Cara leaves home and we head for ours.

Cara decided to run away from home and join the circus. She saw her chance as a golf cart passed in front of our motor home and took a flying leap aboard only to be thwarted in her escape by Jose who stopped the cart. After a few hugs between the two I put her back in the motor home; she soon fell asleep dreaming of her next adventure.

 Connie and I have spent the last few days deciding whether to go to Washington or simply go back home. Common sense prevailed, so, due to health issues and a new house we head back to Happy Trails. Yipee kiyiyea little doggies.

Did I tell you it is hot in Colorado?

hello from Towac !

Hello from Colorado. We are staying at the Ute Mountain Indian Casino and RV Park in Towac (toyak). $412 with tax, and $150 to play at the casino, What a deal. Just outside Cortez and Mesa Verde State Park. We did the park including hiking into and out of a box canyon to get up close and personal with the remains of the home of Anasazi (ancient ones). I made it without any problems. I am feeling stronger and stronger every day.

Here is the rest of my journey.

This is my first try at writing since my surgery three months ago. I hope that I can still put down on paper what is floating around in my mind and make it somewhat understandable. 

What most people don’t realize, open-heart surgery can affect your brain and thought process, especially so with me since I had a surprise for my Surgeon. They opened me up and “surprise” found a very large aneurism close to the heart valve that was the original reason for my surgery.  

Changing horses in midstream is not something doctors or cowboys enjoy. The anesthesiologist had to increase the poison that keeps you hovering somewhere between sleep and death (this stuff stays with you a long time).  My hero Dr. K  had to harvest more vein from between my knee and groin (what fun it was to remove that stuff they put on that wound).

Then they went about shutting off my heart and putting me on a heart-lung machine (am I now officially a robot).  Replacing my heart valve took some time and fixing the aneurism took longer, so I was doing the robot thing for more time than Dr. K had planed, but what did I know, I was watching a bright light.

Connie said when I came out of surgery they had a hard time waking me up (better part of a day).  This is what caused my “fuzzy brain”, it is still with me, more on that later.

It took me about two days before I realized they were not “out to get me”. It was very weird, I thought everything around me was fake, nothing was real; someone was trying to trick me. I had to pee and tried getting out of bed, to my horror I could not and alarms were going off and someone said “stop fighting and just lay back”; easy for her to say.

Then she (female voice) unhooked most of my tubing (still part robot) and hands grabbed me, lifting me upright. I can sit, wow! This nurse seemed real to me, she asked me question after question, when she was satisfied with my answers, more hands came and helped me get into a wheel chair. She rolled me into what I can best describe as a very large shower.

This is when more reality crept into my mind. This nurse was a very cute young lady; she was taking off my hospital gown, very strange. She turned on the water and started to very carefully wash me from head to toe, very thoroughly, everywhere. Yes; very, very carefully, everywhere. She dried me off. She was asking me more questions the whole time; I guess she was making sure I was still on the same planet. I wasn’t sure. I do remember wondering if she were going to take her cloths off, it would only be fair; I was naked.

Back in bed sleep came easily; I was worn out! I awoke wondering where Connie was; it wasn’t long before I heard her voice as she rounded the corner into my room. I heard angels singing, I have never been happier to see her smiling face; at that moment I knew I was going to make it.

The pain throbbing in my chest helped to bring me the rest of the way to reality. I was still hooked up to various bags and monitors. I was then introduced to my constant companion and savior, the pillow! Any time I had to cough or sneeze I would squeeze the pillow against my chest. Without that pillow, I would experience severe pain (One time I suddenly sneezed without hugging the pillow, I thought sure my chest had exploded and was laying at my feet) and could possibly damage my breastbone. It was severed by the surgeon and then sewn back together with stainless steel wire, the skin over that was stitched and glued together.

The nurses showed me how to get up and out of the bed (I used to think it was easy), then came walking; a few steps at first, then once around the nurses station, what a triumph!

Finally I was back home. My son Bryan had taken two weeks off to help Connie while I was in the land of Oz; he was a great help to both of us. Once I argued with him about my doing some task, he looked at me and quoted the famous line from the movie Captain Phillips, “Look at me, look at me, I am the captain now.”   I wanted to laugh but it hurt; love that kid.

Back to my “fuzzy brain” issue. Our house in festival is a single story, no basement. Connie asked me why I didn’t use the master bath, I told her I didn’t want to go downstairs, it was dark down there. My brain was a little scrambled..,no, a lot scrambled.

I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, but it was not to be. Even with a step stool it was too painful getting into and out of.  I lived in my recliner for about a week, when I was finally able to get into and sleep in my bed, it felt like heaven, even though I had to sleep on my back. I was on no schedule; I slept a lot and watched tv into the wee hours of the night.

Connie washed my back and legs when I showered; I asked if she wanted to get naked, no luck. She also put on my special stockings, which was hard to do.

I went to physical therapy three times a week for two months before we took off for the summer. The Doctor said it would be about a year before I totally returned to normalcy. As a parting shot he said, “You should be fine, just stay below 9,000 feet.”  Drat, we are spending the summer in Colorado where everything is high.

Winter 13-14, still above ground after all.

I am forever thankful to God, Connie, Bryan, Dr. K. and our Happy Trails family.
This last winter has seen us go thru selling our RV lot in Happy Trails, buying our house in Happy Trails, selling our house in Del Webb Festival, moving and surviving open heart surgery. Other than that........
I may lose some of you with what I have chosen to blog about, it has nothing to do with travels but:
March 1, 2014

Well I am finally writing with the Ipad, sitting in my recliner typing away. The keys are a little close but I will get used to that, or I just might use it as an excuse.

I am writing about my personal journey thru open-heart surgery and recovery, scary stuff for sure. I have been diagnosed with severe stenosis of the Aortic heart valve and a partially blocked artery. The heart valve is a congenital abnormality I have had since birth (I think Mom had a gin and tonic at the wrong time). Well, actually, if she hadn’t had that drink, I might not be, period.

I have known about the problem for a long time, it showed up as a heart murmur. I've had many sonograms over the years, checking the progressive deterioration. But, since I retired I had put it in a back corner of my mind. In October when I heard the Doctor say "your heart murmur is extremely loud" I thought, "Oh crap". My Doctor sent me to get another sonogram and I thought "well that's o.k. I have been thru dozens of these, no problem". Even when I was referred to "Cardiac Solutions" (a group of specialists) I thought they would run thru the test with me and that would be that. When the cardiologist said, "You need surgery", whatever he said after that was not registering as my mind was running over and over that word "surgery". I left the office in a daze, trying to convince myself that he meant something else, "but what else rhymes with surgery.” ------ Oh crap!

More to come soon.