Traverse City / Garage / Kirk & Amy

I had Tuesday thru Friday off so we spent a three days in Traverse City.  We didn’t get to eat dinner out on the patio of any restaurant.   The wind really picked up both nights that we were there.  We did eat lunch outdoors and spent time on the deck of the Holiday Inn overlooking the bay in the morning reading the paper.  That’s what we need to do more - shift our sitting outdoors to the mornings when it’s going to be a hot day.  

We helped the local economy by stopping at a couple of wineries and spending some time downtown.  All and all it was a good trip.  Except for the drive up; it took a whole lot longer than expected.  We decided on the more scenic U.S. 31 not realizing the portion 196/31 was one lane each way.  Forgot how much Holland has grown which means more traffic lights than we remembered.  And then bridge work with a couple miles of road work farther north that was down to only 1 lane - meaning they would let a group of south bound traffic through, wait until that cleared, and then let a group of north bound traffic through.  That was a 10-but-felt-like-20 minute wait.   The 190 mile drive took us just under 4 hours.  

I haven’t done the annual garage cleaning and starting to bug me.  Normally, it would be an early morning start one day in June and have it done in a couple hours.  But early June was filled with excuses and then it got hot.  There hasn’t been a let-up on the hot part.  Maybe in September.

Kirk and Amy are now in Clarksburg, WV.  Job started this past Thursday inspecting the installation of a natural gas line. 

They did expand the deck and put in a patio with fire pit during their time off in Tennessee.  Dang, they do good work.

And then the ambulance came – Part 2

About 2:30 last night (Saturday) I woke up to Jack making gurgling sounds.  He has a spastic esophagus and often just his normal saliva accumulates and he has to go into the bathroom and spit it out.  I poked him and told him to go spit it out.  He responded with ‘ok’.  I did this two more times getting the same ‘ok’ response.  Finally, I turn on the light.  He’s staring up at the ceiling. Obviously, he has low sugar.

Figuring since he is answering me I could get some milk or juice down him.  He was even able to sit up with assistance.  After some coaxing and explaining as to what is going on and why he needed to drink he did take a couple of sips.  But then…he would bite down on the straw, stare up at me, and give me a toothy smile, and say he-he-he.  I’m trying hard not to giggle so that he takes this seriously.  Some more coaxing, he would pat my arm or my side, and take a couple of sips.   

He ‘ld say he was tired a lie back down.  I’d coax him back up.  He wasn’t too stable sitting up to begin with so I was holding him up with my hand on his upper back.  My arm started to get tired, as this up and down has now been going on for a good 15 minutes, so I put my foot flat on the bed and rested my arm on my thigh with my hand supporting his upper back.  This I’m not making this up – the dang dog comes in and puts his cold wet nose where it doesn’t belong which causes me to jump, I turn to shout at the dog and out of the corner of my eye I see Jack doing a slow motion fall sideways.  Luckily still onto the bed. There he is on his side, smiling, and staring.

I start the whole process over again. Now I’m thinking what little he is drinking probably is just keeping his sugar from going even lower and not enough to start raising it.  Time to call 911. 

As before, the first to arrive was fire rescue.  He must live close by as it was less than 10 minutes.  Knowing when he comes completely around he will need to eath, I started making Jack a peanut butter sandwich after calling 911.  I was just finishing that when I saw the red flashing lights coming down the street.

This time it was just 3 fire rescue guys.  One asking me questions, another working with me to prick Jack’s finger to test for his blood sugar (it was at 48) while I'm still trying to keep Jack drinking, and the youngest pup just watching it all.  Good thing I can multi-task.

And then the ambulance arrived.  What Jack had drunk was starting to take effect as he was now sitting up on his own.  The older of the two paramedics tells Jack to drink the orange juice and Jack slowly does.  Because he was drinking and talking coherently, the decision was made that he didn’t need a glucose IV.

At one point Jack has this quizzical facial expression looking from one guy to the next.  Finally he asks if they were from the hospital.  One guy told him, “Kinda”.  Shortly thereafter the rescue guys leave.

It’s now 3:30am, Jack has eaten the sandwich and answered all of their questions.  Another blood test and he is up to 70.  We all agree everything is under control.  Another 20 minutes and we’re back in bed.

--------------------------------

Which, I haven’t updated his latest hospital adventure.  No better time than the present.  The following is parts of an email I sent family.

May 8, 2012

Writing from the hospital room.  Jack had a gall stone removed.

The blow-by-blow account: 

Around 7pm on Sunday, Jack said he was feeling a sharp pain.  By 7:30 he wanted to go to bed, and by 8:30 he wanted to go to the hospital.  It wasn't until 11pm that they took him for x-rays.  Something was there that they wanted to do a CaT scan.  That was done around 2am.  Doc came in about 4am and said that he did have what appeared to be a gall stone in the bile duct and that Jack would be admitted to the hospital.  He also said that someone from the surgical team would be in to discuss.   

First to arrive was physician assistant from the internal doctor team, no more than an hour later it was one of the internal doctors, and then about 5:30 the surgeon that did an out-patient fixing of a couple of hernias and Jack’s bout with diverticulitis a couple of years ago.   He wasn't convinced from the scan that it was just the stone.  The scan wasn't the best because Jack couldn't drink all of the contrast and they weren't able to wait as long as they normally do between drinking the contrast and doing the scan because he was getting sick to his stomach every 10-15 minutes.

Somewhere around 7am he was admitted.  And the string of this and that started.  A case worker came in, a physical therapist, a woman that made sure Jack didn't have dementia or depression, nurse, nurses assistants (notice the plural), blood drawing person, cleaning room person, and one other woman that I don't recall what she was other than asking the same questions as the case worker, a DO doctor, a doctor on the internal team that I couldn't pronounce his name if my life depended on it (it was a huge long African name - not sure why he came in since he only asked Jack how he was feeling, made a joke, and left - must have a Mercedes payment coming up and needed to do a face to face in order to bill for the 'consultation'), and the doctor that was going to do the ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography).  Jack remembers little of all of this because he was either vomiting or sleeping during most of the time that any of them were in the room. 

Around 9pm on Monday they were going to try a cocktail of sorts since nothing was helping with the pain and constant sick to the stomach.  A different drug and the drug he was already taking rotating them every four hour.  First four hours was the new one, four hours later the old, then four hours the new, etc. Knowing they would be with him almost constantly and having now been up for 40 hours, at 9:30 Monday night, I headed for home. 

Noon on Tuesday he was wheeled in for the ERCP.  The stone was a tad smaller than a sugar cube and somewhat rectangular.  Because of its size, they broke it into pieces, removing some, and pushed some into the intestines to one day come out in a bowel movement.  Since they are in there, they do a check of other organs.  His pancreas looked good/normal.  He does have a small ulcer in his stomach and a slight hiatal hernia.  Two docs said neither are serious, just would do some preventative care to prevent them from becoming a problem.  They would not need to remove the gall bladder, but that is not to say more stones won't develop and move.  Due to Jack's age, they didn't want to unless they had to.

So, that's where we're at.  I'm thinking tomorrow he will be released.  Just waiting on the team to stop in and let us know what happens from here.

Hospital stay funny:

Two gentleman walk in, one of them said they were from St. Monica's Catholic parish.

Jack's response was no, that's okay, I'm Catholic.

That same gentleman repeated in a louder voice where they were from and asked if he wanted communion. 

Jack said yes.

At one point the Lord's prayer was said.

It became obvious that the one that didn't do any talking couldn't hear any better than Jack because he was a slower than the other guy in saying the prayer.

It was a tad like two people doing the "Row Row Your Boat".

I had to really squeeze my nose to keep from chuckling out loud.

Jack, Orange Season, and Typical Great-Grand Kids Update

I cut work short last week Monday around 10am hoping I could get Jack talked into going to the med center for an anti-biotic.  They will not give out a prescription without an office visit; totally understandable in my opinion.  No luck.  However, I did get him out of the house for a nice long drive.

Today being one week later he is back to eating just about everything he has been (sans nuts, seeds, etc.).  Tomorrow we start getting him way from the canned fruits and back to the raw veggies.  He still gets tired easily.  Wednesday he goes for his B12 shot.  Tuesday is date night and he suggested Outback as he’s in the mood for a steak.

---

Certainly is Orange Season.  My main north-south route to work will have the south bound side shut down starting today, April 16^th, until July 24^th.  Not sure what they are going to be doing. 

We went to Grand Rapids, specifically to Yonkers at the newest mall there to look for something for the May wedding of my oldest niece.  Found that and more.  Hit Yonkers huge annual sale.  However, on the way up to Gr Rpds we hit two up-coming orange barrel construction sites - and they too start on April 16^th!  Obviously, the 16^th is the official Dept of Transportation start day.

---

I had to share this email from Jack’s daughter in Troy, MI with my side of the family.  This is a typical update on Jack’s great-grandkids.  He has a total of eight, 3 and 5 from granddaughter and grandson respectively.

“We are getting ready to go over to Troy High to watch Nicholas play baseball and Brittany play soccer.  Last night we went to Nicholas' game and they won 4-2.  Nicholas hit a grandslam homerun which was amazing.  In the doubleheader today he went 3-4 and they beat Rochester 7-4.  We are going for the second game.  Lots of fun to watch them in High School.  I imagine Nicholas' college coach is encouraged by the great start that he is having this year.  Can you believe we will have another grandchild in college!! 

 Christina graduates on May 6, hopefully with a 4.0.  She is a board member of the SE Michigan Education chapter at MSU and project lead to re-do the classrooms, library, teacher's lounge and outside at an elementary school in Lansing.  She has written grants and gone to lots of business' to get donations for the school.  She has also lined up 180 volunteers for next week-end to complete the project.  Once we have before and after pictures I will send the link so you can see her work.

Jeffrey is going to go one more year to MSU and then will have to transfer as he needs to get a doctorate in his field and they don't have that program there. 

Next year Brittany and Tommy will be seniors.  Tommy was invited to WMU for a visit with football coaches and he liked it there.  He has also gone to U. of Toledo, Wayne State, Hillsdale and Grand Valley.  I think he has a visit with Central and a few other schools in the next couple weeks.  He is going to lots of camps this summer and is hopeful that he will get a scholarship. 

Brittany keeps saying that she doesn't want to play soccer in college but Troy is ranked third in the country behind a team from North Carolina and one from Illinois, so the girls are getting heavily recruited.  We'll see. 

Mitchell is still crazy busy with soccer and in May is going to play in Portland, Oregon for a National team. 

Max is on a travel baseball team and really excited.  He has not really been participating in anything so spends time picking on his little sister - he needs to get rid of some of his energy. 

Katie just turned 10 and busy with dreams of being an actress and singer!”

Jack Under the Weather

Wednesday night Jack moaned and groaned most of the night away talking in his sleep that his tummy hurt.

Before I left for work, he said that he was feeling better.  We weren’t sure if it was something he ate or a diverticulitis flare up.  To play it safe we switched to the low fiber/low residue diet.

By Saturday he said he was feeling a lot better.  We did the normal going out for breakfast after which he had a nap and then out for lunch and wander around Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a gift.  By 2pm he said he was ready for a nap.  I went out to saw the dead Crabapple apart and do some weeding.  When I came in at 4pm, he was still sound asleep. 

Today about 10 am, out of the blue, he got the chills.  He didn’t have a temperature, so that kinda means either slight infection or anemia has gotten worse since he is late on this monthly B12 shot.  Probably combinations of both as he said he has a very slight tummy ache. 

He has slept the better part of today.  In between he has had part of a lean beef sandwich with tea about noon, a bottle of Ensure around 3pm, yogurt at 4, and some canned pears at 5:30.  I’ve found if I get him to do sort of grazing during the day he eats better than sitting down to a normal lunch and dinner. 

Tomorrow we will try to get him into the doctor.  This could be somewhat of a challenge since he thinks I can call the doctor to get an antibiotic prescription.  I’ve tried to instill that they won’t give out an antibiotic without an office visit. 

We (mainly me) have been watching the Masters.  They too have had an early spring.  All of the Azaleas are past their blooming period.  It is so odd to see nothing but shades of green instead of a plethora of whites, pinks, and red with a backdrop of shades of green.

Weather / Car / Clutter / Health

Everyone is talking about the weather and absolutely no one is complaining.  May 11^th we hit 63° with the past eight days (today being the 22nd) in the upper 70s to mid 80s with low dew point/humidity.  Daffodils are out, blooms are on the fruit trees, we brought out the patio chairs last weekend and sit out on the deck every evening after work.  Life is good.  Why am I in the house typing this?  Hold on, I’m moving outdoors.  I should be paying royalties to the dudes that came up with wireless routers.    

We picked up our new car a month ago, 2012 Honda CRV.  We used to say the ash tray is full - time to turn it in.  But they don’t put ash trays in cars anymore.  He wanted white this time.  What a difference the light color makes with regard to interior temperatures.  With the dark brown RAV4, we would have the air conditioner on if it was sunny and 67°.  We went to lunch today, it’s sunny and 80°, he didn’t turn the air on. 

We are in full de-cluttering mode.  Past two weekends we have gone through every closet.  Those evening dresses from Christmas parties and weddings years ago, suit coats from when Jack was a Controller, shoes he buys and doesn’t like after all, all getting donated.  I’m good about my daily clothes and shoes.  If they haven’t been worn in the last two years, out it goes.  However, I was surprised how many of the shirts and pants that “these would be good for working in the yard” I had accumulated and had to reduce the size of. 

Today and part of tomorrow will be the basement.  Neighbor is taking the two area rugs that have been rolled up since we moved in.   He wants to keep the snow skis.  I’m to check with Steve and family if they want the bowling balls, however I have half a notion to keep them.   Gone will be the three pictures that are still boxed up from when we had everything stored for the year we were in Europe.  Gone will be knick-knacks, spice rack, paper towel holder, baskets that I no longer recall where they came from, tacking looking fake flowers, and anything else that hasn’t been looked at in the 12 ½ years we have been in this house.   

Keeping the scales that Chick and Mary brought back from Spain.  That eventually goes to Mary.  Keeping the Monopoly game we bought in the late 70s that has never been opened.  Keeping the three boxes of books from Jack’s college days.    AND keeping the 33rpm album of the Russian Symphony.  Yep, Russian.  The cover is a photo of the whole orchestra; all of them in their brown comrade uniforms with red accents.   What a hoot.  We have a stack of old 33rpm albums from either the house in Hudsonville or maybe it was the house in Ada.  They were in a bunch of boxes of basic junk that the former owner left in the basement for us to deal with.   Oh, and we’re keeping all of Thom and Dar’s stuff.

Health wise, we are doing okay all things considered especially the getting older part.  We both avoided (so far) the flu that went around the office a couple of weeks ago.  Haven’t even caught a cold this season – knock on wood.

Jack’s energy level is down again.  He started getting the B12 shots every four weeks since February, but they aren’t kicking in like they did in the past.  He naps in the morning, and most afternoons, goes to bed around 7:30 or 8pm.  I can tell when he’s taken an afternoon nap; he will read and is able to stay up until 9pm.  Even walking around Sears for a humidifier filter wore him out a couple weeks ago.

I’m having problems with the ligaments/tendons on my right thumb.  I’ve gotten a better wrist pad, wearing my watch on my left hand, and started taking fish oil.   These have made for a noticeable difference.  There isn’t the constant aching that makes me walk around the office with my hand under my left arm pit or massaging it.  Now it will hurt if I extend the thumb outwards, or like this, where I’m typing for a longer than normal time.   

In the past couple of months the dog has shown signs of aging too in that he has to work at getting up and is very stiff walking once he does.  In this weather, he often sleeps on the tile in the kitchen.  Monday he tried to get up and his feet would slip.  He would yip at Jack until Jack finally helped him up.  I think Jack was more upset than the dog; he called me at work to tell me.  I’m just glad Jack didn’t fall on his butt.  Yet, when we go to the vet in October it will be he’s the healthiest 13 year old dog the vet has seen in a long time….

Kirk and Amy are doing good.  Both are still working six days a week.  We almost went out to visit them, but we decided to wait for when we can spend more time with them than just a Sunday.

Kathy (Indermuehle) is all settled in Norfolk, VA.  All ties to Florida are gone with the exception of friends.  The last being her cell phone number is now Norfolk.  She is definietley enjoying time with Bobbie Sue and her family.

The Big News & Stuff

First the Big News:  On New Year’s Eve son, Kirk, and the lovely Amy were officially engaged.  They have decided since this is the second marriage for the both of them, no formal wedding, they will meet up with the Justice of the Peace on one of their trips back home to Tennessee.  We’re very happy for the both of them.   Congrats.

And now the stuff from little notes I've accumulated the past few months:

Jack bought his first pair of blue jeans in 15 maybe 20 years.  Late this fall we had a cold snap and he kept saying his legs were cold.  Well, a blanket or throw wasn’t an option so I suggested blue jeans.  He bought one pair to test them out and then a second pair a couple of weeks later.  He’s as content as can be.

On the way home from work one afternoon in October, there was an ever so slight rain/sprinkle.  I noticed the windshield was a little dusty so I hit the windshield washer a couple of times.  It was then that the motorcycle that I forgot was behind me backed off and then zipped past me.  Apparently, at 45 miles an hour there was some spray that went up over the roof.  I’m usually conscious of them, but it’s October!  The forecast was for rain!

Since football is the top of importance for many people two observations:

- Very few football players wear mustaches.  Why is that?  A lot of long hair, but not the mustache.

-Raven’s played this afternoon.  I'm thinking the all black pants were a tad too feminine looking.  With no stripe down the sides they looked like a bunch of guys in ladies’ black leotards.

Our college bowl tally ended up with Jack beating me by two games again this year.  He had 23 out of the possible 35 and I had 21.  We choose the same teams in all but 10 games.

With a lot of snow and finally some sun makes the sunglasses come out.  I’m not too sure I like the white frames guys have been wearing in this area.

I love my Toyota RAV4.  However, in snowy conditions it can be annoying. 

  -It has an idiot light that flashes if the tires slip.  Like, I can’t tell from the ziiiipppp sound?

  -There is an idiot light that flashes when the anti lock brakes kick in.  Like, I can’t tell from the quick thump-thump-thump noise that they make? 

  -And then there is the worse; the beep-beep when skidding.  I turned a corner and then another 20 yards up intended to turn into a driveway so there really was no speed involved-maybe going 15mph.  Even with the front tires turned to the right the car kept heading straight ahead.  I knew without the beep I was in a little skid.  Dang beeping drew my attention to the dashboard more than to what direction the car was going.  Oi vey.

Bummed that the Packer’s forgot to show up to the game last weekend.  Rooting for the 49ners tonight.

Jack and I have avoided flues and colds that have been going around (so far).  I always end up getting one cold that puts me in bed for a couple of days asking not to be disturbed hoping death come quickly.