Abstract San Fran

I’m Gonna Get Me A Navy Pea Coat

I had a training in Novato…less than 48 hours on the ground 30 miles north of San Fran really didn’t lend itself to much picture taking, but here are a couple from the Marin Headlands and the Presidio.

The Blue Doo

Simple story behind this one: while I was getting mine done (although, not blue), the hairdresser had some fun with Ezra’s ever-growing mop.

What’s Up With The Surgery?

Why, that’s nice that you asked, let me tell you. Way back in the early years, like 1992, Dad found out that he had a bicuspid valve in his heart. It’s most likely a congenital issue, and it means that one of the valves had two parts instead of the normal three. This occurs in about 2% of the general population (including famous folks like Barbara Bush, Arnold, and Robin Williams).

When someone has this, it causes the heart to work harder to get the blood through that valve since it isn’t as efficient as it should be. His condition has been monitored closely since it’s discovery, and about two months ago a test reviled that it was in fact time to get it replaced. It was a good thing that Dad was able to live with the bicuspid valve for as long as he did because most patients will have to have another surgery later in life to replace the new valve – it only has a life in the range of 20 years, and as such, Dad will likely have to have another surgery then.

So this wasn’t an emergency, it wasn’t due to poor dieting or poor exercise…it was something that just happened and needed repair. The decision timeline was short, but that was his decision…why wait any longer than needed? So it was decided, and the surgery happened on Monday.

It took about 6.5 hours total, and included several hours on a heart/lung bypass machine. Dr. Nene performed the procedure and was extremely happy with how it went, and with the results: he now has a bovine valve doing the job. He spend Monday night in the ICU – which is required for all open-heart patients – and then most of the day Tuesday as well. On Tuesday night, he was doing well enough to move to the Cardiac Care floor to complete his hospital stay. Oh, Monday night he stood up and Tuesday he walked across the room!!!!

He has done exceptionally well with the recovery so far: walking all over the place, doing some stairs, and maintaining his energy levels. So well in fact, that Dr. Nene signed his discharge paperwork yesterday morning. Even though those were signed, the decision was jointly made between my Dad and the nurses that one more night wouldn’t hurt anything, so he stayed last night. An average open-heart patient will spend between 5-7 days in the hospital (post op), and Dad was out of there in 5 total (with the option to have left yesterday).

Next up: home and recovery. Dad was discharged this morning and is resting comfortably at home. There is about 4-6 weeks of moderated effort ahead, and then still some therapy after that for a while…but expect to find him back on the e-mail and computer soon. The prognosis is for a full recovery, and to even better health than pre-surgery.

My Grandparents and Uncle came out to Colorado to be here for the surgery and to help with the recovery. It has been a real blessing to have family around for support and I know that Dad couldn’t have made it this far this quick without them being around.

So that’s the news from here and the reason for the reduced postings this week. As everything returns to close-to-normal, so will the updates. Thanks for all of the support and prayers….

Happy Earth Day!

One More Pic From The Snow

We ended up with around 2 feet of snow…some places in Castle Rock reported under, some reported over. I took this shot on Saturday afternoon before the melt started. Today it’s 75 degrees, and 90% of the snow is gone. It seems that all that is left are the piles in the parking lots or trace amounts on the north facing sides of things.

Surgery

So Dad’s been in the hospital since yesterday morning for a scheduled surgery. He should be in there for the next couple of days, so updates will come when time does. Everyone is doing really well, and Dad is doing great.

Friday Evening Post

Quick note about the snow….Ahna did end up getting some time off today, although it was because school closed early (1:30), not because they stayed ahead of it and closed school this morning. So, we got to spend an extra couple of hours together this afternoon, which always makes being locked into the house more bearable. I think that we are up to about a foot of snow, with heavy stuff still falling. They say that it will end sometime before Saturday evening, so who knows how much more we are going to get.

This storm has done an amazing job of illustrating how elevation plays into snowfall out here. Coming from the east coast, where elevation obviously meant nothing, it was all based on north/south. For storms out here, the higher you are, the more snow: Castle Rock: 12 inches, Parker: 2 inches (according to news reports). Parker is just 10 miles to the north but is about 1,000 feet lower than we are here.

We are all bundled up for the night…

Oh, Fun Day

I took the opportunity to head up to the mountains today to see first hand the snowpack levels in the state. They have been reporting on the news that they are actually just below normal in the north-central mountains, and I didn’t believe them….so I grabbed another interested party – Joe – and he and I went up for some research.

We established that the best pattern of information gathering would be on a mountain itself and after some deliberation, we came to the conclusion that we didn’t really want to hike up the hill. There aren’t too many mountains that have roads to their summits (Evans and Pikes Peak…and they are closed in the winter), so we brainstormed about alternate options. We had heard about a place near Loveland Pass that has a chair that will take you to the top without having to hike, so we pointed the car there.

We were smart enough to consider how we would get down the mountain prior to making the destination decision, and we brought along these things to strap to your feet. Once we arrived at this place, often referred to as Arapahoe Basin, we put in as much research as possible for a few hours before taking some time for hydration. Oddly enough, the only liquid that was readily available was a real hoppy substance called beer, and we made sure to include taste testing in our research. The beer didn’t hydrate us as planned, as a matter of fact, it seemed to do the opposite…but it did lead to a decision that we had in fact accomplished our mission.

Results: The snowpack is better than I thought it was, but still lower than it should be at this time of the year. Fortunately for the snowpack, it decided to snow last night and all day today, resulting in some 12-15 inches of fresh powder (and knee deep in places on the tele sticks). It made the drive to and from the mountain difficult, however it made the trips down the hill an amazing experience. I highly recommend that anyone with an interest in science and snowpack, make this journey. I think that I will continue my research one or two more time this year, then as many times as possible next year.

On a serious note, the snowfall that was in the mountains is making it’s way down here….the forecasters are calling for about 16-24 inches of snow between now and Saturday noon. Let’s hope that the snow comes, but only if Ahna gets schools cancelled tomorrow. it did start falling on cue about two hours ago, and we are up to 2 inches in the grass. Here’s to spring in Colorado!

Easter Eggs

And we are not talking about the ones that you can find on the internet (don’t know what I am talking about? Turn on your speakers, go to www.yahoo.com and click on the exclamation point. There are things like that all over the web). We headed down to my folks’ house this evening for some decorating fun. Since I have to work on Sunday, we are planning on hiding the eggs sometime tomorrow afternoon and letting Ezra hunt them down. The dye kit that we got came with a little crayon type instrument, where you could draw on the egg and it would show up during the dye process….you couldn’t really see what you were drawing prior to dyeing. It created some interesting art outside of the normal solid color egg.