Side Tracked

 So, you might have noticed that I was absent for a week.

Not on purpose, mind you.

But just a product of my body failing again,

And God saying, 

"No, not yet ..."

I went to my cardiologist for answer to the question of why is my left leg healing so slowly?

Next thing I know,

I am on table and surgical staff are talking about whether to restart my heart again!

Yeah it utterly stopped four times!

A two hourr exam became a solid day in critical care and a lost week!

In the end, we did find I had no open arteries to my left leg.

They opened them again.

So, with restored blood flow shpild come restored healing to my left foot!

Guess we will see!

Screening

So, if it is not one thing - it is obviously another!
The past five years have been health disaster after another!
So, how do you follow that up?
Obviously with another health issue!

Yeah, this time cancer.

So, I went to tje doctor back in May with pains and swellings.
He referred me to a cancer screener for the local hospital.
Oh lovely.
Just lovely.
When you catch up with me in Heaven. ask me how i feel about cancer!

Been through it 7 times,
Each time different,
Each time it went into remission - surprisingly.
That includes one episode where Kris gave up!

Yeah, I had ben in unbelievable pain for weeks,
The specialists all gave me under 3 months to live,
That was 30 years ago!

And a very grateful Kris watched in real time as the tumors shrank!
Very surrealistic!

Of course my diagnosis, this time, and request for an MRI was back in April.
And no one was doing MRIs!

And  today, I finally was in queue long enough to warrant booking a cancer exam!
Gees, sure glad it is nothing fatal like some over hyped flu variety!!!!!!!
So you take your narcotic pain killers and curse stupid politicians!

That is what will be keeping me busy for the next two weeks!
(I think I am going to go throw up from thinking bout this!)

More Tests

Oh sigh, I am so tired of doctors!
ARGH!!!!!!!

So, I was told to go see my cardiologist for a post surgery exam.
Well, I kind of was wondering when they were going to examine their handy work!
So duly washed down my torso.

They ushered me in and told me to drop my pants!
WTHeck???????
So the technician explained this was an arterial scan of my legs.
I sighed, found a chair and stripped.
And tjhen he hit me with the jelly!@

OMG!
I thought I was going to die I was laughing so hard from the tickle!
I thought I would certainly lose bladder control if nothing less!
Luckily, he did not linger on the most ticklish areas!
WHEW!

And was it.

two point 5 hours in the door to our the door for a five minute ultrasound!
Sure glad I am retired,
With nothing better to do than see doctors!

This morning was more corrective surgery to keep the regrowth in check.
Front of the foot is almost completely healed.
As is the toes.
Only the heel area needs to complete its regrowth.
Stem cells maybe cool but awfully slow in completion!

Really looking forward to Saturday and no external time constraints!
Gonna redo my painting then .....

Bummer

So the results did not come in!
So much for the two day turn around!
I guess that Pierce County turned in so many blood samples that it will now be Wednesday
before my test results will be available!
sigh .....

In other news:
I had my wound care on the foot today.
It was painful, as usual.
No way around that when you are regrowing a foot and breaking new ground medically.
I also had the second graft of new skin to the heel area of the foot.
So, it continues ...

Rather a full day.
Time for pain pills.

Yippee!

Went into the wound care clinic, one of only one let in that hour!
So sat down for my weekly foot wound care process.
The doctor inspects the wound, takes some measurements and comments,
"Well you are still at a pont where a skin graft would accellerate your healing.
Interested?"

(Oh no, I like all the almost daily attention
i get, lets open the wound back up!)

Heck yes, I want the skin graft, even if my co-pay is $530!
(Of course if I could get the local coin shop to open I could sell one of my yummy pieces and easily raise the cash!
... sigh ...

So, he did it right there on the spot!
And it was a big nothing!
It was comparable to laying a pieces of tissue against your skin, taping it down, and done!
No shots,
No pain,
No lollipop!
As I said a big nothing!

Of course, no walking either.

Tomorrow I am once again being fitted with an "air walker" boot.
which takes the weight off the foot and puts it on your ankle.
So we will see how that goes!

Over Reaction

So our worthless Governor put his foot in it again.
You would think that people are desperate to catch this disease.
Please, please, let me get to play a victim!

 So, here in King County, everything is shut down!
Need to eat out?
Too bad.
Want to exercise or swim?
Too bad.
Want to go shopping?
Too bad!
Want to do ANYTHING in public?
Too bad!

Youngest daughter somehow got wind of this
and did a big shopping for us.
Just missing toilet paper now!

Hospitals In Seattle

So with all of my excitement over 2019, I was a bit taken back by changes in the Seattle medical field!

I was in college when I first had to use a hospital - stupid here, tangled with a roll of razor wire, aka concertina wire.
The powers that be shipped ASAP to the nearest Emergency Room, Highline Hospital!
Two of the core-men passed out, as did my Sargent!

The razor wire had caught me behind the right  elbow, around rhe arm and down to the first knuckle of the thumb.
132 Stitches and it almost looked like an arm.

With only the two core-men on its side, Fort Lewis' medical team got a big FAIL from me.
Highline got a PASS.
And no matter where I was living in the world, or staying at the time, I held off treatment until I could get to Seattle and Highline!
The worse it ever was, was the day the Polish government failed and I was injured and trapped by politics.  28 hours to get them t
o release me and 10 more to make it back.  In the meantime I was calling and getting apppointments so there would be no hang-ups!  Being a medical emergency has its advantages, with most governments.

In 2015, I again needed medical help and Swedish was the choice, since the best surgeon in the Seattle area did not work in the Highline Hospital.  Weird but what-ever.

And Swedish became my hospital of choice!  Except that their nursing staff was straight out of a Nazi horror film!  It really was not funny and I swore never again!

Come 2016 and I needed some heart tests that were done by UW Medicine and Swedish.  This time around, both got a passing score.

Now we come to 2019 and my how medicine has changed!

In 2018, I bought my insurance and 90 days later my policy was rolled up into a HMSO. As explained it seemed to be no big deal, just more paperwork for everyone!  But in 2019 that concept was failing badly!  Virtually ever doctor I relied on - retired or now works for Loew's Hardware!  The new batch simply will not play the HMSO game and referrals are impossible to get.  Further, hospitals have collectivized and list of "I don't work with group"
creates a bit of a problem.

So some examples:
We knew in August I would need heart surgery.
I got my team lined up, even hassled through the facility issues!
The approval came 5 days after my aorta had ruptured and all work was done last day of October as an emergency!
2.5 months for heart failure work!
REALLY?

I will never deal with an HSMO again .....

Then it seems that Highline, my hospital of choice for most of my life, no longer actually does medical stuff.  They will do bandages and kiss your boo-boo's.  But injuries are shipped to Harbor View in Seattle!

The staff are happy at Harbor View.
The in room food is pretty good to.
The nursing staff understand you are a living breathing paycheck for them!

But best of all - they talk to you!
Yes, they ask questions, they listen to answers and they speak English!  No big uncommon words last used by some veterinarian at the Battle of Sparta!

So, it is a pain to get to, but they are now my hospital of choice!

2019

So much has happened in 2019!

Of course, it all revolves around my heart and its problems.

In February I had another heart attack!  And it was a bad one!  In fact, I did not recover from it.  Randomly, my heart began failing.  As the year progressed, the failures came be more frequent.  But the hospital just wrote me off as a complainer!  Finally in August, after a particularly bad event - Gaelic Girl marched into my heart doctor’s office and confronted him, face to face!

He was so embarrassed, that he reopened my files.

By the time he was done with me, they had found the problem, a blocked artery in my heart.

Further testing showed four of the arteries were blocked and I had a bad valve as well!

They installed four stents to reopen the arteries - but the failures continued.

So I was scheduled for open heart surgery in October!

My heart continued to grow weaker and by the time of surgery my heart failed four times the day before!

If that was not enough excitement, my lungs failed in August and I was on pressurized air just to breathe!

I could not sleep either, for I would choke by even leaning backwards!

And I could not talk as I could only say, Yes and No.

Sigh …….

On the day of surgery, the doctor again recounted at how there was little hope for success, death was almost assured!

However, the drugs they used on me put me in a coma!

I came out of the coma two days later with no surgery done!

They thought I would die, so just waited!  Really?!!!!?

Sigh ……

So a week later they tried again.

When they cut into my chest, again, the major artery ruptured and a blew a nickel sized hard ball of whatever the blockage was - at the doctor!  He was filming and so has a movie of this!  By the next day, everyone in the nursing stations had copies of it on their computers!

And the blockage contained four stents!

Four arteries had to be replaced in the heart and a valve clipped (not sure what this means).

I spent a month recovering from this.

Then somehow my left foot was badly chemically burned!

No idea how.  I know I did not do it!

So, I have been in recovery from this since the end of November and at least 3 to 6 months more to go!

Large parts of the bottom of the foot had to be removed and are now re-growing!

Sigh …….

So, God certainly has been with me - just too many opportunities to die not happening!

Most people in my church are in awe at just how true this is!

Of course, those whom think I really am Satan - still do…..

Last week, my mind finally cleared enough to think again.

In fact I can see how my mind began to fail 12 years ago!          

Probably the oxygen issue but I was unaware of it at the time.

I am just glad 2019 is finally over!

And I am on the rebound.

Nope

Yeah, well last post would leave one to think I was on the rebound ...
Unfortunately, Ii did not make it to dinner without being hauled
back into ER.I am not a fan of either needles or ERs ....
Yet that is  where two weks were lived.

And yesterday, Sunday, I was rushed back into ER!
Nothing like going down in the middle of your chrch's worship service!!!!!
I figured that someone doing communion saw I was out of it and called the Medics.
Nope,
Sharp eyed guard, who I joke with,
Saw that my color went from its usual yellow brown to ash white!
And he had called it in before I even hit the floor!

So my blood pressure had dropped to 58/0!
Yeah, a mite low!
By the end of Sunday, they had figured out why ....
And this afternoon I get to chew a doctor's hinny!
Not sure I can stay angry
So very tired ,,,,

Missing Church

Been quite a few weeks since I have been able breathe well enough to to make it through a service.
ON a lone tank of air!
Much less lunch afterwareds
And a drive home.
sigh

still battling low air supply to lungs.
soooooo dizzy!

Bag Valve, Mask

When I was in the Explorers, my Post was a Medical unit with a very experienced doctor as our mentor.
So, a group of stoners with a few interested in medicine.
Okay, I was interested in learning all I could about medicine.

And in the ten years I was with Rocky Mountain Rescue, \
I got lots of practice.
I used to joke that delivering a baby was the only thing I had never done,
Which is not to say I was I was an unwilling participant in 7th grade,
when our science teacher collapsed in the classroom doorway as the
freoght train  her baby was on came a rushin on!
Oh, the things that lady screamed!


Yeah, made a huge impression!

Anyway, sorry about the rabbit trail!
So, one piece of equipment I had learned was a bag, valve, mask.
Really useful when people stop breathing!
So, with all of my lung problems,
I ordered one.

It came today,
Super simple to use
And with my breathing difficulties,
Smooths my rhythm right out!

Now when will I be getting my oxygen?

Long Awaited Day

Yes, it has been a horrible three months to reach today!
But, this afternoon, I will be finally tested as to my need for full time oxygen!
It is such a battle!, even getting just a few hours of sleep!
Much less trying to not pass out in meetings or other activities requiring consciousness!

So,I will catch you on what happens, tomorrow!

I am guessing that I really must be looking bad,
As women, too numerous to mention,
Have gone out of their way yo talk with me!
Thankfully, none have been as touchy as my dentist was!

I am just not a touchy kind of person!

I guess I cab be with my children,
But that is about it.

Well, I fear my lungs are going out again,
Taking my brain with them!
I will correct thge errors later,
So very tired now ...

Down

Blinked and the day was gone.
Seriously.

Don't know if I passed out
Or fell back to a deep sleep.
But, when I came to,
It was time for bed!

Yeah, I slept through the night away as well.

Shut Down

By the time you read this,
What is left of my brain should  be permanently in la-la-land!

I am so oxygenn starved that the brain just is not working!
No long term memory,
Short term went out this morning,
I puff
I wheeze,
I cough,
and NO doctor understands my need for oxygen!

I also find myself limited to a single thought at a time!
So, frustrating.

Not sure how to keep blogging when a single sentence is all i have at any given timr.......

Surprise!

And not of in the good way!

So Wednesday, I reported to my painting class.

As I started to squeeze paint onto my palette,
I blinked and found I was suddenly nose down on the paint palette!
And I was completely covered in oil paint!

So, after much cleaning I was looking human again,
Although more blue than usual!
But incredibly dizzy.
So much so eating was out of the question!

A very rough day!

Now for months I have been complaining about my breathing not being right,
But NO doctor wants to hear about that!
So to my personal doctor I went and demanded a blood test for anemia.
(NEEDLES!)

Then to the heart doctor to request a heart function review.
But he said he had just done this with his colleges,
They had all voted a minimum of a three way bypass - ASAP!
Oh, @#$%^&* !

Next up, the odd kidney doctor.
She already had heard of the cardiologists' ideas on how to fix Kris' wagon!
So she is looking at getting me oxygen at home.

Looks like I can be breathing again, next week!
sigh

So, I have a meet the surgeon meeting set up in July.
That was his first opening!
Sure hope the ticker lasts that long!
Of course, if not, I get to go home home without undergoing the horror of open heart surgery ....
But it would be nice to make it to real retirement first ....

Ticker

So yesterday was my testing for the old ticker.
Short story, heart is just fine!
Rest of the body, not so much.

First up, they could not take me, due to my breathing.
So, they put me on a breathing treatment.
Cleared up the lungs!

But, the hospital had an Emergency Room demand for my cardiologist's skills!
So now came the wait for 4 hours!
Poor doctor, he had to be  exhausted!
The nurses whom prepped me amused themselves.
Heather, whom I think like me, busier herself drawing hearts allover my foot!
Very cute.

So, they got me in and set up.
The assistants were hilarious!
We laughed so much!
Poor jokes ruled!

Since they did not knock me out:
I got to see it all
All the scans
All the dialog
And all the bad jokes!

I almost lost it when one of the technicians commented,
"We overshot, but found some ear wax!!"
Everyone had a chuckle!

Net result of 12 hours in the hospital:
Heart is just fine
Prior stents look great

But, I am horribly anemic!
And no one said anything
To anyone  across months of blood tests!

So no one put my anemia up with:
All of the heart failures
All of the times I pass out
The utter lack of energy!         

So, working on the anemia next!

Yesterday

So I had heart surgery.
I am expecting God is not done with me yet.
So, in all likely hood I survived.

My heart had become quite a problem since the February heart attack.
My walking was limited to 120 feet on a good day,
Only five or six steps on bad days.
My lungs were continually filling with fluid,
The heart too weak to draw it off.
Monday in gym class they pulled me off the machines.
I could only do 90 seconds!
And mr heart rate was just a tick below a full on heart attack!

Yeah, I was whipped!

So, whatever they end up doing has got to be an improvement!

If it is an easy procedure, I will be out to day.
If it turns into open heart surgfery,
Well I will get back to you in a few weeks!

'til then ...

Oh Pooey!

Well certainly God has been merciful across all of the health issues I have struggled with!
I just plod along through life.
Mostly okay,
Albeit, continually with no memory!

However, I started the Cardio Rehab program at the local heart health institute.
And the results were a bit surprising.

It seems that Kris' 2015 stroke during surgery was not without physical cost!

Yeah, I finishing up my routines,
About ten minutes left to go,
When my left side just failed me.

It was like we had pushed too hard,
And now the limbs were rebelling!
 No, it  was not another stroke.
So, it could only be from 2015!
Dagnabbit!

So, like my father before me,
And his father before him,
I get the joys of restricted motion,
Twenty years before either of them!
As well as, no brain to go with it.

Sigh ....

One is tempted to question if my life expectancy will be shortened as well.
In which casr next year would be it for me,
Following the twenty year loss idea.

But, as God has made plainly evident to me:
My Days are in His more than capable hands,
Not mine!

Four And Counting

Well, this past five days has seen me stricken by four heart attacks, one of significance.
sigh ....
Dang those  parental genes!
But, given I have out lived most of my male ancestors by 25 years now .......
sigh

So, much downtime.
rying to take it easy but....
Even loading the dishwasher was too much last night.

Too much TV, but then, what else can I do that will not raise blood pressure?

Been watching a Russian mystery show, Anna Detective.
But, I think it is really Annette Detective.
And the Russian is off from the Russian I cannot recall.
But, I understand the dialogue, which does not match the translation given!
Maybe there is more than one variety of Russian?
No idea.
But I know that the greetings and numbers are not as stated!

I have often thought of my great-grandfather Scott.
His father was fabulous rich due to the family distillery.
Sent to Oxford.
Doctorate in Theology.
And he utterly lost his faith ... from my perspective.

the 19th century saw the rise of "The German Higher Criticism".
Nothingt those attacking! more than taking scripture out of reference,
Twisting it to fit an atheistic viewpoint,
Then going back to prove the Bible is false.

Most the religious problems today,
Date back to garbage published in the 1860 - 1885,
And though discreditted by people with knowlewdge,
Those with another agenda hjust keep coming back with the same charges again the Bible!

And, the defense did discredit those charges at the time.
But you see, it is the defenders of the faith whom have the agends,
No those attacking!

So, though Europe had a strong God conscience,
It was hard for the average man, or woman,
To know whom or what to trust!
Arise Charles Darwin in this belief void, and the die was struck.
Which we still struggle under in Western society.

So, Great-grandfather Scott, although thoroughly immersed in Christian thought,
Turned to mysticism in his life.
True, today it would have been recognized as demkonism.
But, at the time, it was but cool things that seem to work!

And so Anna Detective, reflects.
A non-God centered view of everyday life and faith.
Obviously written by those with NO understanding of the 19th century Russian Orthodox faith!
So, it nibbles around the edges but is unable to deal with the trappings of orthodoxy!
The very basis of the Russian rural life is stripped out,
With nothing to replace it.

So, you end up with a Ghost Whisperer kind of shoe.
But, this one is interesting,
Dealing with issues as current, as they were 100 years ago!

I would recommend the show,
But I seriously doubt anyone,
Other than me would sit through it!

Monday

So, went to Fred Meyers for a little shopping
I wanted to make my pasta salad for dinner.
And on Wednesday, a dessert for an old farts dinner I wanted to attend.
Alas, none of my plans were to be!

About 1 hour into my shopping,
I was downed by another heart attack!
Dang!

So, was not able to make any dinner, nor dessert, etc.
Maybe on Wednesday?
If I stay home and I take life easier than I would prefer?

Anyway, I got the bill for the February big heart failure: $64,000!
Yozza!
That hurts!
Luckily I have exception health coverage!
So, I will only get stung for $1,000!

Still hurts though!

As for the pasta salad, I will have to figure out how to make it with minimal sodium!
And the desseert?
Well, none for me!
Maybe I will lick out the bowl .....

Sorry no guarantee of further posts this week.
I really have to be good and rest!