Observations

[Diane Amberg]

Weren't there some fires near Escondido? I have friends all over that area, so I do worry a bit. One further north in Brea almost lost her home and the high school where she worked a few years back. They had to pack and run. Hope your test is uneventful. Prayers follow.

[Wilma]

Bonnie says that there is fire just west of Escondido, 3 or 4 miles from them.  They live on the east side of town.  She hasn't said anything about needing to evacuate.  Perhaps she will chime in and let us all know how they are doing.

[Judy Harder]

Update on Bonnie. As of yesterday, the fires are on the side of Escondido that they are not on. If you go on facebook, she has pictures of the fires.
They were o k yesterday and staying in because of Bob's breathing problems.
Maybe she will look in today and up date us more. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
The pictures were terrible. God be with all who are in or near or working the fires. I understand that a few have been set on purpose and that is NOT a 'good-thing'

[larryJ]

What happened......Some weeks ago, I had a lot of fluid built up around my left lung.  I went to my Pulmonologist and it was drained.  Lab results indicated no cancer, but also did not show why the fluid was there to begin with.  He suggested a visit to another Pulmonologist at a different Kaiser hospital some 20 miles away who was more specialized in these things.  So I went and this doctor wanted to do a procedure that involved putting a tube in my side and allow him to look at the pleural area and take biopsies.  It was supposed to be an overnight stay as there is a drainage tube inserted to drain the remaining fluid and air and allow the lung to expand.  I arrived early Monday and underwent the procedure.  I was not allowed to eat prior to arrival and I didn't get lunch as the procedure was done in the afternoon.  I did get dinner.  I spent the night with the drainage tube, an EKG, a oxygen saturation monitor and an IV giving me water so I wouldn't dehydrate as well as stimulators on my legs to keep the blood flowing.  Needless to say, I wasn't going anywhere.  It's funny as the nurses advised me to lay on my side from time to time to avoid bed sores.  I wasn't really sure I could roll over on my side!  On Tuesday, the doctor wasn't happy with the drainage tube as it was leaking where it shouldn't be leaking.  I kept getting chest x-rays to show him how much the lung was expanding.  I did get breakfast Tuesday morning.  At one point on Tuesday, the doctor thought he might have to insert a second tube so I didn't get lunch.  After lunch, he came in and said that in conferring with other doctors, a second tube wasn't advisable.  As the day went on, he thought there might be a need for a second tube or fixing the first one at any time so I didn't get dinner.  On Wednesday, he was busy at his office and the doctor in charge was not sure of what the plan was other than there might be a need for me to have an empty stomach so I didn't get breakfast.  By this time, the doctor had decided I needed to be on a light diet, so I got a light lunch.......broth and jello and the same for my evening meal.  On Thursday, the doctor was very happy with the results of the 14 x-rays I had gone through up to this point and said the lung was now at 90 percent capacity.  I had also had CT scans on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The guys from radiology were kidding me saying they were putting together a photo album of me.  So by noon on Thursday, I was transported out to the curb in front of the hospital by my new friend, Alex, who had been moving me around when I needed to go for the scans. 

All in all, if I had the choice to do this again, I probably wouldn't unless it was a life threatening situation.  What food I got while there was tasteless and depending on how fast the nurses remembered to bring it to you, how warm it was.  While there was a TV in the room, they did not have cable so I could only see the 7 local channels in the LA area.  My wife was able to be there with me on Monday all day, but had her own doctor's appointment on Tuesday plus our granddaughters come over on Tuesday.  On Wednesday she was able to spend some time there before she had to go to another appointment.  Nobody else was able to visit.  I was confined to the ICU unit which prohibited many visitors. 

Upon leaving the hospital my wife wanted to stop a Goodwill store right down the street and urged me to come in with her as they had a lot of books.  I didn't find anything I hadn't already read.  We drove home and as we got to our town, we drove through a Jack-in-the-box so I could have some tacos and French fries.  After eating that I ate some fruit.  I had fruit at the hospital, but it was not very good.  I couldn't wait to eat a real orange and a real apple and a real banana. 

It had been an experience.  I am now left with a small incision underneath my left arm secured by stitches.  There is minimal pain, more of a discomfort.  I will find out on Monday the results of the biopsies.

Larryj

[sixdogsmom]

Prayers for you Larry.

[Diane Amberg]

I was wondering how you were doing.Glad to see you are among the "uncomfortable,"but OK folks.Prayers for a good outcome with your biopsies.

[larryJ]

Well, that's it.  School is officially out for our granddaughters school district.  At 9 this morning I was there to watch the kindergarten class get their awards.  Our kindergartener got a perfect attendance award and an accelerated reading award.  Then they sang about five songs.  In the middle of all this, my camera informed me that my storage was full and it was no longer going to record.  So afterwards, I rushed home to upload the file to the computer so I could empty the file on the camera, but it was locked up.  While I could upload the picture file, I couldn't delete the picture file from the camera.  So at 11, I went back without my cell which was still uploading and watched the other granddaughter's class sing about five songs.  With all these songs, I was sure the kindergarteners would sing that song from "Frozen", but they didn't.  Thankfully.  However when the older group sang their songs they did sing it.  At this time, the younger one was sitting in front of me next to one of her friends and they managed to sing along with the group. Lucky me.  School was out at 11:30.  The other grandmother and I walked down to the classroom and when our nine-year-old came out she handed me her report card.  She was so excited!  She got promoted to fourth grade!!!...........(like there was any concern about that......)  Then they were off to the other grandmother's house to swim and I started back towards my car.  Then I thought I would go back into the third grade classroom and tell the teacher thanks for helping my granddaughter and that she really enjoyed being in that class.  She told me she thought my granddaughter was "awesome" and I left.  All in all a great day.  Both my granddaughters looked beautiful and I am so very proud of them.

Papa

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

What a wonderful day you had. Isn't it funny how elementary school kids,especially the good students, do worry that they won't be promoted to the next grade? They don't quite understand how that happens.

[larryJ]

Diane, reflecting back on my own past in the dark ages, I can remember being concerned about passing.  I was a C average student most of my life so it was a concern to me.  It shouldn't be for the nine-year-old as she is almost a straight A student.  I don't know if it is the same mental atmosphere as it was back then, but there was always an implied threat that if you didn't shape up, you weren't going to pass.  I would like to believe that altitude isn't prevalent anymore.  On the other hand, my wife and I did do just that when trying to get the Kindergartener to read here at the house.  She fought and fought on that and we did say things like, "if you don't learn how to read, you will have to do Kindergarten all over again and all your friends will be in first grade."  So, yeah, we are guilty, but she did get an award for reading. 

Funny.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Living in a large suburban area as I do, I do not see wild life (meaning the animal kind) very often.  On trips up to the condo in the mountains, we have seen deer and a coyote, but that is in the mountains.  We do see an occasional opossum which drives the dogs crazy if they happen to venture through the back yard.  I bring this up because just as I was about to go to bed last night, my wife's cousin was outside in the front and I heard her yelling at the outdoors cat rather loudly like he had something he wasn't supposed to have.  So I went out to investigate and she informed me there was a raccoon in the garage.  We had installed a kitty door for the outside cat to come and go and this rather large raccoon had managed to squeeze its way in to get at the cat food.  When I went out it came out of the kitty door and went up the tree in the front yard.  I opened the garage door when my wife hollered that something else was moving in there.  When the door was open, a second baby raccoon ran out.  Yet there was still more noises and back behind some boxes I could see another one.  To get him out I had to go outside and bang on the wall where he was and scare him out and he did just that and while all this was going on a third small one popped up from somewhere and also ran out.  All three ran to the tree. 

Problem.......Do we lock the outdoor cat in the garage for the night (the kitty door has a lock) or do we leave him outside and hope he doesn't tangle with the coons.  A vote was taken and it was three to one, us three against his one, that he get locked in.  The garage door was closed and the kitty door was locked and he was put in the garage.  After about 10 minutes, he rebelled against the unfair vote and broke the kitty door and left.  Broke meaning he pushed on it hard enough to crack it so he could get out.  This time we piled some heavy objects in front of the kitty door and locked him again.  I thought he would scream all night, but I sleep rather soundly and didn't hear him and nobody has said that they heard him. 

That was the excitement for the day other than having my two youngest grandchildren for a few hours.  Because the condo in the mountains is quite a distance I drove to a halfway point to meet with my daughter-in-law and take the kids.  Then in the early evening I took them back to the same place and met with my son and daughter-in-law.  They invited me to go to dinner with them, but that would have made it a little late getting home and I have found in my older years that I don't like driving at night much anymore.

As for the other "wildlife" I am still waiting for that.

Larryj