STSSdemo Launched!

We launched (actually I was sleeping, while my delegate provided support) MV-344, a Delta II rocket carrying the STSS-Demo payload, this morning.

Cooling off

K's feeling a little better, after her low glucose of 37 this morning. Mandy and I walked with our neighbors down to Blueberry's for breakfast. It's getting a bit cooler out there, these days.

PAN Launched!

We launched AV-018, an Atlas V carrying the PAN satellite, from Cape Canaveral this afternoon. Check SpaceFlightNow for more details!

Delightful View

I caught this sweet view of the mountains behind the water, while traipsing along the Platte River trail with the dog just now.

Nice Evening

Gorgeous sunset tonight, as seen when coming out of Buck Center, and then walking with Mandy to Dinner -- I'm sitting here enjoying a tasty French Dip sandwich and chicken lemon soup at Abe's, with Baklava for dessert. A little slice of heaven!

K Improving

K started feeling a little better last night - enough to keep some food down. She seemed better still this morning, albeit very groggy, as we left for our walk.

Mandy and I walked with Ken and Freddie again this morning, down to the Post Office to mail back "The Replacements" DVD, and then went hunting for breakfast. We found a new place to try - "The Old Mill" on Rapp St, not far from the college. I had the french toast combo which was excellent. Mandy wasn't allowed inside, even to go through to the deck, so I tied her to the railing near our table on the deck outside, and she had to wait for us where she could see us a few feet away, but not mooch any food. It was excruciating for her, but she/we survived it. ;-)

Another Bad Day

K's still miserable with nausea. Can't hardly move, without getting the dry heaves. She's decided to skip today's dialysis makeup appointment, and push on to the regular appointment on Monday. I'm very concerned about her missing this many days between dialysis. This will be the longest she's gone without. We managed to get her high blood glucose back to the normal range yesterday, and it's been holiding there, which is a really good thing. Now I just have to focus on keeping her from getting too dehydrated.

Mandy and I took an early walk with Ken and Freddie, down to Blueberrys for breakfast. Mandy made some more young friends as we passed through Sterne Park, and even more among those sitting outside on the patio at breakfast. She's really quite the life of the party.

Bad Day for K

K's having a bad day today. She spent last night feeling very nauseas, wandering the house, falling asleep in the strangest places, like standing up in the pantry. This morning she's still very nauseas, and hasn't been able to keep anything down. We canceled her afternoon doctor's appointment, then realized she wasn't going to be able to make it to dialysis either. Luckily they have a slot open tomorrow at noon.

Simple pleasures: Our painter Robert took a shot this morning, at finding the water shutoff valve for our new refrigerator's ice maker. It got buried in the ceiling last year, when the basement was drywalled. I'd been hesitant to cut holes looking for it, for fear of ruining our nice new basement ceiling. He found it behind the first exploratory hole he cut. Genius! Good thing *he* did it, since I would've been looking at least 3 feet away. So now our new filtered water and crushed ice dispenser finally works! First one we've ever had, and we only had to wait a year, to begin using it. We must be grown-ups - we can handle delayed gratification! OK, sometimes we can...

Summer's back, with sunny days and temperatures in the mid-90s. Mandy and I walked down to Blueberry's for lunch on my Friday off. She made quite a few friends of the folks wandering by. I let her off leash, for a lot of the way home. I'm amazed every day, at how well she's staying by my side during our walks. It feels very rewarding, since we've been working on it for quite awhile.

I just happened to pull out this dish towel... and noticed the pattern was more than just an abstract design... which got me thinking about Paris... which got me wondering how Tyler and his friends are doing...

GPS Launched!

We launched D-343, a Delta II carrying the GPS-IIR-21 GPS navigation satellite. This is the "end of an era", since it's the last GPS satellite of this series.

WWW

We had a much nicer breakfast walk today, just downtown and back. We left earlier, on a cooler day, and we avoided the miles-long side trips! We did take a little extra time, to enjoy the downtown activities related to Western Welcome Week. Lots of booths and people everywhere. Mandy liked meeting all the other dogs too.

...still milking the "birthday month" concept, for all it's worth, we had a delightful BD dinner with the Comstocks, at a sidewalk table at Abe's. I took a chance with Mandy, and let her off leash. She was the ultimate in good behavior, and stayed within 5 feet of our table the whole evening. I'm so proud of that little dog, it's just plain silly.

Hot Walk

Mandy and I went walking with Ken late this morning - ostensibly just to Blueberry's for breakfast, and back home. But then we headed out on a mission, to find a replacement thermometer battery. The first three places we looked didn't have any, but we finally found one at Walgreens, after walking several extra miles in 95+ heat. Oh well, that gave us an excuse to stop at DQ for ice cream, and then later at Romancing the Bean for smoothies. We did finally get home alive, hours late! We realized early on we'd blown it, and fell back to plan B, take care of ourselves first. For Mandy that meant stopping at every shady grassy spot, and rolling around to cool off. She was pretty wiped out by the time we got to the light rail station. Here she is, resting on the bench beside me, as we enjoy our smoothies.

Wound Vac Done

Dad and Adele were here just overnight, on their way to an appointment in NY. They made it all the way to Topeka today, and are now safely ensconced at their motel for the night.

K saw the doc today, and they discontinued the wound vacuum. She is SO glad to be rid of that awkward contraption, always tied to her foot with a long tube. It was too much like lugging a ball and chain. The good news is, the left foot is still looking really good. The right foot wound is small enough that the vac isn't helping much any more. But it's big enough that it's still a serious concern.

I ran across a rattlesnake in front of the building, on the way out of work today. After that, as I was driving home, I kept feeling crawly sensations on my legs, and was wondering what the odds are, of a rattler finding its way up into my car in the parking lot, while I'm working away at my desk... That would be a big surprise, to have one come slithering out from under the seat, as I'm driving down a crowded highway!

Hangover

We just got back from seeing Hangover. Funny! And having my free birthday burger at Red Robin. Yum! Mandy was so happy to see us come home. We've hardly gone anywhere without her, over the past two years, but it was too hot today. We asked our nice neighbor Freddie to take her out once, while we were gone. Must be what "parents night out" feels like... complete with the sitter.

I've been wondering about this lump in my throat that makes it hard to swallow, that showed up a few days ago. Coincidentally, it's also tender and slightly swollen under my jaw, where the lymph nodes are. I talked to the nurse at Kaiser this afternoon. Not even close to mumps symptoms. She said lots of bugs are going around, that could cause these symptoms. She said to wait awhile, and see if any other symptoms develop. The good news, is my throat feels quite a bit better tonight. It'll be interesting to see how it is Sunday morning.

DKA

Something we noticed in the hospital discharge instructions: there was another factor we thought was a symptom, but might have caused, or at least exacerbated, everything. She was in Diabetic Keto Acidosis (DKA). The hospital lab said her blood glucose (BG) was around 900 when she was admitted. It had been off scale high since the previous day. We'd been trying to get it down by injecting her with unusually large amounts of Humulog, a powerful short-acting insulin, but with apparently little success, since the number hadn't gotten down enough to register on her little meter, which only reads as high as 600. Symptoms of DKA include most of what she was experiencing, except for the fluid they saw on the lungs in the X-Ray and the CAT scan. We couldn't figure out how her BG got so high in the first place, and had to assume her body was stressed, which we know will drive BG up.

Coming Home Today!

Kristan will be coming home today! She feels much better. The St Joseph and Kaiser docs and nurses will be meeting at 1:30 to formulate her discharge instructions. We already have plans to stop at her favorite sandwich place (Fisher Clark Deli in Bonnie Brae) on the way home.

Dad and Adele are on their way to Green River. They left an hour or so late. It's fun to watch them getting ready to go - Dad packing the car, Adele telling him where her things need to be. They have quite a routine going there.

Power was out at our house for many hours last night. Our neighbors across the street still had power. Seems like we're always the ones to lose power during storms. Must be those darned overgrown trees in the surrounding neighborhoods. One of them must've dropped another branch on a power line, during the most severe part of last night's big storm. We got a lot of rain and hail and wind, in a very short time. That was the most violent storm we've experienced at the house, in the 14 years we've been here. There was even a tornado warning in effect for our area, before, during, and after the time it passed through here. Just a bit unnerving. Even Mandy was a little nervous, and I've never seen her worried about storms or fireworks in the past. She was probably picking up on my elevated level of concern, as I was briefing Dad and Adele on where to take cover, if they heard the sound of a freight train (i.e., a tornado) approaching the house.

Looking Up

We just got back from visiting K at St Joseph hospital. She was doing well, and itchy to start talking discharge with her doctors. Even her nurses were asking if the docs had mentioned it. So we're hoping she may be out of there as soon as tomorrow. I took Dad and Adele to dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange - Denver's original steakhouse - on the way home. They loved it. They'll be "on the road again" tomorrow morning.

Monday Afternoon

K's pain and nausea are both up, but no more than the usual, considering that her med schedule is all jumbled around, while she's in the hospital. We're leaving now to go visit her.

Monday Morning

K called at 7:30 to say she'd be going into dialysis soon. The nausea is much reduced, thank goodness. We're hopeful the worst is over. Thanks to *everyone* who's sending good thoughts - they must be helping! :-)

Sunday Evening

We left K resting semi-comfortably in her half of the room, on the 4th floor of St Joseph hospital. Her roommate seems nice enough, but is a short-timer, heading out soon. Her nausea seems reduced, but still very much a factor. Will check on her in the morning around 9.

K Transferred to St Joseph

We left K in the capable hands of the EMS techs, as they wheeled her out of Littleton Hospital on a gurney, destined for St. Joseph hospital near downtown Denver. She's still very nauseas, still showing some signs of pneumonia, still on antibiotics. We stopped at the house to pick up her fully charged wound vac, and are heading out to St Jo, to make sure she's settling in ok.

Sunday Morning

K's still at Littleton hospital. She's still very nauseas. Had a low blood sugar this morning. The nurse says they'll probably transfer her to a Kaiser hospital today. Don't know where or when. We're heading in to visit now, just to let her know we're around, since she's mostly sleeping.

Saturday Morning

K's nurse says she's doing well. She had a low glucose this morning, which means they've potentially got the glucose under control, so she's off the insulin drip, and back to the usual sliding scale. Her BP was back to a more normal reading. They're still considering the possibility of heart issues being a factor, so they sent her down this morning for an echocardiogram, and later a stress test. She's supposed to get a dialysis treatment this afternoon. The nurse says K is still a little nauseas, and is worried about them transferring her out of ICU too soon. But according to the nurse, nausea isn't reason enough to keep her in ICU, so they'll probably transfer her to the telemetry floor later today.

K Improving

Glad to say, K felt much better, when we went back to see her this afternoon. They'd found signs of pneumonia. Hydration, antibiotics, insulin, all seem to be helping. She's been admitted to ICU, at least for the night. She'll get her Friday dialysis on Saturday morning in ICU. We really like Littleton hospital. She's got a beautiful view from her private room, and the medical staff have been great. Too bad it's only available for emergencies, since Kaiser doesn't have an agreement with them for non-emergency treatment. If she stabilizes, but still needs more time in hospital, they'll probably have to transfer her to St Joseph.

K in Littleton Hospital

Kristan's been intensely sick all last night and this morning. She had high blood pressure and low temperature this morning. Dad and Adele and I took her to Littleton Hospital ER around noon today, which is very conveniently close - about 5 minutes from the house. They're trying to figure out what's going on. Heart and lungs seem healthy. They suspect an infection somewhere, but haven't found it on the outside, so they'll be looking on the inside next, with X-Rays and an MRI.

Visitors

Dad and Adele arrived on the 7th. I'm taking some vacation while they're here. We're not quite as active as previous years. Maybe something about Dad just celebrating his 90th birthday...? :-) Nonetheless, we've been out for a nice 1 mile walk yesterday, and heading out for lunch and a short walk now. K was nauseas this morning, and feeling a little better now.

Wound Vac

In the seemingly never ending quest to get K's foot wounds to heal, she asked Kaiser about using a Wound Vac on her left foot, and they've set her up with one, about a week ago. It's a gadget that creates a low pressure area over the wound, directs drainage into an external canister, and physically pulls the tissues around the wound closer together, which should help the wound to heal.

LCROSS/NRO Launched!

We launched AV-020, an Atlas V carrying the NASA LCROSS/LRO payloads, this evening! This is an amazing mission, looking for water on the Moon in a smashing way! The LRO vehicle will be at the moon in about 4 days, and LCROSS will meet up with it in 5 days, and then again several months later, as the mission culminates in a very dynamic way. The ULA mission brochure is very informative. Also see more pics at SpaceFlightNow's AV-020 page. The NASA website has some good pics and a launch video on their home page, but you may have to search for them, after a few days go by.

Home again

Sigh. I got home from the graduation trip on Sunday evening, after an "interesting" (as in the curse, "May your life be interesting...") travel day. We had a nice quiet dinner and evening with our neighbors Ken and Freddie. Doesn't it figure, on Monday I was so nauseaus I had to stay home from work, just crashed in bed the whole day. No fever, just felt awful. I felt somewhat better Tuesday, so I'm back into the work routine...

Tyler Graduated!

Back to back graduations! Tyler graduated from Cal Poly on Saturday with an MSEE. We are all so proud of him. There were two ceremonies, one big one for the whole college at the stadium, and a much smaller one just for Electrical Engineering on the lawn by the Engineering West building. Both were delightful. Pictures are here.

D Graduated!

Dorothy graduated from high school on Thursday! Woo hoo! Our Miracle Girl! It was a most beautiful day, just a little breezy, and the ceremony went off really well. We were all just bursting with pride. Sumner's pictures are here... Tom's are here... Brighton's are here...