Feeling normal

I has only been 5 days since my nether regions were sliced and diced, then put back together, and I don't feel anything near normal yet, but the amount of improvement I saw Thursday has added to my optimism that I will feel normal again in the not too distant future.  Right now my days have taken on an ever so narrow focus.....my sense of accomplishment must come from the incremental improvements in my condition......there is no bike riding, and there will be none for another couple of weeks.  I am hoping when I see my doctor next Thursday I will be allowed to do some bike riding again.  There have been no Subway footlongs since Noon on Saturday, but I am maintaining my weight at 190, give, or take a few 10ths here and there....I was actually below 190 for one day, Wednesday, when I came in at 189.6........a weight marker I haven't seen for many years.

TLE continues to lose weight and has just dropped below another marker she has not seen in many years.....I will leave it to her to disclose the actual numbers, but from my perspective she is looking great!

The big thing in my life Thursday was to drive into my son's office (chauffeured by TLE) to pick up the owners manual for our VW Beetle.  I was able to acquire one on eBay for around $40 and it arrived Wednesday via USPS.  I've been able to figure out most things for myself, but there are a couple only the owner manual will answer.  One was how BIG is that gas tank really?  It turns out its capacity is 14.5 gallons, including a 1.9 gallon reserve when the fuel light comes on.......that is good to know, and explains why the most I could get in the tank just after the fuel light would turn on was just over 12.5 gallons.

We headed into the office around 12:30, but stopped off first at Rubio's for some of my favorite fish tacos.  TLE informs me that their two fish taco plate with 2 sides comes in at 600 calories, so I promised to only have a salad for dinner.

What she saw

What I saw

Several people commented on the first picture (TLE put it up on Facebook) saying I looked like I was getting too skinny.....it's probably because I'm still wearing my XL size t-shirts.....I'll have to break out my assortment of medium and large t-shirts again.  I am definitely not too skinny.....yet.

We spent the evening watching the Winter Olympics.....it was a good day full of promise and a return to normalcy.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rehab

There is not much that stands out about Wednesday.  I was pretty much a slug all day long just laying around not doing much at all.....although I did manage to get out with TLE and walk one circumference around the Cottonwood section of the RV park.  I am still rather stiff from the double hernia surgery Sunday morning, but I am seeing noticeable improvement every few hours.  All that being said I can feel that I have a long ways to go and the temptation to do more than I am doing is always there.........although I'm sure TLE would say I have kept her very busy moving and lifting stuff I would normally take care of, as well as helping me out of my lounge chair several times a day.

Obviously with inactivity comes the boredom demon, and with the boredom demon comes the temptation to snack more often to break the boredom.....the last thing I want to have happen during my rehab time is to gain 10 pounds after all the hard work I have done the past two months.

My friend Tom McCloud called from Arizona mid morning to check in on me........we should have been at his home Monday evening if the dastardly Jello had not dictated otherwise.  We will get to Arizona.....we will.....just a few weeks later than planned.

As has been the case since my surgery I spent the rest of the day napping and watching the daytime version of the Winter Olympics.....what I am finding out is much of what they show at night in prime time can be seen during the day on NBC's alternate sports channel on DirecTV.  They do save some of the really good stuff for the prime time show, but a lot of it is a repeat from earlier in the day.  I also watched a British Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester United which ended in a 0-0 tie.

We had a beautiful sunset that TLE managed to capture.......

On the other hand I was "quick" enough to get this great picture of the "street tacos" TLE's loving hands prepared for my dinner before they disappeared into my digestive system.....

Yes.....that is a margarita in the background........

TLE went to bed a while before me as she ususally does, while I fell asleep in my lounge chair.....as I often do.....but finally waddled off to bed around midnight.

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Hotel California

There is a haunting line from the well known Eagle's song, Hotel California, that goes something like this: "You can check-out any time you like......BUT....you can never leave". 
Why does it take soooo long to be discharged from the hospital?  Everyone kept telling me I was being discharged, but there I was hour after hour awaiting the lady with the wheel chair who would carry me to the front door and freedom.  

I've only been in the hospital for multiple days twice in my 64 years, and both times it took hours from the time the doctor said I was "free" to go until I was actually free to go.  My first multiple day stay in a hospital was back in November of 1978 when I was admitted for surgical repair of a ligament in my ankle which had become detached after I survived a 60 foot fall off a cliff while deer hunting.  Not much has changed in the intervening 36 years, and I began to feel like we would not be allowed to leave the hospital Tuesday, but after several hours of impatient waiting the nice lady pushing the ubiquitous wheel chair arrived at room 584-A to take me down a couple of floors to the main entrance of Riverside Community Hospital.  They offer valet parking, which TLE had used when she arrived 4 hours before to pick me up.....initially the young parking valet said it might be as long as 20 minutes before they retrieved our car, but in actuality it took just 4 minutes......always good to lower expectations, and then exceed them almost immediately!

The entrance

I think we finally got home around 3:30 and TLE made some "street tacos" from the left over carne asada from my daughter's engagement party, and they were delicious.  Let's be frank, Hospital food is just not that good, so anything with even a little flavor tastes wonderful!  Hospital food does not just taste like it came out of a box, but like they cooked it without removing it from the box.

Even though it had only been parts of 3 days since I left the coach I still felt quite disoriented for the first hour, or so after we got home, but within an hour or two I was back in the recliner resting, and learning how to get out of it without hurting myself.

We spent the evening watching more Winter Olympics heading off to bed around 11:30.

I want to thank all of those who sent well wishes via the comments section of the blog, or directly to me......via text, or e-mail....it means a lot to me to know so many are out there pulling for me to get well quickly.

Hope to take a walk around the park today, and just enjoy being alive, and on the mend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Zero Day - Back to square one

No one has ever poured an entire bowl of jello on my head before, but this past Saturday Miss Serendipity did just that.  I like to believe that nothing happens that is without reason.....what that reason may be I am still trying to figure out, but here we are still in RJRP....there are no wheels rolling......I didn't sit down in the drivers seat of the Newell Monday morning, look at TLE and say "It's good to be moving again".....and she did not reply "Yeah"......no, none of that happened.  Instead I awoke Monday morning  with only one thought on my mind....well...two thoughts on my mind.  One......when will I be discharged from the hospital?.....and two.....when are my bowels going to begin working again?  I don't mean to gross anyone out, but sometimes life gets right down to the essentials.

Dr. Astarita came by around 10 am and said he would have me discharged when I (here comes one of those essentials again) began to "pass gas"......okay....lovely.....my job Monday was to "pass gas" so I could go home.  As nice as Riverside Community Hospital is, it is, after all, a hospital.  People check in to hospitals because something is terribly wrong, and they need medical help....there is the ever present sound of faint moaning wafting down the hallways of the surgical wing....there is the ever steady stream of family and friends visiting in every semi private room all day long......and you are being awakened at all times of the day and night to be poked and prodded by a nurse.  The man I was sharing my room with (he was admitted with a burst appendix and was in a lot of pain after his operation to save his life) had no less than 5-7 people in his side of the undersized room all day, and into the evening.  My life revolved around prying myself out of my bed about ever 90 minutes to go to the bathroom, and all the attendant discomfort associated with that maneuver.   I was hooked up to an IV the entire time, so I was being over hydrated and that water has to go somewhere.....I was just the vessel it resided in for 90 minutes at a time before I had to "go" again.   There is no point in arguing with doctors, or nurses about the need for some much fluid.....you just stick your arm and and let them stick you again.  Of course going to the bathroom meant I had to take the IV stand with me.......you cannot imagine how difficult it is to unplug, and move one of those around your bed several times each night, then back into position so you can lie down again.

I did eventually "pass gas", but that miracle occurred late in the day, and by the time the good doctor came by again "we" (he) decided I should spend one more night.  As difficult as this "hernia" thing has been, the Sugar Beet Harvest was way more difficult, so I guess I should keep things in perspective.  

TLE came by in the morning to visit, but since I was doing fine, and improving steadily I saw no point in her returning.....no point in both of us being stuck in the small room with too many visiting relatives.  They seemed to feel sorry for me that no one was visiting me all day long.......hmmm.....I felt sorry for the poor guy who seemed to just want to be put out of his misery, or at least sleep.

I watched more Winter Olympics to pass the time, and finally turned off the TV around midnight.

So, our departure plans are on hold for at least two weeks.....maybe three....we'll see......I could probably be ready to go in a week, but I am not going to push it....I do not want to experience that kind of pain again in my lifetime if I can avoid it.  It is surprising how often owning a large motorhome involves lifting something.  My nurse says I'm not to lift anything greater than 15 pounds for 2 weeks......15 pounds? The thought of lifting something heavier than a coffee cup right now is very unappealing.  Besides it's not so much the lifting, but the pushing, pulling, and moving of things is always going on.....now TLE will have to be my go to person for these mundane tasks.

Thanks for stopping by!

D minus 1

I'm spending a couple of days at Riverside Community Hospital learning more than I ever wanted to know about hernias.  My particular hernia is called a Ritcher Hernia....a particularly dangerous one.   If not reduced quickly it can result in part of your intestine dying.  By the time I arrived at RCH it had been 12 hours since the onset of symptoms.   Fortunately only a small piece of intestine had bit the dust......about the size of a quarter, which the doctor was able to quickly excise and repair. 

I woke up from the anesthetic about 7:15....of course it only seemed like a few minutes that I was out and not the 3+ hours I was under the knife.  TLE was summoned from the waiting room and I attempted to communicate with her, but the words just would not form..... It seemed add if my whole body had been given a shot of novacane.  I wanted some water in the worst kind of way. 

Around noon I needed to go to the bathroom, but I just could not relax enough to go so the nurse had to cathterize me.....she did what they call a straight cathiter..... put it in and then take it out after I urinated..... she warned me that if they had to do it again it might be in for up to a week.....okay, that got my attention.   The catheterization was as uncomfortable as one would imagine....especially when a woman you do not know, and have never met before is handling your manhood, and you just sit there acting like this happens every day. 

I slept a lot during the day, and when I wasn't sleeping I was watching sports I would never ever watch on the Winter Olympics..... sports like Curling, Biathalon, Women's Hockey. 

Not much else to report.....based on the information I have gathered it looks as if I will be out of action for a few weeks. 

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - Please excuse my spelling..... I'm using my phone to write the blog and it is challenging to say the least.

D minus 2 - I did not see that coming. ..

No, I did not....Saturday started out innocently enough.  First up was a haircut at Supercuts, and then over to West Marine to pick up the Delo 100 oil, then get gas.  I needed to be home before 11 am as Ruben from Kool Filtration was coming to service our reverse osmosis system.  We had about 30 minutes before Ruben's arrival so I got TLE to come out and help me move the large 8d battery that I removed back in November.   What happened next was what I did not see coming.

TLE grabbed one end of the mammoth battery and I the other and we lifted and moved the battery.  Apparently during that short lift a hernia was born.   Within 30 minutes the pain began, and would not go away.   As a result I was unable to attend Sharon's engagement party.  

I didn't figure out it was a hernia until just before TLE got home..... just thought it was gas. 

TLE came home around 9:30 just about the time the pain was increasing..... by 11:30 I decided I had to go to the hospital.  We arrived at the hospital about 11:40 and I wad being treated within 10 minutes. Ultimately they decided to operate to repair the hernia. 

I will be here until Monday, or Tuesday at the latest.   Looks like the Jello had other plans after all. 

As a result we will not be departing on Monday as you can well imagine.

Thanks for stopping by!

D minus 3 - Spit shine

My vehicle detailer (Tom Montoya of Integrity Mobile Detailing) arrived Friday morning around 9:30 to wash the Newell, and polish the ALCOA aluminum wheels.....I love to watch someone else polishing up those wheels, and, alas, when we leave Monday it will once again fall to me to do that job.  While they worked on the Newell I used my Firecoat Waterless cleaning/waxing system to clean the trailer off.....it's amazing how long that wax lasts.....didn't take long to have the trailer shinning again.  I also put the tandem back on her rack, along with TLE's Cannondale F600.....the only bike out still is mine as I will ride it a couple more times over the weekend.

By the time they were done with the Newell it was time for me to make a run into my son's office to pick up a few things......specifically I needed to retrieve a bicycle crankset for my friends (Mike) bike as we were unable to find a replacement middle chain ring for his existing crankset, because the technology is just too old.  I found one on eBay, but it would not get here before I left.  I had a couple of spare cranksets I had saved from bikes I've parted out over the years, and one of them fit the bill perfectly for Mike's bike.  On the way home I picked up another Subway footlong, and was back by 2 pm......had a late lunch to be sure.

TLE was recruited by Ranger Robyn to help out in the Kiosk from 11 am to 4 pm as one of the other workers was out on vacation, so she was still working when I got back.  I took time to deploy the window and patio awnings again, and our awning lights back up, then it was back in the trailer to install the replacement  crankset on Mike's bike so I can deliver it to him Saturday.

My weekly weigh in annoucement.......191.0....up one pound from last week's weigh in.....I've been holding steady this past week at 191 to 192....another plateau.....those next 6 pounds are going to be the toughest ones apparently.

TLE arrived back at the coach around 4:15 just as I was finishing up with Mike's bike, and putting away a few more things.  

Saturday we'll be attending Sharon's engagement part being held at Kate's home here in Riverside.  There will be a lot of running around Saturday taking care last minute stuff.  Sunday we'll be turning the coach around, hooking it to the trailer, and loading the car in preparation for our early Monday morning departure.

Thanks for stopping by!