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.

CAROL'S BIRTHDAY DINNER/TRIP (PART 1)

When we were travelling in the motor home one of the places that Carol really enjoyed was San Diego and especially the Hotel Dell Coronado ("The Del"). So to really surprise her and make it a very special birthday I planned a weekend in San Diego with us staying at the Del.

We flew to LA and drove to San Diego arriving the day before her birthday. We got there early enough to do some touring and just enjoying the local area.

Here we are en route to LA.

Here is Carol in front of the Del and on Orange Avenue.






















Since Carol's \birthday was not until the next day, we planned to go to nice restaurant then rather than today. For dinner we had a light dinner at a Burger joint that must have been very popular based on the line at the place for  dinner. The burgers were really good.

Of course we had to have a glass of wine at pool side during the afternoon also. The entire place is great to just sit around a people watch!!

The hotel was built in 1888 and one of the items that caught Carol's eye was the Otis elevator. I was over 100 years old and was even operated by an elevator operator. You don't see that anymore. It has been upgraded and they do not have the operating handle anymore but use buttons. However the doors are still of the old variety and opened and closed by the operator.

 







The hotel's main restaurant was not open on Carol's birthday so I researched the area and picked Vigilucci's because it had 4 veal dishes on the menu and Carol loves veal!! Here we are out in front of the restaurant. We had dinner on the patio and listened to the piano player serenading us!!

CAROL'S BIRTHDAY DINNER/TRIP (PART 2)

Since it was Carol's birthday dinner the restaurant even provided a birthday "cake". It was really a creme boules!! That is a whole lot better than plain ole' birthday cake!!

Prior to Carol's dinner,after having breakfast on the patio of the Del, facing the Pacific Ocean, we went for a short stroll on Orange Avenue. Weather here was really nice as the early morning temperatures were about 66 F and very dry. We even slept with the window open at night! Since we had the day to tour, we took a trolley tour but only got off at one stop, Old Town. This is where San Diego actually began. There were plenty of Mexican places so we had to stop and have a margarita and some chips and salsa!! We didn't want to spoil dinner.

The next day, Tuesday, we drove to LA, had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that had really good Mexican food. Since we were departing the area early in the morning we stayed close to the airport.
Now I am trying to think of how I can top this birthday for Carol. It will be a challenge!!

JIM'S BIG EIGHT O BIRTHDAY

Holly Smokes, it has been over a year since I posted anything on this site. Shame in me!!

But since I celebrated my EIGHTIETH birthday this weekend, I felt I should get back posting some our activities, and we really do have a lot of them!! I do not post what we are going to do but rather what we have DONE. (Too many crazies out there)

To celebrate my birthday we took the motor home and went to Tampa area and camped at Lazy Days for the weekend.  Got there on Thursday and that evening went to one our favorites, Happy Hour at  Fleming's Steak House. Good prices and and a very nice hamburger at half the cost as in the dining room. We usually go to the Fleming's in Sarasota but Tampa was closer of course.

Rain was coming down all weekend so we had to stay in a lot. As of Monday Tampa is having significant flooding in the area but we were lucky and did not have any problems with it.

Friday night we went to the local Brandon Elks thinking we were going to get to do some dining and dancing. We got the dining, but the music was not appropriate for dancing. We also found it strange that no one was even trying to dance. We left early and commented on the lack of dancers and the gal we talked to said they don't dance much there!!

I think that Carol's highlight of the weekend was finding an HSN outlet store in Brandon!!! We did find a great deal there for those thin style hangers and I needed a lot of them.

Saturday was Jim's birthday and we had reservations to go to the Columbia restaurant in Ybor City. It is a Spanish/Cuban restaurant and highly reputed. We have been to one of their "branches" in Sarasota's St. Armand's Circle but this location has been here since 1905. The tile work outside and inside the restaurant is quite beautiful. In addition to dinner we arranged to watch the Flamenco show. Our seats were right on edge of the stage floor so we had no trouble seeing the show!! We had to wait a while to get seated and here is a picture of Carol patiently waiting. Notice the tile work!

The show and the meals were both excellent. Carol had a veal entree and I had a bacon wrapped filet and naturally we brought some of each home,

We left Lazy Days on Sunday morning, in the rain naturally, and drove to Gibsontown, on the way home,  to get a fill up of diesel in the mnotorhome at $2.429 per gallon. That is a real bargain and since I had to put 90 gallons in, I saved a lot from normal prices. A full tank of diesel is my "hurricane Insurance". If a hurricane comes our way, I can go 1200 miles on a tank of fuel to get out of it's way!!!

So, smooth sailing to all of our friends. Jim and Carol

RV Trip - Stop 1 - Savannah

This post and the next 6 are a diary of our recent trip up north for a number of reasons. We were gone for a total of 25 days and drove the motor home a total of 3426 miles. We made 6 significant stops and if you don't have anything better to do for a while you can visit all 6 posts to see how these "old timers" are spending our golden years and our money!!!!

We were originally going to depart North Port on AUG 4 but Jim found out The Lady Chablis was going to be in Savannah on AUG 3. Lady Chablis was one of the main characters in the book and movie " Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", by John Berand. If you have not seen or read the book it is a true story about a murder in Savannah. Very good book and movie.

So we got to Savannah, had a pleasant dinner and went to the show to see Lady Chablis emcee the show at Club One, where the show is a number of cross dressers!! Yes, it is a gay bar and show!!! I did not have a good camera with me but I did get a picture of Lady Chablis on my cell phone.

Even though picture is not high quality you can see Chablis is a good looking slender person.  Carol would have really liked to have several of the gowns worn by Chablis. Chablis' name prior to her current one was FRANK. Yes "she" is a guy but you would never know while dressed!!

RV Trip - Stop 2 - Norfolk VA

Our trip north involved many stops the second being Norfolk, VA. We had been there earlier in the year evaluating it as a location for the Hazelwood reunion in 2015. Jim served on the Hazelwood for 3 years. This time we were evaluating 4 hotels as the possible reunion location. We were surprised and pleased that we got  invitations to spend a night in each of the 4 hotels. In that way we got to properly evaluate each of them.
One of the tours we did not get on during our visit earlier this year was a harbor tour and dinner on the Spirit of Norfolk. The convention bureau made arrangements for a complimentary tour on that boat. It was great and I am sure we will include it in our reunion.
The meal was superb and they had a DJ to make the tour even more fun. Since we were about to celebrate Carol's birthday I even got us a bottle of champagne rather than just a glass.

As you can see, you get to see the ships up close and the captain gives an excellent description of each as we go by them If you ever go to Norfolk don't miss this tour.
When we finished our 4 nights in Norfolk, we left early in the morning and drove 11 1/2 hors to get to the Troy, NY area.

RV Trip - Stop 3 - Mini Phi Kap Reunion

Our trip North had many purposes and one of the most enjoyable was a gathering of Phi Kappa fraternity brothers in in Lake George, NY. There were 6 brothers attending, Don Nojaim, Joe Internacola, Dick Veltri, Dick Pratt, Jim Julian and the sparkplug for the "reunion, Vice Alescio.

Our group went to a daytime dinner and play and then to Buco de Peppo the next day for an early dinner prior to going to a show at the Proctor Theater in Schenectady. Both shows were excellent except the excessive loudness at the Proctor. It was a show similar to Circu de Leis(?).

Here is a series of photos taken at Buco de Peppo of the group, minus the photographer, Jim.

Prior to Carol and Jim going to Lake George, we stopped at Latham (Troy, NY) to visit Carol's family cemetery and to take in some our favorite local area foods. It was Carol's birthday so went to the Red Front in Troy where we used to go on dates over 56 years ago. The pizza was just as good now as it was back then  and this picture shows Carol with a SMALL pizza. I don't think the table would hold a large pizza!!

We also stopped at Ted's Fish Fry twice before leaving the area as those fish sandwiches are the BEST!

RV Trip - Stop 4 - Trafford and Pirate Ballgame

Jim lived in Trafford, PA his first 18 years of life and then went to college for 3 1/2 years and the Navy for 3 years. After the Navy there was only one year he lived in Trafford. When we went back for the Peduzzi's birthdays (next post) we drove around every street in town to see the changes that have been made. There are many improvements and there is still much of the "old town" remaining.

Here is the senior high rise that now rests between Brinton and Cavitt Avenues. McBride's Market used to be on this site on Cavitt and Matesick's Store was on Brinton. I am sure if Jim had looked at the list of residents in the high rise he would have seen that some his classmates now live there!

The old borough building is in process of being removed. Even the steps that ran up the hill that were adjacent to it have been closed for years. The new borough building and Fire department is a showcase building visible as you enter Trafford coming across the bridge.

  You are also greeted by a large mural painted on the rear walls of buildings on Cavitt Avenue.

The real showcase improvement is the war memorial park on Edgewood at 5th, overlooking Trafford.  It has 5 monuments for the wars since WW1 up to and including the current War on Terror. Memorial benches are also in the park.

So there a lot of improvements to Trafford and the entire town should be thankful they have a great Mayor in Rey Peduzzi. 

We also found improvements in the Pirate PNC Stadium. The last Pirate home game Jim saw was in Forbes Field and PNC Stadium is a wonderful stadium.

One on our "must" stops in the Trafford area is Delallo's Italian Store on Rt 30 in Jeanette. If you can't find the Italian food you want in this store, it is not made!! Just look at the olive display!!

 

Naturally when we left Trafford we had a good supply of my favorites, Sandwich size pepperoni, Hot sausage and other goodies.



RV Trip - Stop 5 - Peduzzi twins birthday party.

The original reason for us to make a trip north was the 80th birthday of the Rey and Ron Peduzzi. Jim has know the Twins for 75 years as they were neighbors. At Rey's 75th birthday party, Jim told Rey that if he was not planning an 80th birthday party, that we would come to visit and have one for him.
Well, the families decided to have a party for both of them. Rey is the Mayor of Trafford and they were able to arrange the use of the Manchester Room in the new Borough Building.

This is Ron, Bob Mikan, and Rey. If you look closely, you can see the 3 of them in the picture behind them. That picture was taken when they played football together for Trafford High School. 
Naturally at a birthday party there has to be a "roast" and this was no exception.

Here they are being roasted by a college football friend. Since Rey lives in Trafford and has a lot of his family nearby they had a good crowd for the family picture, shown below.

And here is Ron's family picture.

There was the cake and candles that got blown out and this little girl got her share of the cake.

Again, a very happy birthday to Ron and Rey and many more.