MY VETERAN AND HOSPITAL STUFF

Well, life is full of ups and downs.  We are on a rollercoaster here of good days and bad days.  I haven't been sleeping well, too much going on inside my head, I guess, and then of course, I am not much good to anybody during the day because I am tired. 

Carl woke up on Tuesday, November 5th not doing well, similar to how he was acting on Halloween morning.  Confused, wobbly and this time he was slurring his words.  He didn't seem to have any of the signs of a stroke other than his voice, so I chalked it up to the Parkinson's and we just took it easy that day.  On Wednesday, November 6th he had an appointment with his primary care dr at the VA, which I had made to see about getting him referred to the gastroenterologist at the VA due to his having stomach pain and not being able to eat much.  Last year he was diagnosed with Stenosing Mesenteritis, a pretty rare condition.  At that time in September, 2018 he underwent a colonoscopy and endoscopy and his GI dr. said things looked stable and he would see him in a year, so when he started having stomach problems, we decided to get him in to see the VA gastro, so then all his care would be at the VA.  Anyway, at the primary care visit I mentioned to Dr. Law that he was slurring his words and she did a quick assessment and sent us to the Emergency department right away.

At the E.R. they took him back for a cat scan and lots of assessing going on.  By then he was a little droopy on the left side, and had some numbness, all the signs of a stroke.  They took him for a 2nd catscan, this time with contrast.  They didn't really see anything, no sign of a hemorrhage and no sign of a blood clot type stroke either, but they decided to admit him.  We arrived at the ER at3:30 in the afternoon and he finally got a bed in the telemetry unit at 11 pm.  I stayed until they got him something to eat and medications, then I headed for home.  Thank you again to our dear friends Bill and Ruth, Bill had gone to the house to check on Prince for me.

Next morning I arrived back at the hospital.  More assessments and a MRI was scheduled for that day.  Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy came in to see him, and he was still droopy and slurring his words.  About noon they took him back for a MRI.  His neurologist came to see him about 2 pm and nothing had shown up on the MRI to indicate a stroke, yet he still had the symptoms.  He was otherwise in pretty decent shape so they decided to repeat the MRI in 3 days, but discharged him to come home about 5 pm.  He was doing better and Dr. Steve knew I would call the medics if he had any more signs of trouble.

 

Sunday the 10th he went and had a repeat MRI, we heard back from his neuro that nothing had appeared on the scan.  So it's very puzzling!  He is doing about the same to be honest with you.  We are on a downhill trend lately, memory problems and still fuzzy speech.  He has an appt tomorrow Wednesday with his neuro so we will talk more then.  I've been making a list of questions I have.  Maybe this is just Parkinson's related.  Hoping to get some answers..

Monday, November 11th was Veteran's Day, he was feeling ok so we went to lunch with Bill and Ruth at Chili's.  Chili's is one of the restaurants that offers a free meal to Veterans on that day.  A couple pictures!

I'm afraid I am probably not handling all this very well.  I am not depressed, but sad and no energy.  No motivation, nothing.  Just trying to get through each day and waiting for the other shoe to drop I guess.  Our dear friend Eloda is flying up here to Reno from SoCal this Thursday to visit for a few days so I am really looking forward to her visit, both of us are.  I'm going to have her  help me with a couple of projects around here if we feel like it, and I see a couple pajama days coming up, too!

We appreciate all your good thoughts and prayers.  This is a journey you can never be prepared for.

P.S. I am aware of a weird symbol on my blog.  To be honest, I don't have the energy to try to fix it right now so try to ignore it!!

Pink Saturday a.k.a. Halloween Post

Happy Saturday!  Thought I would chat a bit about our Halloween.  We were planning to head to our son's home near Sacramento on Halloween day, it's a little over a 2 hour drive...Carl woke up not doing well.  He was confused, wobbly and it took him over 25 minutes to take his morning medications, so I made an executive decision to stay home.  My thinking is that if we are going to have a problem, it's better to be at HOME.

As the day wore on, he was feeling a little better, but as we had not planned on being home, I had not purchased any candy to hand out to trick or treaters, so we layed low in our bedroom watching the 49ers game.

Our grandkids, Jack and Grace, apparently had a great time, however!

Glad they had fun, but sadly we are missing out on some of that yummy Halloween candy!

Thankful to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hosting Pink Saturdays!  Please stop by and visit the bloggers who also post there!  And would love to see your comments!

NORTH TO ALASKA, PART 2

Continued from Part 1:

Day 5:

A beautiful Sunday morning, we had arrived at Glacier Bay National Park, yes it is a Federal Park and very, very protected environmentally.  I believe that only Princess, Norwegian and Holland America ships are allowed to travel in Glacier Bay.

Remember I had mentioned that we were booked on this cruise with an Escort.  Well, we were invited to a private Glacier watching party in a private lounge at the rear upper deck of the ship with plenty of space for viewing outside and inside.  We arrived at the party with our invitation and were greeted with coffee, hot chocolate and cocktails.  Inside was a beautiful buffet breakfast.  And the views were outstanding!  What a treat for Glacier day!

There are several glaciers, but the main one is Margerie Glacier, which is what I took pictures of.  It was just stunning and awe inspiring in person.  A sight we won't soon forget!  That was one fantastic day!

Day 6:
We arrived in the town of Sitka.  Sitka was first inhabited by the Russians and a lot of the town's architecture showed that history.  We had been given tickets to the Raptor Center, but had to take a shuttle 5 miles into town and then find a cab to take us further.  We found a sweet cab driver who offered to take us on a little tour of the town, so we said, heck, why not!  Another lady joined us and that helped cut the fare down a bit, and we were glad to share.

She took us to the Indian River, and this time of year the salmon were 'running'.  It was amazing!  we took quite a few pictures there, watched the amazing salmon do their thing upstream, also got to see a few totem poles up close.

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We then went to the Bear Fortress.  Pretty neat.  It's a sanctuary for orphaned baby bears and they live their lives out there.

Last stop in Sitka was the Raptor Center.  It is a rehabilitation foundation, they rescue birds as small as hummingbirds, to the largest eagle!

We were going to grab a a taxi back to the area downtown to pick up the shuttle bus back to our ship, but no taxi's were available, so crazy us decided to walk back.  We were told it was a little over a mile, and downhill so we, I, thought, no problem.  Oh boy, that was too much for Carl.  By the time we got the shuttle and back to the ship, we were both beat.  We grabbed a bite to eat and turned in for the rest of the night.  We put our jammas on and ordered room service for dinner!

Sitka was a charming town and I wish we had more time there to explore some of the landmarks.  Definitely would like to go back to Sitka on a future cruise.

 

 

 

 

Day 7:

This was a Sea Day.  A good day to have a relaxed breakfast, attend a Naturalist lecture, walk about the ship, just take it easy!

Day 8:

We arrived in Victoria, BC.. We have been to Victoria a couple of times, most recently this past April, so we stayed on board the ship.  I think we were only there for about 5 hours.  It was a lovely day to spend some time up on the decks and enjoy the views of the city and harbor.

Day 9:

A last day at Sea..  We relaxed and just tried to enjoy the time we had left on board.  The procedure for disembarking the ship begins the day before with packing up the suitcases.  When we board a ship, when we get to our cabin we take everything out of our suitcases and put our items in the drawers and closet.  That way we can slide our suitcases under the bed and they are out of the way for the journey.  So what comes out has to go back in!  Sort of like putting a puzzle together.  Then the last evening the packed and tagged suitcases go out in the hallway so the crew can get them offloaded when we arrive in port the next morning.  Important!  Keep your carry ons and clothes out for the next morning.  Yes, people disembark in their robes and pajamas, the ship stores are not open in port so if you pack your getting off cloths, you are sorry out of luck!

Day 10:

Arrival in San Francisco and disembarking day..  We got up really early so we could go up to the buffet and have breakfast before we got off.  Carl woke up out of sorts, wobbly and not feeling well at all.  I was wishing we had a wheelchair to use.  We made it up to the buffet and I got him some orange juice in case his blood sugar was a little low.  While he was drinking that I went to get him some food.  Brought it back to him and he said he needed to use the restroom, which was about a hundred feet away...I didn't want to leave the table because the staff would have cleared it and we would lose it.  And it was getting busy up there.  Well, he didn't come back, and didn't come back.  I was getting pretty concerned so I went over to the restroom and found a gentleman who I asked if he could go in and check for Carl.  No Carl...  OK.  I thought I would call down to the room although I knew in my mind he would not be able to find our room by himself.  No answer and by now I was getting little panicky.  I literally ran down to the room, nope not there.  Panic!  So I went down to deck 5 to the pursers desk and asked for help finding him.  Now I would not have been so panicky if we didn't have to get off shortly, and if we didn't have a bus waiting for us to take us back to Roseville to our son's.  I knew the bus would not wait and how the heck was I going to get us out of San Francisco to Roseville, a 2 to 3 hour trip.  All kinds of things going through my mind by now.  The kind gentleman behind the desk first called the Medical Centre to make sure Carl was not taken down there.  No not there.  So he printed out a picture of Carl, they take your picture when you first board, and he told me to stay where I was and he would find him.  I was a wreck.  Sure enough, about 15 minutes later he comes back with Carl.  I guess when he left the restroom he got turned around and disoriented.  All's well that ends well.  I gave that guy a big hug!  And Carl got one too!  We made to the luggage area, found a porter who could take our bags to the bus, we got on the bus and I let out a BIG sigh of relief.

We arrived back in Roseville, got our car and headed over the mountain to home.  Our friends Bill and Ruth had been taking care of Prince, so we got to their house, they had a nice dinner waiting for us, and we were home by 6 pm.

We had a fabulous trip, we can highly recommend cruising to Alaska and we would love to go back some day.  Thanks for following along!