I have been actually watching (listening) to a show prior to the Monday Night Football game of Vikings vs Texans... Greg loves his Vikings and I love football.. I will also be glad to now have Brett Favre as our quarterback. We've had friends here in La Mirada who have called him theirs while he played at GB but now he's ours.......... We have yet to hear how they reacted to his leaving their Cheesehead team to become a purple Viking.
Okay dinner is going in the oven (yes by me but brought by someone who loves us) CAN YOU BELIEVE that the first play with Adrian Peterson receiving a pass and yes a touchdown on the first pass play of the game from Favre... the Viking fans can only imagine what there season will be like. I just know that Monday Night Football with the Vikings is not going to be a yawner anymore.
Today I got up early, watched a movie, and than slept until mid morning when Greg insisted it was time for breakfast. I took my last shower for a while, and than dressed for the day of pre-op requirements. Ashley took me to the Dr.s office where she ran in and got what was needed for pre-op, notifying work, and the list of what I can't do after midnight or when I wake up and that I need to be at the hospital at 6am. Ashley and I discovered when we arrived at the hospital that the envelope in the packet was EMPTY and so we quickly called the assistant who than waited until we walked into the pre admitting area and got a fax number from them for her... problem solved and we proceeded following the admitting person into her cubicle, she walked us over to the area where they EKG'd me, got a urine sample, took blood, and asked alot of questions. The nurse from there walked me over to the xray area and a chest xray was taken and than away we went - completely done.
I got home and felt like I could use a nap, but instead gave Shane some chores to do (actually I reminded him) of what I had listed out before we left. He's like his father and could really use written post it notes to make it clearer than mud. And well, than the Football game was about to start and so that takes care of tonight. Going to bed early and tomorrow off we will go early with a 6am arrival time for us.
This is my last writing for quite a while.. God bless
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday morning in the park
In the middle of the week I decided that rather than wait till after surgery to get the family picture taken before Ashley leaves for Texas we needed to do it now.. and on Sunday while Brian was down for the weekend. So I had Ashley pulling shirts out of the closet of mine and dads to came up with the "base" color that we were going to use and it was brown/tan.. Ashley found a top in her closet that was dark brown.. beautiful that it was coming together as I wasn't able to do any shopping.
So I got in touch with a friend who had taken Ashley's pictures 6 years ago and she was a "yes". And than I got into contact with Brian's girlfriend if she could help Brian find a polo shirt and also that Shane would need a shirt that was a compliment to Brians in color and style. She was good with this and they took care of this when he came home. Brian admits that he has no fashion sense has a closet full of t-shirts, he could use a makeover.
The temperature has been pretty hot and windy to where we have had the A/C on every day. So after checking weather.com for Sunday's hourly forecast... We decided on taking the pictures at 9:30 and met Joycey at Neff Park in La Mirada. We had taken some pictures of Ashley here for senior pictures. I walked as much of the "tar paths" that were available with my walker and when it came to getting off the path, I used my cane. We brought a tall chair for some of the pictures and for my having a place to sit as time went on/or when it was just the kids. So we tromped through the park using many of the different and unique trees that you could sit in the crook of, because they have many trees that had numerous trunks that split at the bottom.. So there came a time when I was just done, having done quite a bit of walking through the hilly park. So Joycey headed off to take pictures of just the kids throughout different locations and trees in the park... She does an awesome job and had gotten a new camera recently, she has fun with it..
It's always nice to have your family together all spiffed up, the boys gel up there hair, shaved clean and in a polo shirt. They are certainly CUTE!
Whew, so now a day of rest as we watch the Little League Baseball World Series finals between Chinese Taipei and California (Chula Vista)
So I got in touch with a friend who had taken Ashley's pictures 6 years ago and she was a "yes". And than I got into contact with Brian's girlfriend if she could help Brian find a polo shirt and also that Shane would need a shirt that was a compliment to Brians in color and style. She was good with this and they took care of this when he came home. Brian admits that he has no fashion sense has a closet full of t-shirts, he could use a makeover.
The temperature has been pretty hot and windy to where we have had the A/C on every day. So after checking weather.com for Sunday's hourly forecast... We decided on taking the pictures at 9:30 and met Joycey at Neff Park in La Mirada. We had taken some pictures of Ashley here for senior pictures. I walked as much of the "tar paths" that were available with my walker and when it came to getting off the path, I used my cane. We brought a tall chair for some of the pictures and for my having a place to sit as time went on/or when it was just the kids. So we tromped through the park using many of the different and unique trees that you could sit in the crook of, because they have many trees that had numerous trunks that split at the bottom.. So there came a time when I was just done, having done quite a bit of walking through the hilly park. So Joycey headed off to take pictures of just the kids throughout different locations and trees in the park... She does an awesome job and had gotten a new camera recently, she has fun with it..
It's always nice to have your family together all spiffed up, the boys gel up there hair, shaved clean and in a polo shirt. They are certainly CUTE!
Whew, so now a day of rest as we watch the Little League Baseball World Series finals between Chinese Taipei and California (Chula Vista)
Saturday, August 29, 2009
the corrective plan to repair....
A week ago I had the CT scan and than the wait for the results at the Thursday appt. The dr had a suspicion that the screws were coming out of the fusion cage and allowing the cage to move outward.. Tuesday night at 6pm we got a call from the assistant Veronica that Dr. Ravessoud wished to speak to us after he had seen the CT films.. so while we're waiting for him to pickup his end, I'm already thinking that he's seen something and what is he going to tell us.
So with the speaker phone on my cell he comes on and thanks us for speaking to him.. He goes on to tell us that his first suspicion of the screws being loose and cage moving was not right. Because what he sees in the CT scan is a fracture of the sacrum that is 30% displaced, and he feels that since week #3 it started as a hairline fracture maybe being pulled from the strength of the screws and it has just grown over the weeks, until it became the current fracture all the while pressing down on the nerves as it was pulled away from the sacrum. That he would show us the films on Thursday when we came in but that he wanted to let us know that it wasn't his first thoughts from last visit. He said this is a major surgical complication, and he would have to do some research as to the proper way to fix it, as it's a rare occurance for a break. But that he'd see us Thursday.
After hearing the news it was something to have a couple of days to "think" on and to know it's going to be another surgical fix. Ashley was listening and so when it was over and we had asked our questions and hung up.. We had her show us on the internet skeletal websites we'd pull up just what the heck was he talking about and where is the sacrum.. so we knew where it was and now just had to wait to see how it applied to me.
While to the dr and staff, they are hustling to get me into appts that are a week apart, I am still SUFFERING daily with the side affects. How the burning and vice squeeze on the left foot and the "cracking" with certain adjustments just plays with the pyschee and on the body.
Thursday we arrived for the 1:30 appt and we waited, and waited. Oh yea we were finally called back at 2:30 (I hate to wait) and than we sat in the exam room for some more time, but Veronica brought in the CT films and placed them into the wall viewer for Gregs amusement. As he looked them over I laid on the exam bed and waited, sleeping some. So when the Dr. came in and he started to explain the pictures and pointed to where the problem lies.. It made sense from his phone description and we could see the fracture and the little triangle piece. I'm sitting in the chair now after seeing the picture knowing that "this is going to hurt" resolution. So the Dr and Greg are discussing devices and angles, where they go, and how the devices work .. I'm hearing it. We were in the office for about 1-1/2 hrs. So we agreed with him, and he told me to get in to see the Vascular surgeon Dr Acker, ASAP which I took to mean like today or tomorrow. And "that he would do surgery on any day that worked for Dr Acker as his schedule is must busier than mine"
As we get in the car, I immediately call the vascular surgeon (who DOES NOT have a compassionate receptionist Suzanne but instead when your in the office and open the door she does not call your name out of the crowd, she glares at you and than when no one stands up, just says "are you coming" as she looks in your general direction, good grief). So yep, she answers and when she gets my name says "oh I just pulled your file" and than proceeds to give me an appointment for the end of next week on Thursday, and I said you have nothing sooner.. she replies "No, he's not in the office"... So I take it and hang up. Greg hustles back into the office and tells Veronica what day we got and she says "oh she is really a piece of work, but I will set up surgery date with her before Thursday".. When Greg came back to the car and told me that, it didn't set right that I was going to have to wait another week for just an appt to hear the "scary" details, most of which we heard before the first surgery. As we head home, I'm thinking and I dial Veronica's office only to find that her mailbox is full. So I redial and get the appt desk and that we just left office appt and I MUST speak to Veronica, so she takes my name and transfers me. When she picks up I tell her what I am thinking that "it is going to drag this way out if I have to wait for an appt just to hear the scary details can I waive that and we just schedule" and her response was that "I can certainly try and call them and see if he would do that and than to call her back". I said "well I am going to speak with the office manager Sheila" and she tells me "her name is Shellie".. So I dial Dr. Ackers office back and ask to "speak to the office manager Shellie" who happens to be the surgeons sweet wife and I've spoken to her before. So I begin to tell her the predicament that I'm in "that I need surgery and want to waive hearing the scary story that he generally has to tell you prior to surgery and that the appt I got from Suzanne was the end of next week." She replies that "the two dr's had talked a week ago and so she was somewhat familiar with it and she than says that I must also tell you that we will be on vacation Sept 8-15" and when she says this I START BAWLING and sniveling "that I have been in pain for weeks and that I have a fractured sacrum and if anyone else had one they'd get it fixed right away and I'm now going to have to wait for three weeks" and she starts sputtering "I will try to reach him as he is on trauma call today and not in the office and she what he says, maybe he will waive it, but he'll want to explain the procedure since it's different"... and I'm sniveling and "saying thank you, oh thank you" she asked "for phone number to reach me back".
We were home about 10 minutes and than my cell phone rings, it is Dr. Acker. I was just about going to make the long walk upstairs and than turned and walked over to the couch where Greg and Ashley were sitting. I put him on speaker phone and he asks me "are you giving me signed consent over the phone" "YES YES" is my response. And so he goes through explaining how this procedure compared to the one done on June 29th and the how the incision would be located differently on the abdomen, what he would or might encounter.. and so he asks "do you have any questions" and I reply "having understood that it is going to be tricky, and a possible danger, but that I trust him completely as he did excellent with the first surgery and am trusting him again", he asked Greg if he had any questions and he did not so he says "well, I believe they are working on a Tuesday schedule, do you want to see me Monday in the office?" I reply "no, I am good with having heard it". He says, "okay it would appear that the next time I see you will be in the operating room".. I tell him "thank you for reacting to this situation so quickly and I appreciate Shellie having given you a call"..
So once we hung up, I had an overwhelming sense of relief that soon.. it would be dealt with.
Please pray for;
So with the speaker phone on my cell he comes on and thanks us for speaking to him.. He goes on to tell us that his first suspicion of the screws being loose and cage moving was not right. Because what he sees in the CT scan is a fracture of the sacrum that is 30% displaced, and he feels that since week #3 it started as a hairline fracture maybe being pulled from the strength of the screws and it has just grown over the weeks, until it became the current fracture all the while pressing down on the nerves as it was pulled away from the sacrum. That he would show us the films on Thursday when we came in but that he wanted to let us know that it wasn't his first thoughts from last visit. He said this is a major surgical complication, and he would have to do some research as to the proper way to fix it, as it's a rare occurance for a break. But that he'd see us Thursday.
After hearing the news it was something to have a couple of days to "think" on and to know it's going to be another surgical fix. Ashley was listening and so when it was over and we had asked our questions and hung up.. We had her show us on the internet skeletal websites we'd pull up just what the heck was he talking about and where is the sacrum.. so we knew where it was and now just had to wait to see how it applied to me.
While to the dr and staff, they are hustling to get me into appts that are a week apart, I am still SUFFERING daily with the side affects. How the burning and vice squeeze on the left foot and the "cracking" with certain adjustments just plays with the pyschee and on the body.
Thursday we arrived for the 1:30 appt and we waited, and waited. Oh yea we were finally called back at 2:30 (I hate to wait) and than we sat in the exam room for some more time, but Veronica brought in the CT films and placed them into the wall viewer for Gregs amusement. As he looked them over I laid on the exam bed and waited, sleeping some. So when the Dr. came in and he started to explain the pictures and pointed to where the problem lies.. It made sense from his phone description and we could see the fracture and the little triangle piece. I'm sitting in the chair now after seeing the picture knowing that "this is going to hurt" resolution. So the Dr and Greg are discussing devices and angles, where they go, and how the devices work .. I'm hearing it. We were in the office for about 1-1/2 hrs. So we agreed with him, and he told me to get in to see the Vascular surgeon Dr Acker, ASAP which I took to mean like today or tomorrow. And "that he would do surgery on any day that worked for Dr Acker as his schedule is must busier than mine"
As we get in the car, I immediately call the vascular surgeon (who DOES NOT have a compassionate receptionist Suzanne but instead when your in the office and open the door she does not call your name out of the crowd, she glares at you and than when no one stands up, just says "are you coming" as she looks in your general direction, good grief). So yep, she answers and when she gets my name says "oh I just pulled your file" and than proceeds to give me an appointment for the end of next week on Thursday, and I said you have nothing sooner.. she replies "No, he's not in the office"... So I take it and hang up. Greg hustles back into the office and tells Veronica what day we got and she says "oh she is really a piece of work, but I will set up surgery date with her before Thursday".. When Greg came back to the car and told me that, it didn't set right that I was going to have to wait another week for just an appt to hear the "scary" details, most of which we heard before the first surgery. As we head home, I'm thinking and I dial Veronica's office only to find that her mailbox is full. So I redial and get the appt desk and that we just left office appt and I MUST speak to Veronica, so she takes my name and transfers me. When she picks up I tell her what I am thinking that "it is going to drag this way out if I have to wait for an appt just to hear the scary details can I waive that and we just schedule" and her response was that "I can certainly try and call them and see if he would do that and than to call her back". I said "well I am going to speak with the office manager Sheila" and she tells me "her name is Shellie".. So I dial Dr. Ackers office back and ask to "speak to the office manager Shellie" who happens to be the surgeons sweet wife and I've spoken to her before. So I begin to tell her the predicament that I'm in "that I need surgery and want to waive hearing the scary story that he generally has to tell you prior to surgery and that the appt I got from Suzanne was the end of next week." She replies that "the two dr's had talked a week ago and so she was somewhat familiar with it and she than says that I must also tell you that we will be on vacation Sept 8-15" and when she says this I START BAWLING and sniveling "that I have been in pain for weeks and that I have a fractured sacrum and if anyone else had one they'd get it fixed right away and I'm now going to have to wait for three weeks" and she starts sputtering "I will try to reach him as he is on trauma call today and not in the office and she what he says, maybe he will waive it, but he'll want to explain the procedure since it's different"... and I'm sniveling and "saying thank you, oh thank you" she asked "for phone number to reach me back".
We were home about 10 minutes and than my cell phone rings, it is Dr. Acker. I was just about going to make the long walk upstairs and than turned and walked over to the couch where Greg and Ashley were sitting. I put him on speaker phone and he asks me "are you giving me signed consent over the phone" "YES YES" is my response. And so he goes through explaining how this procedure compared to the one done on June 29th and the how the incision would be located differently on the abdomen, what he would or might encounter.. and so he asks "do you have any questions" and I reply "having understood that it is going to be tricky, and a possible danger, but that I trust him completely as he did excellent with the first surgery and am trusting him again", he asked Greg if he had any questions and he did not so he says "well, I believe they are working on a Tuesday schedule, do you want to see me Monday in the office?" I reply "no, I am good with having heard it". He says, "okay it would appear that the next time I see you will be in the operating room".. I tell him "thank you for reacting to this situation so quickly and I appreciate Shellie having given you a call"..
So once we hung up, I had an overwhelming sense of relief that soon.. it would be dealt with.
Please pray for;
- the doctors as they will operate in the early morning, their ability with the technical tools that are needed to make this procedure successful will be at it highest level.
- for Greg, and the kids as they wait on surgery day for the answer from the dr and than as they care for me when I return home.
- for Lorinda, as with all that has occurred over the last several years with the two ankle lesion surgeries, and this back surgery needing to be corrected, that she will have an upbeat and appreciative spirit for what has and can be done medically.
Should anyone in our local area have the ability to provide a main dish that can be frozen, or a dessert.. this will once again be a long period of recovery for Lorinda. The family has been living on the occasional home cooked meal, lots of sandwiches and to much fast food, so it would be nice to have some things they could draw on from the freezer. This will be much appreciated.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Dr visits / wedding
Well last week went by with a trip to the Dr. on Tuesday and some xrays following the fall the prior Thurs. I insisted in my simple mind that I needed an xray on the foot, and they insisted that the symptoms were strictly coming from the spine in the burning in the foot and toes and running up the legs..
The Dr. looked at the computer screen at the foot xrays and they were fine, no issues. He looked at the xrays of the spine for a looooooong time and than he said "I'm going to my office to look at the xrays from surgery day that were taken". He was gone about 20 minutes and when he returned, he asked me to come to his office where the visual equipment is better for seeing the xrays of June 29.. What he showed me were pictures taken and the interpretation was that "heres the end of the screw in the fusion cage" and here's the landmark behind the spine to measure from... and than we looked at the xray of today and the landmark and the bone space between the screw was quite large..
So he said they would order a CT scan (a 3 minute) procedure and let me know.... On Monday early afternoon I called in leaving a message as to what had been decided.. Not long after that the Temple Imaging facility in Signal Hill called us for an appt in an hour... so they had just been called and called me to set it up. Ha Ha typical way things go. So Thursday had that and am now just waiting for them to call with an appt time to come in and discuss what he sees on the CT scan and what he/they have decided or come up with to FIX this one and for all and for ever. you know me and my impatience, i will call as soon as there lunch break is over and ask them "whats up".. as I'm the one in pain, I notice the amount of time that goes by. Yes I realize the dr is out on Monday's for surgeries.. but "HEY I'm waiting".
Last week Friday, I took notice of the gray dress pants that I laid across the bannister 7 weeks ago on my way out the door for the hospital that they needed to be brought to the dry cleaner. Saturday we had a wedding to go to and so now it was crunch time.. So Friday he brought them in to get them back on Saturday morning and he had to pay extra... ha,, but what do you expect huh?
Saturday at noon we were invited to the wedding of friends Steve and Ronda whose son Chris (same age as Ashley) was marrying Jaime Lindsay. Was a beautiful and simplistic wedding and the message was right on about marriage and yet so very right on about the couple and that they were meant for each other and will serve each other and the Lord with their hearts fully and they share a quirky sense of humor and each brings out the best of the other. Chris's younger brother Eric and Jaime's younger sister Sara being the same age, and about 4 years ago, Sara came over to the Dunhams for a get together of school kids. Sara meets Chris through Eric and she says "you should date my sister" and he says "okay" and the rest is history. The reception was in the church activity center and yet a formal table setting on about 25 round tables, a dance floor and the long table facing the guests of the bridal party.
We stayed through the reception to the start of the dance and at 3 hours I was pretty tired and the burning in the foot was increasing. It was a beautiful afternoon celebrating this couple.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
working on gaining strength...
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
I see that the last time I wrote in this blog was Aug.3; Alot has happened since than. I went through a period of time where the pain shooting down my leg when I would get up to walk would limit greatly the amount of time I could be up and on my feet. This was pain coming from the nerves in the lower spine where the surgery took place. Now at the same time the pain in the surgical area of the lower spine was still greatly felt and "sitting" was painful as well. I have a tall chair in my master bathroom and it was a short time I could sit there, one is due to the very little bit of strength I had and also that the pain in the tail made it override the desire to complete whatever I was needing to do to shower or cleanup. In the last few days, sitting up on the tail has not been a problem and I can tell that is an improvement.
One thing the Dr. had told me/us was that I would slowly and surely start to see the improvements from things "I couldn't do" to "things I could now do'. About three weeks ago the Dr. prescribed a nerve healing med and a muscle spasm med which when added to the Morphine pain pill, all three of them together had DROWSY, nausea as a side affect. And so what we would find is that I could sleep all day long between doses, and was not gaining any strength. And so we had to become proactive in that I would get up out of bed for several hours in my "gravity" chair next to the bed, and would only sleep a couple of hours. Have breakfast at a regular hour, use the computer, read some of the book I had started, have lunch around noon. etc. And of late with some improvement that pain is not a constant in movement while lying or sitting, the pain meds were taken only when I was going to get up to walk or had to get down the steps. So this reduced the drowsiness quite a bit.
Well my alertness was a much needed reprieve from the "comatose" state that I felt I was in for a couple of weeks. My appetite was just above a zero and struggle with food being of any interest, so I have lost weight and strength in the legs especially. I had lost 10 lbs while in the hospital 4 days, and 15 lbs since coming home coming home July 2. Now to gain strength alone and not the weight is the key..
Now, on Thursday Greg had to go out to see a customer in the mid afternoon and no one else was home. (rarity) While he was gone, I was sitting in my chair and thought that it was a bit warm in the room, and that the ceiling fan needed to be turning a little faster (not remote). So I walked over and to the end of our bed where I reached up to pull the chain once.. and lost my balance and fell to the right turning my right leg behind me... It was quite a surprise to be laying on my back looking up and glad that not that anything felt out of place. Now you'd think that once I worked my way up off the floor using my walker I'd have headed back to bed or my gravity chair... but I wasn't really thinking that clearly and so walked back towards the footboard to pull the chain once more and AGAIN I lost my not so strong a grip on strength and balance. Once again landed on my back taking the skin off my knee with rug burn and since than have had a difficult time putting pressure on the left foot without a stabbing pin prick when just sitting still or stepping. Yes, I got myself up and walked around the mattress and laid in bed.. Yep, Greg was not happy that I made the attempt at all, just for the sake of the fan speed, regardless of how "simple" it seemed to me. And I was bummed that such a simple task and it proved unthinkable for 6 weeks beyond surgery and the slowness and setbacks encountering.
So pray that with a new game plan that I will gain strength, fight against the extreme drowsiness with routine and activity.
Thanks
I see that the last time I wrote in this blog was Aug.3; Alot has happened since than. I went through a period of time where the pain shooting down my leg when I would get up to walk would limit greatly the amount of time I could be up and on my feet. This was pain coming from the nerves in the lower spine where the surgery took place. Now at the same time the pain in the surgical area of the lower spine was still greatly felt and "sitting" was painful as well. I have a tall chair in my master bathroom and it was a short time I could sit there, one is due to the very little bit of strength I had and also that the pain in the tail made it override the desire to complete whatever I was needing to do to shower or cleanup. In the last few days, sitting up on the tail has not been a problem and I can tell that is an improvement.
One thing the Dr. had told me/us was that I would slowly and surely start to see the improvements from things "I couldn't do" to "things I could now do'. About three weeks ago the Dr. prescribed a nerve healing med and a muscle spasm med which when added to the Morphine pain pill, all three of them together had DROWSY, nausea as a side affect. And so what we would find is that I could sleep all day long between doses, and was not gaining any strength. And so we had to become proactive in that I would get up out of bed for several hours in my "gravity" chair next to the bed, and would only sleep a couple of hours. Have breakfast at a regular hour, use the computer, read some of the book I had started, have lunch around noon. etc. And of late with some improvement that pain is not a constant in movement while lying or sitting, the pain meds were taken only when I was going to get up to walk or had to get down the steps. So this reduced the drowsiness quite a bit.
Well my alertness was a much needed reprieve from the "comatose" state that I felt I was in for a couple of weeks. My appetite was just above a zero and struggle with food being of any interest, so I have lost weight and strength in the legs especially. I had lost 10 lbs while in the hospital 4 days, and 15 lbs since coming home coming home July 2. Now to gain strength alone and not the weight is the key..
Now, on Thursday Greg had to go out to see a customer in the mid afternoon and no one else was home. (rarity) While he was gone, I was sitting in my chair and thought that it was a bit warm in the room, and that the ceiling fan needed to be turning a little faster (not remote). So I walked over and to the end of our bed where I reached up to pull the chain once.. and lost my balance and fell to the right turning my right leg behind me... It was quite a surprise to be laying on my back looking up and glad that not that anything felt out of place. Now you'd think that once I worked my way up off the floor using my walker I'd have headed back to bed or my gravity chair... but I wasn't really thinking that clearly and so walked back towards the footboard to pull the chain once more and AGAIN I lost my not so strong a grip on strength and balance. Once again landed on my back taking the skin off my knee with rug burn and since than have had a difficult time putting pressure on the left foot without a stabbing pin prick when just sitting still or stepping. Yes, I got myself up and walked around the mattress and laid in bed.. Yep, Greg was not happy that I made the attempt at all, just for the sake of the fan speed, regardless of how "simple" it seemed to me. And I was bummed that such a simple task and it proved unthinkable for 6 weeks beyond surgery and the slowness and setbacks encountering.
So pray that with a new game plan that I will gain strength, fight against the extreme drowsiness with routine and activity.
Thanks
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday stepped out for an event..
Sunday we were invited to a blessing ceremony and send off to college for the son of friends, Blake at the De Jong house in the evening. I was really looking forward to getting up from my "recovery bed" and making it regardless and definitely hoping NOT to collapse from pain of sitting.. I haven't been really focused with the reading or to do any writing of late, but I wrote out the rest of my blessing for his book late on Saturday and than always wish I had taken more time with it or added this or that....
So an afternoon shower, getting dressed in something other than shorts/tshirts and than we were off. I used my cane as it's easier in others homes than the wide walker and than we also brought my gravity chair for out on the patio.. and so after dinner, I was able to lean back out of the sitting position as directed by my dr. beyond 20 minutes. Many nice things were said about him and over him, he was prayed for by Harold Korver and than all of the men stood up around him and blessed him by laying there hands on him..
God is good to be in a community that shares in life and supports each other..
So an afternoon shower, getting dressed in something other than shorts/tshirts and than we were off. I used my cane as it's easier in others homes than the wide walker and than we also brought my gravity chair for out on the patio.. and so after dinner, I was able to lean back out of the sitting position as directed by my dr. beyond 20 minutes. Many nice things were said about him and over him, he was prayed for by Harold Korver and than all of the men stood up around him and blessed him by laying there hands on him..
God is good to be in a community that shares in life and supports each other..
Friday, July 31, 2009
River trip 2009
Greg & I came to the river on Friday the 24th as did most of the family that is here this week. I rode in the motorhome lying on the bed which made the 5 hour drive much more bearable on the body, and Greg arrived later with our Explorer loaded with supplies. While I have not really been out of the room for a large percentage of time, I have been out amongst the family group about 5-6 times during the week. The first time taking a car ride to the gathering area, and the others I have walked the 30 feet... most went well, and one that was excrutiating painful til the muscles settle down... Greg purchased a gravity lounger chair, which was great for "sitting" the 20 minutes max allowed and than I could recline very comfortable and lock it into place. Very much like lying in a bed, so it allowed me to extend my visits with family. I can certainly sense the weakness in the body as I don't have much of an appetite and am eating just the minimal amount. Before we left I stepped on the scale and since arriving home had lost 13 lbs. But it has been a nice change of scenery from the three weeks at home and I appreciate that Greg was more than willing to take on the change also.. He comes back into the room and checks on me, and I sleep alot whichs has been the one thing that has passed time easily, and the drugs make me sleepy and so to fight it isn't easily accomplished. I've read a couple of books and have yet to start the third one.
Brian & April came in on Saturday mid morning, they are heading to Havasu today for lunch and than take off tonight when it's cooler for home.. We've had a nice week together and yet he will need to be heading back to Madera on Sunday, so he's heading home a day earlier. Shane worked Saturday, driving up early Sunday morning with cuz'n Trisha and her son Christian, he will ride home with Greg tomorrow. Ashley came up on Sunday with Briana after a day in Vegas after her Friday night maid of Honor wedding committment of friend Kristi, her friend Briana and they headed home Wednesday afternoon. The rest of the river family will stay through Friday check out at about 11am. Always seems that the next years river trip comes up right around the corner.
April & Brian
Brian & April came in on Saturday mid morning, they are heading to Havasu today for lunch and than take off tonight when it's cooler for home.. We've had a nice week together and yet he will need to be heading back to Madera on Sunday, so he's heading home a day earlier. Shane worked Saturday, driving up early Sunday morning with cuz'n Trisha and her son Christian, he will ride home with Greg tomorrow. Ashley came up on Sunday with Briana after a day in Vegas after her Friday night maid of Honor wedding committment of friend Kristi, her friend Briana and they headed home Wednesday afternoon. The rest of the river family will stay through Friday check out at about 11am. Always seems that the next years river trip comes up right around the corner.
April & Brian
Ashley, Shane and Brian
Today as I sit out here by the river in the row of chairs with the clan (as close as I will get without touching it) there is a cool breeze blowing and the temp 98 degrees, it is much more bearable than it has been the last two days at 115 with a hot wind blowing. Right now the boat and the two wet bikes are gone and so there is a large # of our group out doing something together, most likely at the sand bar or down to the dam.
Ashley in the boat heading out
There has always been an uncanny ability by the Van Meeteren boys to dive and retrieve whatever has just recently been lost, or that was lost in a previous year by someone. This year Shane and Brent did alot of salvaging of sunglasses.. Ashley was so thankful that the youngun Brent found her glasses in about 18 ft of water.
Today we ventured home at 9:30 a.m. with our stuff, Brian took alot of the large bulky things on Thursday night when he and April left, following Trisha, her son Christian, her mom Tina, Shane rode along with this group also.
I rode home in the Explorer with Greg and with a cushiony blanket and a pillow under me had no problems at all, unless a sudden braking was required.. Home in 4 hours...
See ya next year at the river!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thursday good company and a outing ~~
This morning I slept a little later than usual, passing on breakfast and than just dosed off and on without being engaged in tv or a book. Ashley came up and told me Aunt Elsie was downstairs... so Ashley helped me just by bringing a wet washcloth, toothbrush and hair brush to pull it together.. I had a nice visit with Aunt Elsie from the comfort of my bed, loved that she came to see me. And that I found a Hydrangea plant on my kitchen table when I went downstairs later...
After Aunt Elsie left, Greg came in to say that he had to run out to Irvine and meet up with a customer soon and "what did I need".. My friend Susan was coming in the afternoon for a visit. He brought me a light lunch and pulled my clothes from closet that I asked for and put where I could reach them after I cleaned up returned to edge of bed.. And he than took my desk tray with comp, book, blood tester, phone etc downstairs so I was setup for the rest of the day once I got down there. I than took pain meds and took in a short nap while they kicked in and yet before I took on some time in the bathroom & getting dressed.. first time I attempted and made it downstairs on my own. a milestone that had me nervous being home by myself at the same time.
I had enough time to "settle" onto the couch and relax before Susan arrived for our visit.. Ashley joined us for a little while of "OC housewives" discussion.. and than she went back to packing for her Lake Havasu trip, leaving us to continue our chatting...
Tonight we had the dinner that Susan brought of Meatballs for on subway rolls and mac/cheese and strawberries. And than since I had opened mail and had a check that needed to be deposited.. we went on what we thought would be a simple errands trip to the bank, and returning some plates, casserole dishes to those who had blessed us with a meal.. So after a while of riding in the car out amongst the living again, I was glad to be heading home and lay out prone in bed, do some of the P/T exercises I'd have to answer for in the morning and than hit the sack early tonight from being "tired"... what a good feeling to be just plain "tired".
good night
After Aunt Elsie left, Greg came in to say that he had to run out to Irvine and meet up with a customer soon and "what did I need".. My friend Susan was coming in the afternoon for a visit. He brought me a light lunch and pulled my clothes from closet that I asked for and put where I could reach them after I cleaned up returned to edge of bed.. And he than took my desk tray with comp, book, blood tester, phone etc downstairs so I was setup for the rest of the day once I got down there. I than took pain meds and took in a short nap while they kicked in and yet before I took on some time in the bathroom & getting dressed.. first time I attempted and made it downstairs on my own. a milestone that had me nervous being home by myself at the same time.
I had enough time to "settle" onto the couch and relax before Susan arrived for our visit.. Ashley joined us for a little while of "OC housewives" discussion.. and than she went back to packing for her Lake Havasu trip, leaving us to continue our chatting...
Tonight we had the dinner that Susan brought of Meatballs for on subway rolls and mac/cheese and strawberries. And than since I had opened mail and had a check that needed to be deposited.. we went on what we thought would be a simple errands trip to the bank, and returning some plates, casserole dishes to those who had blessed us with a meal.. So after a while of riding in the car out amongst the living again, I was glad to be heading home and lay out prone in bed, do some of the P/T exercises I'd have to answer for in the morning and than hit the sack early tonight from being "tired"... what a good feeling to be just plain "tired".
good night
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tuesday doldrums
dol⋅drums
–noun (used with a plural verb)
3. a dull, listless, depressed mood; low spirits.
It's been 16 days since surgery and while I had all the facts prior of what's going to be done to you, placed inside of me, you have NO IDEA what to expect afterwards in recovery, you're on a daily learning curve of whatever appears you have to deal with it. Besides the ache in the lower back where the "new hardware" was attached to the spinal column, I have been experiencing most annoying PAIN in the left leg around the knee and the calf area when standing up for much time. Assuming it might be nerve trauma postop... My being independent makes the current state of ever so dependent on Greg and the kids for some simple basic tasks and unable to care for myself ~ difficult and frustrating. Oh I'm appreciative of all that they are willing to do for me, and I know Greg loves me and is exhausted in keeping up... Thankfully I don't feel I ask for much beyond basic water,soda's and when they eat I eat....
And so I'm writing this a little while after having moved to a new location midday to the downstairs den. From the time I woke up this morning, I've been weepy on some thoughts going through my head, that "instant ache" that I wake up with, waiting for the pain meds to kick in about 20 minutes before getting up out of bed for a first trip to the bathroom... and wondering what I will be able to accomplish today once I'm up. I hadn't had pain meds during the night and so not wise to get up without them in the system.
Greg came home for lunch after a work mtg in office and he helped me downstairs within ten minutes of dressing and listing what I'd like him to bring down with him. Greg had to leave early this morning and so I had slept very late and than struggled to just do some time in the bathroom for simple cleaning up, wet/dry hair before Greg came home. I dropped a spray bottle of conditioner after I pulled the plastic top off of it, and I was unable to retrieve it from below my chair even though I could stand it up between my feet, couldn't reach down far enough to reach it for a good grip. I came close but couldn't quite grasp it.. frustrated I just blew the hair dry as much as I could and than the burn in lower leg and lower back makes it hard to sit on my tall chair quickly took over and I had to retreat to the bed and lay flat out and let it calm down... oh and cry a little...
–noun (used with a plural verb)
3. a dull, listless, depressed mood; low spirits.
It's been 16 days since surgery and while I had all the facts prior of what's going to be done to you, placed inside of me, you have NO IDEA what to expect afterwards in recovery, you're on a daily learning curve of whatever appears you have to deal with it. Besides the ache in the lower back where the "new hardware" was attached to the spinal column, I have been experiencing most annoying PAIN in the left leg around the knee and the calf area when standing up for much time. Assuming it might be nerve trauma postop... My being independent makes the current state of ever so dependent on Greg and the kids for some simple basic tasks and unable to care for myself ~ difficult and frustrating. Oh I'm appreciative of all that they are willing to do for me, and I know Greg loves me and is exhausted in keeping up... Thankfully I don't feel I ask for much beyond basic water,soda's and when they eat I eat....
And so I'm writing this a little while after having moved to a new location midday to the downstairs den. From the time I woke up this morning, I've been weepy on some thoughts going through my head, that "instant ache" that I wake up with, waiting for the pain meds to kick in about 20 minutes before getting up out of bed for a first trip to the bathroom... and wondering what I will be able to accomplish today once I'm up. I hadn't had pain meds during the night and so not wise to get up without them in the system.
Greg came home for lunch after a work mtg in office and he helped me downstairs within ten minutes of dressing and listing what I'd like him to bring down with him. Greg had to leave early this morning and so I had slept very late and than struggled to just do some time in the bathroom for simple cleaning up, wet/dry hair before Greg came home. I dropped a spray bottle of conditioner after I pulled the plastic top off of it, and I was unable to retrieve it from below my chair even though I could stand it up between my feet, couldn't reach down far enough to reach it for a good grip. I came close but couldn't quite grasp it.. frustrated I just blew the hair dry as much as I could and than the burn in lower leg and lower back makes it hard to sit on my tall chair quickly took over and I had to retreat to the bed and lay flat out and let it calm down... oh and cry a little...
Sunday, July 12, 2009
End of the week and a Sabbath day...
Thursday morning Ashley drove me to the follow up appt with the Orthopedic Spinal Surgeon for 10:30am.. Now this is one doctor that the "wait" in his office lobby is ever anything but quick... somehow he's behind schedule even if your first of the day or first appt after lunch, it makes no difference. So I was dreading the fact that my appt fell in the middle of his morning schedule and the window of "sitting up" time that I was capable of is pretty short, was not going to help..
Once we were called back to an examining room and waiting for some xray's to be taken... I was starting to wear out.. and when "Jack" called me out to get the xray's a short walk down the hallway. I endured without losing my temper that he had me STANDING during the entire process of getting the 4 xrays, checking them on computer screen and doing the next one.. Only to get back to the examining room and the Dr. was not happy with the quality of them. So he (the Dr) walked down the hall and we HEARD him tell the tech, "those were LOUSY pictures now get me two that are clear"... ugh.. So this time I push my walker down the hall and he lays me down on the table for the four xrays.. which gave him a better view, but since the "spacer" is invisible due to it being plastic other than the metal front plate.. So he basically couldn't see if it was still in place like he could see clearly the artificial disk which being titanium/metal was completely visible. So a future CT scan might be taken should the pain level not reduce, but for now, we decided to keep believing all parts are still in the correct places they were placed originally and remain there. And that we would just assume a better pain med choice would prove that true.
Since we had already addressed slightly the difference between the pain meds I was given in the hospital and what I was using at home being so COMPLETELY different. I was in the hospital feeling no pain on what was a morphine drip of (sp/) "dilloudid" and yet alert and able to function, and walk with the P/T when asked and whatever was asked. The surgeon in the preop visit when asked if we were going to use Dr. Mikhail my pain med dr who has been doing the injections, his response was "it's not rocket science and I will take care of you".. That statement left me assuming there would be no gap and no change between hospital to home transition, but it became obvious they "hydrocodone 5-500" were a watered down version of a pain med for what I needed. Yet my go home orders from him verbally were to take the pain meds I had been using previously and no new written anything orders given... {I was released on Thurs evening and by Friday midday there was a definite indication that my situation on pain control was out of control.. Oh and it's 4th of July weekend and so I had to work very hard getting a hold of someone in the Dr office to COMPLAIN to... and I didn't other than to get a refill for exactly what I was already taking and running low on but I was instructed to call on Tuesday for anything new} WHAT that is a long time when you are at a point of relying on pain meds to function and it's not sufficient.
Tuesday I left a voice message for the Dr's assistant "that his comment to me that pain med prescribing was not rocket science" was apparantly not true, because I am suffering and he had not helped me out at all.. Well, with the appt being on Thurs to see him, I was going to need to pick up a prescription because they couldn't call in one that strong, but since they didn't call me back with that until AFTER Ashley had already been there on Tues. to pick up paperwork for disability - I would now wait until Thursday's appt to get it straightened out.
So I walked out of the office pushing my walker with a new prescription for the pill form of the morphine Dilloudid I was on in the hospital.. it has been a much better couple of days since starting this and while the pain is not completely gone, it's 80% better and some other muscles are cramping in the left leg are more of the surgery nerve trauma that will just take time to subside. The heating pad is my other treatment tool that helps with the muscles/nerves stressing in the left leg.
-----------------------------------------
I have pretty much stayed upstairs in our master bedroom/bath for the time at home with only two trips down the stairs for a short couch visit or dinner at the table. With the two dr appts, I than returned straight back upstairs to the comfort of my bed.
Today is Sunday and I am not ready for an outing, if even to church. I came downstairs after we had lunch. This morning I took a shower before Greg left and than a nap while the boys went to church...
Greg and I watched the movie "bringing down the house" with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. Greg than went out to get some groceries and I flipped through some channels watching a little this and that, checking facebook.. and after 8 hours, I'm still downstairs, which is the longest in the two weeks since surgery and it has really felt good.
I look forward to now making the downstairs my new place to be during the day, that I am having good pain control and will feel more like making some occasional laps around the loop on the hard surface flooring for some exercise along with what the P/T assigns.. and my bed for sleeping at the end of the day.
This has been a good day and I will sleep well tonight from being less stressed about the progression of the last two weeks. In less than two weeks we will be at the river and so I need to be smart in that by than I have rested and made some much needed progress in order to be anything but "stuck" in our rented room and not able to be outdoors as much as is possible for someone who won't be able to ride in the boat or jumping off the dock for a float in the good old river water.
good night....
Once we were called back to an examining room and waiting for some xray's to be taken... I was starting to wear out.. and when "Jack" called me out to get the xray's a short walk down the hallway. I endured without losing my temper that he had me STANDING during the entire process of getting the 4 xrays, checking them on computer screen and doing the next one.. Only to get back to the examining room and the Dr. was not happy with the quality of them. So he (the Dr) walked down the hall and we HEARD him tell the tech, "those were LOUSY pictures now get me two that are clear"... ugh.. So this time I push my walker down the hall and he lays me down on the table for the four xrays.. which gave him a better view, but since the "spacer" is invisible due to it being plastic other than the metal front plate.. So he basically couldn't see if it was still in place like he could see clearly the artificial disk which being titanium/metal was completely visible. So a future CT scan might be taken should the pain level not reduce, but for now, we decided to keep believing all parts are still in the correct places they were placed originally and remain there. And that we would just assume a better pain med choice would prove that true.
Since we had already addressed slightly the difference between the pain meds I was given in the hospital and what I was using at home being so COMPLETELY different. I was in the hospital feeling no pain on what was a morphine drip of (sp/) "dilloudid" and yet alert and able to function, and walk with the P/T when asked and whatever was asked. The surgeon in the preop visit when asked if we were going to use Dr. Mikhail my pain med dr who has been doing the injections, his response was "it's not rocket science and I will take care of you".. That statement left me assuming there would be no gap and no change between hospital to home transition, but it became obvious they "hydrocodone 5-500" were a watered down version of a pain med for what I needed. Yet my go home orders from him verbally were to take the pain meds I had been using previously and no new written anything orders given... {I was released on Thurs evening and by Friday midday there was a definite indication that my situation on pain control was out of control.. Oh and it's 4th of July weekend and so I had to work very hard getting a hold of someone in the Dr office to COMPLAIN to... and I didn't other than to get a refill for exactly what I was already taking and running low on but I was instructed to call on Tuesday for anything new} WHAT that is a long time when you are at a point of relying on pain meds to function and it's not sufficient.
Tuesday I left a voice message for the Dr's assistant "that his comment to me that pain med prescribing was not rocket science" was apparantly not true, because I am suffering and he had not helped me out at all.. Well, with the appt being on Thurs to see him, I was going to need to pick up a prescription because they couldn't call in one that strong, but since they didn't call me back with that until AFTER Ashley had already been there on Tues. to pick up paperwork for disability - I would now wait until Thursday's appt to get it straightened out.
So I walked out of the office pushing my walker with a new prescription for the pill form of the morphine Dilloudid I was on in the hospital.. it has been a much better couple of days since starting this and while the pain is not completely gone, it's 80% better and some other muscles are cramping in the left leg are more of the surgery nerve trauma that will just take time to subside. The heating pad is my other treatment tool that helps with the muscles/nerves stressing in the left leg.
-----------------------------------------
I have pretty much stayed upstairs in our master bedroom/bath for the time at home with only two trips down the stairs for a short couch visit or dinner at the table. With the two dr appts, I than returned straight back upstairs to the comfort of my bed.
Today is Sunday and I am not ready for an outing, if even to church. I came downstairs after we had lunch. This morning I took a shower before Greg left and than a nap while the boys went to church...
Greg and I watched the movie "bringing down the house" with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. Greg than went out to get some groceries and I flipped through some channels watching a little this and that, checking facebook.. and after 8 hours, I'm still downstairs, which is the longest in the two weeks since surgery and it has really felt good.
I look forward to now making the downstairs my new place to be during the day, that I am having good pain control and will feel more like making some occasional laps around the loop on the hard surface flooring for some exercise along with what the P/T assigns.. and my bed for sleeping at the end of the day.
This has been a good day and I will sleep well tonight from being less stressed about the progression of the last two weeks. In less than two weeks we will be at the river and so I need to be smart in that by than I have rested and made some much needed progress in order to be anything but "stuck" in our rented room and not able to be outdoors as much as is possible for someone who won't be able to ride in the boat or jumping off the dock for a float in the good old river water.
good night....
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
staring at the ceiling...
This morning I had a follow up appt with the vascular surgeon who removed the 15 staples. He declared the incision looks very good and that the relationship between he and I has now reached the end... He did a great job and the pain level in the abdomen has been ZERO throughout. In our conversation, he did say that the pain med IV'd into me at the hospital was the strongest narcotic available and so there is no good "pill" pain reliever available like it. bummer!Over the last couple of days being at home I've had difficulty in sitting upright whereas I was doing it before, might be that I sat up to much in bed. Monday a home health P/T came in and a couple of exercises to do, positions to sit in or not to sit in... well, it's made the back pain increase and made just the simple getting up for a trip to the bathroom highly charged. So the trip to the doctors office today, I got up early and basically got ready in several time shifts so as to "rest" inbetween. At the Medical center from the parking lot it was uphill to the elevator... which was actually easier that the downhill walk back to the car. But I made it, although the sitting in the car was a tough ride no matter where the reclining position was situated.
Tomorrow morning is the followup with the spinal surgeon.. So we will see what he has to say and if there is anything "better" for meds to prescribe to get through the is time frame or if just "staring at the ceiling" in what is resting is the alternative to the pain in walking or sitting. Dr Ravessoud had told me that prescribing pain meds was not rocket science and he would take care of it.. Holiday weekend apparantly isn't "his shift" in order to receive an upgrade nor without seeing him in person like I will tomorrow.
Well, I've napped all afternoon, but it's time to call it a day... good night...
Saturday, July 4, 2009
4th of July
We are home alone for the 4th, kids are all out with friends and Greg didn't care to bbq.. so we had just a simple meal of sandwiches for supper and soon there will be fireworks to witness outside of our bedroom windows.
My surgery went very well in the reports from the two surgeons. The vascular Dr ran into some extensive scar tissue in the abdomen and we could not figure where that came from as while I had 3 C-sections, they are located lower and would not account for whatever it was he ran into. So hence the incision is a little longer, bummer. The spinal Dr has the two new parts right where they are intended to be and the muscle soreness in the back will last a little while but is normal.
I came home from the hospital on Thursday late in the afternoon and was really feeling good... pain level was minimal and I had done as much walking and stair climbing for those three days of P/T that they asked of me and I had no issues. The IV was removed on Wed and so pain meds were than only whenever I asked for them and when I came home was told to just take what I had been using before.. WELL, it became very obvious throughout Friday and into the night that the pain meds I was now taking was not enough.... Because to just get to and from the bed/bathroom the pain was the kind that makes you lightheaded and shaky from the pain... I took a shower on Friday and while it felt good, it was a large "event" and took alot of energy and I did not dry the hair as the pain level drove me back to bed.. When I called the on-call dr, he said that I could only add a Motrin to the two pain meds hydrocodone 5-500 (but not to take more of the Hydrocodone) It has helped a little but I plan to increase the motrin to two.. The one side affect after surgery seems to be in the left calf muscle an intense pressure and my two toes on left foot go to sleep once I'm upright. Using ice/heat to try and bring comfort back to that area.
I have an appt for Wed. morning to remove the 15 staples across the 10 inch abdominal incision. (that I dread and will NOT be watching). maybe this will interest Ashley enough to be my designated driver so as to witness.
The goal for tomorrow is to make it downstairs, get the occasional walk of the loop during the day inside the house on the hard floors with my walker (woo hoo). For now, I'm behaving by just resting in bed as they recomended or once in awhile in the chair next to the bed.
My surgery went very well in the reports from the two surgeons. The vascular Dr ran into some extensive scar tissue in the abdomen and we could not figure where that came from as while I had 3 C-sections, they are located lower and would not account for whatever it was he ran into. So hence the incision is a little longer, bummer. The spinal Dr has the two new parts right where they are intended to be and the muscle soreness in the back will last a little while but is normal.
I came home from the hospital on Thursday late in the afternoon and was really feeling good... pain level was minimal and I had done as much walking and stair climbing for those three days of P/T that they asked of me and I had no issues. The IV was removed on Wed and so pain meds were than only whenever I asked for them and when I came home was told to just take what I had been using before.. WELL, it became very obvious throughout Friday and into the night that the pain meds I was now taking was not enough.... Because to just get to and from the bed/bathroom the pain was the kind that makes you lightheaded and shaky from the pain... I took a shower on Friday and while it felt good, it was a large "event" and took alot of energy and I did not dry the hair as the pain level drove me back to bed.. When I called the on-call dr, he said that I could only add a Motrin to the two pain meds hydrocodone 5-500 (but not to take more of the Hydrocodone) It has helped a little but I plan to increase the motrin to two.. The one side affect after surgery seems to be in the left calf muscle an intense pressure and my two toes on left foot go to sleep once I'm upright. Using ice/heat to try and bring comfort back to that area.
I have an appt for Wed. morning to remove the 15 staples across the 10 inch abdominal incision. (that I dread and will NOT be watching). maybe this will interest Ashley enough to be my designated driver so as to witness.
The goal for tomorrow is to make it downstairs, get the occasional walk of the loop during the day inside the house on the hard floors with my walker (woo hoo). For now, I'm behaving by just resting in bed as they recomended or once in awhile in the chair next to the bed.
Friday, July 3, 2009
EXCITING news for Ashley on Thursday
At 7:15am on Thursday Ashley was awoken by a text message from a friend who said "check the licensing website NOW" and so Greg said Ashley went down the stairs as fast as she could to find her computer and to check the licensing website that would list those who passed the NCLEX boards. AND HER NAME WAS ON THE LIST..... SO EXCITED.. Greg said there was some hootin and hollerin from the front room... she text me right away and so we played phone tag trying to call back and forth..
It's painful to cry tears of joy when your gut is stapled.. but worth it. But I had the nurses on my floor all rooting for her and excited when it came through that she had passed officially. The tears were also in the realization that it's also official that she will now be moving often to different places away from our home.
So thanks for the prayers and wishes of support for her. May God use Ashley mightly in his kingdom to bring aid to those who hurting and in need of medical intervention.
It's painful to cry tears of joy when your gut is stapled.. but worth it. But I had the nurses on my floor all rooting for her and excited when it came through that she had passed officially. The tears were also in the realization that it's also official that she will now be moving often to different places away from our home.
So thanks for the prayers and wishes of support for her. May God use Ashley mightly in his kingdom to bring aid to those who hurting and in need of medical intervention.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Monday happenings & my new hitch cover
Monday morning is fast approaching... and there's no turning back now... I am to be at the nurses station at 6am at LB Memorial and ready to put on the fashionable gown/slippers and be escorted to have the IV started, head off to lala land and am first surgery of the day at 7:30am. The two procedures should last 3 hours and than recovery for a couple of hours. The vascular surgeons starts by making the 6inch abdominal incision and parting everything getting the space created to the front of the spine exposed, and than the Spinal Ortho goes to work, and than the vascular surgeon comes back and puts it all back in the right places and staples the incision shut. From recovery I'm assigned to my inpatient room for what should be a loooooooooooong week. I'm an expert at outpatient and it has been 20 yrs since last child delivered that I was admitted to stay. I am absolutely not looking forward to much of any part of this but the lingering in the hospital is absolutely what I dread probably the most. I am going to attach the picture that I took with my cell phone the other day at the pre-op of the hardware sample Dr. Fernando Ravessoud is going to implant.
On the left is the spacer that will "fuse" L5-S1 vertebrae together, the three wells you see on the top of it are where they will insert a putty substance of stem cell protein graft that will harden and stimulate the bone fusing from the bottom up of my own bone to strengthen the union. There are also two tiny screws holes on the top front that will be at an angle to attach to the bone from the front as well. While the two vertebrae have moved 8mm in opposite directions, when this spacer is put in the collapsed space, it won't line them up perfectly but it will move them slightly in the process, but they will no longer move and pinch down on the space between them.
On the right is a two part titanium/plastic disk replacement that will be directly above the spacer location at L4-L5. This is the first thing he will do in the procedure. The dark line in the middle of the clear vertebrae on top is the "keel" that will be dowled into the vertebrae above and below. The new disk will have some motion mobility to mimic a real disk and restore the height that has collapsed and by removing the torn damaged one.
Monday at 10am, Ashley who has been studying her butt off, taking classes for and reading reading reading patient and condition scenarios that might be tested on.. the time has come and the day is here. Three days after she will know whether she has accomplished the CA State Nursing Boards exam successfully. The timing of them on the same day is unfortunate, but was one that by the time I had my surgery date and than she returned from all of her travels (MN, HI, NY) it was too late for either one of us to realign.. But she can't change anything that happens Monday and so hopefully she will just focus on the task at hand and just concentrate on the test. She's work very long and hard..
On the left is the spacer that will "fuse" L5-S1 vertebrae together, the three wells you see on the top of it are where they will insert a putty substance of stem cell protein graft that will harden and stimulate the bone fusing from the bottom up of my own bone to strengthen the union. There are also two tiny screws holes on the top front that will be at an angle to attach to the bone from the front as well. While the two vertebrae have moved 8mm in opposite directions, when this spacer is put in the collapsed space, it won't line them up perfectly but it will move them slightly in the process, but they will no longer move and pinch down on the space between them.
On the right is a two part titanium/plastic disk replacement that will be directly above the spacer location at L4-L5. This is the first thing he will do in the procedure. The dark line in the middle of the clear vertebrae on top is the "keel" that will be dowled into the vertebrae above and below. The new disk will have some motion mobility to mimic a real disk and restore the height that has collapsed and by removing the torn damaged one.
Monday at 10am, Ashley who has been studying her butt off, taking classes for and reading reading reading patient and condition scenarios that might be tested on.. the time has come and the day is here. Three days after she will know whether she has accomplished the CA State Nursing Boards exam successfully. The timing of them on the same day is unfortunate, but was one that by the time I had my surgery date and than she returned from all of her travels (MN, HI, NY) it was too late for either one of us to realign.. But she can't change anything that happens Monday and so hopefully she will just focus on the task at hand and just concentrate on the test. She's work very long and hard..
On a sillier note:
About a year ago or more, I saw a suburban go by that had a hitch cover of flip flops and I thought that was pretty California cool idea.. and I'd like one... A few months ago I was at the swap meet with a friend and saw a guy who was selling them. But he didn't have the right sized attachment for my Explorer hitch.. so left dejected and thought I'd contact him at his Fullerton location. I forgot. But I called him a few days before last weekend and asked him if he's make sure to have what I needed on Saturday at the swap meet that I was going to be there. Below is what it is....... and good night.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
the end of two people....
Today the news is full and overflowing about the loss of two individuals who for decades captured the spotlight. As a 60's baby I remember both of them in the shows they became famous on. I don't know whether they knew Jesus as there Savior, I hope they did and are now healed and know peace, but life has ended nonetheless, and if not, this life was for nothing.
Michael Jackson, became known on The Ed Sullivan show and Zoom for the Jackson Five is where I remember him at the best of what was probably his most innocent, he was talented, energetic and really stood out at a young age... And than it would seem that from that point on his life was a tragedy of parents who saw a way to make a living on the backs of there children, exploiting them and robbing them of normalcy, peace, security of the soul. And he was like a classic case study of watching what happens to an individual who is traumatized at a young age, who is unable to grow up as an adult and longs for what he didn't have. It was always another bizarre media report that just made your heart go out to him. Someone who's addiction and need for the limelight to support a career choice and yet the wishing it would go away and allow him to function as a person unknown. Sad really.. Money brought him some stuff, but it stole from him as well. His countless charges of bizarre behavior with kids surrounding him who he saw as his peers of purity and innocence he lost early. If it was true he will be judged now that his life has ended. If it was false and just another parents way of making a buck off of the strange relationship of his child with the superstar, fame proved a great thief in the life of Michael.
Farrah Fawcett best known as one of the trio on Charlies Angels the tv show which she only did for one year before walking away to do other things. She became the poster child for the feathered hair style. Her protrayal in the TV movie "The Burning Bed" was outstanding and showed her talent for acting. She was also a sculptor of some beautiful work. She had physical beautiful but that wasn't all that there was to her, although she flaunted it in some choices she made during her career. She had a career in which fame also showed the ugly side of what entertainment spotlight is relentless and costly. She was a mother who loved her son, but yet he struggled with his parents fame and drugs have him at rock bottom presently and jailed when his mother died. There was a recent documentary that she and Alana Stewart made with a home video camera about the fight against the anal cancer that was spreading throughout her body and the treatments she sought out in America and in Europe. The role of her life. It was very poignantly done and showed the good, bad and ever so difficult days and steps of cancer.. That fight has now ended in this life.
What will be the legacy of our lives as our loved ones look back? Did we seek only fame and fortune or to be a Jesus follower who was a sinner saved by grace and lived as blamelessly as possible above all.. the latter is what I want as my legacy.
Michael Jackson, became known on The Ed Sullivan show and Zoom for the Jackson Five is where I remember him at the best of what was probably his most innocent, he was talented, energetic and really stood out at a young age... And than it would seem that from that point on his life was a tragedy of parents who saw a way to make a living on the backs of there children, exploiting them and robbing them of normalcy, peace, security of the soul. And he was like a classic case study of watching what happens to an individual who is traumatized at a young age, who is unable to grow up as an adult and longs for what he didn't have. It was always another bizarre media report that just made your heart go out to him. Someone who's addiction and need for the limelight to support a career choice and yet the wishing it would go away and allow him to function as a person unknown. Sad really.. Money brought him some stuff, but it stole from him as well. His countless charges of bizarre behavior with kids surrounding him who he saw as his peers of purity and innocence he lost early. If it was true he will be judged now that his life has ended. If it was false and just another parents way of making a buck off of the strange relationship of his child with the superstar, fame proved a great thief in the life of Michael.
Farrah Fawcett best known as one of the trio on Charlies Angels the tv show which she only did for one year before walking away to do other things. She became the poster child for the feathered hair style. Her protrayal in the TV movie "The Burning Bed" was outstanding and showed her talent for acting. She was also a sculptor of some beautiful work. She had physical beautiful but that wasn't all that there was to her, although she flaunted it in some choices she made during her career. She had a career in which fame also showed the ugly side of what entertainment spotlight is relentless and costly. She was a mother who loved her son, but yet he struggled with his parents fame and drugs have him at rock bottom presently and jailed when his mother died. There was a recent documentary that she and Alana Stewart made with a home video camera about the fight against the anal cancer that was spreading throughout her body and the treatments she sought out in America and in Europe. The role of her life. It was very poignantly done and showed the good, bad and ever so difficult days and steps of cancer.. That fight has now ended in this life.
What will be the legacy of our lives as our loved ones look back? Did we seek only fame and fortune or to be a Jesus follower who was a sinner saved by grace and lived as blamelessly as possible above all.. the latter is what I want as my legacy.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
just thinking outloud.. weather, health, goals, Lakers
It's been awhile since I put any time into this blog and there is really nothing outside of routine going on to share unless it comes to me as I'm writing.. and my routine is well, not others routines!
Yesterday we had an hour of sunshine and today we had some throughout the afternoon, which in CA we aren't used to being without in the stretch of the calendar that it's been gloomy. It's really even been beyond gloomy skies, we actually have dark cloud patterns that just run all day long, some drizzle, thunder/lightning at times, and the temp barely creeps above 70 degrees. I'm a fan of this weather, because it won't be long and the temp will soar and we will long for days like this for relief. I'd have to say that while summer in CA used to start in May and run hot and hard till end of September, it's like it has in many recent years swung to a later start and deeper into the Fall. I have friends who went to Seattle Saturday for their daughters graduation,she text that they have great weather there, really.. Seattle.. the normally rainy weather of the northwest location.. what's wrong with that picture..
Let me recap the physical situation(s);
1. The left hand is improving greatly since the distress I felt after surgery when the fingers were like cement and curled. But the tissue is coming out of the trauma post surgery and is becoming much less painful in using it or in the stretching of the fingers as it has been. Much relief on my part... I still go to P/T once a week for evaluation, a good massage and stretch to keep on track with where it is. But I've stopped wearing any one of the many braces the P/T has fashioned over the last month to keep the fingers in a straighter position during the day. It's amazing the moldable things she can create to tend to what is going on or needs to be treated. At night I do wear what is like a broken finger splint. During the day the middle/ring fingers droop less. I keep stretching them straight throughout the workday and use a heated corn bag and massage at night.. It's nearly behind me!
2. Last Thursday I had a nerve block for the upper area of the back, 8 injections in the neck. A few days of muscle soreness, some bruising. This area was aggravated weeks ago with a walk I spoke of before, where I dared walk all the way to the corner of my street and a little beyond, it was the return trip that was dreadful. The spasms, migraine was consistent after this.. It's feeling much better with more mobility in the head turning radius and no spasms. jury still out on the headache..
3. I have 10 more days at the office before reporting for the major back surgery on Monday June 29.. I am dreading the process, but am assured and confident that the ortho and vascular surgeons are the most competent and skilled in our Region for what needs to be done. So should all go as planned, it will be 3-4 days in hospital (ugh) and than home to recover. It will require patience in recovering from the abdominal incision and not pushing the limits of to much to soon. Than whatever P/T will be required after six weeks of incision healing time. The fusion will be the vertebrae L5 S1, and disk replacement of L4 L5.
While I was going through the lesion in the left ankle for the last two years and that was needing to be removed, but since unable to do this type of procedure is documented as only considered experimental and not FDA approved. Leaving only one option was to surgically "toy" with the lesion to self heal it as best we could by irritating it with holes drilled into it. The result was better the second time around but was still causing pain. Being that I've been dealing with the back pain which keeps me from walking any long distance, it's not been stretched to the limit and so is good as far as I'm concerned. ha ha ..
I couldn't have imagined still being immersed in such debilitating pain and from so many other parts of the body as it has me (us) going through. Don't ask "what's next" is a statement people could say, but I don't have time in between to even consciously put time into a thought like that... I've not had anything as easy as "take this antibiotic for 10 days" and you will be good as new... PLEASE that would have been a dream scenario.
So in facebook chatting with a cousin in Texas recently, she's vacationed with us in Jacksonhole for family reunions years ago when our kids were young, and she was yet without kids.. She has recently begun to work out, and eating healthy.. And we've been discussing a possible meeting in the near future of this hike. I'M HOPEFUL... We have been talking about our two Jenny Lake hikes in between Jacksonhole and Yellowstone and while back in our younger days it was awesome.. There is a shuttle boat you take across the lake to the hiking trails on the other side of "Inspiration Point" and "Hidden Falls". On the second hike, a few of us decided that the line for the ferry was really long and that we'd take the 6.6 mile hiking trail around the lake and "meet" them on the other side, well actually it was a race.. I'm sure in my memory that while we were hiking our tails off when the boat of our exuberant relatives who were crossing the lake were jeering us... Someone else also remembers that we beat the boat, or that we weren't far behind them landing on dry ground. The hike from the boat dock up is about 2.5 hours to the Hidden Falls of 80 ft waterfall and than onto the narrow ledge that leads you to a "spot to overlook" the Yellowstone valley, Snake river is a 420 ft climb in a mile. It is not an easy hike but breathtaking and exhilarating for our large group of VanMeeterens who made it all the way, young and old. good times.
google "jenny lake" and read and than take this in some time on a must do vacation spot. This trip is what I will be posting a picture copy of on my bathroom mirror or refrigerator in inspiration to work hard after what will be a successful surgery in order to get the activity of my life back on track...
And than, let me end with a "woo hoo" for our LA Lakers who just finished winning the NBA Championship..
Have a good week ~
Yesterday we had an hour of sunshine and today we had some throughout the afternoon, which in CA we aren't used to being without in the stretch of the calendar that it's been gloomy. It's really even been beyond gloomy skies, we actually have dark cloud patterns that just run all day long, some drizzle, thunder/lightning at times, and the temp barely creeps above 70 degrees. I'm a fan of this weather, because it won't be long and the temp will soar and we will long for days like this for relief. I'd have to say that while summer in CA used to start in May and run hot and hard till end of September, it's like it has in many recent years swung to a later start and deeper into the Fall. I have friends who went to Seattle Saturday for their daughters graduation,she text that they have great weather there, really.. Seattle.. the normally rainy weather of the northwest location.. what's wrong with that picture..
Let me recap the physical situation(s);
1. The left hand is improving greatly since the distress I felt after surgery when the fingers were like cement and curled. But the tissue is coming out of the trauma post surgery and is becoming much less painful in using it or in the stretching of the fingers as it has been. Much relief on my part... I still go to P/T once a week for evaluation, a good massage and stretch to keep on track with where it is. But I've stopped wearing any one of the many braces the P/T has fashioned over the last month to keep the fingers in a straighter position during the day. It's amazing the moldable things she can create to tend to what is going on or needs to be treated. At night I do wear what is like a broken finger splint. During the day the middle/ring fingers droop less. I keep stretching them straight throughout the workday and use a heated corn bag and massage at night.. It's nearly behind me!
2. Last Thursday I had a nerve block for the upper area of the back, 8 injections in the neck. A few days of muscle soreness, some bruising. This area was aggravated weeks ago with a walk I spoke of before, where I dared walk all the way to the corner of my street and a little beyond, it was the return trip that was dreadful. The spasms, migraine was consistent after this.. It's feeling much better with more mobility in the head turning radius and no spasms. jury still out on the headache..
3. I have 10 more days at the office before reporting for the major back surgery on Monday June 29.. I am dreading the process, but am assured and confident that the ortho and vascular surgeons are the most competent and skilled in our Region for what needs to be done. So should all go as planned, it will be 3-4 days in hospital (ugh) and than home to recover. It will require patience in recovering from the abdominal incision and not pushing the limits of to much to soon. Than whatever P/T will be required after six weeks of incision healing time. The fusion will be the vertebrae L5 S1, and disk replacement of L4 L5.
While I was going through the lesion in the left ankle for the last two years and that was needing to be removed, but since unable to do this type of procedure is documented as only considered experimental and not FDA approved. Leaving only one option was to surgically "toy" with the lesion to self heal it as best we could by irritating it with holes drilled into it. The result was better the second time around but was still causing pain. Being that I've been dealing with the back pain which keeps me from walking any long distance, it's not been stretched to the limit and so is good as far as I'm concerned. ha ha ..
I couldn't have imagined still being immersed in such debilitating pain and from so many other parts of the body as it has me (us) going through. Don't ask "what's next" is a statement people could say, but I don't have time in between to even consciously put time into a thought like that... I've not had anything as easy as "take this antibiotic for 10 days" and you will be good as new... PLEASE that would have been a dream scenario.
So in facebook chatting with a cousin in Texas recently, she's vacationed with us in Jacksonhole for family reunions years ago when our kids were young, and she was yet without kids.. She has recently begun to work out, and eating healthy.. And we've been discussing a possible meeting in the near future of this hike. I'M HOPEFUL... We have been talking about our two Jenny Lake hikes in between Jacksonhole and Yellowstone and while back in our younger days it was awesome.. There is a shuttle boat you take across the lake to the hiking trails on the other side of "Inspiration Point" and "Hidden Falls". On the second hike, a few of us decided that the line for the ferry was really long and that we'd take the 6.6 mile hiking trail around the lake and "meet" them on the other side, well actually it was a race.. I'm sure in my memory that while we were hiking our tails off when the boat of our exuberant relatives who were crossing the lake were jeering us... Someone else also remembers that we beat the boat, or that we weren't far behind them landing on dry ground. The hike from the boat dock up is about 2.5 hours to the Hidden Falls of 80 ft waterfall and than onto the narrow ledge that leads you to a "spot to overlook" the Yellowstone valley, Snake river is a 420 ft climb in a mile. It is not an easy hike but breathtaking and exhilarating for our large group of VanMeeterens who made it all the way, young and old. good times.
google "jenny lake" and read and than take this in some time on a must do vacation spot. This trip is what I will be posting a picture copy of on my bathroom mirror or refrigerator in inspiration to work hard after what will be a successful surgery in order to get the activity of my life back on track...
And than, let me end with a "woo hoo" for our LA Lakers who just finished winning the NBA Championship..
Have a good week ~
Thursday, June 4, 2009
We the people...
California votes down the legalizing of same sex marriage (twice) with Prop 8, and then courts heard the appeal and voted to uphold the vote, but allow any same sex marriages that occured prior to stand. And yet the economy proceeds to take a dump leaving the state with a huge vacuum of potential tax revenue loss, due to the loss of jobs at 10% and spending that has dropped. Below are bits and pieces of what appeared in the LA TIMES last week.. this is what I suspect will be the pre-cursor to what will be the next push towards the voters as a way to bring the bankrupt state (from our governments reckless spending) into a economical boondoggle. The government like the media and entertainment will keep the liberal agenda in the forefront of "what they want to be normal" by producing movies that "normalize" the bizarre and immoral behavior and than the weak minded will relent and say "oh, live and let live" in order to add money to the coffers of what is going to be a tax burden given to the people in some way.
LA TIMES:
LA TIMES:
- The phones started ringing at the Timberholm Inn in Stowe, Vt., in April, as soon as lawmakers voted to override a gubernatorial veto and allow same-sex marriage in the state. "It doesn't go into effect till Sept. 1, but people are thinking ahead,"
- In the five years since legalizing same-sex marriage, Massachusetts has gained $111 million in spending from gay weddings, according to a new study published by UCLA's Williams Institute, which studies sexual-orientation law and public policy. "That's money buying flowers, hotels, caterers, hiring a band—all the things that go into a wedding," explains M. V. Lee Badgett, a coauthor of the study.
Typically, same-sex couples spent about $7,400 per wedding, says Badgett, an economist who is also director of UMass Amherst's Center for Public Policy & Administration, and one in 10 couples spent more than $20,000. And then there were the wedding guests: "We estimated that each same-sex couple was associated with $1,600 in hotel-occupancy tax revenue," she says.
- Last year In California, chief economist with the San Francisco controller's office Ted Egan adds, the controller's office published an analysis estimating that same-sex weddings, officially legalized in California in June 2008, would bring in almost $20 million in spending over two years, and $1.7 million in additional taxes and fees. That revenue stream came to a halt in November, after California voters approved Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
In the past the California voters overwhelmingly voted yes for a prop 187.. Prop 187 was passed by the voters on Nov. 8, 1994 to deny public benefits to illegal aliens in California. The state of California goes into debt for the last 10 years annually $10 million dollars in providing schooling and medical care to the illegal immigrants. The courts overturned the WILL OF THE VOTERS again and again.. I believe that immigrants here ILLEGALLY should have to go through the process regardless of how uncomfortable a process it is.. and yes, nationwide 12 million illegals should be sent back to Mexico to do it correctly.. I as a taxpayer do not want to pay hard earned money in order to make others comfortable forever because it's "not nice" to send them back.. The government has avoided having to do anything that is "uncomfortable" for there careers but we sit in this mess because of it.
Christ preached compassion and love, but that the the laws of the land must be obeyed (give to Ceasar what is Ceasars)... we can't pick which ones suit us and only abide by those.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
It was a miracle of sorts for sure...
Today we went to the early church service (9:00 am) cause my dad had given us two tickets to the Angels game that they gave away to employees of unsold tickets.. We parked by Rubio's and had lunch, having paid our $5 parking fee to park there near the Amtrak and walked a short distance to the entrance to our left field section 101 just behind the foul pole where if it landed near us it was a home run and slightly to the right was foul. Juan Rivera's home run landed here later in the game...
Prior to the game there were some kind of promotional "kids" involvement where they came onto the field during warm ups and got baseballs signed, one was the announcer for a couple of innings... it was exciting for them, for sure.. After a rousing singing of the Star Spangled Banner by a young woman Kelsie.. the game began.....
Now the game started off rather dismally for the Angels, beginning with pitch #1 that went for a double.. Santana was the pitcher and the first three innings were a slug fest for the Seattle Mariners and they racked up 6 runs.. It didn't pick up any and we as a crowd of spectators were wondering why NO ONE WAS VISITING THE MOUND or pulling the pitcher for a lackluster performance when the score swelled to 0-6... The Angels managed to have a home run from Napoli and gave us what appeared to be at least one run.. and not a skunked outcome.
The innings just kind of droned on in the middle, they did pull Santana in the sixth, who slumped his shoulders and did the death walk to the dugout... and they put in Rodriguez.. We managed to put five runs on the board over the last few innings and bring the score to 6-8. I think there was one more pitcher and than they ended with Speier (sp?).. it was the bottom of the ninth and Seattle brought in a new pitcher for the Angels last at bat.. a walk, another walk, a single which scored one, and put runners at 2nd and 3rd, an intentional walk of Vladimar Guillero to load the bases, and than... a walked in run to tie the game.. and than Juan Rivera comes up with 2 outs and bases loaded and bam knocks a ground ball passed the shortstop out into left field and game over... Angels win 9-8..
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT... we were certainly surprised at the turn around from a team that early in the game looked the they were little leaguers with no inspiration or idea of how to play aggressive defense or conjer up some offense. Thankfully Seattle started out hot and fizzled on offense at the right time.
My dad came over at about the 8th inning before he left for home to say hi... he had been working an upper section for four hours across on the other side of the stadium. He had left long before the game made its comeback.. That was his last day working at the stadium for awhile as they leave for MN in the morning and will be there for the summer.
Prior to the game there were some kind of promotional "kids" involvement where they came onto the field during warm ups and got baseballs signed, one was the announcer for a couple of innings... it was exciting for them, for sure.. After a rousing singing of the Star Spangled Banner by a young woman Kelsie.. the game began.....
Now the game started off rather dismally for the Angels, beginning with pitch #1 that went for a double.. Santana was the pitcher and the first three innings were a slug fest for the Seattle Mariners and they racked up 6 runs.. It didn't pick up any and we as a crowd of spectators were wondering why NO ONE WAS VISITING THE MOUND or pulling the pitcher for a lackluster performance when the score swelled to 0-6... The Angels managed to have a home run from Napoli and gave us what appeared to be at least one run.. and not a skunked outcome.
The innings just kind of droned on in the middle, they did pull Santana in the sixth, who slumped his shoulders and did the death walk to the dugout... and they put in Rodriguez.. We managed to put five runs on the board over the last few innings and bring the score to 6-8. I think there was one more pitcher and than they ended with Speier (sp?).. it was the bottom of the ninth and Seattle brought in a new pitcher for the Angels last at bat.. a walk, another walk, a single which scored one, and put runners at 2nd and 3rd, an intentional walk of Vladimar Guillero to load the bases, and than... a walked in run to tie the game.. and than Juan Rivera comes up with 2 outs and bases loaded and bam knocks a ground ball passed the shortstop out into left field and game over... Angels win 9-8..
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT... we were certainly surprised at the turn around from a team that early in the game looked the they were little leaguers with no inspiration or idea of how to play aggressive defense or conjer up some offense. Thankfully Seattle started out hot and fizzled on offense at the right time.
My dad came over at about the 8th inning before he left for home to say hi... he had been working an upper section for four hours across on the other side of the stadium. He had left long before the game made its comeback.. That was his last day working at the stadium for awhile as they leave for MN in the morning and will be there for the summer.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
no respect for the golden gopher in CA
okay if your from the midwest, you're aware that a pair of gopher feet will bring you a 50 cent reward from county Ag dept. As the ditches were full of them and the ditch mowers took a beating from them, it was an incentive program started to encourage help in ridding the county of the varmints.. (it might have been 25 cents as Gregs memory is fading over 30 years since his last collected bounty) .. Our nephew Philip uses his gun to pick them off and continue to collect... well we at one time in our CA. backyard had we kept our gopher feet from the number of gophers we hunted and put them in a box and turned them in ourselves and than started a CD at the bank ~ we would now be rich. But like stocks that get away, we never did.. but our yard has been free of them for a looooooong time due to the diligence of our Symens men in pursuing them.
Today our sons were doing the yard work together and found a gopher hole deep in the back of our yard. So Brian did the old trick taught to him by his father of sticking the water hose into the hole and turning it on... oops he left the 3rd garage door open and it was pretty quick that he had a gopher up and out of the hole and on the run... straight into this open garage.. with Brian in hot pursuit and grabbing a leveling rake at the entrance to this garage. As he ran he hooked the gopher and swung him out of the garage and onto the yard... whew... thankfully he didn't get beyond where Brian could grab him and to take up residence in our storage garage.. he than grabbed this hard tonged rake and raised it to knock the stunned gopher over the head, but in mid swing the gopher took off again and he swung the rake like a polo mallet (this coming from Shanes rendition) and in the swing ................. hit dead center ~ dividing the body of the lofted animal mid air and and as it floated over his head Shane was splattered wildly with all that was fluid within this animal and he said it was absolutely GROSS..
Now, I have a sick cell phone picture of the corpse, but to protect us from PETA you are going to be left with only words for legal reasons.. to protect the hunter from any litigation as to any harm that MIGHT have come to the decendant...
Today our sons were doing the yard work together and found a gopher hole deep in the back of our yard. So Brian did the old trick taught to him by his father of sticking the water hose into the hole and turning it on... oops he left the 3rd garage door open and it was pretty quick that he had a gopher up and out of the hole and on the run... straight into this open garage.. with Brian in hot pursuit and grabbing a leveling rake at the entrance to this garage. As he ran he hooked the gopher and swung him out of the garage and onto the yard... whew... thankfully he didn't get beyond where Brian could grab him and to take up residence in our storage garage.. he than grabbed this hard tonged rake and raised it to knock the stunned gopher over the head, but in mid swing the gopher took off again and he swung the rake like a polo mallet (this coming from Shanes rendition) and in the swing ................. hit dead center ~ dividing the body of the lofted animal mid air and and as it floated over his head Shane was splattered wildly with all that was fluid within this animal and he said it was absolutely GROSS..
Now, I have a sick cell phone picture of the corpse, but to protect us from PETA you are going to be left with only words for legal reasons.. to protect the hunter from any litigation as to any harm that MIGHT have come to the decendant...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
a Wednesday update...
Two days back at work after vacation and it is a bit harder than I thought to do a job with majority computer work and a hand that is pretty sore from surgery.. but I will be off for a long stretch soon and so didn't want to extend the time for this hand that is usuable with some caution. Tonight during the halftime of the Laker game, I went for a walk.. made it .30 of a mile painfree and than just made the corner and towards home realizing that it's not worth the effort until after the spine is repaired.
Shane finished school yesterday with his last class in math, and he started that day with an interview for a fulltime job at Expert Carpet Care.. he started the new job this morning at 7:45am and will have a week trial.. but he likes it already.. he will also keep his weekend job at the golf course. his motivation, he'd like to get a different car!
Ashley returned middle of last week from her 10 days after graduation in Minnesota. She enjoyed the time away to rest and with extended family time of the younger cousins. Ashley attended the LPN pinning ceremony of Katie, another Symens medical junkie... Ashley leaves in a few days at the end of this week for Hawaii with her cousin Trisha and than a few days after she returns she is going to New York for four days with Brianna while her mom promotes her new book. The life of a college grad.. she is taking a review class now for the state boards and will need make up classes with all of the traveling in the midst of it..
Brian is still unemployed, bartering for needed items with helping out friends etc.. he started the third year of summer slo pitch softball with his high school friends last night, mercy ruled the other team for a start right where they left off last year.. next week they will play a team of Valley guys who are Ashley's age and just started a team, should be an interesting match up...
Greg tonight painfully watched every minute of his Lakers (oops maybe that should have read painful for me) as they missed shots, didn't get the calls he felt they were entitled.. and groaned throught the ENTIRE first half... until the second half when they finally managed to hold onto a lead and keep it until the victory...
So that's the goings on around our house.
Shane finished school yesterday with his last class in math, and he started that day with an interview for a fulltime job at Expert Carpet Care.. he started the new job this morning at 7:45am and will have a week trial.. but he likes it already.. he will also keep his weekend job at the golf course. his motivation, he'd like to get a different car!
Ashley returned middle of last week from her 10 days after graduation in Minnesota. She enjoyed the time away to rest and with extended family time of the younger cousins. Ashley attended the LPN pinning ceremony of Katie, another Symens medical junkie... Ashley leaves in a few days at the end of this week for Hawaii with her cousin Trisha and than a few days after she returns she is going to New York for four days with Brianna while her mom promotes her new book. The life of a college grad.. she is taking a review class now for the state boards and will need make up classes with all of the traveling in the midst of it..
Brian is still unemployed, bartering for needed items with helping out friends etc.. he started the third year of summer slo pitch softball with his high school friends last night, mercy ruled the other team for a start right where they left off last year.. next week they will play a team of Valley guys who are Ashley's age and just started a team, should be an interesting match up...
Greg tonight painfully watched every minute of his Lakers (oops maybe that should have read painful for me) as they missed shots, didn't get the calls he felt they were entitled.. and groaned throught the ENTIRE first half... until the second half when they finally managed to hold onto a lead and keep it until the victory...
So that's the goings on around our house.
Friday, May 22, 2009
The end of a long week
I made several stops today to Sams Club, Vons, and Stater Bros to accumalate the groceries needed and to make sure that this weekend the bbq'ing options were good for several nights. The fridge is now overflowing with lean ground beef for burgers, ribeye steaks, ear corn, baking potatoes... and than Laker games a couple of nights for entertainment.
Hand status: This week has been a long one having started last week on Friday with the morning hand surgery.. simple procedure.. but than on Tuesday it was confirmed that it would take a little bit of work to get the tissue/tendons moving normally as they were the consistency of cement.. a side effect of surgery at times, and being diabetic an easily decided reason. So after four days of 24/7 wearing of the traction contraption (see last blog) and some daily physical therapy and massage, today it is much improved. I am given the lattitude to not have to wear it full time and to have longer breaks between, but the fingers do droop mid knuckle when it's off for long and so for now I can't go crazy with the break time.. The P/T Stephanie said to expect 3-4 weeks of tenderness in the hand muscles. Next Tuesday I will have the stitches removed. Turns out that she graduated from Azusa Pacific Masters program in 2001, and so we had a nice conversation about the school and how she as a seventh day adventist school grad (???) was impressed that it was a christian college with high standards but not the kind that had any legalism to it.
My appt on Thursday with the spinal surgeon Dr. Ravasoud wrapped up the "talk" and Veronica his assistant is now coordinating the details necessary for scheduling it. Right now the plan is to get the surgery setup for early June on a Monday of the 8th or 15th.. Next week I should know what worked out between the two doctors; as the vascular Dr Brian Acker is the other surgeon that will participate. While I dread the process for me and for Greg, I am expecting excellent results to be walking again whether short or long distances and absolutely without any of the pain I've been enduring. And with any luck the end of my bad streak medically.
Hand status: This week has been a long one having started last week on Friday with the morning hand surgery.. simple procedure.. but than on Tuesday it was confirmed that it would take a little bit of work to get the tissue/tendons moving normally as they were the consistency of cement.. a side effect of surgery at times, and being diabetic an easily decided reason. So after four days of 24/7 wearing of the traction contraption (see last blog) and some daily physical therapy and massage, today it is much improved. I am given the lattitude to not have to wear it full time and to have longer breaks between, but the fingers do droop mid knuckle when it's off for long and so for now I can't go crazy with the break time.. The P/T Stephanie said to expect 3-4 weeks of tenderness in the hand muscles. Next Tuesday I will have the stitches removed. Turns out that she graduated from Azusa Pacific Masters program in 2001, and so we had a nice conversation about the school and how she as a seventh day adventist school grad (???) was impressed that it was a christian college with high standards but not the kind that had any legalism to it.
My appt on Thursday with the spinal surgeon Dr. Ravasoud wrapped up the "talk" and Veronica his assistant is now coordinating the details necessary for scheduling it. Right now the plan is to get the surgery setup for early June on a Monday of the 8th or 15th.. Next week I should know what worked out between the two doctors; as the vascular Dr Brian Acker is the other surgeon that will participate. While I dread the process for me and for Greg, I am expecting excellent results to be walking again whether short or long distances and absolutely without any of the pain I've been enduring. And with any luck the end of my bad streak medically.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
the traction contraption
okay, so these pictures are seven days after the Friday surgery and by the time I arrived at the post op on Tuesday, I was concerned and had called in on Monday as to "why won't the two middle fingers open completely (or at all).. while the surgery was to keep them from "triggering" they now needed to be coaxed to the right position and mobility they were lacking. The receptionist not knowing what kind of bandaging had been done after surgery, just kind of shrugged it off to maybe that is the reason and at my appt he would look at it. When I was finely seen by him on Tuesday, he was also quite concerned as "this isn't normal or right" OF COURSE!... so he than tells me that "I must see Stephanie immediately and have you taken your pain meds today?" Because apparantly when you see Stephanie his physical therapist.. you need pain meds and now I'd agree. Since I hadn't taken them that day, I was wishing I had by the time I left. She fashioned the traction contraption in order to keep the fingers in the position they need to eventually again adhere to and she "forced them" into it on Tuesday. oh brother... And I agree to that pain meds beforehand is good after the first three appointments, although todays went better and it and there is great improvement.. So I am currently going to p/t everyday, and can anticipate only having to wear the contraption through the weekend fulltime and than when I return to work next Tuesday only wearing it a few hours a day. Wish me well as I get through these next couple of weeks..
Well, I'm heading off to the spinal Ortho to consider the decision and scheduling of the back surgery....
Well, I'm heading off to the spinal Ortho to consider the decision and scheduling of the back surgery....
Monday, May 18, 2009
down time is hard to take!
four days of post surgery healing and only one hand to use has been dull to say the least.. i've watched enough tv., to grow tired of that. reading isn't easy for me as it is when i have little time to give to it and than can immerse myself into a book.. i have perfected the two handed peck of typing but it requires a lot of backspacing to correct errors. i've managed to text message with one hand, so life goes on... Tuesday is postop appt, the initial bandages come off and than asking "when will the fingers straighten out", since they are currently still in the same curled position and are much more swollen.... i know i know have to wait for the healing to happen and time, ugh.
this afternoon i'm going to give cookie baking a try, with my kitchen aid it should go fine and the dough scoop.... or i'm at least hopeful. and than making goulash for dinner. that seems like a big day for someone on norcodone! woo hoo...
this afternoon i'm going to give cookie baking a try, with my kitchen aid it should go fine and the dough scoop.... or i'm at least hopeful. and than making goulash for dinner. that seems like a big day for someone on norcodone! woo hoo...
Saturday, May 16, 2009
a one handed attempt
Yesterday was hand surgery day and so I write this with only my right hand as the left one is bandaged and sore.. alot of backspacing gonna be happening.
I watched a very inspring CMT broadcast of Extreme Makeover - Home Edition of a fellow UPs'er in Kentucky. It originally aired in Feb 2008. The Hughes family, there son Patrick Henry was born without any eyes and his limbs unable to extend fully. And yet his fathers love of music was given to his son as a shared experience, much like baseball for an able bodied bond of father son.. He taught him to play the piano while in his high chair and by the age of two was playing requests. He plays many instruments and writes music and can sing. His dad changed his position at UPS to a night shift when Patrick was born so that he could care for him during the day. So this has meant very little sleep in nineteen years. Patrick has excelled in music and is now at the Univ of Louisville in the marching band playing trumpet with the help of his dad being his mobility pushing the wheelchair for the band marching numbers.
Patrick is an uplifting positive individual who sees his blindness as an "ability" as he does not have prejudice towards what he sees in other people and gets to know others for who they really are deep inside and what they are capable of being. His perspectice is that sighted people have the "disability" to get beyond what they see first in a person. I know a lot of able bodied people who don't have a tenth of that kind of positive outlook in spite of there own "easy life" circumstances.. outstanding example . Patrick has a gift to give and in spite of his circumstances he sees the ability to acheive it.. very inspiring.
The home they built for the Hughes was fantastic, wheelchair friendly and with a separate apartment for independent living for Patrick. It was a gift for each of the 5 members of this loving musical family in many ways. Space being a big perk from the cramped home they were sharing. I enjoyed the reveal, as the family has taken in the first view of the new home, the shear surprise and excitement. And than the builder steps up with model for Patrick to be able to "feel" the new look of the exterior. He also reveals that they have not only paid off there mortgage, but collected $100,000 from a generous community to a humble family.
The show ended in the self sufficient apartment of patrick where he played them off the show on the piano of the country song "i believe"... which is so fitting for his life, and ours..... there all bawling, I'm bawling..
I have so much more to be grateful for and to live it out joyful that is for sure, no matter what my day to day circumstances are.
I watched a very inspring CMT broadcast of Extreme Makeover - Home Edition of a fellow UPs'er in Kentucky. It originally aired in Feb 2008. The Hughes family, there son Patrick Henry was born without any eyes and his limbs unable to extend fully. And yet his fathers love of music was given to his son as a shared experience, much like baseball for an able bodied bond of father son.. He taught him to play the piano while in his high chair and by the age of two was playing requests. He plays many instruments and writes music and can sing. His dad changed his position at UPS to a night shift when Patrick was born so that he could care for him during the day. So this has meant very little sleep in nineteen years. Patrick has excelled in music and is now at the Univ of Louisville in the marching band playing trumpet with the help of his dad being his mobility pushing the wheelchair for the band marching numbers.
Patrick is an uplifting positive individual who sees his blindness as an "ability" as he does not have prejudice towards what he sees in other people and gets to know others for who they really are deep inside and what they are capable of being. His perspectice is that sighted people have the "disability" to get beyond what they see first in a person. I know a lot of able bodied people who don't have a tenth of that kind of positive outlook in spite of there own "easy life" circumstances.. outstanding example . Patrick has a gift to give and in spite of his circumstances he sees the ability to acheive it.. very inspiring.
The home they built for the Hughes was fantastic, wheelchair friendly and with a separate apartment for independent living for Patrick. It was a gift for each of the 5 members of this loving musical family in many ways. Space being a big perk from the cramped home they were sharing. I enjoyed the reveal, as the family has taken in the first view of the new home, the shear surprise and excitement. And than the builder steps up with model for Patrick to be able to "feel" the new look of the exterior. He also reveals that they have not only paid off there mortgage, but collected $100,000 from a generous community to a humble family.
The show ended in the self sufficient apartment of patrick where he played them off the show on the piano of the country song "i believe"... which is so fitting for his life, and ours..... there all bawling, I'm bawling..
I have so much more to be grateful for and to live it out joyful that is for sure, no matter what my day to day circumstances are.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The vacation after the vacation....
Last week was "busy" to say the least.. all good stuff, but whewy.. busy nonetheless. I intentionally scheduled a second week of vacation to relax and do things fun.. well, it's been more like "content to be a couch potato" for three days. So tomorrow I do hope to pick something of interest to do that is away from home.. other than pick up some needed groceries!
Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a pre-op dr appt with the hand surgeon and had to get some blood work done and that took a good portion of the morning. Friday morning 2nd surgery on his schedule with a quick snip in the palm of the hand of the two tendons released and a bandaging and home I will go from the surgery center. And the desired effect is that the trigger finger of the ring and middle finger will no longer curl in and will straighten up with no pain. The two cortisone shots over the last two years were effective for a short time, BUT THERE IS NO WAY I will ever do that again.. Holy cow that was ever so painful... The dr had said after the first one, "generally no one comes back for this a second time", but time constraints at the time it needed to be done the second time was in order to walk on crutches before surgery a year ago. Now time to fix it.
So my two week vacation will be extended by an extra week plus the holiday weekend to let the hand start healing and it will be bandaged till the post op middle of next week. I will be typing with just the right hand for awhile and since I'm left handed in writing, won't be doing much of that but can accomnplish some with the right hand legibly. It will be a sucky period of time for "hair" but a baseball cap might be my friend cuz I can't see that slowing me down completely.. I'll come up with an ingenious way to make the hair dryer work in my favor somehow..
Today (Wednesday) Greg and I met with the vascular surgeon that works with the Orthopedic surgeon who would repair my vertebrae with a fusing and the two disk replacement both in the same area (L4_L5 & L5_S1). The ortho does the spine stuff and the vascular makes the path from the abdonimal incision through all the "stuff" inside moving it out of the way basically so that the ortho can do his thing and than the vascular comes back and puts in all back into the right places and closes the incision.... so we heard the "scary" stuff and what his role of about a week of being involved total, and asked our questions of the procedure and his record, his history, his qualifications, etc. So we have and will be talking about what we heard, and will make the decision soon but we are pretty confident in what we have been told and seen. The back pain is excrutiating and having done physical therapy, injections with no substantial relief beyond a few weeks, out of options except to just medicate heavily.... Hence the reason the left hand needs to be working, so that I can use a walker for whatever amount of time that is needed. (short I hope)
So like I said one more day of doing something outside my couch potato existence of relaxing watching movies or basketball playoffs, uploading pics to various accounts and blogging. And than back to that kind of activity for a few days.
Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a pre-op dr appt with the hand surgeon and had to get some blood work done and that took a good portion of the morning. Friday morning 2nd surgery on his schedule with a quick snip in the palm of the hand of the two tendons released and a bandaging and home I will go from the surgery center. And the desired effect is that the trigger finger of the ring and middle finger will no longer curl in and will straighten up with no pain. The two cortisone shots over the last two years were effective for a short time, BUT THERE IS NO WAY I will ever do that again.. Holy cow that was ever so painful... The dr had said after the first one, "generally no one comes back for this a second time", but time constraints at the time it needed to be done the second time was in order to walk on crutches before surgery a year ago. Now time to fix it.
So my two week vacation will be extended by an extra week plus the holiday weekend to let the hand start healing and it will be bandaged till the post op middle of next week. I will be typing with just the right hand for awhile and since I'm left handed in writing, won't be doing much of that but can accomnplish some with the right hand legibly. It will be a sucky period of time for "hair" but a baseball cap might be my friend cuz I can't see that slowing me down completely.. I'll come up with an ingenious way to make the hair dryer work in my favor somehow..
Today (Wednesday) Greg and I met with the vascular surgeon that works with the Orthopedic surgeon who would repair my vertebrae with a fusing and the two disk replacement both in the same area (L4_L5 & L5_S1). The ortho does the spine stuff and the vascular makes the path from the abdonimal incision through all the "stuff" inside moving it out of the way basically so that the ortho can do his thing and than the vascular comes back and puts in all back into the right places and closes the incision.... so we heard the "scary" stuff and what his role of about a week of being involved total, and asked our questions of the procedure and his record, his history, his qualifications, etc. So we have and will be talking about what we heard, and will make the decision soon but we are pretty confident in what we have been told and seen. The back pain is excrutiating and having done physical therapy, injections with no substantial relief beyond a few weeks, out of options except to just medicate heavily.... Hence the reason the left hand needs to be working, so that I can use a walker for whatever amount of time that is needed. (short I hope)
So like I said one more day of doing something outside my couch potato existence of relaxing watching movies or basketball playoffs, uploading pics to various accounts and blogging. And than back to that kind of activity for a few days.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
#2 catch up: Friday Nurses Pinning and Party / Saturday Graduation
What the entire week was about was sharing in and experiencing the accomplishment and joy for and with Ashley as she was Pinned and Graduated from A.P.U. as a RN,BSN. She started her journey after High School graduation in 2003 by attending Cal State Univ of Long Beach for 2 1/2 years completing all her general ed, and accomplishing a minor in Psycology, with the intention of doing the nursing school there. But the nursing program was just clogged with applicants and a waiting list as long as your arm where they only train 70 students at a time.. She applied to A.P.U. for the fall of 2005, and than again for the spring of 2006 with the intention to "attend" APU in the spring as a student and made up all of the classes that were required to graduate from there school. She was accepted for the Fall of 2006 into the nursing program and with having taken all of the 16 units of sciences already at CSULB it put her ahead of the others in that any APU student nurses had to wait until entering the nursing program to take sciences not before. Ashley later said she was soooo glad she didn't have to do those classes during nursing classes..
So this graduation was the completion of a 5 year plan that was delayed an extra year with t
he "waiting" period in the middle. But she used it to get a minor in psychology.. Of these 6 years, Ashley worked 5.5 of them at Disneyland to pay for college with some intense hard work to keep her loans to a small and reasonable amount. Disneyland was not the kind of employer where you had any of the holidays, spring breaks, or summers with time off, you were working. And she perservered to carry the load and yet accomplish her schooling at the same time. Jan.2 was her last day and she had the last semester where extra requirements of time were needed to fulfill class work and 72 hours of preceptorship training.
At the Nurses Pinning Ceremony on Friday May 8, 2pm. The class theme for the year had been "blessed to be a blessing". There were 71 students graduating with a RN,BSN and than there were a total of 157 students graduating in total. The rest were those who are RN to BSN, SCAN (second career at nursing) and EENAP (I don't know what this stood for). This was the largest graduating class of nurses in school history and a extremely well respected program across the nation. The first class at APU was 25 students. We had in attendance in support of Ashley 16 family members of Symens, Van Essen, Loftus, Dykstra's.
The Pinning ceremony ended at about 4:10 and I had to send our sons home (as carpool buddies) a little beforehand in order to meet the Taco cart caterer at 4:45 to setup. The celebration party that was planned at our home to start at 5pm. We arrived at the same time the caterer did who was running a little late, but in plenty of time... We had invited 70 people who were important friends/family in Ashley's life and/or ours. As we have for all of the high school graduations and having just done Shanes last year... we set up tables and chairs in our backyard, served dinner/dessert and just enjoyed those who came.
Saturday May 9, was the big graduation day ceremony at 6pm.. but, our family
first had a special wedding to attend in Temecula (1 hr 20min) southeast of us at 1:30pm.. Stephanie Hyink was marrying her high school sweetheart Joshua Pulido and we were honored to be invited. The Hyinks are old friends from Bethel church before they moved out to Temecula, and now we meet up each year at the river trip. While we had hoped to make it to the backyard reception at their home, we decided after a little bit of a late start to the ceremony, that by the time the wedding party arrived we would have to be leaving, and so we ABSOLUTELY needed
to get Ashley to the school at 5pm. We were fortunate not to encounter any traffic and made it in good time back to Azusa. My parents, Marlys & Char had headed to the stadium at 3pm to save us seats for our group of 16 plus another family of 6 who are friends of Ashley's. We had great seats on the grass in the section behind the graduates and dead center of the stage.. For this we were grateful. We arrived at 4pm and the ceremony started right on time at 6pm and was over at 8:20pm.. We took tons of pictures and than headed to dinner in Cerritos at T.G.I.Fridays. and than some goodbyes to the Loftus and Dykstra families who were heading home in the morning.
I have posted all of the pictures (tons) at my flickr account and than choose SETS under the header title to go to individual "folders" of events organized. I added pictures from numerous cameras of family, Facebook entries, Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/symens
So this graduation was the completion of a 5 year plan that was delayed an extra year with t
he "waiting" period in the middle. But she used it to get a minor in psychology.. Of these 6 years, Ashley worked 5.5 of them at Disneyland to pay for college with some intense hard work to keep her loans to a small and reasonable amount. Disneyland was not the kind of employer where you had any of the holidays, spring breaks, or summers with time off, you were working. And she perservered to carry the load and yet accomplish her schooling at the same time. Jan.2 was her last day and she had the last semester where extra requirements of time were needed to fulfill class work and 72 hours of preceptorship training. 
At the Nurses Pinning Ceremony on Friday May 8, 2pm. The class theme for the year had been "blessed to be a blessing". There were 71 students graduating with a RN,BSN and than there were a total of 157 students graduating in total. The rest were those who are RN to BSN, SCAN (second career at nursing) and EENAP (I don't know what this stood for). This was the largest graduating class of nurses in school history and a extremely well respected program across the nation. The first class at APU was 25 students. We had in attendance in support of Ashley 16 family members of Symens, Van Essen, Loftus, Dykstra's.
The Pinning ceremony ended at about 4:10 and I had to send our sons home (as carpool buddies) a little beforehand in order to meet the Taco cart caterer at 4:45 to setup. The celebration party that was planned at our home to start at 5pm. We arrived at the same time the caterer did who was running a little late, but in plenty of time... We had invited 70 people who were important friends/family in Ashley's life and/or ours. As we have for all of the high school graduations and having just done Shanes last year... we set up tables and chairs in our backyard, served dinner/dessert and just enjoyed those who came. Saturday May 9, was the big graduation day ceremony at 6pm.. but, our family
first had a special wedding to attend in Temecula (1 hr 20min) southeast of us at 1:30pm.. Stephanie Hyink was marrying her high school sweetheart Joshua Pulido and we were honored to be invited. The Hyinks are old friends from Bethel church before they moved out to Temecula, and now we meet up each year at the river trip. While we had hoped to make it to the backyard reception at their home, we decided after a little bit of a late start to the ceremony, that by the time the wedding party arrived we would have to be leaving, and so we ABSOLUTELY needed
to get Ashley to the school at 5pm. We were fortunate not to encounter any traffic and made it in good time back to Azusa. My parents, Marlys & Char had headed to the stadium at 3pm to save us seats for our group of 16 plus another family of 6 who are friends of Ashley's. We had great seats on the grass in the section behind the graduates and dead center of the stage.. For this we were grateful. We arrived at 4pm and the ceremony started right on time at 6pm and was over at 8:20pm.. We took tons of pictures and than headed to dinner in Cerritos at T.G.I.Fridays. and than some goodbyes to the Loftus and Dykstra families who were heading home in the morning. Whew.... what a day and what a weekend.. and a joy to be a part of it with her.
This summer she will vacation, study and than take the NCLEX state boards, and with a passing score will than be given her date to report to San Antonio TX for officers training in the Army Nursing Corp.
I have posted all of the pictures (tons) at my flickr account and than choose SETS under the header title to go to individual "folders" of events organized. I added pictures from numerous cameras of family, Facebook entries, Enjoy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/symens#1 catch up: day at the beach / Museum of Tolerance
Well graduation week was a whirlwind and so I will start with the beginning of the week and some fun time spent with our out of town family. Marlys (Gregs mom) and his sister Char flew in on Monday night, and so Tuesday we did a low key day of driving down to Huntington Beach for lunch on the pier at Ruby's... and we even saw quite a few dolphin, and a guy who used the width of the end of the pier scrambling to pull in a stingray he hooked... only to lose it at it surfaced towards the awaiting basket.. it was a pretty good sized one.. We than drove down PCH down through Laguna Beach and than did some errands on the way home. Ashley had to go to school and so she met us at home in her scrubs and so took a photo with the family.
Wednesday, we went to LA and the Museum of Tolerance. It was somewhere that I had not ever been but had it in my mind to go there the week after graduation if we didn't do it this day. Ashley was able to join the Marlys, Char and I in attending this. It was a very interesting place that is not merely all about the Holocaust, while this is a big part of it with the exhibits of artifacts, lifesize models you walked through of ghettos, gas chambers etc.. In the afternoon they have actual survivors who you can sit and listen to for about an hour each, who tell you first hand the situations they endured, what they saw, felt, smelled, fear, pain, sadness, terror... and yet someone else stepping up to "help" them escape death. You really have many exhibits that have you come face to face with your own prejudice in how you speak, your actions, and opinions of those of other ethnic culture and skin color in our lives today. It also gave you information of places in the world where "holocaust" has been happening 1/2 million Kurds in Iraq by Sadam Hussein, like Darfur currently is happening in the genocide, Africa and the tsutsi tribes (spelling?) and how it could happen again in the world when we become less than diligent in stepping in to defend the helpless who are terrorized by ideologies and discrminations where hatred is carried out. Where hatred breeds it is a dangerous igniter to attrocities. So it was a very compelling 5 hours spent and more was left to be seen, but it was so busy we had to bypass some exhibits and didn't get back to them. I've heard that the one in Washington or New York is a fantastic exhibit as well..
Wednesday, we went to LA and the Museum of Tolerance. It was somewhere that I had not ever been but had it in my mind to go there the week after graduation if we didn't do it this day. Ashley was able to join the Marlys, Char and I in attending this. It was a very interesting place that is not merely all about the Holocaust, while this is a big part of it with the exhibits of artifacts, lifesize models you walked through of ghettos, gas chambers etc.. In the afternoon they have actual survivors who you can sit and listen to for about an hour each, who tell you first hand the situations they endured, what they saw, felt, smelled, fear, pain, sadness, terror... and yet someone else stepping up to "help" them escape death. You really have many exhibits that have you come face to face with your own prejudice in how you speak, your actions, and opinions of those of other ethnic culture and skin color in our lives today. It also gave you information of places in the world where "holocaust" has been happening 1/2 million Kurds in Iraq by Sadam Hussein, like Darfur currently is happening in the genocide, Africa and the tsutsi tribes (spelling?) and how it could happen again in the world when we become less than diligent in stepping in to defend the helpless who are terrorized by ideologies and discrminations where hatred is carried out. Where hatred breeds it is a dangerous igniter to attrocities. So it was a very compelling 5 hours spent and more was left to be seen, but it was so busy we had to bypass some exhibits and didn't get back to them. I've heard that the one in Washington or New York is a fantastic exhibit as well..
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