being on the watch for any of the signs of IE that we are now (unfortunately) too familiar with.<\/p>\n
And speaking of rare events.\u00a0 Last Sunday a storm cell hit Ellensburg just seconds after we entered Dean Hall on the CWU campus\u00a0 — thunder, lightning, hail and wind, the storm swept right over the campus where we were going to the memorial service.\u00a0 They took me in an hour early at the hospital for my infusion, and I was able to make it to the campus in better time, and got in the building right before the \u201cbottom dropped out\u201d.\u00a0 Luckily, the major storm cell was 10 miles south of our house and the puppy and his dad, out in separate yards, were not exposed to the bad part.<\/p>\n
We had gotten there early, so we stopped at Hebeler, a building two down from Dean where we were going, to clean out my locker from several years of teaching there in a computer lab.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have a big enough box or a cart to carry away all the stuff, so we will have to return one of these days.\u00a0 We loaded a small box, and two plastic bags, with books, paper, and things.<\/p>\n
Then on to the other building, with huge drops of rain (and we had no umbrella), but we parked right behind it and went in the door before getting soaked.\u00a0 We watched the storm from the 3rd<\/sup> floor of Dean Hall, and we could see the other end of the valley north, and realized our house was not really in the storm.\u00a0 In 30 minutes it had blown on to the east and the rest of the afternoon was exceptionally nice.\u00a0 Many years ago we lived in places where summer thunder storms are common.\u00a0 Not so here.<\/p>\n Monday found us on the road to Yakima to Costco, as we were out of lots of things we need.\u00a0 Then Tuesday, visited my doctor, family physician.\u00a0 I\u2019m in much better shape than when I last saw him, in August.\u00a0 We also got our flu shots, both of us, this visit.\u00a0 Normal afternoon visit for antibiotic infusion.\u00a0 Tuesday night I went and played music with \u201cThe Connections\u201d.\u00a0 They were all happy to see me back among the living.<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2026 was another busy day.\u00a0 Had to be at the hospital for an Echocardiogram at 12:45.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t time and I didn\u2019t feel like starting my exercise class, so we went to lunch.\u00a0 Ate well.\u00a0 Then dropped by my class at the end to say hello and let them know I was alive, and in better shape than when I last saw them in August.\u00a0 I wanted to thank them for the cards they sent to ICU Yakima in mid August.\u00a0 On from there to the hospital for an infusion, after an ice cream cone for each of us.\u00a0 McDonald\u2019s has a good deal of a 50 cent soft serve cone, and I get it in a cup with a spoon.<\/p>\n Thursday.\u00a0 Time to go play music, but all morning was spent either with the puppy or on the computer putting together a slide show of my students in action over the past couple of years, for showing at the retirement \u201cparty\u201d, Saturday, Oct 2nd<\/sup>, afternoon.\u00a0 Then after music at Hearthstone, we went to the hospital and then home.\u00a0 Today (Thurs.) was the day for the PICC line dressing change (once a week).\u00a0 John is busy now, making a pecan pie and another for a scholarship luncheon tomorrow at CWU, Friday.<\/p>\n The Scholarship luncheon is a group at CWU of mostly staff members, who get together and someone fixes lunch.\u00a0 Then the money for lunch goes into a scholarship fund at the Foundation, and is distributed to needy students.\u00a0 I have been in this group since 1988, and a few of the people from the beginning are still there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now it is Friday, and we went and had a great garden salad and rolls.\u00a0 The garden salad was all from Ruth\u2019s garden, i.e., tomatoes, corn, (doubt she grew the black beans), onions, and a slaw of grated cabbage and carrots.\u00a0 Yum.\u00a0 On the way home, we hit a couple of yard sales.\u00a0 At one, John found a Wrangler shirt in new condition, for $1, in the blue and yellow colors of Sweden. (Many web sites render the yellow incorrectly but the shirt gets if right.) I found a lovely western shirt for a buck, as well.\u00a0 Then we came on back home, but on the way saw a long time friend in his yard splitting wood, so we stopped and visited for a nice visit, before getting home for a stop before going back for an infusion.<\/p>\n Saturday, brings more music at Briarwood (a retirement community).\u00a0 They provide us with a free lunch for playing and singing.\u00a0 This time, they are planning to feed us cabbage rolls.\u00a0 I checked today, and will go a little late to my infusion, so I can participate.\u00a0 I did and we had a great time.<\/p>\n John and I hit some garage sales this morning.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t get as much as usual, but did get some good things and deals.\u00a0 John did not bargain on his major purchase, a set of 5 unopened packages of cedar wood thin pieces.\u00a0 (John, please elaborate.\u00a0 Okay \u2013 glue on panel replacement, 3.5 inches wide and a fraction thick.)\u00a0 He also found a stuffed horse (2 ft. high) for $2.\u00a0 At the same place I bought a brass giraffe and baby on a small stand.\u00a0 It is for me to give to one of my nurses who loves giraffes.\u00a0 It was only $1 and is about 6 inches high.\u00a0 Then another place I found some moccasins that fit for $1.\u00a0 I found a stack of various kinds of greeting cards to replace the stash I used the last of recently.\u00a0 All plus some other stationery \/ cards for a quarter.\u00a0 We did walk through some sales that had nothing to offer, or whose prices were out of line.\u00a0 Another sale made us question, \u201cWhy bother?\u201d\u00a0 There was so little stuff.\u00a0 At least I got some exercise walking around them.<\/p>\n Sunday, nothing is planned\u2026 to my knowledge, except for the infusion again.<\/p>\n The other thing I have been working on all week is a slide show (mostly of recent students and other things) to show in the conference room of Dean Hall during the retirement party.\u00a0 It will just revolve through them without intervention.\u00a0 I\u2019m cleaning my computer and snagging smaller pictures of my students in action \u2013 for the past couple of years.\u00a0 I have pictures of them presenting their map projects and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) projects in 3 different classes at the end of a quarter, in a University Poster session in the Science Building.\u00a0 I have done that for at least 10 years.\u00a0 I also have had my Urban Geography class do posters on their final term project.\u00a0 As well, I have pictures from some of our Wine: A Geographical Appreciation class field trips.\u00a0 There are pictures from different award banquets that I have nominated students for over the years.\u00a0 Pictures of events during classes, such as orienteering on campus, or visiting the Map Library to learn about maps and research in Government Documents.\u00a0 I have fun pictures, as well, of a Halloween pumpkin carving contest one year, when we shared a building with geology and physics.\u00a0 Now we share a building with anthropology.<\/p>\n That\u2019s it for the week.\u00a0 Hope yours was good.\u00a0 Stay tuned for next weekend, hopefully not before.<\/p>\n Nancy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [Written over several days this week.] The infusions via the PICC will cease after Tuesday.\u00a0 It would be nice to have a way of preventing infective endocarditis (IE) by these bacteria because of the damage they cause and because the treatment is long, involved, and a pain in the arm.\u00a0 Having dental work, even flossing, … Continue reading “SATURDAY (late) — rare events”<\/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-636","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-ag","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","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=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rocknponderosa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}