THREE YEARS

(PART ONE)

It’s really hard to believe, but three years have passed since the last time I wrote

an entry in my blog. You may be wondering where I’ve been or what happened

to me. The simple answer is that I’m still here and a lot has happened, which I

will talk about now.

2021

It seems that as the months of 2021 rolled along life began to get a little busier

too. Especially in comparison to 2020. There were a couple of trips to Salt Lake

City to see family, and a much-needed trip to Maui, Hawaii. Little did we know

that Maui must have been the perfect easy getaway for about half of California.

It was absolutely wonderful to be there despite having to wait an hour or two

every night for dinner due to the crowds of tourists.

It was during that trip that I started to feel pain in my right leg every night when

we walked from our hotel to downtown Lahaina and then back to our hotel. Up

until then I was only feeling it every now and then when I took walks in my

neighborhood.

I finally went to see my Internal Medicine doctor about the pain and he

suggested physical therapy, which I began the following week. PT was just

what I needed. I went twice a week for several months until I got relief.

2022

I started off the year feeling very positive and anxiously looking forward to the

trips we had planned. My pain had subsided and I was able to take my daily

walks once again.

The first trip we took was in the Spring of 2022. We decided it was time we tried

a cruise to see what the Covid protocols would be like onboard and if we would

feel comfortable. We went on a one week coastal California cruise on Holland

America. The ship was less than half full which was the strangest feeling.

The ship only stopped at four ports and we got off at two of them. While we

were walking around Santa Barbara I started feeling sciatic pain on my right

side. It was disappointing to feel pain just a few months after finishing physical

therapy.The next two cruises in 2022 were to use the credits we received when 

our 2020 cruise was cancelled due to the pandemic.

In May we went on a cruise to Alaska as well as a land tour to the Yukon

Territory. It was during this cruise that the sciatic pain I had been experiencing

in my right buttock and down my leg began to be a daily occurrence whenever I

walked any distance. By the time we got to the Yukon Territory the pain had

gotten much worse.

A few weeks after returning home I decided it was time to see an orthopedic

surgeon to find out what was going on with my back. I already had a couple of

doctors at UCSD Healthcare so I decided to search for a doctor there. With no

recommendations from anyone I picked an orthopedic specialist, read his bio,

liked what I read, and decided he was the doctor I wanted. I was very lucky to

get an appointment at the beginning of August.

In July I went on my annual four day quilting retreat with a group of quilting

girlfriends. It’s something I always look forward to every year. However, this

time my enjoyment was clouded by sciatic pain every time I had to walk a short

distance to the dining hall for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My night’s sleep was

continually interrupted by the pain I was experiencing. I ended up packing up

and leaving the retreat early because my body hurt so much.

My internal medicine doctor sent me to physical therapy once again and he also

prescribed pain pills.

In September 2022 we went on our last cruise from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to

Iceland and back again. By then I was using a walker as well as a cane to get

around.

AUGUST 2022-JANUARY 2023

During the five months between my first appointment in August 2022 and

January 2023, my husband and I had met with the surgeon, whom we both

really liked. I had scoliosis X-rays of my entire spine that showed all the

significant deterioration in my curved and rotated spine. I also had an MRI and

CT scan of my entire spine. That Fall there were several appointments with

UCSD orthopedic Fellows and also my surgeon’s orthopedic physician’s

assistant. I had an epidural spinal injection (ESI) in October 2022 which

provided no relief from the pain and another ESI in November 2022 that

provided pain relief for just one month.

During these five months I also went to PT twice a week to help with stretching

and strengthening my right leg.

2023

In January 2023 my husband and I met with my orthopedic surgeon to decide

what to do next. My doctor had the MRI results on the computer and he slowly

went through each view explaining what we were looking at and showing us the

extent of my rotated and twisted scoliosis, major arthritis deterioration, five

bulging disks, slipped disks, and extreme loss of space between vertebra. (I

had lost 1 1/2 inches in height.)

After carefully going through the MRI results the surgeon and I came to the

decision that major surgery was going to be the only way I would get the much-

needed pain relief I desperately needed.

My surgery dates were set for May 2023. On May 1st I would have ALIF surgery.

On May 4 I would have XLIF and PLIF surgeries. Before that time I had an on-

line pre-op class, labs, and an appointment with a vascular surgeon who would

also be operating on me for the first surgery, etc.

By my own choice I secluded myself three weeks before my surgery. My last

contact with family and friends was the first week of April. After that I stayed

home while my husband ran any errands and did the grocery shopping.

MAY 2023

The three surgeries I had were very complicated and, according to my surgeon,

each one took twice as long as they normally would. It also meant I was under

anesthesia for much longer than expected.

The surgeries went very well, but afterwards I had metabolic, as well as blood

pressure issues, that caused a real problem. Most of my daily lab results were

either too high or too low. My blood pressure was so low that I got light-headed

or passed out whenever they tried to have me stand up. My daily PT and OT

exercises were somewhat limited due to my BP. These issues kept me in the

hospital for 18 days. I was then transferred to a skilled nursing facility where I

spent another 12 days.

During my stay at the SNF I received physical therapy and occupational therapy

twice a day for an hour each time. This was exactly what I needed to get my

body moving again. When I was in the hospital I had received PT and OT once

a day, but what I was able to do was limited. Even though I still had a blood

pressure problem at the SNF, I was able to perform the various exercises in the

small gym there and little-by-little I started improving.

As the days went by I started feeling more positive too. The internal medicine

doctor who took over my care at the SNF was finally able to get my blood

pressure under control and my metabolic panel also started to get back within

the normal range.

After the first week at the SNF I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I

just knew I would be going home soon. By the 12th day at the SNF plans were

made to release me. On the last day of May, 30 days since I had been home, I

was discharged.

HOME SWEET HOME, PART TWO coming soon

                                  REFLECTIONS

As we all approach the official one year mark for the pandemic I find myself reflecting on this past year.  At first it seemed as though the year would never end, but I’m really amazed at how quickly it did seem to pass.  With the loss of international travel and the local quilt retreats I normally attend there’s been an abundance of extra time for the activities I like to pursue.  I started to think about the things that kept me going in 2020.

EXERCISE

For five years I’ve worked out hard at my neighborhood gym.  Suddenly that came to an abrupt end.  Before I had joined the gym I used to walk in the community where I live.  Exercise is one of those habits that I actually enjoy and look forward to doing at least 4-5 mornings a week.  It’s my way of starting off each day.  So last March I found myself lacing up my tennis shoes and hitting the pavement rather than heading off to the gym.  I live where it’s quite hilly so no matter which direction I start off on I’m either going uphill or downhill at some point.  

I’ve found that in a week I can walk a different route each day, some routes being much more strenuous than other ones.  Walking outside has been very therapeutic during these difficult times.  It also does wonders to clear my head and sort things out.

Over several months into the pandemic I was able to buy some necessary equipment to insure I kept up my strength training which was such an integral part of my previous gym workouts.  I bought a stretching band, various sized exercise bands, a 1” thick yoga mat (my favorite item) and exercise bars to use with some of my husbands 60 year old weights.  That enabled me to have my own hand weights just like I used at the gym.  My last purchase was a kettlebell which pleased me greatly.  I had really been missing doing kettlebell swings!  So one year later I’m still getting a good workout and loving every minute of it.

COOKING

Even though I’ve been cooking meals for more than 50 years it’s something I still enjoy doing.  I love to experiment and try new meals and I never repeat the same meal two weeks in a row.  I like to keep track of what I make so I can refer back to previous weeks and see what I've made.

It was amazing at the beginning of the pandemic what food items became scarce and extremely difficult to find.  Luckily I was able to substitute what I had for what I couldn't get.  Although getting my hands on a bag of flour became my quest since I was just about out of it and there isn’t a substitute for regular flour.  I was soon to discover one of the main reasons why there was a flour shortage.  While people everywhere were on lockdown, making bread had become quite popular.  One of my friends tried to replace her old bread machine and they were sold out everywhere on line so she had to rely on her old machine.  Luckily for her it still worked.  That explained where all the flour was going.  All I wanted was enough flour to occasionally make buttermilk biscuits and some cookies.

One of the major suppliers for restaurants that normally is only open to restaurant owners suddenly found themselves with supplies just sitting on the shelves, so they opened their warehouses to the general public.  I went there just to see what they had, which was everything you can imagine a restaurant uses.  It was like Costco on steroids!  Most of the items were in huge quantities, much more than I could ever use.  I had great luck in the frozen food section of the warehouse though.  Except for the fact that I almost froze to death inside there, I bought various seafood for much less than I could anywhere else.  I also stocked up on frozen vegetables.

All in all it was definitely worth it to shop there.  But I scored big time when I loaded my “25 lb. bag of flour” into the back of my car!  And I only paid $7.49 for those 25 lbs.  What a steal!!

I ended up sharing my flour with several of my friends who would set up a time to stop by my front porch where I had a gallon ziplock bag of flour waiting for them.  What I kept for myself was stored in my freezer and it took almost a year to use it all up.

SEWING/QUILTING

I know what writer’s block is but never thought that I could have “quilter’s block”, though that’s exactly what I had the first 3 or 4 months of the pandemic.  With nothing but time on my hands I should have been in my sewing room every day turning out beautiful quilts like crazy.  But that’s not what happened.  The only thing I sewed for weeks on end were masks for family, friends, and to donate.  They were small and fast to make with no creativity involved.  I just wasn't interested in starting any quilting project.  Even a closet full of colorful fabrics wasn’t enough to move me in the right direction.  I had lost my creative mojo!  This had never happened to me before.  As the months went on I was to discover that others felt the same way.  Even a professional watercolor artist I know said she hadn’t painted a canvas in many months.

It was sometime during the summer months that I found myself thinking about quilt designs again and slowly but surely my creative juices started to bubble and flow once again.  I’m pretty sure seeing many of my quilting friends on Zoom get togethers gave me the nudge I needed.  My passion for designing and quilting had finally returned and with it my sense of joy for something I truly love doing.  I’ve been a busy bee working on one project after another and eventually I’ll share some of these quilts on my blog.

GENEALOGY

My husband and I always enjoy the tv show “Finding Your Roots” with Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.  My husband had researched his family roots many years ago and had written a summary of what he found to share with his siblings and our family.  So during the first month of the pandemic I decided to spend some time working on my family’s genealogy since it was something I had intended to do for a long time but never found the time.  All of a sudden I had nothing but time. 

I got out all the paperwork I had accumulated from my relatives and from some previous research I had done.  I decided to use the Family Search website to set up my family tree.  I was completely hooked the first day I started doing this.  I ended up spending hours every day working on my tree and viewing what generations of unknown family members had contributed to this “joint tree” we were all a part of.  Just like Jack in the Beanstalk it seemed to grow larger and larger with each passing day.  There were so many sources, census records, and birth and death certificates listed by people who were related to this “tree” that was also my tree.

Eventually I grew tired of working on this and set it aside so I could pursue other endeavors.  It’s taken me a year to come to a satisfactory conclusion to what I had begun.  I now have an enormous family tree printed from the website tree, then cut and pasted onto a giant roll of paper I found in the garage from another project.  I’m extremely proud to know that on my father’s maternal side I can trace my roots back to the founding fathers of British Colonial America when more than a dozen of my 9th and 10th great grandparents arrived in this country from England.

STAYING SANE

Luckily I share my life with a husband whom I enjoy spending time with.  During this extremely difficult year we’ve found many different ways to keep life interesting and fun.  We’ve packed lunches and taken numerous drives into the local mountains and back country, where we've enjoyed hiking, or found quiet, out-of-the way little parks to sit and have a picnic.  Our folding chairs became a fixture in the back of the car so we could always have a seat no matter where we stopped.  We also became quite adept at eating a take-out meal in the back seat of the car where there was more room.  One of our favorite spots for a picnic has been on Shelter Island where we can watch all the sailboats on the bay and enjoy seeing our city’s downtown area.  These outings got us out of the house and were fun.

But what we looked forward to the most this past year was spending every other Saturday afternoon and evening at our son and daughter-in-law’s house.  Being there with them and our two grandsons was uplifting and refreshed our spirits.  My 14 year old grandson even taught me how to play “La Loteria” so I could practice my Spanish vocabulary.   My pronunciation and especially my husband’s had all of us doubled over with laughter.  Everybody knows there’s no better medicine for what ails you than a good belly laugh!  

And we’re still here a year later living, loving, and laughing together and feeling very lucky indeed!