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.