Unsettled Weather

At the start of this week we were still experiencing unsettled weather, but nothing like folks were up north.  One weather forecast reported: "The Pest from the West stepped in to replace the devastating Beast from the East."  Snow storms this time of year are a surprise, even up north.  But it is typical to hear people say "If you don't like the weather now, wait 30 minutes."  The weather can be especially "unsettled" in the spring, as the higher sun angle provides more thermal energy for stronger showers but also makes it warmer and sunnier when the clouds have parted.  The weather never seems to stay the same for long and can change at the drop of a hat.

Saturday 4/14 - Rain was in the forecast, no surprise.  When I checked the prediction, it said rain in the morning and then again in the afternoon.  I tried to finish last weeks post, but then Joe decided to go to Cherokee a day early to golf.  I wanted his help and use of the SUV.  I checked the weather again and it said no rain until 4pm.







So off we went to get a Mountain Laurel, and some moss covered rocks for my garden.  Seen in the back of the SUV, the stuff we returned home with, from the deep abandoned woods of the Glade.  It started to rain on our way home but let up to a light sprinkle while unloading.  I had a hole ready for the Mountain Laurel so got it into the ground as quick as possible.  


The upper left photo was from the internet, but shows how the rain showers can move into the area.  It turned out to be an afternoon of showers and sunbreaks: rain shower…sun…rain shower…sun…etc.  The weather people are the only ones I know who can be wrong more often than right, and still keep their job.  😜  This other photo was taken after another rain shower had moved through and shows water pooling under the new Mountain Laurel transplant.  

A serious hard driving rain came about 2:30 and I grabbed my tools and stuff and ran for cover in the garage.  These next two photos show 1st some of the new rocks and others I had as I was starting to re-configure the steps to the bench on the rock.  The second photo shows how far I had gotten until the rains came.

I had thought about going to the gym, but they closed at 4:00 and I was hungry.  So after leftover soup for a late lunch, I showered and put on my PJ's.  The creek was filling fast and debris had started washing down into the pond.  I took these photos during another break in the down pour.  I also saw a huge snapper in the thin section of the drainage ditch. 

Below is one more garden photo I took.  It is on the side of the house near the kitchen window.  Even the white phlox was pretty this year.

I did three loads of laundry and walked the dog when the rain was at it's lightest, although had to sprint for home once when it started pouring while I was at the corner of Flossmoor and Lakeview.  Since I had had such a late lunch, I just had veggies and dip for an evening snack.  I slept with the window cracked, listening to the sounds of frogs and rain, and smelling the fresh rain and damp woods.

Sunday 4/15 - This was the view out my window all day.  The rain seemed to come down continually, and quite hard at times.  The temperature was dropping so I turned on the space heater for my feet.  Monita and Maggie were lying under my desk in front of the heater to get in on the warmth.

I ventured outside when it had let up, to get photos and (video) of the streams, creek, and pond.

This stream with beautiful little waterfalls comes down from the golf course.  Below is the creek coming from Lakeview running through the north end of Allen's lot.

So much sand gets carried down these water ways that it then settles in the pond, filling it in with a sand bar.

A day after this rain started, Jan reported that she had just under 4 inches in her rain gage.

I spent the morning finishing last week's blog, posting it, and starting this week's.  Monita was napping until I woke her up taking photos.

Look at her cute little feet.


I started work on the safari chest of drawers, making a new handle for the bottom drawer because it was missing one.  I had shopped several places and couldn't find anything to work as a replacement, so I used an old coat hanger.  It took quite a bit of time to get it to look similar to the other handles.  Then I accidently broke another handle (they are just cheap plastic) so I used Gorilla Glue to fix it.  I decided to quit on this project for the day.

I went to the gym and got in a good weight workout, and then shopped at Food City on the way home, returning with salad fixin's for dinner.  Our after dinner walks have been in the light, now that the days are longer.  Maggie and I spotted Hobo returning 'home' to Allen's from across the street.  Notice the white ring near the tip of his/her tail.








Then as we were returning home from going around the block, I spotted Hobo on our front porch.  He/she was quick to head across the front and around to the back.
I watched the movie Rent to end the day.

Monday 4/16 - The sun was 'up' but not shinning when I got out of bed at 6:00 and it had just started snowing.  

It had really cooled off and I felt sorry for Hobo so fed him/her.  You can see the white tail ring better in this photo.





I would have more enjoyed watching the snow come down if it was Christmas eve, not the middle of April, but still it was pretty and peaceful.

The feeders were busy and I thought it cute how the squirrel used it's tail to keep the snow off its back.

I did not let the weather deter me from going to Ballroom Aerobics, and I did the elliptical after class because I knew a long walk outside was out of the question.



Joe arrived home from Cherokee shortly after I got home.  The snow continued to accumulate and the temperature remained at 32 degrees all day. 

I read, napped, wrapped Joe's birthday present while he was at the gym, and spent some time reviving this little song sparrow that had hit the window.  I dried it off and held it for around 30 minutes, warming it up and keeping it warm.  Once it became active I put it out in the abandoned nest in the wreath on the front porch.  Later when I checked, it was gone.

Feeling fat, lazy, and guilty for snacking on sweets, I decided to go back to the gym.  I wanted to do the stretch class, but first spent an hour rowing, walking and doing abdominal exercises.

Joe had already eaten dinner by the time I got home, so I grabbed a bite and then had popcorn while watching TV.  We decided to start the new Lost In Space Series, so watched the first two episodes.

Tuesday 4/17 - It was 29 degrees when I walked Maggie at 5:30 am.  At least the skies had cleared and the sun was already shinning.  It took awhile to warm up but once it did, I went to the barn.  I had to wade through the muck to catch Amiga.  I rode on my own, going over to the winter pasture to check it out.  It had been recently plowed so was bad to walk in (Amiga really sank in the mud) but there was still a path around most of the perimeter where the livery horses had traveled all winter, which was great to ride on.  So we mostly stayed out of the mud.  The pond was flooded with more trees fallen into it.

Jan got to the barn just as I was leaving.  I dug up some woodland moss on my way home and got it planted in my moss garden right away.  I added some more white moss and all the green moss along the edge of the garden and the wood chips.







Look at the sand bar now that the pond water level has gone back down to normal.  The ground was too wet to work on the rock steps and I was running out of time anyway.



Joe and I went out to dinner for his birthday (a day early).  We each enjoyed a Long Island Ice Tea.  Cheers.  Dinner was good, the view pretty, but it got a little cold. 

This is the pretty sunset seen as we were going down Peavine on the way home.  We ended the evening watching a movie on TV, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.  It was a little depressing.

Wednesday 4/18 - Joe's Birthday.  This is a beautiful oak shadowbox Nolan made for Joe, for his 50 year old putter that Joe has retired and replaced with a new one.  Happy Birthday.  Also displayed is his poker trophy.

I messaged with Courtney while at my computer, because she had been dealing with abdominal pain the past four days, a lot worse each night accompanied by vomiting.  She is in Salt Lake City at a conference all week and wanted to wait to see a Dr. when she got home, but agreed to go to a walk in clinic after the day's meetings if she didn't feel better.

I rowed 15 minutes before Ballroom and lifted weights for an hour after.  Shortly after I got home, Steve the roofer, who Steve my contractor recommended, came to evaluate our roof, to see what needs to be done about several leaks. Well, the second roof was shingled right over the first, it was not re-flashed, the shingles were incorrectly over lapped, and he said there is water trapped between the two layers.  Also, there are at least three rotten boards of roofing plywood that he could put his foot through. Yikes. So new roof will be installed next week, Joe's big Birthday gift. 😏

I worked in the yard a bit to  complete the rock steps.  I had Joe use the saw with masonry blade to trim one rock for me.  Now the woodchips won't keep washing down this hill.  Soon I want to add more moss.

I was off to town to do a little shopping before meeting Shirley, Judy, and Jean for the 4:15 movie.  We saw "I Can Only Imagine," the life story of Bart Millard who wrote the song.  We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

We had dinner together after the show, and when I got home I had a Facebook message from Courtney saying she was at the ER.  She had called the walk-in clinic who told her to go to the ER.  The hotel chauffer had driven her there.  I called and felt better after talking with her for almost 30 minutes.  Well, it was a long night (I was up past midnight) with messaging, waiting, worrying, and wondering.  As it turns out, Courtney had a large gall stone stuck in her bile duct and very bad LFT (liver functioning test).  They were going to do surgery to remove the stone.  Once Joe got home from poker, I felt I could go to bed.  They still hadn't even gotten started with the surgery process yet and we were all wondering what the hold up was.

Thursday 4/19 - I had taken a sleeping pill but still did not sleep well and when I heard a message come through at 5:00 (4 am Courtney's time) I got up to check on her.  She was holding up well and waiting on the Dr.  Well we (Joe, Mike, Britney, Jean, Patty and myself) were all waiting....   A-l-l   m-o-r-n-i-n-g  l-o-n-g!

I stayed here at my computer all morning.
Notice in this photo that Maggie and Stevie have spotted Hobo?  Maggie doesn't even bark at Hobo any more, she has gotten so used to the cat hanging around.  


When Hobo decided to move on, he/she just sauntered off in no hurry.  Meanwhile, I was anxious to get news from Courtney.  Finally at 11:30 she texted:
"Here's the plan.  They are doing a non-surgical ERCP procedure this afternoon.  If all goes well I'll be discharged by tomorrow morning.  Then I'll fly home Saturday and work with Nashville hospitals to schedule gall bladder removal surgery.  ERCP is endoscopic and they'll dislodge the stone that is stuck in the bile duct, right at the entrance to the small intestine.  They're going to grab my stone and pull it into the small intestine to prevent infection. The chance of another stone getting stuck in the future is pretty high so she (the surgeon) wants the gall bladder out.  But is very understanding that surgery so far from home isn't desirable".

I had had enough sitting and worrying, so headed outside to work in my garden.  Since I had the rock steps finished, I wanted to get moss around them so I took the SUV and headed into the woods on one of the undeveloped roads we ride on.  There was tons of moss. 
I put more spiral moss around the base of this large Mountain Laurel after removing all of the rocks I had piled there.




I had also collected more white moss and added to the patch I had started.  And then I filled regular moss in around the rock steps and continued with the boarder at the top of the garden putting moss down to help keep the shavings in place.  It felt good to be outside and productive.  This is my form of art work I guess, and I find it very relaxing.

At 2:00 I had checked in with Courtney, who had continued to wait, well into the afternoon for the ERCP procedure.  She said they told her she would be going at 3:30 our time.  I came in at 4:30 to clean up for a dinner at Patty's and then got the frustrating news from Courtney.  They had just told her that her Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance wouldn't cover the procedure at their hospital.  I was so mad, we all were.

Courtney show us her pink nail polish
that matches her pink hair and pink barf bucket.

LDS hospital doesn't accept BCBS except in case of emergency.  The night before, everyone acted like she would be getting emergency surgery.  All her labs and scans said she needed treatment right away.  Now it was a 'no go'.  So then the decision was to either try to catch an early flight back to Nashville, or transfer Courtney to a different hospital.  At first the surgeon would not release Courtney and said she could not fly without first getting the procedure done.  Also, they felt the risk of infection was high.  Courtney felt like she was being told she was too sick to go home but not sick enough for them to treat her, but they were willing to let her sit there and suffer.  

The next hurdle was finding a hospital that would take BCBS.  BCBS was closed and Courtney tried several numbers, but to no avail.  Joe finally got through to the insurance company, but the rep. was clearly reading from a script and of very little help.  We wanted to know why this wasn't considered an emergency but that question was not addressed.  We did discover that U of Utah was an option, but then come to find out they had no beds available.  St. Marks was also an option, but the surgeon did not want to send Courtney to that hospital.  We were like the weather, storm brewing within each of us, and very unsettled.

Brian, Shirley, Joe and I were at Patty's for the wonderful birthday dinner she had prepared for Joe.  It was delicious.  I felt really bad that our conversation was so focused on the stupid insurance issue and getting Courtney cared for.

Eventually, it was decided to transfer Courtney to the U of Utah hospital.  I guess a bed opened up.  Time was then spent coordinating the transfer including all the lab work and ultrasound.  They also had to be sure it was marked as medically necessary so insurance wouldn't refuse to pay for the transfer.  Finally, just before 10 pm, Courtney arrived at U of Utah Hospital.  There would be no ERCP today to relieve the pain.  And the really stupid thing is, not only did this prolong Courtney's suffering and increase her risk of infection, it is going to cost the insurance company more money for the extra day in the hospital and the ambulance transfer from one hospital to the other.  Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Friday 4/20 - There was frost on the ground at 5 am and the temperature was 34 degrees.  I went out to get photos of the work I had done the day before, and Hobo came down the hill to complain to me about being hungry.  See him in the left photo?  He blends well with the rocks.








He (I guess I have given him a sex identity, whether right or not, but I don't think he is a Tom) was very convincing and I ended up giving him a little bit of food.

It was a morning similar to the day before, waiting to hear from Courtney and what the game plan was.  Finally at 9am we got word that the ERCP was scheduled for 1pm.



The shipment of shingles arrived and it was nice to know the leaks showing up on our ceiling will finally be fixed.  I also like to see our flag proudly waving in the breeze.

I was about to leave for the barn when I noticed the back door hadn't gotten latched and had blown open.  Stevie was no where to be found in the house or outside around our house or in the neighbors yards.

Eventually I found and caught Stevie, but it set me back about 45 minutes, getting to the barn.  I had made a little get well sign and filmed this silly (video) after getting Zorro all cleaned up.










Zorro was so interested in eating the lush grass, he didn't mind where I hung the card on him.  He is such a sweet and silly boy.

After Zorro's film debut I went to get Amiga.  I am happy to say that I was able to get on her from the ground bareback, this is like the forth time now.  Ambrie and Kaylah were spreading manure which had Amiga a little excited while I was trying to do leg cues and ride with just a lead rope on her halter while coming in from the field.








I didn't spend much time getting Amiga brushed and was happy to see the scrape on her back was better.  I put in her bit and just rode around the barn yard letting her eat and watching the barn girls work.  I did take this (video).

 

On the way home from the barn I dug up some more moss.  It is everywhere.

Before working in the yard, I grabbed a snack for a late lunch, sent Courtney the video and photos, and then got word from the nurse that Courtney had come thru the procedure great, was resting, a little groggy, but fine.  They had removed two stones from her bile duct.

After speaking with Courtney on the phone briefly, I went out to work, relieved that she was in much less pain.

I put more moss around the rock steps and also added to the edge of the garden.  I was in at 6:30 to dine with Joe on salads he had gotten at Food City.  As we were finishing up, we got word from Courtney.  She was vomiting and in horrible pain.  This was a major set-back.  And then we couldn't get any communication from her.  It was very unsettling not knowing what was going on or what care Courtney was getting.





We finally got a hold of Courtney's nurse, Abbey.  They were struggling to stop the pain and vomiting and waiting on tests to determine the problem.  They suspected acute pancreatitis, a known, but not usual side effect of the ERCP procedure Courtney had had.  It makes sense when you look at this photo which shows right where Courtney's two stones were stuck.  But we couldn't help but wonder - Did she get pancreatitis from the procedure, or from taking so long to get the procedure done?


And the worst thing, was that Courtney was all by herself.  We knew someone needed to get there as quick as possible.  She needed a familiar face and an advocate.  Jean volunteered and it made the most sense to send her because it was cheaper than to go ourselves, and she could get there a lot faster.  Jean to the rescue.  She was our Magic Card Rainbow Elixir.  Joe got her booked on a 6:30 am flight.

We finally got word, talked with nurse Abbey on speaker phone (not to Courtney).  The Lipase test confirmed that Courtney has acute pancreatitis.  It will be a painful recovery that will take a few days.  They planned to just keep her hydrated and as comfortable as possible while she heals up over the next couple days.  The doctor was very engaged and on the floor all night and Abbey said she was checking on her every 15 to 20 minutes.  We felt Courtney was in good hands.  Abby also said Courtney's color was better, the vomiting was mostly under control, and Courtney was able to relax somewhat, although still in bad pain.  Joe and I collapsed in bed a little after midnight hoping we could sleep.
Like Zorro, we all wish Courtney a speedy recovery!