On the Road to Health Again

My virtual body image.



Check out my new goals for healthy living in the Quilter's Lounge.





Rian and I are on this trip together. Feel free to join us. The more the merrier and we can support each other.

Wonder Woman Lives

And she is in about the same ragged condition as I am. This cartoon is one of my prize possessions from the early 80s when I had a "big lady dress up job". [That's what my college friends and I used to describe the jobs we were studying to (hopefully) get after graduation.] From time to time I dig it out and it still fits.


My friends, this old house I inhabit is wearing out. Since I last posted I had another TIA (mini-stroke) and I am now recuperating from a pretty miserable virus that affected my chest. I am so weak and shaky, have to force myself to eat a little chicken broth, toast and yoghurt, and am doing a lot of cogitating (wondering).

I realize that since the first 2 TIAs I have done almost no quilting, or even sewing. The joy seems to have simply disappeared and turned into guilt and "shoulds". I'm also not nearly as excited about photography, which was an integral part of my quilting interests. I still love gardening, but have to depend more and more on someone else to do the hard physical jobs, which I used to delight in. (Like laying a patio or digging a pond or spading a garden bed.) I still love to look at the birds, but no longer feel like hauling the feed outside the fence to the feeders.

Please do not take this as complaining or whining or asking for sympathy. I am simply trying to share what changes I am finding necessary due to challenges of the aging process. Different seasons of life require different things of us. Once in a while we need to set back and decide what is really important and then do some major pruning to allow us to use our waning energy more effectively.

There does seem to be some pain and grieving involved in this process, but it is a productive, necessary pain and grief.

One of my major weaknesses has been spreading myself too thin and ending up feeling overwhelmed. I was supposed to do "everything" myself and do it perfectly and it was not permissable to burden others by asking for help. When help is offered one smiles graciously and says, "Oh thank you, but I can do this myself, I don't want to impose on you."

Do you know what happens to someone who tries to do everything perfectly? Insanity or paralysis! (and in my case, obesity; food rather than alcohol or drugs). "There is a God. It is not me." I think I saw that in some AAA lit somewhere.

Right now my family is where my energy needs to be focused. And for the first time in my life I have to realize that it is ok, and necessary, to take care of myself so I can continue to share with my family.

Thank you, friends for letting me get some of this out of my system. I ask for your prayers and good thoughts as I go thru this new growing stage.

Added after first published: I'm still having trouble getting this darn thing to keep the spaces between my paragraphs for easier reading.

You Can't Keep A Good Granny Down

Our month long heat wave finally gave way to 3 days of cooler, wet, Monsoon here in Florence. It helps me and my dry, suffering garden feel better. I managed to walk around Toad Haven, without falling down,with the help of my gorgeous Aspen walking stick, handmade for me by granddaughter Mandy. I took lots of photos and even got to pick some ripe tomatoes, eggplant, squash, cucumbers and lettuces. The Romaine lettuce was great as the base of a lemon- dill tuna salad.


Thanks to Dave and Carl, the yardmen who I finally gave up and hired to help me when I couldn't get out to the garden this past month, the worst of the weeds and elm seedlings are gone and I can sit and admire and enjoy the garden without feeling overwhelmed by the work that needed to be done.


It's wonderful to be happy and hopeful again instead of so beat down as I have been. Hopefully, this weak, shaky body will be able to come back from the terrible punishment it has had, due to medication side effects, the past 15 months. I have lost 30 pounds and my clothes are beginning to hang on me. Ain't it Wonderful! Now only 65 more pounds to go. It is much easier now, to not want to gobble the junk I had been stuffing down. I think I was craving more energy and, somehow, thought that more food would help. Of course, it didn't.

I even managed to drive to Canon City today to shop at the health food store and City Market for a few things, and drove home the back way and took lots more photos of the refreshed countrside and the fantastic monsoon thunderheads in the sky. By the time I got home and carried the 2 bags of groceries in, I was shaking and had to collapse to recuperate a while, but it was worth it.

Before the "you know what" hit the fan in early July, Joe and I purchased a vintage, small travel trailer from a neighbor. It is so old it actually has real wood paneling, instead of pressed board or
plastic. Outside it is white with a retro turquoise band around it. June's fat quarters packet of the month from Grandma's Attic Quilting consisted of lovely retro looking turquoise, brown and
cream prints that I thought would be perfect as curtains and pillows for a refurbished camper, so I ordered enough to replace the odds and ends that the fisherman who owned it before scrounged up to cover the windows. Now I have to get Joe to tear out the hideous orange shag carpet and put down something more suitable. As soon as I feel up to sewing again, I will turn that little camper into the cutest thing you've ever seen. [The camper was where I was sleeping the night I had the first mini stroke; and I reveled in the luxury of a bed instead of a camp cot in a tent, even though it wasn't very attractive, yet.]

Maybe we will be able to go camping in the mountains with some of our kids over Labor Day weekend. It's wonderful to be human again, even if tottering!

The first landscape is of a great thunderhead building over Pikes Peak with Castle Rock (next to the Arkansas River) in the foreground. This photo was taken from the back road into Florence from Canon City.

The second landscape is of Florence, down in the River valley, behind the Southfield Coal Mine sign. This bluff has been mined out underneath the ground. We no longer have an active coal mine in the area because the cost of underground mining is prohibitive and we don't want open pits. Wyoming can have all the open pit coal mines they want out in all that empty land. For 150 years good quality coal has been mined in this area and we still have retired miners with Black Lung disease.

You really need to click these landscapes, to enlarge them, to really get an idea of what you are looking at.

The not so great side of the August Monsoons is that there is quite a bit of flash flooding and lightning along the whole front range corridor. On Wednesday, lightning hit the 90 year old steeple of the Catholic Cathedral in Pueblo and started a fire. They are now in the process of determining whether it can be repaired or will have to be removed. I'm hoping they can save it as it is a beautiful, historic feature of Pueblo.

The View From 70 Years

I spent my 70th birthday, July 31, in the ER at St. Mary Corwin Hospital in Pueblo and got moved to the telemetry observation ward around 10:30 that evening attached to all kinds of cords, dials, beepers, etc. It was not anything like I had imagined celebrating. Luckily, after a month of ER and hospital stays the doctors and I feel we have figured out what is going on and I am hopefully now on the way to recovery.

Thanks to being one of the rare cases of Lipitor (for high cholesterol) side effects, I had the year from Hell with the symptoms of Congestive Heart Failure with extreme edema, weakness, and water on the lungs making it difficult to breath. After being clued in by a cousin that his similar symtoms were caused by Lipitor the doctor took me off all Statins and I thought that things were looking up; the CFI symptoms were gone but I became progressively weaker, light headed, confused, and falling. My biggest mistake was to keep forcing myself to go on and do what needed to be done even though I was so tired and weak. Then I had the first TIA that I already blogged about.

After more TIA episodes and ER visits in Canon City, I was so weak and ill and unable to eat and my blood chemistry was very messed up so I was sent back to the ER at St. Mary Corwin Hospital in Pueblo because they had my original test results and better access to specialists and they admitted me for overnight observation. The hospital doctors finally discovered that the reason I has having fainting spells and falling was due to extremely low blood pressure. When lying down the BP was high, when sitting it decreased, when standing and or moving it dropped very low, within just minutes. Exactly opposite of what you would expect.

The BP meds had been greatly increased, to help run off the retained water when the Lipitor was causing the edema. Now that I no longer suffered from edema the BP medicine dosage was

way too high. So we stopped the blood thinner and BP meds and will now start over from scratch to get my BP stabilized at a healthy level. Hopefully Mother Nature will do what she's been trying to do all along, get to equilibrium, this time without help or hindrance from meds.

I am home, Kat and Mandy have been with me this past week; I am beginning to regain my appetite, but am still going to eat a healthy diet to lose more of my excess weight and take that strain off my body and systems. My muscles are so weak that I have to begin slowly to regain muscle strenth and be able to once again live a normally active life.

I am very weak but at least not hopeless, which is how I've felt for the past month. Maybe one of these days I will feel good enough to be interested in making quilts again. Normally, I would not bore you all with these medical details, but if someone else out there is having a similar problem, they need to know the effect that Lipitor had on me. I am told that it is extremely rare, but had my cousin not clued me in, and I had kept on taking the Statins, I might not even be here to write this blog.

Thank you to all my quilting buddies who have been encouraging me during this experience, even when I've been unable to read or write blogs.

Even when ill I need to have flower photos, so here are the flowers in front of my doctor's clinic.

Transient Ischemic Attack

Whaaat?!! Dear Friends, today I came home from St. Mary-Corwin Hospital in Pueblo after a 2 day stay for that weird bunch of words in my title. TIA is commonly called a mini stroke.

Derek, Granddaughter, Lindsay, and Great Grandbaby Shawn.

The past 2 weeks, as I have been quite busy taxiing Mom to doctor and dentist appointments and preparing for the annual family get together in Fowler for Missouri Day, I have gotten progressively weaker and tireder and more forgetful than usual. Since their was no food left in Mom's house, where we were all going to be staying, I had to plan, and shop for food and supplies, as well as get some necessary items in our "new" retro camper trailer, so Joe and I would have a place to sleep. I knew something was wrong to make me so weak and tired, but I didn't have time to think about it, and next week I would call the doctor to discuss the problem.



On the way down, Mom and I followed Joe pulling the trailer with his business small truck, which we had not used before. We were concerned that the tires might not hold up. They did. The truck ran over something and had a blowout, and since it came without a spare, we had to find someplace to buy a new tire and have it mounted at 8 o'clock in the evening. We drove to a nearby WalMart which had a tire store and found that they had closed at 8, but we found a worker about to close one of the big pull down doors and when he heard our sad tale, he agreed to sell us a tire and mount it for us. Sometimes you still come upon an angel unawares.



Mom and I got to Fowler at around 11 at night and I was falling down, crying exhausted (well I didn't but I wanted to). We enjoyed the parade the next morning at which my children's father and his sister were parade marshall's, and had a great day walking in the park and visiting with old friends and watching Grandson Evan and Great Grandaughter Kaylee riding ponies.


It was my brother, Steve's, 50th high school reunion and he had been invited to display some of his photographs in the art show. He presented them in the form of giclee prints on canvas and they are even more spectacular than seeing them online.




We went to bed late and when I woke in the middle of the night, for the reason that old women have to get up in the middle of the night, my lower left face felt as if I had been to the dentist and had a shot as well as feeling as if there was a strange thick portion of my inside cheek. I didn't feel bad, just strange, so I went back to bed. When I finally came to the front of the one bathroom line, I looked at my face and saw that my left side of my mouth and my left jowel were drooping. I've worked for so many years with seniors I realized that this was not a good sign. I went to the living room and told Joe that we needed to get me to a hospital right away, even though it was hard to take it seriously since I didn't feel any worse than I had for a while.


The ER took it seriously and I went to the head of the class and after a short time of examination, explanation and a cat scan of my brain (I really have one) I was sent upstairs and hooked up to monitors and switched from Ursula to the hospital oxygen. I will not discuss trying to rest or sleep in a hospital, but they treated me very well. First thing next morning I was wheeled for an ultra sound of my Carotid Arteries and an MRI of my brain. I then received an Echo Cardiogram (remember my piece "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" from last July's
hospitalization? In the meantime I tried to pass out in the bathroom while washing my face and soon had an unbelievable number of people and equipment in my room and was no longer allowed to walk across the few steps to the bathroom without assistance. [I learned that I have to be careful of being active in hot places or outside on hot days, as heat is also a stressor for me, which explains my bad experiences the last 2 Julys. The thermostat in my room was malfunctioning and the heat got up to 80 with it turned completely down.]


By the end of the day the facial numbness and droop went away and I was just so tired and had a miserable headache all night. The Neurologist/Neuro Surgeon was supposed to come review my case and see me at about 8 in the evening to make the final decision of what was wrong and what treatment I needed. I finally gave up and tried to sleep at a little after 10. At a quarter to 11 the lights came on and the poor, extremely busy Neurologist touched my shoulder to wake me and discuss my case.


The good news came this morning that I could go home before noon. I had had a TIA, which unlike an actual stroke, did not leave me with permanent after effects. The best news is that the Carotid Arteries are not blocked and I am not in danger of another TIA or full blown stroke if I am a good girl and take care of myself. I have a new, expensive prescription to keep the platelets from clumping, and I am to eat the same type of diet I've used the last month to lose fat, exercise moderately, and not get overly tired.


"Tenting tonight in the old Metzner National Campground." [The small two bedroom house could not contain all of us, so we camped.]



When we got home I was completely wiped out and I am having the emotional fall out that comes with these types of episodes. I felt that having finally started to improve my health this past month, I didn't deserve this. My daughter, Kat, told me it's like when you start deep cleaning your skin, for a while you break out worse because the toxins and impurities are coming out. She said that having made this healthly change and started on a new path, the toxins are coming out, and I can then be much better. I like to think she is right, and I am already seeing how continuing to drive myself all my life, using food as the carrot in front of the donkey to keep driving myself when I should rest is probably one of the things that has brought this on; especially this past year when I have been so physically stressed by the horrible side effects of Lipitor, not to mention the loss of my father and taking on the responsibility of looking after my Mom. [My typing is worse than usual due to my brain being a bit jumbled by the TIA, I'm constantly having to type backwards and then forwards again.]


My daughter, Michal Ann, is coming down to help me tomorrow, and my foster Granddaughter, Amber is staying with me, to help out, tonight and tomorrow till she goes to work at 6 pm. The family is rallying and we will work out how to handle the things that need to be handled without stressing myself. What was the old song, "I will survive"? I think I may have made it to the Graduate Institute of the School of Hard Knocks.


To make up for all this venting and and warning to others, I am including some photos of the good times at Fowler's Annual Missouri Day 2008.


When I checked my e-mail back log this evening I got a very pleasant surprise from Debra S. in
her blog; she has chosen Toad Haven Annex to receive one of her
Brilliante Weblog Premio 2008 Award awards. I felt so honored to receive this from my online quilt and blog mentor, when I have been feeling that I hadn't been doing a very good job recently. I will be considering this award and will make my choices in the near future, "God willing and the creek don't rise."

God Bless America!

God Bless America With--

Peace for all who are troubled;

Grace for all who are needy;

Courage for all who fear;

Strength for all who are weary;

Faith for all who are seeking;

Hope for all who are uncertain;

Protection for all who serve;

Wisdom for all who lead.

-Roy Lessin


Like all the other kids, I loved the fireworks,last night, over Skyline Drive.


Check out my post on Quilter's Lounge to see why Fran has been so scarce lately, not quilting, doing little blogging, and not getting around to reading blogs very often.


As a bonus I have some great info for those of you who are trying to shed some pounds, or just eat more healthily.


Sorry for the difficult to read big blob of a blog, but Blogspot isn't taking directions too well and refuses to put in my paragraph breaks.

Spring has Sprung!

_Last Spring_ California Poppies

In one of my elementary textboods was a section on Spring poems with a drawing entitled Spring; everything depicted was made of springs or had an attached spring of some type. I've always remembered that drawing and have never seen it again. I would love to find a copy of it.

I had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to Colorado Springs Penrose Hospital for oral surgery this morning (fasting_no tea_no food_no meds). The IV went in perfectly first time! Since the usual "go to sleep" med they use is soy based, I was given the alternative cocktail to relax me, lower the pain threshhold, and something else I don't remember. The surgery went well, I now have 2 less teeth and have to figure out what type of partials I need to get installed since those were the last 2 teeth I could chew with. I'm thinking that implants would be better than attaching the false teeth to crowns on the side teeth, since I would have to have 6 crowns to attach the 3 partials I need and that is time consuming and costly. I'm hoping the implants would be about the same cost. Mom had to have implants to get her false teeth to fit and has been pleased with them.

_Last Spring_ Chamomile

When Joe drove me home we had to stop at a grocery store to get some good lowfat yoghurt (Mountain High is what I prefer since it was invented and sold first in Boulder when I lived there) since I can't have solid food for 48 hours. Hopefully this will assist me in losing a few more of my goal of 80 pounds, while I can't eat solid food. I took a pain pill and reclined and slept till late afternoon, when I got a call from my brother Steve.

He is starting a new corporation to market his photos and photo tile murals and had just gotten back from a meeting in LA and is really excited with his new corporate board of well experienced advisers who "know" people. Steve has done away with his blog since it didn't get enough traffic to justify the time it took. His photos can now be viewed at http://jpgmag.com/people/smetzner, where he gets a lot more attention and feedback.

After talking to him I felt well enough to go outside, feed the birds, watch the birds, and do a small amount of cleanup of locust seed pods in the herb garden. I also sat a bit on the new patio I built last summer and watched a fat moon come up in the still fairly light blue sky. It must be close to full moon. Does the Equinox come with the full moon? Where is my "Old Farmer's Almanac"?

It is time to plant the Sugar Pod Peas but with the rain and snow I haven't been able to prepare the soil so they will go in a little late. While sitting there I discovered lots of one inch tall California Poppy plants just coming up in my new Lavender garden; seeded from the ones I grew there last year. I'm anxious to see what all made it through the winter and will come up and flower there this year. I need to spread some Camomile seeds so that I have some white flowers with the gold poppies and lavender Lavender. I love the look, smell and taste of Chamomile, which makes a great relaxing tea (see the photo of Chamomile with purple Veronica and yellow Yarrow growing in pots on my previous roof top garden, La Playa Brea_click to enlarge) .

Duct Tape Bubba Saves the day

that's the name used by the nurse who applied my splint; he's from Georgia. he told duct tape Joe that he could use a tube sock to hold the splint when it no longer needed to be held as firmly as the elastic bandage. Luckily Joe had just cleaned out his sock drawer and had a sack full of holey (not holy) white tube socks saved to use as rags in the shop.

You can see from the second and third photos why we had to get my rings cut off yesterday morning. I woke up with an extremely tight splint and discovered that my fingers had turned into very fat sausages. After sitting in the ER waiting room for 45 minutes with no one even welcoming us, we decided that it would probably be faster and considerably cheaper to have our jeweler do the cutting. he didn't even charge for the cutting, we'll only have to pay to have them repaired so i can wear them again after the swelling goes down.

I'm happy to report that I can use the hand a bit more but still can't close the fingers or grip anything. i also don't wish to bend my wrist. Today i am having more trouble with pulled muscles, or something, on the ribs on my left side and with my back. i told joe that i am having twinges on top of my twinges.

I am learning that i don't take well to losing my independence. i am also learning that even tho i am not an avid housekeeper, i do a lot more of it unconsciously thru the day than i realized. it's amazing how fast every thing goes to pot when i'm not walking around picking up, thowing away, wiping, and generally tidying thru the day. grrrrrrrr! i am trying (in more ways than one) to remember to have an attitude of gratitude and praise, rather than grumbling, but it shore don't come natural!

I do remember archy and mehitabel, but am less graceful than they were at typing.

debra thinks that i need to keep my swollen ankles higher than my heart, as well as my hand.

now 17 year old Mandy can put her ankles up around her neck, but i sure can't! i'll have to find another remedy.

the sound of one hand typing

last evening we came home from grocery shopping at twilight and i decided to fill the empty bird feeders for the morning rush. as i hurried thru the herb garden i stubbed my toe and flew thru the air to land left hand first and then flat on my face in the dirt a foot from the concrete carport floor. due to arthritis in feet, knees, and hands i can't get myself up from this position. i was able to call joe and he called the emts who got me back on my feet.

they checked my face, hips, legs and especially my left hand which was kind of sore. nothing seemed to be broken so i signed the paper that i did not choose to be transported to the hospital and put an ice pack on my wrist and hand. by the time i went to bed it was hurting more and my ring finger was swollen too much to remove my rings. the tip looked like a large purple grape.

this morning i couldn't use that hand without pain so joe drove mr to the er. it was very busy so it took about 3 hours to be examined, have x-rays done. doc said i was lucky that i had no broken bones, just painful wrist and finger sprains. they put on a splint and a sling and told me to keep it higher than my heart to keep down swelling so i didn't have to have my rings cut off.

i got an rx for tylenol with codeine with instructions to recline and not try to do anything for a few days. mandy and joe are taking good care of me. i also had to have my glasses rebuilt from the pretzel shape the fall caused. i'm also pleased to report that ursula oxygen survived the fall and is still pulsing.

so all my plans for doing more work at my mom's house in fowler this weekend, getting more blocks sewn, and starting to exercise 3 times a week at curves again, are at a standstill.

"life is what happens to us while we are busy making plans."

you have no idea how exhausting it is to type one handed. i feel about the way i look in the self portrait. how am i going to get my clothes off over that splint?

A New Year

The past year I wasn't able to accomplish the goals I had set for myself in quilting or in health and fitness. I was doing pretty well until I ended up in the hospital in July, then when I was getting going again, my Dad had a heart attack and passed away.


2007 Goals accomplished:

_Strippy Solar Quilt for a child in the Quilt Studio 40 Quilts Challenge

_8 monthly quilts done for the12 x12 x12 Challenge (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Oct)

_Pieced top for Sean's Mythical Horses Quilt (see photo)

_13 of the 39 blocks finished (26 made in 2006) for the Women of the Bible quilt

_7 blocks of the Praying the Names of Jesus quilt



We are blessed in that we are constantly being given a new chance, and with this new year I am setting goals again, both in quilting and in health and fitness. I find that without goals that have definite daily tasks to accomplish, it is too easy to drift along and not get anything significant done.

Healthwise, it is essential for me to take off weight and to strengthen my muscles with aerobic exercise and stretching. My goal is to take off 50 pounds in 2008. In order to visualize this, I bought a 4 pound package of lard; that is the amount I will need to take off each month to reach my goal. Can you imagine how big a chunk of lard I'd have with 12 of these lumped together!?

In order to accomplish this goal I will need to stick to a healthy and doable eating plan as well as exercising at Curves 3 times a week and walking on the other days.







My quilting goals are:

_Finish 4 UFOs, Mike's Bargello, Mom's Album, Alex's Depression Toys, and Sean's Mythical Horses quilts; they all need to be assembled and quilted, either by me or sent out to a professional quilter.

_Finish the December 12 x 12 Challenge block.

_I will learn to do free motion quilting with the new sewing machine foot I bought earlier this year and haven't removed from it's bag.

_I will piece the top of Carl's antique airplane quilt from the Depression Era reproduction fabrics I've collected. I need to figure out how to do the layout on EQ5.

_I will finish the 10 remaining blocks of the Women of the Bible Quilt and assemble the top.

_I will finish the 20 remaining blocks of the Praying the Names of Jesus Quilt and assemble the top.


_I will make a block a week (30 total) for the Quilting the Names of God online study group.

_I will make one small experimental landscape quilt each month, as my own Challenge for this year.


As a gesture of good faith, I actually finished the first Quilting the Names of God block this week as we were studying it. The first name is from the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis, God, Mighty Creator. The block is Light and Dark done in black, white and gold fabrics from a collection of fat quarters with gold touches (see photo) that I found at the Creative Cloth Closet in Canon City. I wanted to get an effect similar to the William Blake painting of The Ancient of Days.

Our Baby Boy is Here!

Would you believe the little guy didn't arrive until 8:00 a.m. this morning (Tuesday). Lindsay and company were exhausted and managed to get a little sleep today. Little one had low oxygen levels and went immediately into an oxygen tent on his crib so Lindsay wasn't able to hold him longer than a moment and hadn't yet gotten to feed him by 3:00 this afternoon. However, they said he had started sucking his fist and they seemed to think that was a good sign. My daughter hopes to be able to get some photos sent to me as soon as she can. She is a proud grandmother. Can't wait to see the little guy this weekend. This is the only photo of the baby that I can share so far.

Had great news from the Cardiologist today, after another echo cardiogram confirmed that my

problems are not caused by my heart and that I have no serious problem with my heart. There is a murmur, that I've had all my life, caused by a slightly abnormal aortic valve that is wearing faster than than normal, but it is nothing to worry about. He explained to me that Diabetics have a problem with water retention and in addition, 3 of my meds can cause water retention. These were made worse by my high altitude camping trip and the extremely hot weather this summer. I guess my family doc and I will have to discuss whether there are other meds that would do the job without this side effect.

I was fascinated to find out that the Cardiologist had Sarcoid 27 years ago and was one of the lucky ones that got over it. He was able to give me more info about the effects of Sarcoid and says that the increased arthritic pain I have been experiencing could be caused by the Sarcoid. He said that it can have such diverse effects to all parts of the body that it is depressing to research it. I had discovered this in my searches online and so will continue to have hope that I am one of the fortunate 50% who gets over it. Thanks for your prayers and well wishes.

Had a beautiful drive to and from Pueblo and ate at a yummy cafe in the Historic Union Avenue section of the City near the Stitcher's Garden quilt shop where I bought flannel to back the baby's quilt. Got lots of photos of nature and some of my garden early this morning that I will be sharing soon.

A pumpkin blossom waiting for a bee.

Home From Hospital

It turns out that the asthma and allergies causing my problems, weren't. After 9 hours in the ER, a night in ICU, and another day in the hospital, multiple punctures, pictures, etc., I have been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), which came as a major shock to us.

I had gained nearly 20 pounds in the last 2 weeks and looked and felt like I was in training as a balloon float for the Thanksgiving Day parade. When it got so bad that I felt like my chest was being crushed and I couldn't breathe, the Doc sent me to the ER. After figuring out what was wrong, they administered huge doses of Lasix intravenously and by the next morning I had run off around 25 liters of fluid. Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night.

Doc said I had improved much faster than he expected, and attributed part of that to the Bible I was reading when he came into the room this morning. I can breathe so much easier and feel so much better. I expected to come home and start gardening. But.......I can't go out in the hot weather, and I am so weak and tired I can hardly sit here. My daugher, Kat, is coming to stay with me tomorrow morning (we had planned for her to visit next week anyway) and I hope I feel good enough for us to do a few fun things together.

After a Stress Echo test of my heart on Friday, they will have a better idea of what is causing this and how we will treat it. I would love to hear from any of you who live with CHF to see how you handle it. The Doc thinks that it was precipitated by my high altitude camping trip and the extremely hot weather we're having putting too much stress on my heart. Evidently it is more common in people with Diabetes or lung diseases, both of which I have.

My room on the second floor of St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City had a nice view of Fremont Peak and the Skyline Drive across the ridge of the Hogback on the West side of Canon City. The early settlers here called the skyline of Fremont Peak the Sleeping Indian. If you have a good imagination you can see him lying there at the top of the peak. The Royal Gorge runs through on the south (left side) of Fremont Peak (named for the Pathfinder Fremont who explored through this area after Pike discovered the Gorge.) Skyline Drive is one of our tourist attractions with a narrow one-way road following the ridge and the city straight down the east side and U. S. Highway 50 running through a valley, on the way to the Royal Gorge, straight down the west side.

I could use good thoughts and prayers for an independent old Granny to learn to be less independent and to stop trying to be Wonder Woman. I'm exhausted and need to go to bed for a while.

Celebration of Walking

It was such a gorgeous warm and sunny day today, so I clipped on my pedometer, strapped Ursula Oxygen around my waist like a fanny pack, picked up my walking stick and started down the street. I've just recently started tracking my daily steps, with the encouragement of my buddies at Quilter's Lounge. I'm afraid I had given in to the fear of being a semi-invalid and hadn't done much walking for some time. I used to love to walk, and even hike and backpack in the mountains, but with severe arthritis, being on oxygen due to impaired lungs from Sarcoid, in addition to excess weight put on as a result of being on Insulin for Diabetes, I had gradually become quite sedentary. When I put on my pedometer a few weeks ago I was lucky to get in 1000 steps a day around the house. Given the amount of snow, cold and ice we've had this winter, I've been mostly stuck in the house because of fear of falling. The fall I had on Tuesday was my fourth bad fall in the past year.

In an attempt to build up my endurance I've tried to increase my walking 1000 steps each week, doing my walking mainly at the Canon City WalMart. So it felt so good to be able to walk outside a couple of times this week. Tuesday, before the fall on my back doorstep, I was able to walk 4 blocks north, a block west, 2 blocks east, and 2 more blocks south back to home. I had forgotten how good it felt to walk in the fresh air. The sounds, the smells, and the little details of a few green shoots pushing up out of the ground in places, mica sparkling in the crushed rocks, dogs barking at me through the fences, llamas begging for carrots, or speaking to and waving at my neighbors was a delight. Wednesday, due to a headache and muscle aches and pains from the fall, I rested and didn't measure my steps. The fall was a fluke and no way related to the walk I took earlier. I really resented that such a thing would happen when I was feeling so good about accomplishing so much that day.

Today I walked again and made it another block north (to the edge of town) before turning. I've felt great today, except for a bit of soreness in my right hand, a huge, ugly purple bruise on my right hip that hurts to touch, and an extremely sore spot on my head when I forget and brush my hair there or open my mouth wide. When I got home from my walk today, I pulled up a chair on the patio to sit a while because it was just to nice outside to go in. I heard a couple of keee's over my head and looked up to see two Red-tailed Hawks circling above. I felt that was a special reward for taking the walk, in addition to the good tingly feeling the walk gave me. I am amazed at how much my crooked natural walking stick helps my stability while walking. I don't think I could keep my balance without it and it doesn't interfere with the rhythm of walking.

My goal for this week was 3000 steps a day; on Tuesday I did 3237 steps and today it was 3735 steps. The best part is that I am actually getting some aerobic steps walking outdoors. I have to admit that by the time I got home today, my right leg joint at the hip was feeling stressed. Starting from practically nothing I am taking it slow in building up to the 10,000 steps that are recommended. It's ridiculous to get to the point where this is all I can accomplish, but that's what I've done to myself with negative thoughts and self pity.

The part that bothers me the most is that up until 1992 I was used to walking all over this town without even thinking about it. This is when I was diagnosed with Diabetes and my health decline started. At that time I also walked every day on the River Walk along the Arkansas between Florence and Canon City. Walking there was sheer joy, with all the critters and birds to enjoy as well as the interesting people I met on my walks. Now I am hoping that I will get to the point that I can walk the River Walk again.

Unfortunately, my lungs will no longer allow me to hike in the mountains because even with oxygen, my lungs can't function well enough in the high altitude. Of course, the altitude here is a mile high (5,280) and where I used to hike it was at was 8,000 up to 10,000. (My Pulmonologist tells me that if I were at sea level I probably wouldn't have to be on oxygen. I'm a Native Coloradoan I don't want to live at sea level, just visit.) But instead of giving in to my limitations any longer, I am going to at least push the envelope and see what I can still do. Thank you, Debra and the rest of you Loungers, who aren't lounging. I didn't realize that accomplishing my lifetime dream of making quilts would lead to improvement of my health. "Just goes to show, you never can tell."

The weatherman is predicting another bad blizzard for this weekend, so it will be back to WalMarts for a while; but, Spring is coming.