Basement Carpet

The basement made a big jump towards looking done, after the carpet was laid down. In this picture you can see the new carpet, the cabinets installed along the East wall, and the new French doors, which replaced the metal sliding doors we had there before. You can also see the new heater vent down low, which will heat the room more efficiently. We are so excited about how close this space is to being usable!

Nuclear stress test

K went for her nuclear stress test today. At least that's the name they used, when they called to confirm her appointment. Cool name for a fairly long (3-4 hour) test that evaluates blood flow to the heart. This is to collect more data in preparation for a possible future transplant operation some day.

Surgery Date

K was notified today that her foot surgery will be Friday at Exempla St Joseph Hospital. It was supposed to be a "day" surgery, but the person calling to notify her said she needs to check in on Thursday afternoon, and was unable to explain why.

On a positive note

Our homeowners association held the annual spring cleanup and brunch today. The brunch was held at the house just down the hill from ours, so we got to see what our new deck, with its trellis and roof, looks like from below. Everyone seemed to like it.

Things are coming along swimmingly on the inside as well. The baseboard is installed, and the closets are sprouting shelves. The big room is currently full of freshly painted interior doors, left to dry by the trim people. Here's Mandy exploring the "door art".

I took Mandy for a walk down to Sterne Park this afternoon. I just love the sundial by the rose garden across the street. Mandy wasn't all that interested, but I caught a regal looking profile shot of her standing in front of it.

Bone Infection

K heard back from her Ortho doc (Pino) this morning, before she left for dialysis. The MRI was difficult to read, but he and an associate think they understand it now. It looks like there is a localized infection in a small bone that's between the big toe and the rest of the foot, and that bone must be removed to prevent the infection from spreading. So the good news is that right now it looks like a relatively minor surgery. This will require a day surgery, after which she'll wear a special protective boot for her foot. She'll need to be on daily IV antibiotics, which they'll administer in dialysis (if they don't blow it again). The scheduling is problematic - they can't get her in, until sometime next week, and Dr Pino will be out of town then, so another surgeon will have to do the work.

No news (is tough to bear)

K got to the Ortho doc on Wednesday morning, and he didn't have anything to report. The scan images were available online instantly after the MRI was taken, but he wanted the official interpretation of the scan from whoever does that stuff. So we still don't know the status of her foot. The good news is she's been taking antibiotics since her first meeting with him, and there's a reasonable possibility that any infection is being held in check, or (hopefully) being beaten back. The doc said to call by Monday if we haven't heard anything. My stomach is in knots waiting for this info, when I have time to think about it. I suppose the good news is that I rarely have that kind of time these days.

The Univ of Chicago transplant group called today, to let K know that she's been moved to their "inactive list". The KP transplant coordinator had called them to report that K's foot wounds are still not healed.

Got an MRI appt

The Radiology dept called and had found an appointment for K for Tuesday evening. We'll know more after that. She's got a follow-up appointment with the Ortho doc on Wednesday morning. In the meantime, K is extremely worried and depressed about the possibility of serious foot surgery in the near future. I'm not holding up so well myself.

Foot concerns

K's previously recovered heel has reverted to wound status, but it's not as serious as the balls of her feet, which have both been deteriorating. The right one is looking especially bad. The Ortho doc on Friday thought he could touch bone through the wound with a Q tip. He put her on oral antibiotics and ordered an MRI. He wants it done before the follow up appointment on Wednesday, but the MRI dept doesn't have any openings before next Saturday. Typical. There's so much going on in our life right now, that everything seems to blur together, and it's hard to get anything done, especially when the system doesn't cooperate.

Walk

I took Mandy on a little walk up Lee Gulch to the high school and back. A great Blue Heron flew by, throwing a huge shadow over us for a second, then settled gracefully onto the bank of the gulch, and hopped down to pick at grass and minnows in the creek.

Mandy has this thing about just going right up to the top of any steps we pass by. I think she must've once lived with someone who had a house with steps up to the front door. Either that, or her adventurous soul can't resist the opportunity to see what's up there.

The spring blossoms are coming out beautifully about now. They're looking especially good on the plum and crabapple trees in the front yard.

Railing

The decking is all laid down, and now the railing is going up. The vertical supports will have composite material around them to keep the weather out as much as possible. This Trex material looks really good, and feels wonderful to the bare foot. I'm thinking it will be a real pleasure to wander out there bare footed, and not have to worry about splinters!

Decking

Most of the decking material has been laid down. The ends are ragged, but that's just a matter of buzzing them straight with a saw. This time around, we're opting for composite decking, to eliminate splinters, and also to hopefully extend the service life a little longer than last time.

Textured

It hardly took any time for the basement walls to be textured. The pattern looks really nice.

Primed

The basement walls are all primed and ready to be textured. Here's my office. I'll even have a bit of a view of the Rockies, or at least a little of the Front Range, off to the Southwest.

Deck Supports

They're making rapid progress on the deck now. All the demo work is done, and the new underpinnings are in place. For sure it will be treated wood this time around, so maybe it will last a bit longer.

Walk the Platte

Ken and Freddie and I took Mandy on a walk along the South Platte River to Panera Bread for lunch, on this fine sunny Sunday. In the past, Mandy wouldn't want to get anywhere near the water, but these days she's more than happy to not only lap up some water from the shore, but she also is more than happy to wade through ankle deep water at the beach. She took great interest in a group of people hanging from a nearby tree - probably a class on rope climbing.

Ketring Park

I took Mandy for a little walk around Ketring Park and Gallup Reservoir on this very windy Saturday. She loves the big grassy space, and was particularly fascinated by the guys playing Frisbee with their dog across the grass.

Sheetrock's Up!

The drywall's up and taped, so we're pretty far along. I do miss that feeling of spaciousness, when looking through the empty basement, or even peering between all the open framing. Now we're starting to get a sense of what the space is going to feel like. Here's the hallway. I happened to catch Mandy exploring in the dark. I didn't know she was there, until she showed up in the flash picture :o)

Not too late for snow!

We got a few inches of snow last night. All the trees had a fairyland kind of look to them this morning, all delicately coated in thick white stuff.

Launch of AV014!

We successfully launched AV-014, an Atlas V carrying the ICO mobile communications payload, this afternoon. It was one of those "relatively civilized" countdown schedules, where we worked a mostly normal day.

I took advantage of the nice Spring weather to ride my bike after work, down Lee Gulch and Highline Canal, to the bike shop. I missed them by 5 minutes, but it was a nice short fun ride anyway.

Framed and Insulated

The basement is still progressing. In this stitched panorama picture, just about all the framing is done, but you can still see through all the walls, and get a feeling of lots of space down there. I love that. After all the sawing and other construction activities, we have a fine layer of sawdust over almost everything througout the house. You can see the particles still floating in the basement air, reflecting the flash back at the camera as big suspended blobs.

And then... in the blink of an eye.. it's all insulated and ready for the sheet rock! Here's the South wall. It's already beginning to look so cozy and warm and quiet. I miss being able to see all the pipes and wires up there, but I've mostly let go of needing to have access to all that. We are *so* looking forward to using our new living space, when it finally becomes available.

Infiltration

Sher asked about infiltration. I found this description online at globaldialysis.com: Among the most dramatic and troublesome complications of dialysis is access infiltration. In most cases the infiltration is minor and usually results from either inadequate hemostasis at the end of dialysis or needle perforation through the access site [this is what happened to K]. Extravasation injury to the access is more likely when a needle errantly transfixes a graft or vein or when it accidentally becomes dislodged into the subcutaneous tissue. The venous return needle presents the biggest problem. In the face of typical pump speeds of 400 to 500 mL/min a potentially huge volume of fluid can enter the soft tissue before the pump stops in response to the alarm for elevated venous pressure. In many cases, the graft is unusable for weeks after such an episode. Continued use of the access in this setting may result in loss of the access site.

Progress

K's feet continue to heal, but there are still open wounds. She had an infiltration when they started dialyzing her on Friday, so she had to go back at 5am on Saturday morning to try again. She's been seeing someone to help her breathe better, and it seems to be helping. She tested by going off oxygen last night for several hours, and reported that her O2 saturation was bouncing between 85 and 92. Not perfect, but way better than last year. She'll stay on the supplemental oxygen of course, since she should really be above 95 all the time, and we're convinced the higher O2 level is helping her wounds to heal.

The basement work is proceeding. It's amazing to see, even though we had some idea of what to expect, all the people that are coming and going, and the incremental progress being made. The framers had the initial framing done in a couple of days. Then the heating/mechanical guys got in there, and moved a bunch of heating ducts around. The framers came back, and framed the soffits around the ducts. The central vacuum folks added a few more lines. The plumbing folks decided some things were in the wrong place, and jack hammered up some concrete. The electrical folks routed a bunch of Romex around. It's a virtual whirlwind of activity around here.

Mandy's been entirely unsure of the who, what, where, why, and how of the past few weeks, and has decided that barking at every little noise and every new person will help her feel more comfortable with the process. She quiets down immediately, when I pick her up and let her sprawl across my left arm, and sits contentedly watching the activities from that safe haven. She really looks forward to our occasional walks. Here's a picture of her scoping out new territory, on a berm near the Highline Canal where it passes not far from the Littleton Dialysis Center.

My Sister left today after being here for a couple of weeks. It was really nice to have her here. I sure enjoyed her company while going on some nice long walks, doing a few household fixit jobs, taking a short bike ride, running various errands, and of course watching a bunch of movies.

Starting on Basement

Well... we've finally committed to finishing our basement. I've held back for a long time, thinking we didn't need the living space, and liking the access to pipes and wires down there, but it seems it was just a matter of time, before we got around to customizing the space into something livable. The framers came on Monday, and started out by helping us move the last of our "precious possessions" upstairs into the PODS container and other nooks and crannies around the house. For a moment around noon, we had a completely empty basement - something we haven't seen since 1995. We're very excited about the possibilities the new space will bring.

My sister Otamay arrived last Sunday night, just in time to ride home from the airport in a delightful little snow shower. We've been enjoying taking Mandy with us on some walks on the local trails, the past few days.

MV332 Launch!

We successfully launched MV332, a Delta II rocket carrying the GPS 2R-19 payload, this morning at 2:10am Eastern time, less than 48 hours after our first West coast Atlas V launch, and the same day (well, night, actually) that I got back to work in Denver, after my trip to support the AV-006 launch. That's a lot of excitement (and not much sleep) in a short time period!

AV006 Launch!

We successfully launched AV-006, an Atlas V rocket carrying the NRO's L-28 satellite this morning at 3:02am Pacific time, from Vandenberg AFB. I usually support the launches from Denver, but I was onsite for this one, so I was a little surprised at first, and then thrilled, to hear the rumble of the rocket engines through the ceiling of the launch control center, shortly after liftoff. This was our first Atlas V launch from the new West coast launch pad, and a major milestone for our new ULA company. We're all pretty tired here, after a very shifted work day, but ecstatic all the same.

Missed Opportunity

We were awakened at 5:54 Saturday morning, by a phone call from the University of Chicago. They were calling about a possible match for a kidney/pancreas transplant. K's feet are healing, but the wounds aren't closed, which disqualified her for this opportunity. This is so disappointing.

We spent the day packing up more stuff in the basement, and filling up the crawlspace, as well as starting to fill up our temporary PODS unit. After hours and hours of work, and many trips up the stairs and out the garage, we did make some progress, but looking at the basement, I have a bit of a sinking feeling that we hardly made a dent. K disagrees, and is trying to get me to see that we really did make a huge impact. I just see all the stuff that is still to be done, and it's very daunting.

POD People

I went with K to the wound care person on Thursday afternoon. She doesn't think the wounds need more than the superficial trimming that she was able to do, at least for the moment. All the wounds were smaller than they were the last time she saw them, which helped relieve my anxiety a little.

We spent Friday afternoon packing up stuff in the basement, and taking rubbermaid storage bins out to the PODS container that's now sitting on our driveway. Well, actually, K was in dialysis, while I and our very helpful neighbors Ken and Freddie helped me pack up the Christmas stuff and move it into our recently fixed up crawl space. Then after I picked up K from dialysis, Ken and I started carrying the boves out to the POD. We only got one line of boxes in place at the far end of the POD, about 3 boxes high. It was a lot of work, but the result isn't very impressive. The basement doesn't look very much emptier, either.

Holding My Breath

K tore a big deep chunk out of the bottom of her foot yesterday morning, when removing the bandage to change it. The other older wound isn't looking that good either, in my non-medical opinion. She's trying to get in to see somebody about it, but as usual personal logistics are getting in the way. The wound care person wasn't available when she called. Her PCP doc could only meet with her at 3:15, but today's 10:30-3:30 dialysis schedule pretty much squashes any chance of her getting there on time. She's got a scheduled appointment with the wound care person tomorrow. I'm holding my breath waiting to see how things work out. *Update* K got in to see the doc after dialysis, and he set her up with oral antibiotics. He wasn't certain the old wound was even infected. The wound care person is supposed to evaluate it tomorrow, and determine if surgery is indicated.

PSL Transplant Class

It was cold and windy yesterday, and this morning we have a few inches of snow on the ground, with more drifting down. We spent the better part of yesterday afternoon at Presbyterian Saint Luke's (PSL) introductory Transplant Class with our neighbors. We learned some new things, such as transplant recipients are about 100 times more likely to get some kind of cancer, often skin cancer, which is easily treated if caught early enough. Ugh. In about 10 days, K will be on their kidney recipient list, which will give her a 2nd possible source of an organ replacement. After all that excitement, we decided we needed (!) to have dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.

CA Trip

My trip to the West coast had some travel (delayed and canceled flights) and business (delayed launch) hiccups, but the family part was pretty perfect. I was *so* looking forward to seeing Dorothy in her mostly-recovered state, and wasn't disappointed. I got hugs, went on errands, and went for a night walk around the lake with her. I even sat contentedly on the couch between her and Tyler as they played Eternal Sonata. I got to play Frisbee golf with Bob, something I've sorely missed since the last time we played over a year ago. My original return flight was canceled, because the pilot broke his leg getting off the plane at a previous stop. So I used my two free hours to scramble up Mt San Luis with Bob and Mikele and the dogs. It's a nice easy hike, and there's such a delightful view from up there! We flew through some snow showers on the way into Denver, which was sufficient warning that I wasn't surprised by the cold blast when I walked out of the airport terminal. It figures that this time I had to wait inordinately long for a cab, in a T shirt and light jacket, but at least the ride home was uneventful.