Sunday about 10AM light, wet snow starts falling and looks like it might continue. Seattle area still remembers snow armageddon from couple years ago; and record area freeze for days last year. So local news has been devoting large portion of their broadcasts to being prepared. Plus live reports from highway passes even when roads clear. Snow picks up and leaves over inch of wet snow on ground/decks. But since temps are in high 40’s snow immediately melts and is 90% gone by dinner. Now hoping wet surfaces don’t turn to ice overnight.
Monday wake-up to one inch of snow on ground/decks that fell overnight; most of it melts by lunch. Snows off and on thru day in other parts of local area. And as usual, Seattle area overreacts; Dan clears large deck of snow.
Tuesday wake-up to another 1-1/2 inch of new snow and now sub-freezing temp. Snow starts to melt but temps drop and prevents full melting; Dan removes half the snow from large deck.
Wednesday, 05FEB, wake up to 3 inches of snow, and now because freeing night temps, ice under most of it☹ Dan shovels entire big deck. Now weather person is saying more snow tonight and maybe heaviest yet? Of course light drizzle starts after Dan shovels, ensuring that deck will have thin coat of ice when temps drop.
Thursday again wake-up to two inches of new snow on deck and ground. This time Dan just shovels bare minimum to have walkways on deck and in yard cleared. Dan gets eye test at Fred Meyers. He already knows near vision pretty bad and always carries costco reading glasses. Pays extra for state of the art pics of retinas, and orders photogray sunglasses with reading bifocal.
Friday no new snow but snow and decks that were “wet” yesterday are now frozen. So Dan clears rest of big deck and hopes no more new stuff. Plus sub-freezing temps tonite will make everything icy☹
Saturday morning wake up to 1/2 inch of wet snow on decks and ground; temp in mid 30’s. Dan removes all snow from large and small deck. Fingers crossed on no more snow for a few days
Super Bowl Sunday wake up to half inch of wet snow on both decks, but temps already mid 30’s and rising. Takes Dan less than 20 minutes to finish the shoveling job and temps stay in low 40’s all day. Then we waste four hours sorta watching super bowl.
Medical Backstory for what follows: In last month’s BLOG you’ll remember on 06JAN,
Dan had a pacemaker/defibrillator installed to “improve” his cardio
health. This resulted in a noticeable
improvement in stamina and sounder sleep.
But within a week Dan noticed brief occurrences of what he called light
headedness. These occurred randomly
about once a day and only lasted seconds.
Dan reported this to cardio people back in January, they checked his
pacemaker, and nothing found. So Dan
started keeping daily log of events and passed info to Primary Care and
Cardiologist.
Now to continue the Medical Story: Monday, 10FEB, no new snow until just before
dinner, then we get light, light dusting.
Dan once again starts clearing the deck.
Around 1620, Dan experiences an episode of syncope (sudden loss of
consciousness).
One minute he is fully cognizant, and then complete black-out
(no hearing, no seeing, no feeling, no nothing). Not sure how long he was out but probably
seconds. Takes a few seconds but Dan
realizes he has fallen two feet off the deck and needs to access his cell phone
and call Corrie in the house for HELP!
Ignoring the now evident pain, he moves and gets his phone and calls Corrie.
So off to the ER right – NOT!
Decision is to take a couple of tylenol max, have dinner and go to
bed. Dan does call primary care and they set
up tele-medicine for Tuesday AM. First
thing Tuesday Dan heads to dentist for routine dental and then to Freddy Meyers
for light shopping. He goes home and
Primary Care calls and says get to ER now.
Off to ER in Monroe; many imaging test done,showing 10 ribs (5 per side) fractured and T2 vertebrae compressed. ER recommendation is Dan has to be monitored throughout night because of heart issues and unknown cause of syncope. Decision then made to transfer to bigger Kirkland hospital/facility that has cardio team during night. Three hour wait for ambulance and Dan goes into ICU room at Kirkland Evergreen. Why is ICU needed? – Not because of injuries, but because of unknown syncope cause!
Wednesday, 12FEB. starts with continuous string of doctors and nurses from different departments trying to pinpoint syncope cause. While undergoing an EEG in ICU room Dan has a “light headed spell” --- alarms go off on the vital signs monitor, people come running. Turns out Dan heart has skipped 8 heart beats (can you say flat line?) Her us the cardio chart kept at the nurse's station.
Corrie shows up after event and we talk to couple of staff
doctors about possible solutions. Pacemaker
tech rep shows up; this is unique event for this pacemaker; and one possible
cure is re-setting pacemaker. Re-tuning
is done by head Doctor for Cardio “electrical” issues and device manufacturer tech rep. Pacemaker fine tuned and now we wait.
Decision is made that Dan is no longer critical risk and he is
moved to the PCU ward for people just out of ICU. Transition from ICU staff to night shift of
new ward has few hiccups.
Thursday boring routine day at hospital, Corrie visits for
latest word but doctor still making rounds and she has to leave to take care of
dogs. At dinner time Dan learns that he
again moving to another room. Apparently
the criteria is - patients that they feel need immediate attention, followed by
constant monitoring go to ICU room. PCU is
for people leaving ICU but needing constant medical monitoring and less nurse visits.
So now Dan moves rooms once again to the last stop where patients
close to discharge needing minimum medical monitoring and a few scheduled
visits by nurse. So Dan shuts down
laptop and packs up everything and sits for three hours doing nothing but
waiting to move rooms. Lights in new room
bathroom burnt out☹
Valentine Day in the general ward waiting for a determination if he will discharge today. Lights fixed in bathroom, discharged early dinner time
and home.
Saturday/Sunday just recovering, pain level in left lower back
has increased since leaving Kirkland Evergreen.
Dan spends most of time digging thru pages and pages of My Chart
computer entries about recent ER and hospital visit☹
Monday (Presidents Day)
Dan starts making appointments to the all the medical referrals contained in
his hospital discharge papers he received last Friday. Then gets
blood draws for more medical testing.
18FEB2025 – Today was a
very sad day in our lives. Our dog Bella had to leave us on her last journey. Bella was showing her age for awhile, but had rapidly declined thru January. So we had made her final arrangements right before Dan's medical event. Bella was an eight year old Jack Russell Terrier we rescued Labor Day Weekend
2018. She was used for breeding pups, and the kennel owner no longer needed her.
So we drove to Rainer, WA, and rescued her. And also came back with one year
old Jack Russell named Rocket Man. As you can see from the 2018 picture Bella
was perfectly groomed as if prepared for dog show. As you see from other pics;
we went with the au-natural look.
We have no idea how she was treated at the kennel. But she would not stay in a room with anyone else in it. She would leave and usually go to Corrie’s bathroom and lay down (sometimes in the dry walk-in shower). Took her almost two years to stay with us in TV room. Longer time to jump up and join you on a chair (always Corrie never Dan). Her favorite spot was outside while Corrie gardened, laying in the sun. May she have endless days laying in the sun, on her last journey.
Wednesday we are off to cardio specialist at Evergreen Kirkland to discuss Dan’s recent syncope event; then in afternoon Dan has appointment at NW Allergy about latest angioedema event September 2024.
Thursday Dan has cardio appointment late AM about 30 day
pacemaker check. Corrie takes truck for
errands and repair of front window chip on truck for “free” insurance repair scheduled
for after lunch; turns out Dan had better deal.
Because Corrie had repair done early and left, then
Dan got phone message about window tech left their cell phone in truck☹.
Since Dan
was dealing with cardio issue from recent ER/ICU visit he couldn’t help. Cardio visit got extended as technician
passed latest info to physician who installed pacemaker/defib. End result was order for more xrays and first
available appointment with the doctor (Wednesday next week).
Friday AM
Dan off to Primary Care for follow-up on previous visit, but most of this visit
spent as follow-up to Dan’s recent hospital stay. And to schedule future visit to address low
platelet count observed in hospital.
Saturday, 22FEB, not much done other than some house preps for son Joe and family visit next week from Houma, LA. Sunday Corrie takes a break and heads to Pitre’s in Silverdale; plan is to have lunch with Rebecca to discuss Joe and family impending visit and relax. Haven’t seen bobcat on property for years, but one visited today.
Monday Dan review
mountain of paperwork generated by recent syncope hospital stay. And spends
hours trying to get telephone help to make printer work; end result is Epson say
return printer☹ Wednesday
Dan has medical with cardio Dr Garwhal at WWMG. Corrie continues to cleaning house and
prep,ing for Joe and family visit starting Friday. Plan is on Friday we go to BnB in Ashford,
WA; immediately adjacent to Rainier National Park. Joe and family fly into SeaTac airport meet-up
with Rebecca and family and they all drive to BnB.
Friday (last day of February) finish packing truck and head to Ashford, WA. Thirty minute delay getting thru south Puyallup☹ Plan is we open Creekside Cabin BnB and set up camp; we get to front door right at 4PM, door unlocks and we empty truck. Rebecca brings all the luggage for her family along with Roux their dog about one hour later. She unloads her SUV and hits road back to SeaTac to pick up Joe, Bethany, and granddaughter Coraline. Separately Raymond will pick-up grandboys (Jaxson & Mason) after school and come straight to BnB.
