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

Informal Continuation

The grief group that I participated in has officially ended.  On our last official evening two weeks ago, we agreed to have informal meetings every Tuesday just to keep the feeling of being with those of similar mind on a regular basis. 


I have hosted two of these during prior breaks and I immeasurably enjoy the host role.  As we decided on future meetings, I drew last night as my night.  Of our group of 11, seven were able to make it and that is pretty much a quorum these days. 


The event is a potluck so people agreed to bring various components of a well rounded meal. We had two salads, couscous, wine, appetizers, bbq chicken and three kinds of pie for dessert.  I prepared the chicken and cooked it on the grill. I also stretched my culinary skills and made a killer of a marinade for the chicken.  I totally overcooked the chicken because I didn't use my digital thermometer until it was already over 180F so I figured I had chicken shoe leather. But the overnight marinade had made the chicken so moist, it was juicy and tender and a real pleasure to serve and eat!    


Anyway, it was good to see the group and I believe a fun time was had by all!  


Ciao

Another one of those weeks!

As I wrote last week, Sunday evening caused a ramp up of energy and emotion to prepare for the special Sunday evening event. 

What I had not realized because I was focused on preparing for my role and presentation was that there was a series of "must do" events set for the balance of the week.  And, a two-day all-day offsite to start our annual planning cycle.  Just a lot of work!   

Saturday was ACT's "Tales of the City".  A fantastic bit of theater and musical.  If you have a chance, please, please go see it.  Click here to visit ACT.  I wrote about my daughter's visit in early May, I mentioned we had attended a reading by Armistead Maupin of his new book. He is the author of "Tales" and he was a joy to hear.  Well, I attend a Saturday series that includes an optional luncheon for donors to the theater.  I decided to attend the luncheon on Saturday and Armistead was the featured speaker.  He is just a kick, full of life and absolutely funny! 

The Tuesday grief group program has terminated per the normal practice of Pathways. So, my group has decided that we should continue to meet unofficially and informally.  We have three Tuesdays planned for this month and the first will be held at my place.  I spent a good portion of today cleaning the deck in case the weather cooperates and we can eat outside.  Tomorrow the Maids clean the inside of the house so things should be absolutely perfect for my guests. 

Shawna keeps rolling along! No drama this week although she has started her old behavior of barking and dancing when its dinner time.  She stopped doing that some time ago.  To see her doing her old "high energy" pre-meal ceremony is heartwarming.  (Think of the comic strip "Peanuts" and the dance that Snoopy does as Charlie Brown brings the feeding bowl.) Both dogs have been good and I have only had to clean up one wet spot when we had a touch of rain earlier in the week.  

I am still having my massage on Friday evenings. If you need a massage, please call or contact Ingrid at Massage Rescue (click here). She is a miracle worker!  If you do visit the website, you also will see I have a second career! 

This coming week is more normal at work, if we only knew what "more normal" was!

Ciao! 

It Is Done!

One of the many events held internally by my employer is a tutorial about our various businesses on the eve of the regular board meetings.  For this board meeting, the group I work for was to provide the tutorials and tours.  

I was tapped to give one of the three 20 minute tutorials. Well, describing our very complex high tech business in 20 minutes is no simple task. I spent the better part of last week trying to figure out the essence of what I needed to say. And, I had a prior speaker that was going to discuss certain topics so I could build on his materials. And, I was followed by a tour of our Development facilities so I could have our tour guide cover other key points. In addition, the head of our overall unit is presenting on Tuesday morning and the board wants those materials on the weekend before the meeting. And we had to be aligned with his content.

This meant last week was hell week. Early starts, late days and by Saturday I was exhausted. Hey, Tuesday morning after Memorial day was an 8AM must attend meeting. Sure put a stop on Monday night activities so I could get up on time for the meeting.  I work with a bunch of workaholics, the last email transmission of material for the session today was at 1:10AM today (Sunday). We were to start at 5:30PM-ish so we assembled at 4PM to make sure everything was ready for the event. 

The bottom line is that it went well--very well.  Some of the speakers don't know how to manage time but the board was ok with it. I held to my time budget and lead the tours as planned. The kudo's at the end of the session were greatly appreciated!  

I got home at about 10PM, fed the dogs and am writing this blog to relax a bit before I head for bed.  Next meeting is at 9AM and that extra hour feels pretty good right now. 

Unfortunately, what I needed to get done this past week has not been done because this has been so all consuming.  The dishwasher from Monday night is still not unloaded.  I couldn't believe it when I went looking for a particular dish and it wasn't in the cabinet and I found it in the dishwasher (clean) from four days prior!  I am scraping for clean clothes because I haven't had time to do the laundry, I don't want to listen to the machines while I try to fall asleep either. However, by starting with the color of undershirts (only black left) and selecting the right dress shirt (allowing blue socks with a black undershirt), I can go for Mon and Tues and that gives me time to solve the problem. I got some of my grocery shopping and errands done but I am about to run out of a very special dog treat and I will be in big trouble if I don't have that! I didn't get to farmers' market today so I missed my fish. Darn it!  

And to top it all off, we've had record rainfall in Silicon Valley in the past 48 hours.  We are supposed to be in full summer which around here means no rain until November or December (sprinkles allowed in October).  But this year its just not working out that way!  

That's all for now! 

Ciao

p

Rainy Saturday

It has been pouring all morning. Well, at least since I woke up. I could not sleep last night and was awake until 3 or so. That meant a late wake up for me. The dogs were fed about 11 and I have taken my time starting my day. But I need to begin my Saturday errands soon. While finishing my latte, I found my over active, hyper, bundle of energy dogs at my feet.




And white dog (aka Wiggles) snores!

Pat

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