06/02/2022

Went for a modest walk. Then called a couple of people on my committee trying to get somebody to cover a couple of events. Looks like it will be me, sigh.

After lunch and a quick nap it was time to go to the museum to lead the 2pm tour. Only 6 people who stuck with me but didn’t seem that excited. I blocked on a couple of points in my talk, just came up blank forgetting what my next point was. I don’t like doing that.

That was about it for the day.

Wednesday 06/01/2022

First thing, I went for The Standard Walk, the first one in about 3 weeks. I felt it at the end, but not in the same way that I did pre-TAVR. Then I just felt tired and wanted to rest early. This was more about muscles feeling strain from being out of shape. Anyway, little bit and I should be getting back to where I was, wherever that was.

Lots of emailing in support of the AV group. I;m having trouble getting people to sign up to cover events. Trying to be cool and supportive. Takes time and attention. Tomorrow, more of that.

At 3:30 I left for CHM where I watched a live interview with Sal Kahn, the founder of the hugely popular Kahn Academy, free online education for the world. He’s a warm, engaging, articulate guy. His interviewers at this event, not so much. They should have just put him behind a podium and let him tell his story. Kahn Academy was already serving millions of learners in 2019, but you can imagine what two years of pandemic-related school closures has done. You’ll have to imagine it because there were no specific numbers given tonight.

Tuesday 05/31/2025

Paid a couple of bills. Took a short walk, up to Whole Foods to see if they had my favorite beer, as they sometimes do. They didn’t. Worked on the car model. Attended the writers group meeting. I had nothing this time, but next week’s cue is something I can get into: “your favorite comic strip or character, and what it says about you.”

At three points today, somebody from El Camino Hospital called me to check on me. One was legit, in the sense that I could have a conversation. That was a call from nurse Kathleen, who works with Dr. Rammohan. She asked intelligent, probing questions and had useful info. Among other things, she reminded me I was supposed to book an appointment with cardiologist DiBiase, and an echo. After she rang off, I did call for that and scored the last appointment on DiBiase’s last day before she leaves on sabbatical! That’s in early August.

The other two calls were useless. One was a person who clearly knew nothing about me or what procedure I’d had, and just wanted in the nicest way to run through a long script of questions about my post-op care. The other was a recording from the head doctor assuring me they were very grateful I’d chosen their hospital for, fine, thanks, click.

Had a long nap and ate dinner in my room. Although signs and feelings are, that the TAVR has improved my health all around, it hasn’t done anything for my overall mood.

Monday 05/30/2022

In the morning I went down to FOPAL and as usual found 6 boxes of computer books. It took a couple of hours to process them, which I did with no problem. Then back to CH for lunch.

Have I written about the 4th floor TV? My friend Stew led a drive to get his 4th floor to install a big TV in their lounge, his idea being they can show movies and such. They got a very nice looking 65-inch Samsung on a wall mount. They have a Blu-Ray player and plan to get a Roku. (The staff vetoed them getting a Comcast subscription for it; I’m not sure why. Nobody to charge the subscription against, maybe?) But Stew wants to be able to get content from a laptop up on the big screen.

This ought to be possible; the TV claims to support Apple AirPlay and whatever the Windows equivalent is. So today I tried for the second time to make that work. And failed. Two different MacBook Pro laptops, one new, one 5 years old, and both can “see” the damn TV on the network, they both list it in the menu of remote devices they could talk to, but when they try to connect they spin for 30 seconds and say “Unable to connect with” the name of the TV.

It’s not a big deal; they work very well when connected to the TV by an HDMI cable. But it would be cool to do it wirelessly. Never mind.

Then I went downstairs and picked up my sack supper. On holidays we get a sack supper and the kitchen staff gets off work early. Next to Patty’s apartment and borrowed a serving bowl and spoon, as I don’t have those. Then I pitted about a pound and a half of cherries. I took that and my sack to our picnic in the floor dining room at 6. Ten people around a big table. Including Edie, from whose house the big table came. It really is a gorgeous table, with eight matching chairs. Couple folding chairs to fill in. Nice.

Later I plan to go up to the roof and look for meteors. Results tomorrow.

Sunday 05/29/2022

After all my usual Sunday morning pleasures (watering the plants, doing the crossword) I decided to go to the California Avenue farmers market and maybe buy some cherries. The 6th floor is having a picnic supper tomorrow night and I could bring them to share.

In other times I have walked that 2-3 miles, and probably will again, but this time I drove. And after buying cherries and an almond croissant from The Midwife and The Baker, to Safeway for a few groceries. Then home to pass the time until 2 when there was to be a jazz concert at the Congregational Church. That’s just a 1.2 miles away and my initial plan was to walk that, but when it came time to leave, I didn’t feel like walking so went again by car.

The concert wasn’t great. Nothing wrong with the musicianship, in fact the performers all had (per the program) very long resumés in pro jazz and the singer, Kenny Washington, is famous enough that I had heard of him, and he was fun to listen to. But much of the selections were not a type of music I can listen to for any length of time. I have a simple ear, I like melodies and rhythm. This was the kind of show where each of the six players would take a looong solo, in turn.

Anyway a quiet day and pleasant.

Saturday 05/28/2022

In the morning I first filled out my ballot for the June election. One more thing off my coffee table, it’s almost empty now. Then I walked the ballot up to the drop box at City Hall. I was walking briskly, more brisklier that lately, and feeling good. The TAVR really made a difference, it isn’t just placebo effect.

I came back by way of the farmers market, which I haven’t been in for a couple of months owing to dieting, and bought a pound of Rainier cherries and a chocolate hazlenut pastry. That was my breakfast and my lunch as well.

Then I helped a neighbor, Joan, record a treasured tape from her walkman (yes, a real Sony Walkman from the … 90s?) into her Mac.

After a nap I went down to the auditorium to help David M. run a concert. He would normally have done it alone, but he just had two stents put in and isn’t supposed to exert himself. I didn’t point out that I just had a giant stent put in and am not supposed to exert myself either. Turned out, there was no exerting needed anyway.

The concert was really nice, two women doing classical piano and violin duets. Very complex stuff by famous composers and done very well indeed.

Dr. Rammahan had referred me to a cardiac rehab program at El Camino Hospital. Dr. Margaret says there is a better one, HeartFit for Life, which was founded by the late husband of another resident, Karen. I like the look of their website and of course they are much closer than the other. So I messaged Dr. Dibiase asking if she approved would she refer me to that program. I kind of like the idea of a closely supervised fitness program to get back, or back-ish, to where I was. At some point.

Friday 05/27/2022

I had the usual hospital night. To much light and noise, and a really nice and kind nurse waking me up at midnight and at 4am to check vitals. Then the phlebomist at 6am to take only 3 tubes of blood this time, and at 7am, the nurse with a rolling EKG cart. And a little later, the nurse with a rolling echocardiogram cart to do that. This was really interesting, she was able to image the aortic valve in live operation really well and I could clearly see the little flaps opening and closing. And doing it perfectly.

At about 8am, Dr. Rammahan comes by very pleased with it all. The valve ought to last you the rest of your life, he said. And if it should start to break down, we could always put another one inside this one. I asked about the catch filter he put in the carotid: did it catch anything? Maybe a couple of little grains; he couldn’t tell if they would have caused a problem or not. He wanted me to go on plavix for 3 months. I told him all the reasons I hated being on plavix–bruising, nosebleeds that won’t stop, etc., and talked him down to 1 month only.

By 10 nurse Kim had pulled my IV, and I got dressed. At 10:30 another nurse brought the discharge paperwork for me to sign, and a few minutes later Dennis pulled up and I was on the way home. With a stop to pick up the plavix, I was home before lunch. Several of my neighbors welcomed me back, either then or later in the day. It was quite touching.

Spent a quiet afternoon. I had intended to go out to the Creamery for a chocolate shake for supper, but neighbor Patty insisted that was too much. She said I should take Betty and Jerry’s invitation for supper. Awww no chocolate shake? OK, she said, I have to go out for some errands, I’ll bring you one. And she did, about 3pm she showed up at my door with a Creamery chocolate shake. Which totally spoiled my appetite for supper, but worth it.

Thursday 05/26/2022

Up at 4:20, quick shower, dress. Make sure I have all of he needed paperwork and cards for admission. Down to the lobby where Dr. Margaret soon appears and we are off down Alma to the hospital where she drops me off with warm wishes. Seems my neighbors like me which is nice.

Registration and prep go smoothly. Jorge, who shaves my groin hair, has a slick electric razor with a vacuum attachment.

(Ok I am writing this with the WordPress app and its editor is TERRIBLE, just doing bizarre things. It gets really confused when a paragraph goes over four lines. I’m switching to the Notes app then pasting here.)

Dr. Rammahan stops by for the usual pre-op check and he has fresh news. He has studied the notes from my original valve job and the recent images. He explains (what I originally knew but had mostly forgotten) that Dr. Gaudiani installed not just the pig’s valve but its whole aortic root as a unit – like a 4-inch tube with the valve closing the end. So in present images that ascending tube is, quote, “calcified like crazy”.

This raises the chance of stroke, a known but usually rare side effect of TAVR. To prevent that he will do an additional piece of work. He will put a catheter in through my right radial (wrist) artery, up to my carotid, and install a filter to catch any trash that might get loose and head for my, um, head. When the TAVR is in place he will take the filter out before closing up. I’m cool with this, not being a fan of stroke.

An IV gets installed in my left arm, about six vials of blood are drawn from the right, then I am left alone to do a couple of sudokus, and at 7:30 Tyler comes to escort me to the toilet and then to wheel me on a gurney to the OR.

Here I find about six people all being very busy and professional. They prep me from all sides somewhat like multiple chefs prepping a rack of lamb. Zack the anesthetist says he is putting in the juice. I have just time to say, “I taste it on the back of my tongue,” and Zack says, “Oh yeah that’s the Lidocane,” and then…

I’m In a different room and Zack is saying “All over, and it all went according to plan.”

After half an hour I am transported to a regular room. I get my glasses back, and my phone, and my head clears up and basically it’s all over but the shoutin’. I have two small purple wounds on my groin, one I assume for the camera and one for the business, plus a clear plastic inflatable cuff on my right wrist.

And a strange quiet in my chest. This is odd. I never notice my heart beating (except at night sometimes). It’s definitely beating now, I can find my pulse in my wrist or neck. But somehow there is a sensation of stillness in my chest, as if I had changed from a gas engine to battery power. Was I sensing the back flow, AKA “heart murmur”, before? And it’s gone now? Or maybe it’s imaginary. Not a bad thing, anyway.

I exchange texts with several people, have lunch, take a nap, all very normal except I’m wearing a backless gown and bright green bed socks. Jean drops by to visit (to my surprise there are no Covid restrictions on visiting).

And that will do for now. Medical adventure proceeding nominally!

Wednesday 04/25/2022

Went for a walk but cut the distance quite short. I am definitely feeling tired faster, although not short of breath. There should be a clear change by this time next week.

Did a number of small things that needed doing, putting my apartment in order and taking care of old paperwork. Then I mixed a bottle of raspberry-pink paint, using pink, black, red and gold to get a pretty fair match to the dusky rose spray can.

Solved a tech puzzle: neighbor Stew installed a lovely new 65″ Samsung TV in his 4th floor lounge, but then couldn’t put it on our in-house network because that needs its MAC address and neither he nor anybody else could find it in the TV’s menu structure. I had tried a few days ago and failed. Leon had tried. Stew had called Samsung and spent half an hour on the phone with their support, and still couldn’t find the MAC address. If you google it, you get clear directions that don’t produce it. Well I found it. Turns out the “About this TV” menu option opens a page that is longer than the screen, and unlike any other page in any menu, it needs to be scrolled to see it all. And if you scroll down, there’s the MAC address along with all the other details.

Set an alarm for 4:20. Neighbor Dr. Margaret is going to drive me down to the hospital. Next post will be from my hospital bed.

Tuesday 04/24/2022

Went for a short walk. Then I did some cleanup and prep for Thursday. I made a copy of my medical PofA and my Advanced Directive and put them in the bag I’ll take to the hospital. I thought carefully about what devices I would take and settled on only the phone. I’ve installed the WordPress app so I could if I wanted, post to this blog from the phone. And the phone has Kindle and the books I’m reading, and email and games. I have a battery pack I can charge the phone from, and tossed that in. That’s about it, for a 24-hour stay.

Then I cleaned off my coffee table, where I had been dropping things to “do something with” for a while. Some of those things were the Heritage Circle grant requests for the auditorium, and I realized that today is the actual deadline for turning them in. So I did that. Got other stuff off it and filed away or tossed.

I still had 45 minutes until the writer’s meeting so I quickly turned the account of when we had to drive from Feltham to Sudbury to use a computer, into a short essay and submitted it. So I had something to read at the meeting.

I ordered lunch to take out today, and for supper made a sandwich. Today’s Covid email said we have one more resident and one more staff infected. I am laying very low until Thursday.

As noted a while back, I used up all of the can of dusky rose color on the T-bird body. Later I realized that the dash and some of the upholstery should be body color. What to do? I didn’t want to order another spray can, and anyway I’d rather brush those parts than do the intricate masking to spray them. (Also, upholstery wouldn’t be pearlescent like the body.) So I need a matching dark-pink shade. None of the makers of model and hobby paints had the right color but two had pinks that were kinda close so I ordered a bottle of each, and they came today. So I spent some time trying to mix small quantities of pink to match the body color. Pink, plus a little red, plus a wee bit of black, plus a good dab of gold, does it. The gold because the spray was a “pearl” and the microscopic pearl flakes give it a yellowish cast.