Little Things

Missing Phone Charger: For the past few weeks I have been carrying my back pack instead of my rolling briefcase. This started because I had to take two suitcases to my last Arizona trip to take handouts and video equipment for the engagement. Then Charlie had the car wreck and I didn't get around to switching back. Last week, before I left for California, I moved everything back to the rolling briefcase, except my phone charger. It was in a little zipper pocket on the side of the backpack and didn't get moved. I didn't realize this until I needed to charge the phone on Tuesday night. I already had my jammies on and was settled down to watch Bones reruns when I tried to charge my phone. Fortunately, I had my car charger in my purse, so I got dressed and went for a ride around Visalia, California for about an hour to charge the phone. The next two days I ate lunch in the car with the motor running to keep it charged. After the three hour drive back to Los Angeles on Thursday evening it was fully charged and from then until I made it back home last night I have been alert enough to remember to charge it whenever I am in the car. I'm just glad I didn't end up needing to buy yet another charger.

Taking the 'Red Eye': This was something new for me. Last week-end was the week-end the girls and I had planned for a 30/60 birthday week-end. We had decided on New Orleans for the adventure since none of us had ever been there. I was supposed to work Monday thru Wednesday in Florida then meet them in New Orleans around noon on Thursday, however, I had had to rearrange my schedule and had to work in Visalia, CA until 4:30 on Thursday. The best deal to get me there was to fly out of LAX at 1 AM and arrive in New Orleans at 6:30 AM on Friday morning. I was pretty strange hanging out in the airport until the wee hours of the morning. The good news is that I was upgraded to first class and had a relatively comfortable seat. Everyone slept! The plane was about 1/2 hour late leaving LA, and by the time I got the car and battled morning New Orleans traffic it was nearly 8 when I made it to the hotel. My phone had locked up and I didn't realize it wasn't working. The girls decided I had met a tragic fate and had called my corporate office in Tampa to find out what happened to me.

Closed Bridges and Parades: Sunday was the day to drive out into the country and visit a sugar plantation. We had a wonderful breakfast brunch, set the GPS and headed to Oak Alley Plantation, north of New Orleans about an hours drive. IF the bridge across the Mississippi River is open. Unfortunately for us, it was not. We dove the direction the arrows pointed for a while, but felt we were headed back to New Orleans. Between the GPS on Hillary's phone and my Garman, we found a bridge further north which seemed like it would take us to the right place. It did, but not before we meandered on blacktop roads for a while. Molly got a little frustrated with the experience. The plantation was great, then we started back to New Orleans...across the open bridge and straight to I-10 for a quick uneventful drive back. I drove this time, Molly was done! As we got back to New Orleans, I asked if they wanted to drive the causeway across the middle of Lake Ponchartrain....Sure. I took the exit toward the causeway and asked, "How far is it across the causeway." Hillary answered calmly, "Twenty four miles." WHAT! I immediately started looking for an exit. We took the very last exit before we would have been committed to the drive. It was 5 PM and that would have been a 50 mile drive. But getting back to the hotel ended up being so time consuming, we probably would have saved time to drive across and back. The traffic was bumper to bumper and we commented on why on a Sunday evening it would be so backed up. We were nearly to the major road which would take us back when we were turned back by the police. An ambulance was in the intersection and there was all kinds of trash scattered around. We figured it was a wreck, but further efforts to turn that direction brought the realization that it was a parade. The experience brought to mind trying to outsmart the Apple Blossom parade to get from place to place the first Saturday in May in St. Joe. The good part of this drive was that we saw parts of New Orleans that had been flooded after Katrina that we would not otherwise have seen.

Noisy Seatmates: It is common knowledge to all who know me that I do not talk to people on airplanes. The last time Charlie and I were coming home from Florida, we were seated in sequential rows, ( 33 and 34 ) each in the aisle seat. When the lady next to Charlie realized we were together, she offered to change so we could sit together. Charlie said, "No, that's okay. She doesn't talk to me anyway."

I left New Orleans for Chicago on Monday morning on Southwest. I was A16, which meant I was one of the first to board and select my seat. Pretty quickly into the boarding process, a lady asked to take the window seat. I'm reading my kindle. A while later, another lady asks to take the middle seat. I'm still reading. She immediately strikes up a conversation with the window lady in a piercing voice and they didn't shut up until we landed. Now I am really pretty good at shutting out noise, but this was too much. I couldn't read. I finally got my iPod out and turned the volume up to drown them out, but you have to turn it off during take off and landing.

A Dead iPod: This morning I left home early to drive to Des Moines for the day. It's a three hour drive. I had downloaded an extra book to my iPod to make sure I had enough to last through the drive up and back. Just north of Liberty it quit. The battery was dead. I was so upset! What to do? How was I going to stay awake for 6-7 hours of driving without a book to listen to? My computer! I pulled off at Kearney and got my laptop out. I plugged the iPod into the computer to charge and listened to talk radio for about an hour. By then the iPod was charged. I shut the computer down and was back in business.

Seems I started this post with charging issues and ended with charging issues. Such is life on the road.

Room Service

So, I decided I wanted to just get something to eat in my room and watch TV. The restaurant at the St. George Hilton Garden Inn is not open for the evening meal, but does have room service available. I read through the menu and decided I didn't want a full meal, just something crunchy and snack like. I ordered the nachos.

This is what was brought to my room 20 minutes later!!

I am please to report I ate only about 1/3 of the mess, and that was after I picked all the jalapeno peppers out of it. It sure doesn't look like that healthy food Molly takes picture of.

Utah

Saint George, Utah.

Last week I was in St. George, Utah. I flew into Las Vegas and drove about 2 1/2 hours through the NW corner of Arizona to the SW corner of Utah. It was a pretty drive with the mountains and different colors of terrain.


This view is from the hotel in St. George

One day I took my lunch hour to drive out and take in some views outside of town. This picture combines the 70 degree weather in St. George with a view to the still snow covered mountains.

The trip was uneventful with regard to travel. Flights left on time, luggage wasn't lost, and I was actually upgraded to first class for part of the trip.

Over the past several months I have been primarily visiting my routine facilities. It has been fun to see different places.

The Next Chapter

It seems like times flies and stands still, all at the same time. We're nearing the two week from the wreck point and it seems like it just happened yesterday, but everyday seems to last forever and I wish we could just skip over the next few weeks to a point where he can see an end to this.

He is very frustrated and constantly tries to talk people into finding a different halo, or just getting a wrench and taking it off for a little while. He was looking for a handyman with tools on Wednesday morning. He calls it 'that chair strapped to my head."

Getting the meds adjusted has been a challenge. He was getting Ativan in the ICU when he was getting IV morphine. He was changed to po pain meds, but they kept the IV Ativan at night and he was turning into this crazy person all night long. I dozed off at one point on Tuesday night and he managed to unbuckle one side of the halo vest. They stopped the Ativan and tried Seroquel, which wasn't much better. Chuck stayed that night and said he didn't sleep over 15 minutes at a time.

Last night we asked for no 'psych' meds. Just pain pills and a plain old sleeping pill (Ambien). David Smith stayed and said he wasn't really crazy, just restless at times and would want to stand up. They stood him up three different times during the night and he would then lay down and sleep for a while. Right now the goal is to reach a point where he understands the halo and that it is a permanent thing for the next several weeks. Second goal, that he will use the call light to call for the nurse before trying to get up. Learning this patient role has been difficult for him.

I think the biggest obstacle at this point is denial. He just cannot grasp the extent of his injuries and the complexity of his recovery. And he is doing some bargaining. 'Just take this off so I can wash my hair and I'll let you put it back on."

This morning when I talked to him, he sounded more like himself and was able to actually carry on a conversation. He thinks the therapists are kind of 'pushy'. I told him they were paid to be that way. This week-end we will be investigating skilled nursing facilities. The rehab people feel he is not yet able to tolerate three hours of therapy per day and will need to go to skilled until he gains more strength. Unfortunately, his insurance is United Healthcare, and there are not many options for placement. The initial plan was for him to go to the new LTACH on Hwy 169, but the insurance would not approve it.