MEDICAL UPDATE

WOW, It has been a long time since I posted anything here and a lot of things have happened since my last post!!
Most are medical in nature!
About a year and half ago we were returning from a cruise and I was not feeling well at all. Prior to getting on the cruise I had gone an immediate care center and they gave me a Z-pack for what they said was a mild case of pneumonia. It did not seem to cure me! In addition my legs were retaining significant water. So we stopped at the same medical center and when the doctor (a different one)looked at me she said I should immediately go to the emergency room. She was so insistent that I did.

At the emergency room they started checking me all over and when was all done they said I nay have had a heart attack!! They also diagnosed me as having Atrial Fibrillation (A-Fib) and Sugar Diabetes!!  I spent a couple of days there and they added some medications to my long list of pills.

A week later I was feeling really lousy as Carol and I were going out shopping. I told her to take me to the emergency room and she finally did. Once again my medications were changed and reduced in numbers. That seem to really help. After getting out of the hospital I was feeling reasonably well except for the loss of energy which is a norm thing with A-Fib. It wore me out to walk from the car to the door going into Wal-Mart!!!

After about a year of this one of my friends said he had A-Fib but had a procedure done called Ablation and it cured him of the tiredness. I finally got to discuss that with my Cardiologist and he referred ne to a doctor that specializes on the procedure and he said I was  candidate.

He did the procedure on April 22, 2019 and all went well. They run a catheter from the groin to the heart to look at it and do the procedure. Both he and are were surprised that he found significant scarring in the heart which confirmed that I did have a heart attack about a year and half ago.

The procedure has reduced my tiredness but not as much as expected. I am going to see the doctor in a week or so for a follow up and we will see what he says.  He may recommend  a pacemaker!! What will be will be.

More to follow when I know more.

STROKE UPDATE

It is now Late March and as expected virtually all symptoms are gone from the stroke. What small symptoms are left are not noticeable to others but Jim notices them. Such as, typing on the computer is not as good previously as more typos are made. My left fingers seem to have forgotten where the keys are!!  I have more "senior moments" and forget names for short times that I have known for years. Maybe these things are normal when getting old but they did increase after the stroke.
I was advised to see a vascular surgeon about a month after the stroke and I went to one in Sarasota highly recommended by 2 of my doctors. He did another Carotid sonogram and said that my right Carotid was not blocked as much previously thought but the blockage was quite ragged. If a piece broke off it could cause another stroke. After doing more consultations with my Cardiologist he advised to have the right carotid cleaned out!
That operation was completed on Tuesday March 22 in the morning and I was released on Wednesday after lunch.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital is a great hospital and much better than Venice where I was treated for my stroke. Venice ER was very good but the rest of the place seemed understaffed.
Here is a picture of the fellow bringing me breakfast on Wednesday morning.

He looks like he is serving in an upscale restaurant rather a hospital!!

Here I am before and after surgery. Most of the stitches are internal and that is why you don't see them. The small bandage is where a drainage tube as inserted and since removed. Of course I bruise very easily since taking Aspirin and recently, Plavix.

Even the discharge procedures are upscale! Carol parked in free Valet parking and when we went to leave they took us to the Lounge for patients being discharged. It is a separate area away from the normal exit. They arranged for our car to come to this location to pick us up and then offered us coffee, tea, sodas, donuts or other snacks. A real class operation.

My first night at home was reasonably comfortable and I had no strong pain. The second evening home Carol and I went out to the Elks for dinner and dancing so I must be doing OK!!  Monday we see the surgeon and he will take care of the bandage I guess.

Many thanks for everyone's thoughts and prayers.

A LUCKY STROKE!!

On Thursday, November 12, I (Jim) was at a luncheon meeting at the American Legion. When I got the soup I ordered, I had trouble holding and opening the package of crackers. My left arm felt numb and heavy. My speech got mumbled and I realized I was having something going wrong.
I knew it was bad enough that I left the meeting to call 911 on my cell phone but was not able to manipulate it properly so I asked the waitress to call 911.
When the fire department EMS got there they agreed I was having a STROKE!! It took a while but they finally took me to the Venice hospital. While waiting to go I had a call placed to Carol to let her know what was going on and also so she could get our car which would be left at the Legion.
The ER staff went into fast action and I got a CAT scan and then they shot an anti-coagulant to dissolve the clot that was the problem. Within 15 minutes of the shot, I began to have improved use of my left arm and the numbness in my tongue was leaving and I could speak more clearly.
I did have to stay on ICU for 24 hours so they could monitor me. They said I had a stroke that was larger than a TIA (mini-stroke) but much less than one where a blood vessel breaks. So I spent Thursday and Friday nights in the hospital and came home on early Saturday evening,
I have been having in-home therapy since then and everything is improving but typing is still a problem because my fingers don't seem to go where I tell them to go!!
I was very lucky that the stroke was small and that I got treatment for it quickly enough. Full recovery is expected.

LEHIGH RESORT VACATION

Carol and I have owned 2 timeshares at Lehigh Resort, near Ft Myers, for many years. We usually bank them with RCI and then use them to go to St Thomas each year. This year we decided to stay at Lehigh since we are not going to St Thomas.  Instead we are flying to Hawaii, staying in a hotel a couple of nights and then cruising the islands on a Norwegian Cruise ship.
Since the unit we have in the Fall is a one bedroom with an adjoining Studio we invited Lori, our son's widow, to visit with us.

Carol and Lori (that is her just behind Carol) go to do water aerobics in the mornings. but most of the time we were trying to put together jigsaw puzzles!!

Since there is a very large and good flea market at Ft Myers we made a stop there for shopping.

One of the mornings the resort had a pancake breakfast so we breakfast there.

One of favorite restaurants is the Hut. They have very good food and our favorite musician plays there, Jerry Dycke. He plays very good dance music and we first saw him there over 20 years ago. We even took Rob and Lori there to hear him once when they came to the resort with us. This time we had our granddaughter, Dawn, along with us.

You can see Jerry Dycke with Carol in a following post!!

LANAI REMODELING

This summer was very hot and our lanai seemed extra hot. When we bought this house we had insulation put on the roof over the lanai and also have a 12,000 BTU air conditioner but its is not keeping the lanai comfortable enough. The other problem we have noticed is the noise from rainfall on the roof. It is quite difficult to listen to the TV when it is raining hard.
So we contracted to have a false ceiling installed on the inside of the roof, plus insulation.  We may even get a new air conditioning unit of a much larger size.
Of course the first part of the renovation was the removal of most of our "stuff" from the lanai.

You will notice that we removed the vinyl siding from the walls. Since we are having the ceiling dry-walled we wanted to have the walls done also. This will make the room look more like the other parts of the house. The contractor taped paper on the beams to protect them during his work.

Here you can see the ceiling 2 x 4's installed in one area and the others awaiting installation. Insulation follows the grid work. As the insulation was being completed, it began raining hard and it was amazing how much the sound of the rain was reduced.

We moved the TV from one wall to the other and had it hung on the wall. Also got a credenza cabinet to store th electronic stuff, cd's, dvd's and other things.  After the painting was done we had split air conditioner installed that is 24,000 BTU's. I wanted to be sure we had enough cooling power. The unit is aso a heat pump so we will have heating in cool weather.

DANCING AGAIN

This past week we went out dancing again. This time we drove to Buckingham and went to the hut Restaurant to have dinner and dance to the music of Jerry Dycke. Carol and first saw Jerry at the Hut about 25 years ago when we vacationed at the Lehigh resort nearby.

This time we had a group of eight attending. Here are four of our group.

That's Don & Joyce Murphey, Peg Anslo and Bob Dudley at our table after dinner enjoying the dancing. Of course Carol and I as well as Gus and Marily Lopes were also at the Hut.

Jerry Dycke is a versatile performer and even gets costumed for the numbers he does from Phantom of the Opera. You know we must enjoy his music to drive and hour just to have dinner and dance to his music.

BIRTHDAYS AND DANCING

Carol and I go dancing nearly every week with our friends. We usually go to the Elks or the American Legion and follow one of our favorite musicians, Jay Smith.
Last week when we went to the Elks there were three of us in our group that had recent birthdays, so Carol arranged for a cake large enough to serve about 50. Not enough for all of those attending the dance but most everyone got a piece of cake.

 

Here is the birthday group, Carol, Jim and Bob Dudley. Naturally Jay Smith played Happy Birthday for the group also.