Here we are, on the road: We’re in Santa Clara, California

June 27, 2015 Lorraine’s report

I just want to say “Happy Birthday to Rick.” I really miss him, hope we can see you soon…

Today I had my hair done. Chuck’s haircut turned out fine, by my hair cut/color was awful. It was all black, she said it would wash out, but it was waaay too dark and I hated it. She did it over and it is still way too dark. It will take a long time for it to grow out. I have to have someone that will listen to me and have it turn okay. So that is it for me. Have a good one. Hugs, Lorraine

6/27/15 Chuck’s report

Two occasions to talk about today, First, our son is having his birthday today. Happy Birthday Rick, hope you have a great one. Second, our friends Richard and Sandy are celebrating their wedding anniversary today with a trip to Vegas. I know you are having fun there, we’ll make it there with you some year.

We are still here in California going through and getting Lorraine’s medical issued resolved. She’s been going to the speech therapist twice a week and had a couple follow ups with her doctor and one with her eye doctor. The therapist tells her every time how well she is doing and makes note of her progress.

Lorraine’s visit to her eye doctor this week was good. He checked out the peripheral vision loss in her right eye that came from her stroke and said it is almost back to normal, yea. He said what little loss she still is experiencing should get better in the next couple of months. I also asked him about Lorraine driving a car and he said as far as he is concerned, she is good to go there too. But she doesn’t have permission from the neurologist yet.

Her regular family doctor set her up with a visit to a cardiologist, just for a check up and suggestion. He set her up with for a nuclear stress test for Thursday this week. Based on family history, he wanted to check out a few possible issues and get ahead of them, if she had them.

She walked a treadmill to get her heart rate up, got a set of x-rays, got injected with some sort of isotope then did the treadmill and x-rays again. Then she took a break and ate (they suggested a donut so that’s what she had) then one more time on the treadmill and more x-rays. She was pretty tired after this but made it through just fine, biggest problem was they had trouble getting an IV started, poked her arm/hand 4 times before getting it. Her hand is very bruised because of this.

Friday we went to see the doctor for the results of the stress test and good news once again, he said she doesn’t appear to have any issues. Her blood pressure is under good control and she doesn’t have any blocked arteries in/around her heart that the found, yea. I guess this was a good week for her, two good reports from two different doctors and her therapist.

She does have her last aneurysm repair scheduled for this Monday the 29th. Once again, we report to the hospital at 6:15 am and her surgery is scheduled for 8:00. She is scheduled to stay in the hospital for at least one night and hopefully will be released on Tuesday.

Last time the doctor fixed (inserted coils in it) one aneurysm and prepped the second one (put a stent in the main artery before/after the aneurysm). This time he will fix (insert coils) the second aneurysm. As I understand, once the coils are in place, he injects some material that completely fills the aneurysm and reduces the possibility of them causing any more problems for her. Sure hope that’s what happens, she’s had enough issues and worries.

So once again, I’m asking for your prayers and good thoughts for Lorraine as she is going through this one more time. We hope this will be the last procedure until she returns for a check up in 6 months.

We are trying to make sure Susy doesn’t spend too much time alone in case she were to fall or have issues from her surgery, she had two discs removed and the vertebras fused in her neck. We either go to her house or pick her up and have her spend her day with us at our place. She is able to do lots of normal things, no problem walking but has to be carefully bending, twisting or lifting. She’s a lot like me in the fact she is trying to get better too quick, I think.

Monday she had a follow up with her surgeon who checked checked her out and said things are doing/healing well and she should continue wearing her neck brace for another three weeks.

We haven’t been able to spend as much time with Katie as usual, school’s out and she is busy doing swimming and soccer lessons. Her aunt Christina is getting married this weekend and she is going to be one of the flower girls, she is looking forward to that. Her other grandmother, Mary, came down from Seattle for the wedding so she is trying to get some time visiting her too. All in all, Katie is a busy little girl who’s growing up too fast, I find it hard to believe she’s already 10 years old. But at least she’s not 10 going on 20, she is quite content to be a girl and play with her dolls, her friends and such.

Last weekend we made a day trip to Santa Cruz with Susy and Mike. We toured parts of the beach, part of the town, the college, had a great meal and a better day. It was good to get out and not have to think too much about doctors and surgeons and such.

We’ve sure been enjoying the fruits and vegetables we get this time of the year. Susy said she thinks we have eaten two watermelons every week along with all the nectarines, peaches, grapes, cantaloupes, honeydews, oranges and such. We have had BBQs at Susy’s place quite a few times plus Lorraine and Susy have fixed a few very nice meals too. I guess the easy way to say it is, I certainly ain’t starving.

Once again, I have great things to say about the weather we’ve had this past two weeks. We had a few days when the temperature get into the 90s but most days we only get into the 80s. This area seems to have a repelling factor for rain, some of the other portions of the Bay Area have gotten a little bit of rain but we’ve only had enough to get the cars dirty.

We have no travel plans yet, waiting on this next procedure for Lorraine before we attempt to make any plans. We have started the process to get our house ready for sale again, it’s tough to do when we aren’t there. The guy we hired is finishing up replacing the front and back decks, a big job but the pictures I’ve seen look good. Here’s hoping for a quick sale, lots of folks say the market is picking up now and people are looking to purchase before the interest rates are raised.

One of the natural bridges at the beach in Santa Cruz.