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  • Caution: Old Person

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                                Waxing DArk Moon

    Kate said this morning, “I have the zombie walk down.” She referred to her walker and its clump, clump rhythm.  I suggested we have her greet trick or treaters.  We could hang a sign on the walker that said, “Caution:  Old Person!”   Talk jen-kate-ruth-gabe300about scary.  (pic:  Halloween 2008, Leadville, Co.)

    Yesterday she altered the periodicity of her drugs and  had a great improvement in her overall attitude.  Instead of taking 2 percocet every 4 hours, she now takes one every 2 hours.  I can tell advances in her movement and attitude each day, sometimes hour to hour.  She’s tough and stubborn, a good combination for recovery.

    “I just thank Jesus for this fine Norwegian.”  A line I read in a newspaper article a couple of years ago.  Me, too.

    On a more Y chromosome note.  Vikings vs. Steelers.  The line gives the Steelers the edge with three points.  Maybe.  Antoine Winfield is out with a bad ankle.  Rothelisberger has great stats this year in the passing game and Winfield out will put someone inexperienced out there.  Even so, my idea is that the Viking’s d-line will keep Ben on his heels enough to neutralize the Winfield problem.  If they can do that, Favre can score points with screens and mid-level passes since the Pittsburgh d will concentrate on All Day Peterson.  Let’s call it more like even.  Whichever team has the better day.


    Aging Family Health Sport 📎and tagged

  • Kate is home

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                              Waxing Dark Moon

    Hospitals are not homes.  Neither are they more than medically outfitted hotels.  Abbott-Northwestern is a good hospital, but the gap between a good hospital and a healing environment is vast.  Kate is now home, a healing place where her body will continue the work assisted by the surgeon.

    She’s tired, but mobile, walking unassisted, though at times she may use a cane or a walker.  I’m surprised at how able she is considering the the surgery was done Monday afternoon.

    Home feels more substantial now.  More after we both get a nap in, much needed.


    Aging Family Health 📎and tagged

  • Changes

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                           Waxing Dark Moon

    The leaves have finally changed color in our yard.  It happened almost over night.  Many went dry before they turned, but more have become red, gold, yellow.  The colors of fall are as much a part of our landscape as the snowdrops and daffodils are of spring.   Fall’s color gives us one last Times Square moment from the vegetal world before the emphasis moves to the monochromatic grace and elegance of winter.

    Sounds like Dr. Mary Ellis may visit over Thanksgiving.  The Singapore government nixed an earlier visit due to the H1N1 virus.  Mary’s had a lot going on over the last four years.   Working and finishing a dissertation has never been easy; it consumed extra time and holidays.  This would be the first Thanksgiving I can recall in a long time that she would be here.  It’s always good to have family around during holiseason.

    Kate comes home today.  Her primary exercise for the next bit of time will be walking.  Yes, she’s up and about.  No 100 yard dashes in the near term, but moving is good, real good.  She cannot twist, so no Chubby Checker’s music on the CD player.  She also has to bend at the waist, no flexing of the back.  She will need percocet for a few weeks.

    Fortunately hand work is how Kate spends time while listening to lectures at continuing medical education so she has projects to keep her busy.

    As soon as she’s able (maybe right now), she can also start using the treadmill.  5 minutes at first, then more as she heals.


    Aging Family Health Holidays 📎and tagged

  • Kate on Tuesday

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                                              New (Dark) Moon

    Back from the hospital to visit Kate.  She has the blue plastic line with its black plunger next to her at all times so she can get in the morphine drip for her current fifteen minute period.  Aside from the bout with nausea during standing at around 8:30 am, she seems in reasonable, if not great spirits.  She did stand without nausea later in the day, a big step, but the pain is still intense while upright.

    The People magazine I brought for her has a picture/picture puzzle where you have to identify the things that change from one picture to its near-identical twin below.  I gave it to her and she found 6 right away (out of 10).

    We chatted off and on about the dogs, Ruth, her sisters, hospital care and the every dependable quality of hospital food (mediocre).  She feel asleep from the morphine at one point.  I wandered off and got supper, takeout from McDonald’s.  This seemed appropriate to me since the spine folks share floors with the Minneapolis Heart Hospital.  I figured my meal could bring me back to those very precincts. When I got she back, she had her meal:  tomato soup, chocolate pudding, a fruit drink and, best of all, Coffee!  We ate together while a cold rain fell and a mist settled over the skyline of Minneapolis.

    She doesn’t like the condition she’s in right now, but in her words, “I signed up for it, so I need to suck it up.”  Hmmm.

    That’s all the news from Lake Woebegone for today.


    Aging Family Health 📎and tagged

  • Second Day at Abbott-Northwestern

    Posted on by Charles 1 Comment

    Fall                                             New (Dark) Moon

    Kate called.  “Hi, I called to say I’m miserable.”  In Kate talk this means something made her nauseous.  She tried to get out of bed around 8:30 this morning and nausea struck.  This sends her in a downward spiral much more quickly than pain.  The second day after surgery is the pits.  No matter the results or reasons on the second day things hurt and the immediate hurt out flashes whatever rationale the surgery had in the first place.  This will pass, but it’s no fun while it lasts.

    After I feed the dogs, eat lunch and nap I’m going into see her.  She feels yucky so I think some iris are in order.

    Fortunately this week is pretty light expectation wise, so I can focus on the homefront and Kate’s needs.  Right now I’m cleaning, decluttering, making things cozy for her return home.  We’ll get her healed up and functional.

    Oh, I got approved by Allianz as a preferred client for long term care health insurance.   This means they predict, based on my health records, that I won’t need their money.  On that basis they’ll sell me some insurance.   Geez.


    Aging Health 📎and tagged

  • Kate’s Progress (and mine)

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                                       New (Dark) Moon

    I went back to the hospital last night to see Kate.  She was loopy with her finger on the PCA, patient controlled anesthetic.  It adds a hit of morphine when she decides she needs it.  She has a dilemma:  the pain is intense (to be expected with work on bone) but she does not like the way the morphine makes her feel.

    Current plan has her in the hospital through Wednesday with Thursday a possibility if the pain has not subsided.  Pain management and the danger of infection are the primary reasons for her stay.

    When I got to the hospital around 7:20, she had just arrived her in room.   It was a long recovery.  She was happy to have the procedure finished and the healing process underway.  Around 8, when the visiting hours are over, I left a very quiet hospital.  Kate had her fingers on the TV remote.

    To continue for just a moment in the vein of pathology my vertigo hangs on, not too bad, but present.  It seems to return at some level after I lie down for a bit.  What’s left now is a woozy feeling on the periphery and the sense that I might pass into nausea.  In other words the symptoms, or their ghosts, hang on though the initial insult has waned.  No fun, but it’s not back surgery either.


    Aging Health 📎and tagged

  • Kate’s Big Day

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                                                 New (Dark) Moon

    Speaking too soon.  Vertigo returned last night, stronger than at any point during this last spell.  Damn.  An annoying experience.  This morning, so far, I feel uneasy, but ok.  Hope that continues since we have a lot going on today.

    Kate’s big day.  We go in around 11:00 for her 1 p.m. procedure.  Once she’s out of her surgery and in recovery, that is, after I know for sure things have gone ok, I have to come home to feed the dogs and take a nap.  She’ll be at Abbott-Northwestern in Minneapolis for the duration, estimated at 2 days.


    Aging Family Health 📎and tagged

  • Vertigo Comes Again

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                                          Waning Blood Moon

    Vertigo is a famous Hitchcock movie, one of his best the critics say.  Maybe so, but I wish it was something I experienced only in movies.  Unfortunately, it has come to visit me again.  I turned my head yesterday morning just after I woke up and said, “Oh, damn.”

    This episode was neither as dramatic (I knew what it was.), nor as intense as the first one.  Kate had an opportunity to take care of me, which she liked.  I will have an opportunity to return the favor very soon.

    I suppose vertigo was among the spells that visited my ancestors.  With no explanation this would start out as terrifying then gradual descend to a major nuisance.

    This morning I have to go into St. Paul to do an organizational development (or de-development) process for Groveland UU.   It will be important to maintain my balance.  (ha, ha)


    Cinema and Television Health 📎and tagged

  • Surgery and Rigel Back Home Pics

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                                     Waning Harvest Moon

    Kate’s decided to have surgery.  A scheduler will call tomorrow or Monday to set up a date, probably mid-to-late October.  She’ll have 2 days in the hospital and 4-6 weeks of basic rest for recovery.  The surgeon believes this will alleviate up to 80% of her current lower back symptoms.  The neck will remain for now.

    Kate used our dehydrator last night, drying roma tomatoes.  We’re experimenting right now, seeing what we like dried.  All part of the grow it, store it, eat it plan.

    Rigel minutes after her return home.

    rigelathome

    Vega and Rigel, happy to be together again

    rigelaround-vega

    Vega has a swimming pool, but she likes the watering bowl, too.

    vegainwater


    Aging Garden Health 📎and tagged

  • Surgery?

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                        Waxing Harvest Moon

    This was a doctor day.  Kate and I went to see a spine surgeon she has seen before.  She leans now toward some surgical intervention since the various palliatives:  drugs, nerve root and facet joint blocks, exercise and stoicism no longer provide sufficient relief.   Surgery is the last option and in the case of matters spinal one usually chosen as such.  Her surgeon is positive about the chances for success, success measured as a substantive reduction in pain, though not cessation.

    We stopped at Burger Jones for a delayed lunch.  3200 block of West Lake Street.  If you want a trip back to the late 50’s early 60’s, but updated with booze and choices in shakes and burgers you didn’t have back then, Burger Jones is the place.  Fun.

    Long nap.  Just now getting roused for the remainder of the day.

    Liberalism and the liberal tradition is much on my mind since  have to write a sermon for the 6th of September.  Reading, reading, reading.   Thinking.  Pondering.  Like that.


    Faith and Spirituality Family Health Memories 📎and tagged