June 27, 2015
Today is Saturday and I came home from my surgery on
Tuesday. All went well with one small hiccup. The doc who performed the
operation was concerned that my bladder/kidneys were not functioning well after
the surgery so I remained on the operating table while an urologist was called
in (it was night by now). He did a dye test and determined that all was in
order so I got sewn up and went to recovery. I got to my room around 10:00 p.m.,
later than expected. My surgery started around 3:00 in the afternoon but with
robotic surgery I think it takes about an hour to set up before actual surgery
begins.
I was released the next day, Tuesday at noon. It takes about
90 minutes to reach Parkdale. I went upstairs and when I tried to get into bed
I had excruciating pain in my shoulders and screamed out, tears where flowing
down my face and Ron told me to breathe. It hurt like hell to cry and to
breathe. I finally got into bed. Apparently this is the worst side effect of
the operation. I was injected with carbon dioxide gas to help the surgeon see
better and to help move things around. This is a common practice. However the
gas aggravates the diaphragm and a nerve that goes to the shoulders. The pain felt like torture frankly but was
only in the shoulder region. By night fall I couldn’t take it any longer and
Ron convinced me to have my narcotic prescription filled. He left to go to
town, an hour round trip. What would I do without this wonderful guy?
With the help of the drugs I was able to sleep but had to
sleep in a sitting position because I couldn’t lie down without creating the
stabbing pain in my shoulders. I did this for two nights and slept well. Ah
hard drugs, a godsend under the circumstances. This experience made me even
more sympathetic to my friends who have had to deal with much more serious
physical/medical problems.
If ever there were a perfect place to recuperate, Parkdale
would be it. Larry and Susan’s farm is in an idyllic setting. Our bedroom
window looks out on tidy farms and a drop dead gorgeous view of Mt Hood. I
often sit on the edge of the bed and just take it in. It is a healing gesture.
Then my first days post op, Larry or Ron would bring me coffee and my meals. I
stayed upstairs the first day due to the discomfort I was experiencing each
time I got out of or into bed. But by Wednesday I was able to do downstairs for
short visits. Between Larry and Ron my
every need was attended to…hey I could get used to this!
On Thursday Larry left for Portland and to pick Susan up at the airport.
She has been visiting her mom in Florida .
They stayed overnight in Sellwood. We watched the news after dinner and on
Friday I was out of bed much of the day. I walked around the property briefly,
had my coffee on the patio taking in the view and we headed into town around
12:30 to go to a notary for a condo document and to do some grocery shopping.
It ended up we went too early as the notary wasn’t available until 2:00.
Because it was 90 degrees we decided to do the non perishable grocery shopping
before seeing the notary and to pick up the rest on our way back to the farm.
As luck would have it we ran into Nick, Mateo and Stacy, friends from Portland , at the grocery
store. They were on their way to a camping weekend nearby at Lost Lake
In the late afternoon my new ophthalmologist called. He had
not answered my emails and I discovered earlier in the day that he had been
attending a meeting and had not been in the office. I asked about delaying the
surgery until October. He said I was losing eye sight and by delaying I was
risking losing more. I decided to set up a meeting with him in Olympia where his practices three weeks a
month. He is in Portland
one week a month. We will meet July 6th as the surgery is now scheduled for
July 15th. I am proceeding with this as Ron will need to be in Costa
Rica in mid September and I feel the longer I have in recovery before his
departure the better. The appointment in July will give us more information to
know exactly what we can expect in terms of risks and possible outcomes from
the surgery.
Larry and Susan arrived around 6:00 p.m. and we waited until
the heat abated and served a salad dinner which we all enjoyed. We had picked
up three deli salads then Ron made a great green salad. We added some good
bread and called it dinner. I rested in bed all evening and read Miss Marple
mysteries by Agatha Christie. I had run out of reading material and found a
book with five mysteries in the beside table to keep me entertained for now. These
are quite dated so it is interesting to observe how things have changed in
terms of attitudes towards women, age and gays. It makes me aware that some
progress has been made. We were thrilled to hear of the two Supreme Court
rulings on the Affordable Care Act and gay marriage equity.
I made it through the day with no narcotics and am pleased.
I did wake up around 3:00 a.m. and so did Ron. I read until about 4:00 when he
came back to bed. I then slept until 8:30. Ron has been working with a program
called Home Architect which allows him to draw a floor plan of the condo and
place furniture to see how things will fit. He refined it further during his
wakeful hours between 3:00-4:00. He has done a terrific job of thinking things
through. We are downsizing from 3,000 sq feet to 1280 sq ft. We have a large
art and textile collection so some of it will need to be stored, sold or given
away I think. We won’t make any decisions until after we attempt to move in.
Today Mandi, a former tenant of ours in Vancouver is bringing lunch for the five of
us. We look forward to her visit.
Sunday
We had a super visit with Mandi and a delicious lunch. We
will see her again hopefully before we move into our condo. Ron and I ate
leftovers for dinner and Larry and Susan went to a winery for the owners’
retirement party. I spent the evening in bed as I had been out of bed much of
the day.
Today after lunch we said goodbye to Larry and Susan who are
leaving for Portland today and France
tomorrow. We drove about 35-40 minutes up to Lost Lake
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| Stacy |
 |
| Nick |
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| Tricia |
 |
| Dolores |
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| Rollie |
We came home and picked blueberries and raspberries then ate
leftovers for dinner. We watched The Theory of Everything, a wonderful film
about Stephen Hawking and his wife, Jane.
Through our stay at Parkdale, we've told you about Larry and Susan's dog, Baker. He is so smart.... so here's his picture.
July 1
Today we found out that Mark, our older son, passed his
defense of his dissertation and is now Dr Bergman. Hooray for Mark who has
worked so hard on this degree while holding multiple jobs and while being a
great dad and husband.
Our mover finally called back to say he couldn’t put a team
together. I got rather emotional with tears. I can’t tell what all the
contributors are to my emotional outburst but Ron thinks it is all that is
going on: multiple health issues, the vagabond life style, and multiple plan
changes this summer. Let’s not forget the disappointment of not moving to Mexico . We
quickly got some recommendations from our realtor and our friend Ellen Levine . By the end of the day Ron had arranged
for a move a week from Friday, July 10th. Tomorrow we will see if that can be moved up
a bit as it doesn’t give us much time to get settled before my surgery on the
15th.
We went into Portland
where I had my eyes measured for the surgery and RON went to a lunch with
buddies then a dental appointment. My friends Gary and Edmund picked up at the
eye clinic and we headed out to Hood
River
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