Do you ever feel like you’ve walked “Through The Looking Glass” and can’t figure out how it all happened to fall on you?   Our friend Diane, who made our cats and chemistry quilt and bag, made us face masks using some of that material - mine has the elements in multi-colors (including pink!) while Dave’s is just the normal periodic table!  

We started self-isolating before Dave’s surgery - we wanted to make sure that we didn’t come in contact with anyone who had ANY disease, let alone the Covid-19 virus.  The week before Dave’s surgery and the week after, I did venture into a grocery store for a short period of time.   Since Dave came home on the 25th of March, I have gotten groceries via pickup (as well as take out shown below) ONLY.   No way to I want to endanger Dave’s life by bringing home an illness.

Our world now revolves around what things Dave can do each day.   It has been up and down since he came home.  The week that he spent in the ICU really affected his overall muscle strength which he is just now starting to get back.

By the third day home, Dave was able to walk down the hall all by himself.   I had purchased a shower stool that he could use to sit when taking a shower and not get so worn out.  It worked well, and I am so glad I got it.   But after one week, he was able to take a shower without the stool present - though I do stay in the room to help him as he still can not move his arms behind him easily.   It is a slow process but little by little things are improving.

Last Friday, Dave spend about 1/2 hour outside getting a little sun.  He said it felt good soaking into his bones.

His long, long incision on his right leg is visible in this picture.  

Those were good days, other days he was very, very tired and last weekend started having more trouble sleeping.   We had a tele-med visit with the kidney doctor who said we might need to add back in the diuretic as they had taken him off a lot of his medications after surgery.  So, we did that and then today met with the cardiologist.  

We had a long walk down the hallway from the elevator in the building to where the cardiology offices were located - and Dave did it all without stopping to catch his breath today!   Not only that but when we got ushered into the office the first thing was to take his BP and it was 120/65!   Just where they want it!

After the EEG was done, the cardiologist came in, took one look, and  changed  the amount of the one blood pressure drug (yes ONLY 1) Dave is taking to 1/2 of the normal dosage as the drug had Dave’s heart rate down TOO LOW.  38-39 beats/ minute is why he is so tired.   He also decided on a slightly more active drug for the diruetic to help get rid of a lot of accumulated fluid.  The one Dave was taking was just not quite enough.   But he reassured Dave that he was progressing and the the first few weeks after open heart surgery involved a lot of tweeking to get the correct combinations to enhance the recovery effort.    When we left, Dave walked almost all of the way to the elevator, and only had to sit for a couple of minutes to catch his breath.  

Like others, we really miss not being able to go out for meals once in a while.  So we have started to do pickup orders or door delivery to help these small restaurants weather the storm.  Last week we had cinnamon roll french toast from Sassy’s Bakery.  Yes, it was as gooey as the name sounds, absolutely delicious and the portions were so large, we had enough for second breakfasts a couple of days latter.   We’ve also had a local pizza pace deliver a white chicken pizza, and today I did a pickup order at Panera:

I had the Mediterranean Grain Bowl with Chicken and yogurt/dill dressing.

Dave had the Spring Chicken Salad with strawberies, blueberries, and walnuts in a lemon-poppy seed dressing.    To say they were deliious is an understatement, especially since I didn’t have to cook.

We know that it will be at least June before we can leave here, assuming Dave’s healing keeps on going well.  The problem is, will there be RV Parks open for us to use as we travel northward to get out of the heat?   We have a lot of people around us that are staying through the summer, most who have RVs are looking at renting a Park Model for the hot months.   I need to have our air conditioner serviced to make sure that everything is ready for REAL heat.  

Hope that everyone is staying safe and doing what they need to do to protect themselves and their families.  I know that one day this will be stories that great-grandkids will roll their eyes at.  We can only hope that we learn from this and take things seriously in the future.