AWOL Caregiver

My anxiety level was up this morning, as the proverbial wrench got thrown into the schedule. K's caregiver didn't show up at 8, to take her to the 11am HBO treatment, and didn't answer her phone, so I called her company, and they were trying to find a replacement on short notice, as I bravely (foolishly? irresponsibly?) left shortly after 9am for my walk with our neighbor. The replacement showed up just in time, but K sent her home, having already rescheduled the 11am treatment to 1pm. We were halfway through our walk, when K texted me, and asked if I could hurry home, and take her to HBO, which I did. I had just gotten home after driving her up to Swedish and dropping her off, when she called to ask me to come get her, because her glucose level was off the chart, and they wouldn't take her today. So now we're back home, and struggling, agonizing about how much fast-acting insulin to give her, in how many shots, while trying to get the glucose meter to stop reading HIGH and give us a number instead, without driving her glucose dangerously low in the process. And so goes our crazy life.

Card info stolen

Not happy, hearing this morning on NPR, about the theft of 40 million Target Stores customers' credit card numbers. They said that anyone who used a credit or debit card at Target between Nov 27 and Dec 18 is at risk. K thinks she might have. Watch for unexpected charges!

I checked our Mastercard history, and yes, K made a purchase at Target on Dec 6. More anxiety. Then received an email from the bank, advising us that we have zero liability for fraudulent purchases that arise from this, but also asking us to watch our purchase history, and let them know, if we see any.

Nice work party

We had a really nice time at our work sponsored party tonight, at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We took over the whole place!

It reminded me of all those movies I've seen, where the high tech company has a fancy dress up affair, in a beautiful futuristic looking building. But we had more than just a fancy building -- we had dinosaur skeletons, and the MythBusters exhibit! The entire museum was available, for anyone to wander around and see the exhibits. And, the IMAX movies and Planetarium were operating all night.

K wore a pretty black long velour dress and matching shoulder wrap. Here she is, checking out the gift shop, which was all decked out with holiday lights around the windows. Her bright red shiny scooter added just the right touch of holiday color to her outfit.

We didn't get very far past the buffet line and dinner table. There was quite a selection of interesting and healthy foods, and tasty desserts -- everything from stir fry vegetables to chocolate parfait and Tiramisu. We spent the majority of the evening, sitting around gabbing, but that was plenty enough for us. We got to talk to a bunch of people I work with every day, and some that I rarely see any more.

There was quite the crowd. Lots of people stopped by to catch up on our life stories. I saw a few people up on the upper level balconies, waiting to see the IMAX movies or Planetarium shows, or just checking out the view from above.

I didn't want to leave Mandy home all night while we parted, so we brought her along, which is the usual way we deal with that. She waited patiently, sleeping out in her warm nest in the back seat of my car. I checked on her a few times, and she always had the good sense to stay under her warm blankets.

I'm still struggling with a dry cough, the last symptom of the cold I caught just before Thanksgiving. Maybe someday it will be gone.

On the upswing

I've pretty much lost the past two weeks to this cold. But I'm definitely feeling much better now! Not sure if it was just time passing and my immune system doing its thing, but it seemed like the 10 doses of Alka Seltzer Cold & Cough Gels that I took over the weekend really helped. Now, if that debilitating dry cough would just leave me alone...

Cold, Cold, Week

It's been really cold all week, with single digit lows at night, dropping down to -9 degrees (that's 41 below freezing!) overnight during the weekend. My walking buddy Ken and I agreed that we'd just go out for a hot breakfast, and not try to walk, all three days of my long weekend. I tried taking Mandy for a walk on Saturday afternoon, after she started bugging me to get out farther than the yard, but that was a bust. She came up lame after just a minute or two, with the bitter cold quickly biting into her feet. It's too bad I haven't been able to figure out a way to keep her feet warm. We bought her some pretty nice boots, but now we call them anti-gravity boots, as her feet seem to just float up into the air, when she has them on.

Got a cold

Rats. I'm fighting, and have so far been losing, the battle against what I have to assume is a cold virus. The sore throat started on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and it's been getting worse each day, with new and different symptoms. All of the usual cold symptoms have shown themselves. Last night was the first of the "can't sleep because of the coughing" nights.

Went Flying!

Not as pilot, but I'll enjoy whatever flying falls into my lap. I went flying with my friend Mike, as safety pilot, while he polished up his instrument skills at Front Range airport (KFTG). He flew the the ILS and Localizer approaches to Runway 26, ILS and Localizer approaches to Runway 35 and NDB approach to Runway 26, and practiced holding patterns and tracking.

I had a blast, just riding along and watching for traffic, which was my primary job. I snapped a couple of pictures on this severe-clear day, with Pike's Peak easily visible off to the south. I also played traffic controller, and gave him vectors (magnetic headings to fly) to each initial approach fix.

Every once in awhile, I would glance down, and check our progress on the Foreflight aviation app's moving map display on my iPhone. Very cool. Except, the regular access to the phone's GPS device, and the frequent screen updates, rapidly drained the battery, until I decided to shut it off at 30%, only halfway into the flight.I was kicking myself, for not bringing K's cool iPad 3 along, since it has a much bigger screen, and a longer battery life.

Even considering the iPhone's nice high resolution color screen, my old trusty Garmin GPSMap196 handheld aviation GPS is probably a more appropriate flying companion. It does a better job of providing aviation situational awareness, with real-time course and vertical guidance for most IFR approaches, and the batteries last far longer, even though they're not rechargeable.

Note to self: Need to either plug the iPhone into the cigarette lighter to keep it charged when flying, or investigate one of those smartphone battery life extenders. Maybe the Mophie Powerstation XL would be the Christmas present I should be getting myself. Or maybe the Hydrogen Reactor I heard about recently. Or maybe even the PowerBag that my friend's wife likes.

Mike did the driving as well as the flying, and that gave me the chance to see his new (to him) 2011 VW Jetta TDI, a turbo diesel with 6-speed manual transmission. It's a very nice car, comfortable, with good safety considerations, a smooth ride, a few fun gadgets, lots of oomph when the turbo kicks in, and awesome fuel mileage the rest of the time.

Just to add to the enjoyment, we stopped and had a delicious lunch at Racines restaurant, on the way home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone safe travels, and a wonderful Thanksgiving! Judging  from the weather synopsis charts for the next 24 hours, it looks like everyone traveling around North America has a good chance of missing any serious weather. Crossing my fingers for our traveler friends...

Cheery white stuff

No snow in the forecast. What's all this white stuff, falling from the sky??

Lear 35 crash

Drat. Yet another general aviation crash last night. This one was a Learjet model 35, registration XA-USD, departing Ft Lauderdale at 7:50 PM for a return flight to Cozumel, with a medical team aboard. The flight crew reported engine failure shortly after takeoff, and they turned back, but were unable to make it to the airport. They impacted the Atlantic Ocean near the shoreline, in the darkness of night, and it appears from news articles and pictures that the aircraft at least partially broke up, since 1,000 pounds of floating debris had already been recovered. It's puzzling, that a very capable twin jet couldn't return successfully after an engine failure. Some failures will take out both engines, but most will leave one running, in which case it should have been "easy" to return safely. I really wonder what happened. 

News articles: from Aviation Safety, Miami Herald, Sun Sentinel, CBS Miami

Launched AV038_MAVEN

Today we launched AV-038, an Atlas V rocket, carrying the MAVEN spacecraft, bound for Mars. MAVEN's mission is to probe the Martian upper atmosphere, in hopes of learning how Mars transformed from a warm, wet planet, into the barren world it is today. Flight time for the gas-sniffing sleuth is ten months, with arrival scheduled for next September.

MAVEN's next milestone is a December 3rd engine burn, to adjust the probe's path toward Mars, the first of four course correction maneuvers planned during the mission's 10-month cruise.

Ground controllers will start activating MAVEN's eight science instruments for tests this December, and some of the payloads will take data during the voyage to Mars. MAVEN's ultraviolet imaging spectrometer will observe comet ISON in December.

Once MAVEN is at Mars, the probe will drop into an operational elliptical orbit, and begin collecting scientific data in November 2014.

See the full story and more pics at SpaceFlightNow.com.

Home after a crazy day

I checked in with K's nurse at 7:30am this morning, and discovered that a blood glucose (BG) hypoglycemia emergency was brewing, and they didn't even know it yet. They had given her a total of 32 units of Humalog (a fast-acting insulin) during the night, while chasing a high BG that only required 4 units. By my calculation, that would have driven her blood sugar down to negative 4,200 over the next few hours! An impossibility, for sure, but also surely enough to kill her, if left unchecked, by taking BG down to zero, and holding it there.

They didn't allow for (and didn't even want to consider) the time it takes even fast-acting Humalog to be metabolized. Someone must have fooled these people into thinking that insulin takes effect immediately. I had told them that each unit of Humalog will drive her BG down by 150, at a rate of about 60 per hour. In this case, they started at 719 BG at 1145pm, so after giving her the correct 4 units of Humalog to bring it down by 600, it would have taken about 10 hours, to get to a normal number in the 100 range, sometime around 10am. Instead, they measured periodically, and treated the number they saw each time. So they gave her 10, 10, 8, and 4 units throughout the early morning.

They had measured a BG of 419 at 4am, and I guess they felt confident that they would need even more insulin soon, and weren't even a little worried that her BG would be going too low. I warned her Nurse and the Charge Nurse that she'd be crashing soon, and that they would probably need IV dextrose to stop it. I recommended that they measure her immediately, even though they were in the middle of the RN shift change. Sure enough, they measured a BG of 58, way too low. They measured again, to be sure, and got a BG of 34, critically low.

Luckily they were in a hospital, and had easy access to intravenous dextrose. They gave her a shot of 50 mL of D50 push, which raised her BG to around 240 over the next hour or so. Amazingly, her BG didn't drop below that later, as I feared it would, but instead hovered at 240 for several hours, then started trending up, after she ate lunch. The D50 had completely offset the excess Humalog. We've gotta get ourselves some of that stuff! If only we could.

They tried very hard to get her discharged during the day, but she wanted to wash up, and have dinner before she left. Then she wanted to peruse the hospital gift shop windows, even though the shop was closed, and I had locked myself out, by going out the automatic doors after 8pm when they stop letting people in that way. I didn't finally get her out the door and into the car, until after 9pm.

Surgery went OK

They took her from her room to pre-op around 130pm. Dr Atkins came and took her from pre-op toward the operating room at 350pm, estimated 30 min to complete. The O.R. called me in the waiting room around 430pm to say that the surgery went well, and they were putting on the bandages. Then the Doc stopped by to give me a quick recap, basically "it went as planned, couldn't close all the way, leave the bandage on, expect bleeding - we want that, don't use ice, and see her on Tuesday." They said her BG was heading down through 89, after surgery. They moved her to recovery for an hour, which gave me time to run off and eat at the Copper Pot again. Nice place. Then they took her to her room without telling me, but I found her pretty quickly. She was sleeping like a log, and I couldn't imagine them discharging her that night, but they didn't figure that out until later. When she woke up, so was starving! And in pain! Figuring her BG was probably low by then, I got her to drink some Apple juice, and the RN started working on pain meds. Food Service still had her with the "no food" order that was in place before surgery, and that had a really big impact on her, since she hadn't eaten since the night before. After an hour, things started getting better, as the doc returned the RN's call and canceled the no food order, and she finally got her breakfast/lunch/dinner, and some pain meds. They finally realized she was going to have to stay overnight, and I headed home to see how the dog had fared. She was fine, and welcomed a late night walk around the block.

Surgery today

So, the "wound removal and ankle bone scrape" surgery should be today. They decided to dialyze her this morning 8-12, so the morning caregiver Maureen didn't get to be very helpful.

I had to giggle to myself last night (in a slightly hysterical way), when the nurse said she was going to give her 10 units of Humalog before bed. I mentioned that ten was *way* more than we would've given her, especially since she's been taking Tradjenta, ten units would bring her BG down about 1500 mg/dl, and since her BG was only 402, that seemed problematic to me. You'd rather *not* have a negative blood glucose, after all. I said we would only have given her two units for the BG, and another unit for the food she was about to eat. To her credit, the RN went with our recommendation. This morning, her BG was 149, a very nice number. It's *so* scary to think about how that would've gone, if I'd already left for home by then.

Surgery deferred again

This morning, I woke up to find K with an extremely high BG. Her glucose meter reads "HIGH" instead of a number, which means it's over 600. I fell asleep last night, before she and the caregiver finally got home from dialysis, and apparently she fell asleep on the floor of her closet, before she could think about taking any insulin for her glucose, which was already going up. I've no idea if we can get it down into an acceptable range for them in time, without crashing it. If it goes too low, with no food intake allowed since midnight, she won't be able to recover without canceling the surgery due to food in stomach. This is unbelievably frustrating.

Update- They just deferred the deferred surgery. Her BG was coming down rapidly, and at 11, when she was supposed to go into surgery, it was fast approaching the number they said yesterday would have been acceptable. I question their reasoning for canceling. Sounds like they will admit her today, and "get her BG stabilized" before they do the surgery later or tomorrow. But I question their ability to do any better a job with BG, considering recent past experience. I guess if I just stopped sleeping, I could watch it all night for her, and this wouldn't have happened. What a slacker.

Update- She's been admitted to Swedish Hospital. No surgery slots available this afternoon or tomorrow morning. They'll try again tomorrow afternoon, pre-op at 1pm, surgery at 3pm.

And now begins the frantic effort to cancel or reschedule every activity she had scheduled between now and Saturday morning...

Surgery deferred

K's surgery was deferred a day, due to high Blood Glucose (BG) when she arrived today. She had a a really low BG this morning, and too much Apple juice got drank, dealing with it, so it overshot up high.

Surgery Wednesday

K has foot surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning at Swedish Hospital. She has a long-standing ankle wound that has been resistant to various treatments. She says they're going to try scraping the ankle bone, to put less pressure on the skin from the inside, and give the wound a better chance of healing.

Another BG saga

6:30am - I checked in with the nurse, and found out her BG was high (719) last night after eating, which calls for 4 units of Humalog, but they gave her 28 units over several hours! Her BG is 400 now, so that ought to bring her blood sugar down to about minus 3000 in a few more hours! I warned her RN and the desk RN that she'll be crashing soon, and she'll probably need IV dextrose to save her.

8:30am - Sure enough, they measured a few hours later and her BG was 58, then 34. Ack!

9:30am - They gave her 50 mL of D50 push, and it appeared to solve the problem, bringing BG up to 172.

BG stayed above 100 the rest of the day, climbing and settling at around 240 for several hours, then starting up again later.

3:30 - They're trying to get her discharged today. Seems like the BG is doing ok, after the shot of dextrose.

They were ready for her to leave before the RN shift change at 7pm, but we didn't get out of there until around 9pm. Ran into the neighbor as we were pulling into the garage, and chatted for quite awhile. Finally got into the house around 10pm.

Sleep deprived

Nuts. It's happened. I've turned into my Dad, who used to fall asleep every time he sat down in front of the TV with the family. So, we would wonder, was it the TV, or the family, that put him to sleep? Turns out, it was the sitting down part.

Winter weather inbound

Looks like we've got a little snow on the way this afternoon and tomorrow...

Update- False alarm. I sprinkled a bunch of snow melt on the walkways and driveway, and nothing came. So now the walkways are slippery with that stuff. Can't win. Now I'm hoping for snow, so it will melt the snow melt. Ironic.

Happy Halloween 2013!

We had quite the crowd tonight! Mandy even got involved, sneaking out behind everyone, while I was snapping a picture, to go greet a friendly old Pug that one of our visitors' parents had brought with them. I posted the pics on Facebook. See if you can spot her!

Portable Concentrator?

K is seriously considering transitioning from using portable liquid oxygen bottles to a portable oxygen concentrator offered by Inogen. In theory, it would give her a little more freedom. The concentrator battery lasts 3-4 hours, a little shorter than a bottle would, but it comes with two batteries, so in theory she could go 6-8 hours, if she's willing and able to switch the batteries while she's out. Plus, if she plugs it in, when she's in a car, or waiting at the doctor's office, it will run and charge at the same time, in which case, it can theoretically last longer than a bottle would.

The downside I'm struggling with, is what to do when we get four feet of snow, so there's no access in or out of our neighborhood, and the power goes out for a few days (it's happened). Right now, she can tap into the big liquid oxygen storage bottle in the garage, which will probably last for days, at a low flow rate.

The Inogen representative says, "just buy a couple of oxygen bottles to keep around the house for emergencies." But he's dreaming. Each bottle like he's talking about lasts just 3 hours at her flow rate, so we'd need 8 fully-loaded oxygen bottles to last an entire day, or 24 bottles to last three days, and we don't have room for all that stuff. Much less, the time and energy to keep it all. Ugh. I know she is being drawn in by the idea of having more freedom, but Medicare will only pay for the bottles or the concentrator, not both, so we'd have to cover the additional cost ourselves.

Considering we've only been stuck for an extended period without power twice in the past 18 years, once for almost three days, and once for about a day, I guess maybe I'm overly concerned. If she thinks it will give her more freedom, I'm inclined to let her go for it, and figure out how to handle the contingencies as best we can. The concentrator company says to call for a backup oxygen bottle, if the weather forecast seems to call for it, but that is such an iffy proposition, I have to laugh. The reality is, she can survive without supplemental oxygen for awhile, if there's no other option.

Oh, and some friends have suggested a generator, which is a possibility, but I think it just brings more logistical complications, to the point of diminishing returns. We'd have to keep enough gasoline on hand to run the generator for a few days, which is dangerous, and gas gets old, so if we don't use it, we'd have to change it out, or hope an additive like Sta-Bil will keep it usable for a few years. Then we'd have to deal with the intake/exhaust venting issue, if we wanted to run it in the garage, or we'd have to move it out onto the well-ventilated back patio. But then we'd be bothering our neighbors with the noise all day and night, and we'd have a long run for the cord through the basement, up the stairs, to the laundry room where the concentrator is.

And of course, I might have the option of blasting through the snow in my CR-V, before it gets too deep, and either taking her and the portable concentrator somewhere (hotel? hospital? friend's house?) that has power. The first time we lost power, it didn't happen until the roads were impassable, so I'm not sure how viable an option this is. On the other hand, that time, we had neighbors on a separate power circuit, that never lost power, and after a day without power ourselves, we just went and stayed with them, after they invited us over. Did I mention, she wasn't on oxygen back then? And she had both of her legs? And she wasn't going to dialysis three times a week? So losing power wasn't anywhere near as much of a concern, more of an inconvenience.

Castle Rock Plane Crash

It seems (from the Flightaware track info) like that Glasair GS-2 (N535SP) that crashed on approach to Centennial airport in freezing fog last night, was consistently operating pretty far below the minimum descent altitudes for the approach. Flightaware thinks she was descending below 7000 feet, when the MDA for that segment of the approach is 8000. Either the rime ice she reported was dragging her down, or maybe she had the airport lights in sight, and was descending to land. The news said she told rescuers she couldn't see the power lines in the fog, so maybe she thought she had things under control, right up until she hit them... fingers crossed for her quick recovery.

Nice memorial

I found it really, really, worthwhile, being at David Segal's memorial this afternoon. Brad and everyone did a super job, putting it together and executing it. The Denver Press Club was a really nice choice, quiet, close, and understated. I learned a bunch of new things about David, and heard a lot of what I suspected were his wild stories verified as truth. He pulled together quite a crowd of wonderful people. I finally got to meet two of the really delightful caregivers he was raving about. It looks like I'll be driving home in freezing mist tonight...

A Gothic Folktale

We really enjoyed "A Gothic Folktale" at Parker Arts, Culture & Events (PACE) center, a birthday gift for K, courtesy of our awesome friend Karen. We especially enjoyed being there, as her kids got to meet some of the cast. Very fun.

Bad day at the Vet

I just broke Mandy out of vet jail, and got her home. Too much trauma for such a sweet little dog as her. She had an annual exam, dental exam, shots, nails, heartworm test, and more. We missed her on our morning walk. It's going to be a long haul recovery. She's had tooth and gum problems since we rescued her, and she lost eight more teeth today. The Vet put her on two pain meds for the next week. Poor little pooch. — at Southwest Veterinary Hospital, P.C.

Another procedure

K checked in for another surgical procedure at Swedish Medical Center, to remove some pre-cancerous tissue this morning, less than 1mm deep. She had a low BG before surgery, and we caught it before she felt it. The surgery went well. They got what they wanted to get. It took several hours before she was ready to leave. Somewhere in there, her BG went low again, even worse than before. By that time, she was awake, and doing OK, so they were able to feed her a bunch of snacks to bring it back up. She was supposed to go in for the afternoon hyperbaric oxygen treatment, but unfortunately, those people never updated their calendar, after she called them last week to reschedule, so they didn't have any openings. Administrative fail. Again. This is perhaps the 4th time they've really messed things up for her. I got her home safe by mid afternoon. She was still awake, but very sleepy. Wasn't able to get her to Dialysis i time, but at least I got her there.

RIP David Segal

Sad to say, I just learned last night from his son Bradley, that our friend David Segal passed away Sunday night, at peace in Denver. I had been meeting him for occasional lunches since way back, when we both lived in San Diego. I regret that I let life get in the way, and I haven't seen him since last year. I met him through my dad, who dated his sister for awhile. I liked that he usually said what he was thinking, the stereotypical gruff old bear with a heart of gold. He repeatedly told Dad, "after you break up with my sister, don't be a stranger." I remember he took us for the occasional but very enjoyable boat ride, and one time invited my brother in law Bob to steer his yacht around San Diego Bay. He seemed excited to see how the details of an actual IFR approach played out, when we flew him to Palm Springs for brunch one time, and I had to shoot the ILS approach back into Montgomery field. More recently, I would occasionally pick him up at his apartment, and drive him to lunch, always at Racines. Rest in Peace, David.

Early day

I dropped K at makeup dialysis this morning at 6am. Ugh. We really struggled to get going sooner, but just couldn't pull it off. She had a quiet Birthday yesterday, with a visitor at the house, and part of that included skipping her oxygen chamber treatment, and her dialysis. Mandy's with me at work again, snug in her warm bed, on this chilly 38 degree morning. I'm treating myself to a pumpkin spiced latte, since we were up and moving so early.

Chilly day

It's a beautiful clear sub-freezing morning. And a whole new week. K has another, hopefully minor, surgery on Wednesday. Jen's husband Bob is home from hospital, and recovering from a critical head injury, so she'll be out all week. I'll have Mandy with me, out in the car, since K is planning to be out most of the day. I'm so glad the dog loves going anywhere with me in the car, and doesn't seem to mind sleeping most of the day out there.

Home at last!

FINALLY got K home from the hospital tonight! What a long, arduous process. She and I started talking in the morning, about when to pick her up. By the time they had done a nurse shift change, measured her glucose, fed her, administered meds, and processed the paperwork, the 3pm estimated discharge time had turned into 6pm. Then by the time we got to Walgreens to pick up her prescription, their pharmacy was closed, so we went a few miles down the road, to the 24 hour pharmacy. By the time we got out of that Walgreens, with the usual and various complications, it was 9pm. SO tired...

All hail the great hospital doctor. Their sliding scale for insulin was going to kill her, if they didn't discharge her soon. Would be nice if they paid attention to mine. They were giving her much more insulin than I felt was appropriate for her measured glucose levels. I told them to subtract 150 from Blood Glucose, and divide the result by 150. So instead they gave her 9 units for a BG of 350. No wonder she kept crashing in the mornings.

Procedure complete

The arteriogram (angiogram) procedure on K's left leg is all done. Dr Morin's goal was to find something he could fix, to improve the circulation, and help her ankle wound to heal. He had me wait in the employee's lounge by the Catheterization Lab during the procedure. He called me in after 20 minutes, to show me the pics on the computer. He said he didn't find much, and showed me that most of the arteries looked healthy and clear. He pointed out one very short narrowed section of artery, really just a "kink", and suggested putting in a stent there. It seemed like the thing to do, so I agreed, and he went back in, and installed a short stent. He showed me the "after" pics as well, and the artery looked much better with the stent in it. Hard to tell how big the stent is, from the picture on the screen, but it looked about an inch or two long He wanted to send her home today, but by the time they got her into dialysis, to clear out the dye from the arteriogram, it was 4pm, and she came out after 8pm, so he decided to keep her overnight, with the plan to discharge her tomorrow.

Happy dog

Mandy's a happy dog. She got to drive to work with me today. She gets to sleep under the warm blankets in her bed in the back seat of my car, in the nice cool shady covered garage at work. Then she got to go for a chilly 43° walk at lunch time.

Low morning BG

Stopped by Swedish to give K some strawberries, and found her complaining of low blood glucose symptoms. I remembered that I was concerned about that last night, as they gave her more insulin than I would have, but then I forgot. Got the nurse to measure ("we will soon, after shift change") NOW, and found it to be 45, godawful low, especially for being in hospital. Fed her the strawberries, while they looked for apple juice. Fifteen minutes later it was 40, but that's a normal delayed reading. We took bets on what the reading would be after 30 minutes, and K won, as it was 80, heading back up faster than I predicted.

Today is supposed to be the "safe measures" day... I interpret that as "can you just try to keep her alive, until she can start the procedure tomorrow with a normal blood glucose" day. Fail.

Keeping her until Friday

Katherine at the Cath Lab just called to let me know, they will be keeping K in the hospital until Friday. The dialysis isn't done yet, and there's no time left to do the procedure today. There are no open slots tomorrow, so they will keep her inpatient at Swedish, and apply "safe measures" to ensure that she is ready for the procedure on Friday. It will probably be around 11am, but no guarantee of the time. Heavy sigh...

Procedure deferred

They deferred the arteriogram procedure scheduled for this morning, until after they can dialyze her later today, to get her creatinine level down. It's hard to imagine them getting the dialysis, and then the procedure done, before it's too late to discharge her, so I'm guessing that means they'll be keeping her overnight tonight. So now I'm calling around to cancel her regular dialysis appointment. Probably should cancel the morning caregiver, but they haven't committed to keeping her yet, so the schedule is in limbo yet again.

K at Swedish Hospital

K is at Swedish Hospital tonight, in preparation for an arteriogram tomorrow morning. We took her to the Cath Lab for this procedure on Friday, but the doc didn't like her blood glucose, and deferred it. The doc decided he wanted to admit her to the hospital overnight, so they could get her BG under control, for a morning procedure.

Ear maybe better

She saw her ENT Friday. He prescribed antibiotic ear drops. She's taking them in both ears every day for a week or two. I think the infection in her right ear is improving, but not positive about that.

Home from ER

I brought K came home early (2am) this morning -- an unusually short turnaround for a hospital visit, for us. The ER doc assumed her ear is infected, and said there's no sign bone infection in the CT scan. She needs to get an appointment with an ENT and be cleared by them, before going back to her daily hyberbaric treatments.

K to Littleton ER

Took K to the ER with intense ear pain and bloody drainage, dizziness and nausea. She's in an ER bed. No big discovery yet. Gave her an anti-vertigo med. Going to get a CT scan to check mastoid bone for infection. — at Littleton Hospital ER.

Right into it!

Oh yeah. This is the time of year, when the sun and the traffic signal are in the same place in my windscreen. Ow.

AppleCare to the rescue

So, the AppleCarePlus coverage paid for itself, this time. And last time. I'm feeling a little better about dropping the cash, after this disturbing trend. — at Apple Store, Aspen Grove.

Her iPhone 5 was working fine, even after it fell in a bowl of water. But then the "stick it in a bag of rice to dry it out" trick produced a phone with little bitty grains of rice jammed in the important openings. The charger cord wouldn't go in after that. Turns out, the contacts in the Lightning connector got wrecked somewhere along the way. The only fix was to replace the phone. I was pretty disappointed that I had to wait 24 hours to get an appointment at "The Genius Bar", but it appears to have been worth it, as we spent $49 to replace the phone under AppleCarePlus, instead of the $300+ it would have been, without it.

First Open House

We had our first open house at our new work location in Centennial... We watched videos of the MSL launch in our Denver launch support center, ran across a few of my coworkers, toured our development lab, chatted about the big pictures in my office, of our old facility in San Diego. We missed out on the free pizza, but had free burritos and red velvet cupcakes instead. Mandy waited for us in the car, sleeping while curled up in her nice warm bed in the back of my car, in the cool shady parking garage. She's gotten to be an old hand at that. Not a bad outing. My visitors seemed to enjoy it. — at United Launch Alliance Corporate Headquarters.

Planets are aligned

What looks like it could be the moon, is really Saturn and Venus, really well aligned tonight!

Huge unexpected bill

Life Care of Aurora, the nursing facility K was in last year, who led us very strongly to believe all her expenses would be covered by Medicare, has billed us $10,000. I am angry beyond words. This feels so much like fraud. But I have no idea who to complain to, or who could help us fight this.

Trader Joe's is coming!

I think I just figured out where they're putting our first Trader Joe's. Right next to my favorite breakfast place. I can already visualize what my favorite morning's going to look like! — at the original pancake house.

If it's not one thing...

Yeah, it's another... while I was flossing my teeth tonight, I flipped the crown off of a tooth, right out of my mouth, and onto the kitchen floor. I'm thinking, all the good luck that's been carrying me all my life, is not being as loyal as I have come to expect. I left a message at my new dentist's office, since my old dentist decided to retire last month. My tongue is keeping itself busy, tearing itself up on the remaining part of the tooth.

On the lighter side...

And, on a lighter note... Our Sonos system is working again, yay! I finally figured out that the AC power adapter had gotten fried by a lightning strike several weeks ago. The replacement power adapter arrived in the mail today. As we're getting ready for bed, we've got the soundtrack from Mama Mia! Playing. Take a chance on me... Take a chance, take a chance!

K back home again

I picked K up from Sky Ridge hospital tonight. We're back home. Mandy's a happy dog, to have her pack all together again. Next on the agenda: K needs to have her fistula repaired at the Renal Access Center tomorrow, so she can be dialyzed on Friday.

Apps are updating

The app updates are coming fast and furious on my iPhone, now that IOS 7 hit the release channels at 11am MT this morning. I accepted 30 updates an hour ago, and I just noticed there are 7 more queued up already.

Starting dialysis

I checked with the hospital, and K's starting dialysis, as I'm heading into work for a half day. The plan is now definite, to discharge her after dialysis is complete this afternoon.

No rest for the weary

Unfortunately, I had a lot of interruptions, as people were texting me and posting on Facebook, asking how K was doing, so my phone kept beeping. And, the morning caregiver, who we thought "someone" had canceled, showed up at 7am, with no idea of what had been happening. Then our regular 10am dog/house helper showed up an hour early. So by noon, I had gotten maybe an hour of sleep, and headed back into work.

AV041 Launched!

We launched AV-041, carrying the AEHF-3 payload, early this morning. By the time I got home, it was just about time to be heading back into work, but of course my plan was to take the morning off, and get some sleep.

Back at work

I'm back at work, for the AV-041 launch countdown. I took the mid-day off for a short nap to balance my work and sleep hours. K got dialysis 2-6 today. I stopped by to drop off some of her rarer meds, that the hospital pharmacy doesn't carry, on my way back in. They say they may discharge her Wednesday. The nurse also casually mentioned, that she does indeed have at least one rib fracture on the right side, where she's hurting so much.

Admitted to Sky Ridge

K was admitted to Sky Ridge hospital tonight. Her caregiver took her to the ER, where they gave her an initial "triage" evaluation fairly quickly, but then she waited an hour to be seen. I got there while they were waiting. They thought they would be admitting her, after hearing the abridged story, of the severe pain on the right side, the refusal of dialysis due to the clogged fistula, the refusal to repair it, due to the high potassium. But first they setup IV access, took and X-Ray picture and blood samples, and made her wait awhile longer. They said the X-Ray images did not show any broken ribs on the right side, which got us worrying about what was causing the pain, maybe something more serious internally. When the labs came back, they saw that yes, potassium really was very high, and decided to admit her to hospital. She stayed awhile longer in ER, waiting on a room. They gave her a "cocktail" injection to lower potassium, with a large dose of insulin (yikes!), sodium bicarbonate, calcium, and, oh yeah, a bunch of dextrose to balance the insulin. I warned about the insulin, and her brittle blood glucose. On the way to ICU, they detoured with a stop in surgery, to insert a catheter in her neck, which would enable them to give her dialysis. That took about 40 minutes. The Doc said the surgery went well, and she'd be in ICU soon. Then a surgical nurse said she was in ICU, but we couldn't visit until 8pm, because the nurses were changing shift, and visitors weren't allowed. Argh! Finally we were able to visit, after she was settled into her ICU room. They started a 2-hr dialysis, and planned on another session on Tuesday. I headed home after 9pm, wondering if the dog had survived her long 6hr stay at home alone, but she was fine, sleeping in K's closet. She sleepily rolled on her back for a belly rub, as soon as she saw me.

K to Sky Ridge ER

K will be heading to ER at Sky Ridge Medical Center later today. She has several things not going right. Multiple problems are falling on top of each other, complicating things mightily. Severe pain in her right side, combined with nausea and vomiting, are the latest to join the fray. The Dialysis Center turned her away on Friday, with a clogged fistula and thick black blood. They warned her that her potassium was already high, which can quickly become fatal, and to be very careful over the weekend, with what she ate. They were going to schedule an appointment at the Renal Access Center for today, to get her fistula repaired. Since she'll be enroute to ER, she'll miss her hyperbaric oxygen treatment, which is to try to get her foot wounds healing, so that's a concern. She'll also not be able to get her fistula treated at the Renal Access Center, if she's in ER, so there's talk of catheterization to enable dialysis, and she's very unhappy about that prospect. Her caregiver schedule is falling apart, as people are drawn away by other obligations.

Sore rib?

K is very sore under her right arm. It acts a lot like a bruised or broken rib, but there's nothing on the surface to show for it.

Looking forward to IOS 7

I'm looking forward to using the new iPhone Operating System, IOS version 7. From the keynote address, and the New Features page on the Apple website, it sounds like it has some really nice new features, that will make the phone even more simple and fun to use. I don't see anything earth-shattering, but it looks like a solid step up. In summary:

A new way to control the most-accessed settings -- Control Center -- that will be easily accessible by swiping up from the bottom of the phone. It will have a built-in flashlight, so I can delete the three flashlight apps I've been waffling between, on my phone. Yay.

A new easier to read Notification Center, with new features that sound very handy.

Some really good improvements to the way they do multitasking, that make it smarter, and will contribute to longer battery life.

A new Square aspect ratio option for the camera. They say square pictures work better for the social networking sites, like Facebook, which I use a lot.

Other new picture-related options, like color temperature and monochrome filters, and a great new way to find the one cool picture in the large list of pictures on the phone.

A new service called AirDrop, that lets you share stuff with nearby friends, if you want to. They poked fun at the Android, which requires you to go around the room, and physically bump the phone of each friend that you want to share with.

A much-improved Safari web browser, which is good news, for those of us who use that thing a large percentage of the time we're using our phone.

A new iTunes Radio feature, that gives access to online streaming music through a new method.

More improvements to the Siri advisor. It sounds better, and it does more things.

New security features to make it easier to recover and restore a lost phone.

New bluetooth features that allow the phone to integrate seamlessly with the bluetooth system in a car. Shoot. *Now I need a new car.*

Here's a link to the Apple "What's New" IOS page...

Fine on Friday the 13th

Good morning! It's Friday the thirteenth! How lucky are we?! It's still raining, but the Littleton flood Warnings are being cancelled, as the various rivers (Plum Creek, South Platte) have crested, and appear to be receding. I'm considering breakfast at our favorite place by the river...

Doing fine

For those who are wondering about how the rain and flooding is affecting us... We're doing fine so far [knock on wood] -- we're even out to dinner tonight!

No problem!

My answer to my cousin's question about how we're doing with the rain: Nooooooooo problem! There was lots of splashing and reduced (sometimes zero!) visibility on the drive home, yesterday and Tuesday. I had a cool drizzly drive to work this morning. Good day to stop for a hot coffee. We had lots of nice cheery rain outside the windows at work. There are lots of interesting and scary stories in the news media access apps on my phone. We've managed to find some barely moist times during the day, to take the dog out for walks. All in all, some of my favorite weather, as long as work, the car, and the house, stay dry on the inside! So far, so good.

Soft velvety clouds

There's a soft cool moist velvet sky laid out in front of me, as I start my drive home. Nice. Of course, it's telling a tale of impending rain, if anyone wants to listen...

Stay vigilant!

Sept 11. Wishing everyone a peaceful day. Nota Bene: When an RTD bus is approaching in the opposite direction, be prepared for the occasional very late bus rider to sprint across the road in front of you.

Rain!

Another severe afternoon storm. Got soaked just walking 30 feet to the car.

I hate wasting time

Arg. I got K to her hyperbaric chamber treatment on time, after much gnashing of teeth, on my day off. And... They're closed on Labor Day?! I guess. No one here. No valet. Doors are locked. No one answers their phone. And no one said those three little words... "Don't come Monday." Drat, drat, drat.

Another morning dialysis

K's nephrologist recommended an extra treatment, and DaVita had this morning slot available today, so here we are again, dropping her off at 5:45am for a morning dialysis. Yawn. The good news, is that our day is starting nice and early.

Mystery solved

Hooray. I finally figured out the mystery of the bedroom TV power circuit that's been dead since the deafening thunderclap last Saturday evening. I forgot you have to turn a tripped breaker completely off, before turning it back on. It looks on, but it's not. I stopped in the basement, this morning, and realized the computer and the UPS it's plugged into, were both dead. I realized we still had some other dead circuits in the house. When I got home tonight, I had the idea that I should try resetting the circuit breakers again. Unfortunately, I couldn't remember which breakers I had found tripped on Monday, so I had to turn them all off, and then all back on. The good news... Success! All circuits are alive again! The computer's UPS is charging! And the office lights work!

NROL-65 Launched!

We launched D364, a Delta IV heavy, carrying the NROL-65 satellite, this afternoon.

See the photos on SpaceFlightNow

Early morning dialysis

We're up at O'Dark-30, to take K to a makeup dialysis. They never got around to connecting her to the dialysis machine yesterday afternoon. After two hours, they recommended she come back this morning, since they had an early 5:45am slot. I'm a little worried about Mandy being all alone at the house for five hours, so I've got her with me in the car. She should be fine, since at this early time of the morning, there should be plenty of covered parking spots available at work. I just need to remember to go out and get her out for an occasional walk around the facility.

Breakers tripped

I had the idea that maybe the dead bedroom TV circuit, was simply a tripped circuit breaker, so I stopped at the breaker panels outside, when I got home. Nothing tripped on the old breaker panel, darn. Aha! The new panel that was installed when we finished the basement had four CBs tripped! I turned them all back on. No joy with the bedroom TV, though, which I kind of expected, since it's upstairs, and probably on a circuit that's in the old breaker panel.

Crash boom oops

Our neighbors were over chatting this evening, when we suddenly realized a big thunderstorm had been creeping up on us. We were quite startled when the house appeared to jump, as a huge thunderclap sounded, very close outside. Later this evening, I noticed the bedroom TV doesn't turn on any more. Then, on a hunch, I wandered the house, and found some surge protectors that had their circuit breakers tripped, and reset them, which got the living room TV and basement stereo working. After a little troubleshooting, all I could figure out, was that the new power circuit, installed back in 2008 for the wall mounted TV, is dead. I have no idea where that circuit comes from. A bunch of audio/video cables disappear into the wall alongside it, but they reappear out another hole, over by the cable box, VCR, and DVD player, and plug into the back of all that. No sign of the power cord there. Hmm.

Bunny

Friends brought their fluffy white bunny, "Awilda", to visit this afternoon. Mandy did really well with it. She just followed Awilda around everywhere, and got in the occasional sniff. She was very surprised, when she sniffed the front end, and got sniffed back!

OK for HBO (not the cable channel)

The wound clinic gave the OK for Kristan to receive treatment in a HyperBaric Oxygen (HBO) chamber. They hope it will help get her foot wounds heading in the healing direction. She tried it early last week, and that's when they found her ears weren't equalizing. The pressure was so great, she just about passed out from the pain, which then lingered on for the rest of the week. They sent her to the Ear-Nose-Throat Doc, who inserted ear tubes that will allow the pressure to equalize. But she thinks those are not healing up right either, so it's back to the ENT today.

Bedroom fun

We're having fun with our new bedroom furniture. We finally have a headboard, for the first time, and drawers to put things in, that won't get all dusty in a few days. I'm all excited about picking up two power strips at Office Depot tomorrow, to clean up our dozen electrical power connections. Simple pleasures...

UPS 1354 Crash

The UPS flight 1354 that crashed on short approach into Birmingham on the 14th, is starting to sound more and more like the Asiana crash at San Francisco. Things seemed like they were generally going OK for aircraft N155UP, considering that there was no electronic glideslope guidance available, right up until they descended below the desired glide slope, hit power lines and then the ground. There's some network buzz about an unstabilized approach. These pilots had darkness, and an overcast layer, to deal with, which shouldn't have been a big deal. Why was the autopilot still engaged, on short final on a non-precision approach? Puzzling.

Ear troubles

The wound clinic gave the OK for Kristan to receive treatment in a hyperbaric chamber. That should get her foot wounds heading in the healing direction. She tried it early last week, and that's when they found her ears weren't equalizing. The pressure was so great, she just about passed out from the pain, which then lingered on for the rest of the week. They sent her to the Ear-Nose-Throat Doc, who inserted ear tubes that will allow the pressure to equalize. But she thinks those are not healing up right either, so it's back to the ENT on Monday, if she can get an appointment.

The light at the end

OMG. It feels like we can see the light at the end of the home-repair-improvement tunnel. The refinished hardwood floors are all cured and ready for use. The furniture is mostly moved back onto the hardwood floors where it belongs. The new stairway railing is installed and stained. The new replacement carpet is installed on the main floor, staircase, and upstairs bedrooms. The leaking pipe in the kitchen ceiling is fixed. The five huge holes in the kitchen ceiling are patched, and the ceiling has been taped, textured, and painted. The new bedroom furniture (our first headboard ever!) has arrived, and the dozen electrical devices around the bed have been unplugged and replugged several times. Now, we just have to deal with the moderately long "punch list" that's left over from all that.

Scheduling conflict

It should be fun at the house right now, with the drywall repair and new carpet installation happening at the same time. I had a bit of a problem with the schedule... then I couldn't bring myself to send either of them away, since they're all busy, and might not be able to get back for weeks or months, and I so badly want all this work to be done.

Holes patched!

It's the first day of kitchen ceiling repair. Today they patched and taped. I'm so glad, to finally have all those holes covered up.

Found the leak

Some good news: After many weeks of putting up with five huge holes in the kitchen ceiling, while waiting unsuccessfully for the leak to re-occur, today our painter/friend and his drywaller/friend found a bunch of corrosion on a section of copper hot water pipe that was hiding between the holes. He sanded off the worst of the corrosion in one spot, and it started leaking immediately. A self-sealing (sort of) leak! Called a new plumber, and replaced the entire section.

New landscaping

Our front yard landscaping is finally in! It's been a long time since the landscaping fire last summer, that almost burned down our house. It is so nice to be able to look at the nice plants and rocks alongside the driveway now, instead of that pile of muddy dirt that's been there for a year. I'm sure our neighbors are appreciating it, too.

Disneyland!

I'm back, from a whirlwind trip to LA, just gone for two nights and a very fun day. Mikele talked me into going to Disneyland with her, the kids, Bob, and some of his relatives, 13 of us in all. I was soooo hesitant to go, but Kristan talked me into it. We made arrangements for a friend to spend the nights with her, which made the difference for me. I had a really fun time with everyone. I had to laugh, using the Find My Friends app, to watch people getting lost on the LA freeways, while coming to meet me at the airport. We had a fun little group adventure, walking to dinner at Inn N Out on Sepulveda Blvd, and watching the big Jets arrive. Parts of Disneyland were so different! I'd never been to California Adventure, the new park that replaced the huge parking lot that used to be right outside the old park. We had lunch at the Boudin Bakery in the Pacific Wharf there, really enjoyed my Shrimp Louie in a sourdough bread boule. I'd never used the Fast Pass, that lets you reserve a spot in the shorter line at the more popular rides, and I just loved bypassing those long lines! We hit up lots of twisty turny rides, old and new. And I did get to eat dinner at my old favorite Cafe Orleans restaurant, just outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and got a delicious drink from the Mint Julep Bar next door. I loved watching the evening Fantasm show on Tom Sawyer's Island, and the fireworks over the Fantasy Land Castle, complete with Tinkerbell floating by! The LA Sheraton Gateway hotel was a perfect place to stay, right by LAX, which made it so much less stressful, catching an early-morning flight home. Mandy was ecstatic to see me. She's lying on the bed next to me, looking exhausted and content after all the dancing she did for me, when I walked in the door just now. I posted a bunch of pics on Facebook.

We visited so many attractions, I was overwhelmed!

Infection

The doc at the wound clinic told K today that her ankle wound is infected. She said she was stopping at the pharmacy for antibiotics. I hope they work. They often haven't for her, especially below the knee where the circulation is poor.

Smackdown

Dad and Adele were making a valiant attempt to drive out and see us again this summer. They had almost made it to their first stop in Acworth, GA, when they got hit. They're fine, but the car needs a few days of repair, and they're discussing their options. I fear they may be headed back to FL, when they come to their senses.

Humalog overdose

Now we're playing the same old (not fun) game: K accidentally took 20 units of Humalog (fast acting insulin) instead of Lantus (slow acting insulin), just before 2am. Just as my head was finally hitting the pillow, she said "Oh, God..." Not good. 20 units will drive her blood glucose (BG) down about 1400 points. If it gets below 50, things get very serious quickly. Unfortunately, her BG was just about perfect (126) at the time, instead of being really high, which is not uncommon, and would have helped a lot. Now she's got to eat 300 grams of carbohydrates (7 bottles of apple juice or cans of Coke, or 15 slices of bread, etc) in a short period, to avoid having a low glucose crash, and possible ER visit. She's eaten 216 grams of apple juice, glucose gel, and ice cream, so far. Now we're staying awake and waiting to see if her BG plummets, or if we've caught it in time. Heavy sigh. When it first happened, I was so frustrated, I just told her to get dressed, so I could take her to the ER and get her setup for IV glucose, because I was sure she couldn't eat that much. But she disagreed, and attempted to distract me, by having me make several (wasted!) calls to health care advice numbers. Those people are required by HIPAA regulations to ask the most stupid questions possible, and to refuse to talk to me, practically forcing me to call 911 instead. Idiots! The one person I did finally talk to, who was very helpful, was the doctor on call at her Endocrinologist's office. He got me calmed down by focusing on the current BG which was still OK, and pointing out that this was an opportunity for K to eat all the sugary junk she's supposed to avoid, like candy bars and ice cream. Anyway, it looks like it's going to work out, after all.

Asiana Flight 214 Crash

I have been sadly but avidly (it's a compulsion for me) following the news about the Asiana airlines flight 214 crash at San Francisco airport. It appears they hit the seawall on the approach end of runway 28L.

I just found this informative analysis of flight 214's speed and energy profiles on final approach. http://flyingprofessors.net/what-happened-to-asiana-airlines-flight-214-2/

They say the flight was high and fast, several miles out, then the throttles were pulled back to idle for a rapid descent, but then they ended up low and slow at the sea wall. What a crying shame.

The FAA, and I think the airlines, all recommend a missed approach, if the aircraft isn't on a stabilized approach, by the time a flight is within 500 feet of the ground.

There's an FAA circular that defines a stabilized approach, as:
1) On the correct track.
2) In the proper landing configuration.
3) No big corrections required, to maintain track and glideslope.
4) Speed within acceptable range specified.
5) Rate of descent no greater than 1000 fpm.
6) Appropriate power setting for the landing configuration.

They must've been asleep at the controls, to not have realized several of the above were out of whack. Very sad.

Another fox chased

Mandy took off at a full run this morning, presumably after a fox that she saw and I didn't. She was back ten minutes (seemed like hours) later, with her usual swagger. She knows I'm not happy about it. But thankful she made it back alive.

Finally a good one

K hadn't had a good dialysis since two weeks ago, because her Fistula has been blocked. After three visits to the Renal Access Center, it appears they may have finally gotten it right. I think she had a good dialysis today. 

Tweaked back

Would it be bad, if I were lifting a table from an awkward overhanging position, and something in my back popped, and I suddenly had a level 9 pain in my back? Just askin'.

Moving Home!

Not the best night, to be starting the move home, with a huge flashy boomy wet thunderstorm outside. Well, maybe we'll get the majority of it moved... after the downpour ends.

The nightmare continues

Someone (Mandy!) is happy to be Queen Of The Hill, on our pile of clean clothes that are waiting to be baked and washed, as we relocate to a new, hopefully bug-free room. Shortly after we moved to the 2-bedroom handicapped room, I started noticing itchy red welts appearing all over my body. It took way too long, to put together the obvious conclusion. Here's a trick: take the hotel headboard off the wall, and look in the nooks and crannies behind it. Now we're moving from the fairly spacious 2-bedroom to a studio. Aaaahhh!

K still at Swedish Hosp

They kept K overnight after dialysis yesterday, since it finished so late. With any luck, they'll discharge her in time to make her 1pm appointment with the prosthetic folks. She's really wanting to get hers adjusted. I headed straight to work this morning, in the hope of getting a covered parking spot, since Mandy's in the car again today. Success!

K Overnighted at Swedish Hosp

K's still at Swedish Hospital, slept some last night. I stopped by with her fuzzy blanket, a fresh baguette, and sips of Latté this morning. Her BP's still low. Should get Dialysis sometime today. Maybe she'll get out tonight if BP comes up. It's absolutely pouring rain now, as I contemplate running over to the parking garage where Mandy's sleeping in my car.

K admit to Swedish Hospital

K's foot Doc didn't like her low blood pressure today, and sent her to ER at Swedish hospital. The ER Doc didn't like it either, apparently, since they're admitting her at least overnight. I'm picking up the dog from the hotel, on my way to Swedish.

Teenagers everywhere!

The cast and crew of "Clue" just descended on us, moved into about 50 seats all around us, chattering up a storm. Takes me back a bit, to those days after the shows in High School, when we would do something similar, on a very much smaller scale... — at Village Inn.

Some hope

I walked through our house on Saturday, after the contractor said it would be ready to move back on Monday, and was incredibly disappointed at the poor quality of the work. Floor stain smeared all over all the baseboards, for example. With everything wrong, it feels like they've taken a perfectly good house, with some warped floorboards, and wrecked everything else. I composed a list of 15 problems and sent it off to the contractor on Sunday. Now there's a ray of hope. The contractor printed my email, met me at the house this morning, and methodically addressed each of my concerns. They may yet get it right.

Progress, finally! Hooray!

Finally, some serious progress on the house repair!

Repair work stopped

Our house sitter let me know she wasn't going to the house, because of the heavy snowfall and icy roads today. I called our house repair contractor, to make arrangements to let him in, and found out they weren't planning on coming, either. They couldn't even get their repair van out of their parking lot, because of the treacherous layer of ice everywhere. So today is a lost day, all around. Except I had no problem getting to my work, other than it taking twice as long. Go figure.

Repair work started!

I found out round-aboutly, that the repair work has started at the house. There was an innocuous note on the kitchen counter from our house sitter. "The water is off!" she said. Come to find out, the repair folks had come and removed the toilet and most of the underlayment in the master bathroom. They couldn't get the toilet water supply valve to shut off completely, so they had to turn off the main water supply for the entire house. After awhile, I realized that was a bad thing, not just for me using any bathroom, for also for the water heater, which could burn up with no water in it, so I shut that off, and the gas supply line to it. Then a funny noise reminded me that the hot water recirculation pump was operating dry, so I unplugged that. Now I think those things are a little bit safer for the next few days.

Moving back May 7 - What? When?!

Finally, K got an estimate for moving back to the house. May 7. Had to pick myself up off the floor after hearing that. We of course were hoping that once K had given her choice for the vinyl floor covering, they would start work immediately, and be done in 2-3 days. But now, the contractor says he can't free up a work crew until early May.

Mostly Icy

The snow depth's not bad at all this morning, with asphalt visible on the parking lot. It's pretty icy out there, though. Mandy found a nice warm place on the couch to cuddle up under her favorite blanket, while I was getting ready for work. She was pretty cute, peering out from under the blanket, keeping tabs on me, as I came and went from the kitchen. K's caregiver didn't make it this morning, due to the icy roads, so she's "home alone" today. Luckily, the podiatrist's office called to recommend that she cancel her 1pm appointment, so now she has a free day, which will allow her to sleep off the all-nighter she pulled last night.

Snow coming

I love this :-/ "Strong Spring snowstorm on track to impact Northern Colorado tonight through Tuesday ... Snow accumulations: 6 to 11 inches ... Avoid overexertion when shoveling snow ... Overexertion can bring on a heart attack—a major cause of death in the winter. If you must shovel snow, stretch before going outside." So, stretching can prevent a heart attack? Who knew?! ;-)

Rash

K developed a nasty looking rash around the upper parts of both legs on Saturday evening. Not sure where that came from. I guessed that maybe a reaction to laundry soap, but she said she'd worn those pants all day, and the itchiness and rash appeared very suddenly that evening. So we're pretty clueless. Her Leukemia medication (Bosulif) does have a known side effect of rashes, so that's a possibility. The rash seems to have peaked shortly after it appeared, and is now spreading out, getting lighter, and generally going away. We hope.

Visitors

We were happy to have John and Michelle come visit this weekend. We were all staying at the Residence Inn, which made it somewhat easier to see each other on short notice. K wasn't able to break the "up all night" habit, so she was sleepy during the day, and not as good company for her Brother as we would've hoped. And that's just the way it's been going, these days. I suppose I'm used to it, but I am definitely not comfortable with it. 

Another week in the hotel

I'd like to say we're going home today, but that would be an April Fool's joke. Maybe in another week. The contractor thinks he can free up a work crew by Tuesday, and then it might take a few days to get the most recent water damage repaired. But then the damage from the separate incident a few weeks ago needs to be fixed, and that will require yet another stay away from home, while the floors are being refinished. I'm hoping we'll be able to consolidate all that work, and just stay away until next weekend. I think that Mandy probably hopes we'll stay longer, so she can keep chasing the bunny rabbits off the patio in the mornings.

On a cheerier note

Happy Birthday! to our dear friend in Phoenix! We've been overwhelmed with the latest disaster, but we've been thinking of you!

Lovely snow, dammit

The thick heavy snow looks beautiful coming down. I just wish we didn't have to be moving from home to the hotel, in the middle of it, with a bunch of possessions, and the dog, in two cars. The forecast is for nearly a foot of this stuff, over the next day or so.

Back to hotel

It appears we'll be out of the house for a week, because of this new fiasco. K booked a room for the three of us at Residence Inn, until a week from Saturday. And, just in time for this latest Spring snowstorm that's bearing down upon us. Heavy sigh.

Yet another disaster

Unbelievable. We have a water leak in our bathroom. I just got two socks full of water, as I walked between the shower and toilet area. Turned off the main water supply. Soaked up a bunch with a towel. Peeled back the carpet. Started a space heater blowing on it. Called the insurance company. Talked to the "mitigation specialists," who will be out here in the morning.

Foot wounds

The podiatrist told K yesterday, that the three large wounds on her left foot are superficial. That's really good news, considering how strongly I was impacted when I first saw them. It's difficult for me to know how her back is doing, other than to say she still calls out in pain, when she simply changes position in bed.

Keep eating!

The good news, is that K has gotten lots of sleep the last several days. Unfortunately, it's because she is stuck in bed and can hardly move, because of the intense back pain that resulted from her fall on Wednesday and the four broken vertebrae. So she missed her Friday dialysis, and has been very dopey during the days, probably from the toxin buildup. To add to the fun, today she's wrestling with a double dose of her long term (24 hour) insulin from last night. Gotta keep eating, to keep her BG from going dangerously low. Her regular morning caregiver is in the hospital, so I had to brief the temporary replacement this morning as best I could, before I left for work.

Broken

So, I suppose it was the right thing, to go to ER. She has multiple spinal fractures, of the Transverse Process, in her T12, L1, L2, L3. Right where the bruise is. Apparently she fell backwards into her bedside table. Surprisingly, they said those particular breaks are not serious, and sent her home, with instructions to continue to take her pain meds.

She's so sleep deprived from staying up all night every night. She's just a zombie. She has lots of falls where she doesn't break something. Then once in awhile, she'll fall into something hard at the wrong angle, and this happens.

K bruised and...?

Oh great. It turns out K fell off the bed this morning, and has a big bruise on her back, that winds around her side toward the front, and severe pain, to show for it now. She just called me from DaVita, where Lorene dropped her off 45 minutes ago. They are refusing her dialysis, until she goes to ER and gets evaluated, so I'll be driving her over to Littleton Adventist Hospital. And yes, my tire is too low to drive. Shoot. I'm waiting for the handy electric tire pump to re-pressurize it now...

Leaky tire

And now I'm wondering if the car will let me wait a day, to have the tire repaired. It loses ten PSI overnight. Not sure what it'll be, when I get out there after work today. I'd really rather not change tires with a sore back. And Costco won't make an appointment until tomorrow. Heavy sigh. At least I've got the handy electric tire pump with me.

Tweaked

K didn't sleep again last night. I found her sitting on the floor by her side of the bed when I woke up. She asked for help getting to bed. Finally! I was ecstatic to help. The angle was awkward, I know I should've known better, but the bottom line is, she got to bed, and I've got a tweaked back today.

Flooded out

We've been living at the local Residence Inn for the past few days, due to a water damage problem on Thursday. When the laundry room sink overflowed, and the water kept running for some time, it soaked the Marmoleum laundry room floor and the hardwood floor in the hallway. It found its way into the heating ducts, and rained down in three basement rooms, soaking everything from tools to cardboard storage boxes to live electronics. It killed the modem that provided our phone and Internet service, and made an electrical outlet on the wall of the furnace room go dead. The house has been unlivable from the noise of a dozen fans and heaters all around, running all day and night, to pull moisture out of the floors and walls, and our possessions. It sounded like we were living inside a jet engine. The dog had a haunted look on her face, and was afraid to leave the bedroom just to walk past all those loud screaming fans in the hallway. So I was carrying her in and out, while carefully stepping over the 2 inch air hoses running everywhere. We finally came to our senses, and moved out to a hotel. After we moved to the Residence Inn on Saturday, it was so nice to be able to sit by the nice warm fireplace, while munching on snacks and quietly watching TV. The fans were removed yesterday, so we're moving back home today. Yay. Although it may be the short-lived calm in the eye of the storm. We'll probably have to leave again, when they refinish the hardwood floor.

Moving home

Moving back home today. Yay. Although it may be the short-lived calm in the eye of the storm. We'll probably have to leave again, when they refinish the hardwood floor.

Moved to hotel

We've come to our senses, and booked a room at Residence Inn for the next two nights. Mandy gets to come play too! Can't believe they're charging $100 extra for our well-behaved little sweetie to stay with us.

Nice visit from Jill

Our friend Jill from the San Diego area, who worked with Kristan at Charter Hospital back in the day, came to visit this weekend. I expected a mini-disaster, considering the series of sleepless nights that K has accumulated over the past few weeks. But it turned out very pleasant, and the two of them got to visit a whole lot more than I had feared. I picked her up at the airport on Friday afternoon, then we picked up Italian food at Romano's, and spent Friday evening having a big dinner with K, while she was in dialysis. I had a pleasant time dragging Jill out for some local walks on the local trails, and chatting along the way. We even got to play a three-way game of Scrabble on Saturday night.

Unexpected loss

We heard from the daughter of an old friend on Saturday afternoon, that her Mom had passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly. K was pretty devastated to learn of it, because she had been holding onto the idea that they would eventually get back into being in contact on a regular basis, and even be visiting each other in person sometime.

Launching LDCM

The countdown for the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) has begun, out at Vandenberg AFB on the California coast. Liftoff is planned for 10:02am Pacific Time. SpaceFlightNow has live video coverage of the launch countdown and flight. Check it out: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av035/status.html

Clement Park

Kind of a dull flat day. We're getting in a walk around Johnston Reservoir at Clement park, before round two of the weekend snow storms arrives. When we started, the lake was devoid of geese. Then a huge crowd descended on the frozen lake, just before we left. — with Mandy Hushing and Ken at Clement Park.

Chilly at City Park

Getting in a quick walk at city Park, before the rain and snow come pouring down. Brr, it's chilly here, with a light breeze, as we watch the clouds moving in overhead. The forecast is for maybe an inch of snow today.

Confused

The weather service is soooo confused. Forecast: Rain. Snow. No snow, just rain. And now... It's snowing!

Breakfast and a fireplace

A mini slice of heaven, is a spinach soufflé *and* a cinnamon crunch bagel, *and* a piping hot latté *and* eating it by the fire. Oh, *and* having it all paid for by a good friend. — at Panera Bread

The Annies

We've been watching the Animation Awards at AnnieAwards.org, scouring the background images for a sign of our neighbor's son Ryan and his daughter Inge in the audience. It's especially fun watching, when we know someone who gets to be a part of the event!

Conifer outing

We wandered around Conifer for a little while, and finally found a delightful place to have breakfast, DW's 285 Diner, before our walk. The waitress recommended walking at Meyer's Ranch, which turned out to be a great idea. A little cold, though. We'll remember heavier jackets, the next time we wander up to 8,000 feet, on an already chilly winter day.

Hmmm, sounds interesting

"Traditional SMBG using lancets can be painful and time-consuming; however, promising new technology may one day provide a solution to this problem. High-tech devices such as EyeSense (Grobostheim), which is now in development, may offer alternative procedures for patients to measure their glucose levels without using a lancet. This external meter will be able to determine a blood glucose reading via a small photometer implanted in the interstitial fluid below the conjunctiva of the eye. In studies, this method has been shown to perform as well as conventional blood glucose meters. It is anticipated to become available in 2013."

Quoted from the ADA Clinical Diabetes Journals website.

Sleep, glorious sleep

After five nights of not sleeping since she got home from the hospital last Thursday, K finally slept all day yesterday, and all night last night. I think she might be human again this morning. Just in time for two medical outings, this morning and afternoon.

Home! Not sleeping.

She's home. Yay! :-)

And falling right back into not getting to bed, until I leave for work. Boo. :-(

I'll settle for not having the hospital on my daily itinerary. :-/

Oh, yeah. Today is "Opposite Day!" Or, isn't it? So, don't have a happy day! Or do, if you're not participating. I'm so confused.

Coming home today!

Yay! Kristan says they are discharging her from Littleton Hospital this evening! Amy is picking her up. The good news is, with all this visibility of high WBC in the hospital, everyone's gotten it together to order the latest in the series of new anti-CML medications. This one is called Bosulif (Bosutinib) and should be arriving Friday.

Not coming home today

K was sleepy when I stopped by this morning, but became more interactive after I'd been there awhile. She had an awful low BG last night, caused by the insulin IV drip that didn't get stopped soon enough. This morning her BG was off the chart in the other direction. She's not coming home tonight, most likely. They want to continue investigating the sky high white cell count, difficult to control blood glucose, and low oxygen, all happening at the same time. The oncologist has been called. He was supposed to get her started on a new anti-leukemia drug after she came home from Life Care, but that still hasn't been done. Could be that, or an infection, or...? They've taken blood for a culture, but that takes time (days) to grow.

Neck's OK

The neck CT scan and hip X-ray were negative - yay - but they're keeping her overnight anyway, to address some other things, like her missed dialysis, high blood glucose, low oxygen saturation, and an off the chart white cell count. — at Littleton Adventist Hospital.

Not coming home tonight

Lorene just called to let me know she's with Kristan in the Littleton Hospital E.R. and they're going to keep her in Intensive Care overnight. I'm not sure of all the details. I know they want to get her dialyzed, since she missed her regular evening dialysis appointment. They also are treating a very high blood glucose with an insulin drip -- little do they know, how often it gets up there, and we deal with it, practically on a daily basis. Sigh. Will know more when I get there in a half hour.

Possible neck injury

K fell asleep many times while out of bed yesterday. One of those times, last night, she leaned slowly forward until she rolled off her seat and fell on her head. No one else was there to see it, but I'm assuming she rolled right over her head and onto her back or side, since she has abrasions on her shoulder and back, and the handles on the rattan cabinet across from where she was sitting are broken. Her neck is sore this morning, so I asked the caregiver to coordinate with her neck surgeon to see what he wants to do.

DVD update... really?

Successfully completed updating the firmware in our DVD players. No big deal... using these nice simple instructions. Simple. Yeah, right. I'm so glad I didn't turn them into nice looking bricks. I guess it's cool that they can be updated... but WHY do we NEED to? Yeah, I know. I'm just not all that supportive of the process.

Exercise for all

Ken and I drove K's car to Morrison to give it a bit of a workout, had breakfast at The Blue Cow, and walked from one end of town to the other, through Morrison Park, and back. So the car got some exercise, and so did we all. Pretty day. Bear Creek was frozen over with a thick layer, but with small holes here and there, through which the fast moving bubbly creek was visible. Pretty neat.

City Center Walk

K's foot looks much better today. Ken and I drove to Racine's for breakfast, then took a very short walk around the Denver Library, Art Museum, and City Center park. It was darned cold, not much above zero degrees F. Mandy almost made it all the way around - she got to within a hundred feet of the car, before drawing up short with frozen toes. We've never been so glad, to get back to a toasty warm car.

Freakin' cold!

I wore just a long sleeved dress shirt, and a down vest, into work this morning, with a single digit outside temperature. My coworkers were asking pointed questions, like whether or not I had a warm jacket in the car, in case I got stranded somewhere. Haha, of course I do...!

Now it's zero degrees out there (thirty-two below freezing!), and heading down to minus seven, says the forecast. Glad to be inside with a working furnace! K had a fun evening out with Amy after her extra dialysis today. Even with all that excitement, it seems like there's a chance she'll be heading to bed well before dawn, which would mean a second night of sleep for her this week. Here's hoping...

New wound

Life is not at its best right now. K hasn't slept at night for the past week, so she's not been functioning well. This morning she showed me a new wound on her heel that will need attention. Her morning caregiver didn't show up Tuesday AM, or call to explain, which is worrisome, since she's had medical issues of her own in the past month, but I'm more focused on getting care for K. Home Helpers is doing a good job with providing replacements on short notice. Last night I stopped at Tokyo Joe's for a Yakitori Bowl (good!), and wondering if I shouldn't have (bad). I went to bed with a headache, and woke up with it much worse, then after I started moving around, realized I was also really nauseous. Ugh. Might be food poisoning, but coworkers are also talking about various illnesses ravaging the country right now, and wondering if they should quarantine me in my office. The good news is that K got a new prosthetic at IPOP on Tuesday, and afterwards was a walking maniac in Marczyk's, her favorite deli/grocery/specialty store on 17th near downtown Denver.

Happy New Year!

We had an early New Year's morning for a new reason -- DaVita messed up K's dialysis schedule last night, so I had to take her in for an early morning slot today. She likes her new old fashioned telephone handset that plugs into the iPhone!

My New Year's morning got a little better after dropping off K. Our neighbors Ken and Freddie brought homemade biscuits (cranberry-orange, blueberry-lemon) up to the house, I made some fresh strong coffee, and we all watched the Rose Parade in HD. They left just as it was time to go pickup Kristan from dialysis at noon. Surprise, she had a really low blood glucose coming off dialysis. It took an extra 45 minutes to deal with that (sugar sugar sugar). She's better now, but still sleepy from being up all night.