Surprise Visitors!

My good friends and coworkers Thomas and Susan dropped in this week. Susan's family lives in Reno so after the big Semicon trade show they often take time to visit her family. Otherwise, its tough to do when you live in Dresden Germany.

Thomas loves fast sets of wheels and their multi car garage in Germany is filled with all sorts of fun machinery. Well, Thomas also bought a Harley motorcycle and keeps it at Mom's place in Reno. Thus, the need to drop in this week. His bike needed a special tuning process and the place to have that done is about a mile from my house. So, Thomas made an appointment and they drove down from Reno on Thursday morning to make the special tuning appointment.

2011-07 Various

From there, they went grocery shopping for a nice BBQ dinner in exchange for the use of Humette and my guest room. Wonderful! We had a great diner of filet mignon, corn on the cob, green salad and fresh bread on the back deck. Ingrid also dropped in after work to say hello to Thomas and Susan again and to discuss visiting them during her next trip to Germany--although because of her diet, she did not fully partake of the BBQ feast.

I must admit, however, that the timing was not quite right. The Maids were supposed to be in on Wednesday and that would have been perfect because the house would have been immaculate. Unfortunately, I cancelled them because of my cold/flu and I did not want the task of preparing for them on Tuesday. Now, the place was presentable because of my clean up on Wednesday evening but it wasn't AAA rated! So, at some point during the evening, Susan grabbed my vacuum and worked on the dust bunnies!



Thomas, Susan and I, along with a bottle of wine (or was it two?) then finished the evening sitting in my dining room solving the problems of the world until the wee hours of the morning.



It was sooo good to see them! I hope his bike needs that tuning process frequently!


Thomas and Susan heading back to Reno on Friday morning! A Harley makes a lovely wake up call for the neighborhood! Fortunately, this was about 9:30 in the morning so it wasn't tooo bad.

Pat

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Location:Los Gatos

Better and Worse

On Sunday, I developed a rather substantial chill, which I assume means I also suffered from a fever. It had me down and out for almost seven hours.  This cold-flu thing is really a bother!  I did not go to work today although I felt pretty good when I awoke.  But, once I got out of bed, I found myself a touch wobbly and decided driving and contaminating my coworkers was not a good idea. After lunch I did find myself napping for a couple of hours so clearly the body is not ready for the office.

I did something very tough today. I notified FaceBook that Mary's FB page should be converted to a memorial because she died.  They have a mechanism to do that so it is happening now. I also went to change my profile to "widowed" but the software says my relationship to Mary will be severed. That I cannot do. So I haven't changed it. 

Also, I read the original blog for the month of July 2009. That was a good time. At the beginning of the month, Mary was feeling pretty darn good after the liver surgery. But then the radiation and chemo started and her strength was sapped away day by day.  I know she enjoyed what we did--just 'normal' stuff, Farmers Market followed by breakfast with friends, cooking at home and taking care of the dogs. Such simplicity but such joy for her--and for me. 

If you'd like to revisit July of 2009, click here.

My Alaska cruise friends jumped into help these last few days.  MaryR asked if there was something she could do for me while I was feeling so poorly.  I asked her to pick up some milk and saltines. I had Campbell's chicken noodle soup that needed saltines and the milk is for lattes and cereal.  She commented that I had given her the same shopping list in the early '90s when Mary was still living in Arizona and I was down with a bug of some sort.  Ingrid was shocked when I said I had Campbell's chicken noodle soup in the house. She delivered a supply of home-made German chicken noodle soup to keep me going.  I have several meals left. 

From 2010 Alaska

All in all, I am feeling better. I see the eye doctor on Wednesday and I assume that will let me sleep flat again. I am still sleeping in an upright position.  And, I am hoping I don't need to see my primary care physician because the flu-cold thingy will be gone! 

Ciao, 

p

Sick of being sick

By now, you have read about my eye problem.  On Wednesday next week, I see the eye surgeon (laser boy) and I expect to get a green light--no pun intended.  Tuesday morning I woke with a sore throat and although I didn't notice it all day, I noticed again as I went to sleep. On Wednesday morning, I knew it was a real sore throat and companion sinus cold.  Yuck. 

On Tuesday, I went to work all day because I had scheduled myself to the annual trade show, SEMICON West (click here), in San Francisco.  On Wednesday, I had planned on working in the office and by mid-afternoon my body was screaming to go lay down (or sit up in my case because of my eye).  I started Mucinex and have had a restful 24 hours so far. I hope I am feeling better enough to go to work tomorrow.  I just fixed my first meal of the day, a can of Campbell's finest chicken soup.  That matches yesterday when I had a can of Campbell's finest chicken soup.  Is there an echo in here?  I am just not hungry. 

Shawna continues to be an old dog. (Umm, excuse me, what else would she do?)  Anyway, she is now exhibiting signs that are causing me concern.  I have had to do clean up in the house daily this week.  My last trip to the vet included the purchase of a candle that is supposed to mask doggie odors. Boy, am I glad I bought that candle!  

But the fact that she is losing control of her essential functions is very concerning.  Clearly, the signals are not reaching her brain in time for her to react and get outside. Worse, when I take her out or send her out, she 'locks up' and refuses to deliver.  (How is that for euphemistic writing?)

The last time I saw the vet, she was very emphatic about Shawna being an old dog. For a couple of weeks recently, she was full of energy, dancing and running around like she was a puppy. These recent days, she is moving slow, having accidents and I often find her searching the house.  She stops the search when I touch her head or back and then she realizes which shadow she is seeing is me. Translation, I think her eyesight is pretty much gone.  

On the other hand, Wiggles is being Wiggles. Loud, noisy and brash, that dog is full of piss and vinegar.  And, she manages to start her barking campaign immediately upon my answering the phone.  Its gotten to the point that my callers say, "Oh, I'm glad I got you. I can tell because the dog is barking."  Nice, eh? I think I'll record my answering message while she is barking and really fool 'em! 

Anyway, I am expecting things to get better over the next couple of weeks.  The cold will run its course and the eye problem should get a green light next week.  Oh, to lay flat in a bed or have a massage at Ingrid's salon (click here.)!  

Ciao

p

It is ok, just cloudy!

And I don't mean the weather.

The Doc spent quite a bit of time inspecting my eye today. His conclusion is 1) the laser repair was done correctly, the retinal tear is fixed and everything looks just fine, and 2) there is quite a bit of dispersed blood floating around inside my eyeball...

So what does one do with dispersed blood floating around in your eyeball? Let see, the number of choices are limited to 1) do nothing and wait or 2) wait and do nothing.

It took me a while but I decided on number 1.

He also requested that I continue to not lay flat--sleeping upright is on my agenda. I never guessed that one of the things I would long for is to simply lay flat on a bed, couch or massage table. All of that is off limits for a while.

OK Doc, if I do lay flat, what happens? "Well, nothing may happen but it increases the possibility of further retinal damage..." I interrupted him at that point and agreed to be a good boy.

"Oh, and nothing more strenuous than walking" he added. Excuse me? You are a Doctor and you don't want me to do anything more strenuous than walking? Wow! He admitted that he'd rather have me on an exercise regimen but until the eye is totally solid, he wants me to be sedentary. OK, I can do that!

As a result of all this, my left eye is sending images to my brain that makes me think I am in a thick San Francisco fog at all times. There is no fog because the other eye is crystal clear. The dispersed blood will dissipate over time and it may take up to 8 weeks--or two months--whichever comes first.

The bottom line? Everything is fine, I will get better and my vision will return to a good state after a bit of time. My next visit with the Doc is in two weeks and we'll make decisions then on my ability to lay flat and work on my sedentary lifestyle.

Ciao,

p

Lazy, lazy...

Nothing terribly exciting happening since Shawna was doing laps in the hot tub.  


Well, unless you include the flashes and floaters (F&Fs) in my left eye that caused me to go to my regular Ophthalmologist on Thursday. He had the unmitigated gall to cancel my trip to Arizona to visit Tim and Charlize because he insisted on laser surgery ASAP. And no big changes in pressure (airplanes are equivalent to being on a 8,000 to 10,000 ft mountain) so no airplanes for a while.  


Anyway, my F&Fs started sort of Tuesday night--you know, the kind of thing where you say, "Are these real flashes or am I imagining it?"   Maybe the flashes were causing me to think they were real by Wednesday.  But when I woke up on Thursday morning and there was this big dark floater covering about a third of my left eye's vision, I decided it was time to see the doc.  


That's when he cancelled my plans for the weekend and sent me to a laser surgeon "no later than tomorrow."  


Well, the laser surgeon is a well qualified MD. Very nice and very gentle until he started launching his photon torpedos into my left eye. OMG, talk about seeing the light!  


He said something about my fair Irish skin and how it meant the retina in my eye also lacked some typical pigmentation.  That lack meant he had to carpet bomb the tear in my retina to get everything to stick properly!  Yowza!  


I spent a quiet weekend holding my head vertical per the doctor's orders, even when sleeping.  All those years flying coach class means I have an acquired skill that helps out at times like these.  


So what was going on?  My left eye is apparently in the process of the vitreous fluid collapsing--a very normal thing for those of us in the 60-65 age group. When it does, it sometimes tears the retina.  The laser surgery is to weld the retina and stop the tearing.  The tear can lead to partial blindness. And, the tear exposes the back of the retina to the fluid in the eye and that can lead to retinal detachment--aka blindness. Serious stuff. In my case, I added a slight complication because the tear also ripped a blood vessel. The large dark floater I saw on Thursday morning was apparently a big blob of blood floating in the eye.  


So far, I haven't detected flashes at all. Floaters do come and go and my eye is 'cloudy' so I talked to the doc this morning. His assessment is that there was a lot of blood in the eye and it would make the fluid cloudy  but the blood will absorb and disappear in a few days. But, to be safe, he will see me tomorrow just to 'check things out.'  The fact he did not insist on today gave me some confidence the cloudiness is not a big deal given the nature of my retinal tear.  


Shauna keeps rolling along. It is so hard to believe that dog is 17.5 years old!  She bounds up and down the stairs to the dog run. And, she does her circle dance when food is being prepared.  Just an amazing dog!  


The weather this past week has been really strange. Rain a week ago. We don't get no stinkin' rain between April and October!  We did last week.  And, temperatures in the 90s over the weekend and into today.  For us, 90s is incredibly hot...


Ciao, 


p