wet Fall, Medical Ambiguity, Heart to Heart

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

9/28/24

 

Aloha Folks --

 

Well, it's officially fall,  Back in Ohio when we had our apple orchard we'd be racing gravity  to get  the crop picked and sold.  Hard, time-sensitive work that was anything but a nice relaxing retirement activity. Here the fall is still prime growing season and although I complain about the challenge of keeping our plants under control, amount of effort  pales in comparison,

As I write this the east coast is getting whacked by another major hurricane.  My condolences to the coastal residents, particularly in Florida, who are  going through yet another devastating weather event this year.  We have to cope with hurricanes here in Hawai'i, of course but not on the scale of the mainland,  Our fall so far has been very warm and wet -- last week we had a couple of storms that dropped a total of nearly 6 inches of rain in our specific area,  The pool is full to overflowing, and has been delightfully warm for our daily workouts. Our sunny afternoons have helped our pv system produce a surplus of electrons that have more than compensated for running the ac that we have in a few rooms.  We're coming to the end our our contract year with HELCO and it looks like we'll be giving them abut $150 this time -- whatever surplus we have at the end of the contact resets to zero.  The company needs it, I guess, in part to offset the costs of lawsuits from the Lahaina fires on Maui last year.  

I'm a little over one week from starting heart care from my new cardiologist.  The arrhythmia drug he prescribed has continued to keep my heart in normal rhythm most of the time, including during my Echo

Cardio-Selfie

Cardiogram last Thursday.  This is an amazingly informative ultrasound examination of the chambers, valves, veins and arteries of heart as it is actually beating.  I've seen the results online but I will get the full interpretation when I see my cardiologist on Wednesday.  For an 80-year-old muscle that has been beating even before I was born, it seems to be in fair shape and I forgive it for my AFib problem.  I  also had an ultra sound exam of my carotid arteries, tee ones that send blood to the brain and visual system. I was hoping there might be a fixable problem that would account for my vision difficulties, but I don't think that is the case.  On Wednesday the ambiguity about my sight continued when I saw my optometrist.  He can't correct my distance vision with glasses, and he can see no structural reason for my vision loss, with the exception of cataracts.  However, they are not severe and can't account for the sudden loss of acuity,  So I'm still searching for a solution.  Ambiguity and uncertainty suck..........

Ok. Back to your reality-choosing dilemma.

Back Home, Cheers for Cardio Normality, Pele Spits Up

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

9/21/24

 

Aloha Everyone -- 

We returned from our mainland trip Wednesday evening.  It was short for us -- a bit under two weeks -- but long enough for the weeds and other plants to be noticeably in need of being whacked back.  The trip was very enjoyable even though short.  The first week we spent in Ohio, where we arrived in time for an early fall cool spell -- one night it got down to 43d!  The days were sunny, though, and by the time we left it had warmed back to the 90's.  We had a great time visiting old friends, eating barbecue, and sampling a few of Cincinnati's outstanding micro-brews.  Karen's routine checkup at UC Health Center went well, also.  We then flew to Colorado and stayed two nights with college friends who live in Boulder. They generously hosted a couple of get-togethers with other friends.  The final two days we stayed in Denver, where we got together with my nephew and his wife, and also played tourists in the downtown area, where we had a fabulous upscale Mexican meal at a restaurant namedTomayo in the LODO area.We hadn't been in Denver for seven years, and we were amazed at the positive changes in the downtown area.

The day after we returned hone I finally saw a cardiologist about my persistent Afib problem.  He was personable, competent, and paid close attention to my specific issues, particularly to the possible link

Thumpa-Thumpa

between Afib and my vision problems.  (By the way, my vision has declined to the point that Karen had to take over the driving on our trip,  I can barely read even with very strong reading glasses, and I am able to write this on my computer only by making the print very large,) An office ECG confirmed my Afib and the doctor ordered a bunch of additional tests, He also recommended trying to get my heart to revert to a normal rhythm using a drug that blocks the unwanted electrical signals in the atrium.  I got the drug that same day and started taking it immediately.  Yesterday morning I tested my rhythm with my portable device and for the first time since July it assessed the pattern as normal!!!!  This was much appreciated progress, to say the least.  I haven't noticed much improvement yet in my vision, but I'm still hopeful.  If this doesn't hold there are other techniques that can be used, including the good old paddles that deliver a nice electrical dope-slap to the heart telling it to straighten out.....

 

In other geezer news, Karen's cataract surgery didn't correct her vision as much as it should have,  She still has to use glasses for distance vision and for close up.  The new fancy lenses were supposed to eliminate the need for correction altogether, The surgeon is puzzled and wants to wait about three months for Karen's eyes to heal completely before trying to correct the problem.  The correction will undoubtedly require one or more trips to Oahu for either laser tweaks or to completely redo the surgery. Karen is understandably not happy with this situation.  I'll keep you posted on what happens.

I've been mentioning that Kilauea has been recharging its supply of magma and that the volcanologists have said it wasn't a matter of "if" but "when" the next eruption would occur.  Well, a couple of days before we returned Pele squirted out some lava in an area called the middle east rift zone, a few miles from the main caldera. The eruption was brief and has petered out at the moment. It may stall entirely soon.  The main  consequence so far has been a slight increase in vog that makes the air kind of hazy,

Ok enough for now.  You can now return to your onslaught of political ads and trying to figure out how to live in a  "post-factual," "post-civil" world......  Take care, carpe vita.