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.

Storm? Waikiki Anniversary, Truffles & Surgery

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

8/31/24

 

Aloha All -- 

 

Tropical storm Hone turned out to be a fizzle for us here in Kona. We had hardly any wind and only 1.5" of rain at our house. Radar showed some pretty vigorous action elsewhere in the state, and there was some localized flooding that made for dramatic news video.  But Hawaii's problems didn't compare at all to the flooding, fires, volcanoes, deadly heat, etc,, etc. elsewhere in the world.  This weekend we might get some more rain as the remnants of hurricane Gilma passes by to our north, but otherwise things are pretty quiet. BTW, I was amused last Sunday when we went to Costco before the storm was scheduled to arrive -- the shrewd manager had quickly made a big display featuring emergency electric generators and warm clothing.  Oh, and people were hauling out big loads of Hawaii's essential emergencysupplies -- rice and toilet paper.

The storm had pretty well cleared from around Oahu when we flew there Monday afternoon.  Karen's surgery wasn't until Tuesday morning but we wanted to go early and have our 57th anniversary dinner in Waikiki.  We went to a restaurant named Orchid in the Halekulani hotel and it was excellent, even by our high foodie standards.  The setting was very nice also -- right on the beach at sunset.  Karen's surgery went

very smoothly again -- actually better because she didn't get nauseous this time.  As before, she has had no pain whatsoever with only numbing drops as anesthesia.  Her checkup the next morning showed that everything was going well,   Her eyesight has improved steadily since then and now it will just be a matter of time for both eyes to heal completely and for her brain to coordinate the two images, one near the other far. During her checkup Karen mentioned my recent eye problems and the surgeon took a quick look (!). She saw nothing dramatically wrong and confirmed that although I have a mild cataract problem it isn't enough to account for my sudden downturn.  She knows my eye doctor that I will be seeing on Tuesday and was confident he would figure it out -- I sure hope so.

We spent the remainder of the day (Wednesday) at the enormous nearby Ala Moana Shopping Center.  This involved lots of shopping, of course, but also another gourmet meal at a rooftop restaurant in the upscale Neiman Marcus department store.  One of the dishes was a seafood combination of scallops and shrimp, with a cream sauce that contained bits of truffle, a really delicious treat.  We flew home late afternoon, feeling like we had optimized this medical travel about as well as we could.

 

We've now turned out attention to prepping for our trip next week to Ohio and Colorado. Since we won't be gone all that long (about 2 weeks) it doesn't require quite as extensive preparation as our longer trips do, but there are still lots of house chores to take care of.  We managed to do a workout yesterday at Planet Fitness, though Karen had to take it easy on some of the machines to safeguard her eye.  This will probably be my last missive until we return, so I hope everyone has a good Labor Day  and that you enjoy the end of summer.  Take care, carpe diem.

Waikiki Eye Slice, CC Hack, Tropical Storm

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

8/24/24

 

Aloha Everybody -- 

This was an interesting week for us.  On Monday morning we flew to Honolulu for Karen's cataract surgery  This was a three-day affair, the first of which consisted of several hours of tests, exams, consultations, and making financial arrangements. Day two was the surgery at an outpatient facility.  The procedure itself takes less than 30 minutes but the preparations and resting period afterward made the total time about three hours.  Karen opted for only numbing drops, so she was awake for the whole deal.  This was the laser version of cataract surgery, which involves the same steps but is less traumatic on the eyeball.  Karen felt no pain whatsoever, either during the surgery or since. The only negative aspect of the surgery was some nausea afterward likely due to the disorienting bright light involved in the procedure. The next morning the doctor examined her to make sure everything was ok, and we flew back that evening.  She'll return next week for the other eye. She chose the Binford 1200 XLR Supercharged Turbo model lens, an upgrade that insurance doesn't cover but which seemed like a good idea.and so far has worked out well. She also opted for having one eye tuned for distance and middle vision, and the other for close up. This is a common arrangement which with luck may do away with the need for glasses altogether.  

I don't think I mentioned earlier that one of our credit cards was hacked shortly after we returned from Canada.  The card company flagged 54 transactions that had been made within a few hours that were

Gotcha

fraudulent.  They contacted us and when we confirmed that we hadn't made the purchases, they denied the charges and cancelled the card.  Fortunately this account issues a different number to each of us, so even though hers would no longer work, mine was still good. She received a new card in about a week.  THEN, on Thursday my own card was used to make a couple of fraudulent charges, which the company again caught right away.  These were very small charges, probably meant to test the card to see if it was still good prior to doing the same mass attack that had been done with Karen's card.  Anyway, I now have a new card as well as Karen.  We find it very suspicious that this happened after we had used the cards in Canada.  This account is one we use when we travel to make it easier to track expenses and because it gives us 2.5 % cash back.  We use it here at home only for food purchases.  Regardless of who the ne'er-do-wells were, the hack seemed more sophisticated than usual, which is sadly in keeping with current levels of organized cyber crime.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hone are in the islands this weekend.  So far this has only meant increased humidity and cloudiness, but tonight and tomorrow we may get a fair amount of rain and wind.  Actually, the rain is welcome because much of the island has been very dry lately.  Of course if you're a tourist this may put a damper on your planned activities -- a wet luau is no fun at all. Most of these storms, and also hurricanes, come from the east.  This one is forecast to pass south of the islands before turning northward, a fairly common track. The strength of winds usually drops steadily as the storm passes over cooler waters.  We're certainly hoping that's the case this time, but at the moment the forecast is for the storm to strengthen to hurricane level after it passes to our south. We're also hoping all this settles down by the time we return to Oahu for Karen's eye surgery next week. I'll let you know how it goes

Ok, enough for now  Off to market and a pre-storm beach picnic breakfast.  Take care.  Keep your exposure to election nastiness to as little as you can.

Fire Prep, Med Titration,Travel Plans

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

8/17/24

 

Aloha  Ohana -- 

Life lurches on here.  It was a fairly quiet week.  Probably the two biggest events were getting my teeth cleaned on Wednesday and working out at the gym on Thursday.  The workout this week was definitely a notch up from last time, and I managed to get back to my previous machine settings.  Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with lunch at one of our favorite seaside restaurants in town, one that we haven't been to in quite a while. I attribute my improved energy level to cutting back a little on my heart rate medication.  This is supposed to lower your heart rate to ease the burden of Afib, but my initial dose was overdoing it and turning me into a zombie.  By the way, I'm not sure I made it clear that I feel absolutely no symptoms from Afib itself-- no pounding or fluttering in my chest, no light-hotheadedness, no pain at all. I only know I'm still in Afib because my little home monitoring device tells me so.

 

Our weather has turned drier.  We're still getting some afternoon and evening showers, but the total rainfall has dropped off.  In fact, island-wide the rainfall has been far short of normal, and this is prompting

Fire in Paradise

concerns about wildfires of the sort that devastated  parts of Maui last year. The county has been creating fire breaks around large wooded and grassy areas inland of town, and along major roads.  Homeowners are being advised to push back flammable vegetation from their houses. In addition, the electric company has established several zones where power might be preemptively cut off to prevent downed wires from starting fires, as they did on Maui.  All of these actions give the impression that they would protect us from a Maui-type event, but I'm not so sure they would.  First, our town is situated very similarly to Lahaina -- a seaside tinderbox with lots of grassy areas inland and upslope, Normally onshore winds prevail during the day both here and on Maui, but the day of the Maui fire they were blowing down slope and toward the ocean, a very unusual pattern.  This meant that that escape routes away from the shore went directly into the path of the fires.  The same could happen here, and due to poor urban planning  there are only four evacuation routes in a five-mile stretch along our coast. The fire breaks and electric cut-off zones might slow things a bit, which might give people time to escape, but it still might be a tragically chaotic situation.  The climatic conditions that led to the Maui tragedy are also becoming more common, yet another legacy of climate change.  

In more happy news, we made our final payment for our November trip to Cambodia and Thailand.  I know, you're probably questioning the wisdom of exotic travel with my current health concerns.  But after carefully thinking about it, we've decided to go ahead despite the risks,  Or rather, we believe the risks are worth it for this special experience.

 

Next week we will be spending a few days on Oahu for  Karen to have cataract surgery, and again the following week when she has it done on the other eye.  She could have had this done on our island, but the surgeon on Oahu is very highly recommended by several friends, and it will give us a chance to get away for a couple of days.

 

Ok, that's all the geezer talk for now  Hang in there, stay cool, and give thanks for sanity and integrity -- they really do exist.

 

Olympic Workout,Medical Molasses,Golf"ish"

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

8/10/24

 

Aloha  Folks --

 

Inspired by those incredible Olympic athletes, on Sunday Karen and I made it to the gym for a very light workout.  It went ok -- no coronary collapses -- but our muscles reminded us of the effort for several days.

C'est Tres Belle!!

Speaking of the Olympics, we've been watching some of the events that we never knew existed, like Speed Climbing and Mixed Team Triathlon.  The triathlon includes a swim in the Seine -- something that would seem to me to require a very fierce competitive drive in order to overcome the reports of questionable water quality in what historically has been an open sewer.  We've also watched some of the more standard events, like gymnastics, and saw some incredible performances -- like those of Simone Biles, who has to go down in history as one of the greatest gymnasts of all times, with an inspiring personality to go along with her athletic abilities.

My medical saga continued this week.  My meds have kicked in and lowered my heart rate nicely, but they are making me want to sleep all the time.  I'm hoping this effect will get better over time, and it does seem better today.  My blood pressure is also back to acceptable levels.  All in all I think things are improving.  However, I'm swimming in molasses as far as getting a consult with a cardiologist.  It has taken two attempts to get the referral faxed from my primary doctor, and the first available appointment was for September 10.  Unfortunately, we will be in Ohio at that time, so I have an appointment for the day after we return, on the 20th. I got some interesting news on Saturday when I saw my ophthalmologist.  He didn't think there was a problem taking a blood thinner with my retina vein condition, and he said it might even head off future vein occlusions because they are caused by small clots that block the blood vessels in the retina.  Sounds good to me. He also attributed my recent acuity problems to Covid, which is documented to sometimes affect vision.  He thinks this should go away with time -- again, just...be...patient.  Easy to say and hard to do.  Finally, my visit to the dermatologist was mostly good news, but she did shave off a keratosishalitosis from my elbow for a biopsy.

 

In a final burst of energy this week we went to Makalei and did some putting and some practice drives.  After all, what could be better for your heart than trying to make a little ball go into a hole in the ground?  Amazingly, I managed to hit the ball a number of times and even sink a few putts.  The reward for this effort was a  heart-friendly lunch at Taco Bell.

Ok, off to market and to our beach breakfast picnic.  Stay cool --- both physically and mentally -- if you can.

Musical Doctors, Cool Air & Warm Water, Pele Snoozes Again

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

8/3/24

 

Aloha  Guys --

 

It was a pretty quiet week here.  I feel mostly ok but I don't have much energy and I take frequent (and long) naps. Some of this is likely due to my body's reaction to the new drugs I'm taking for my AFib and  I

Geezer Popcorn

hope it's only temporary.  I've been monitoring my bp, heart rate and heart rhythm to check on their effects (my geezerware collection now includes several new gadgets to assist with this physical preoccupation) .  After my birthday surprise adventure in Canada my pressure was way up and so was my heart rate. The  bp has dropped considerably and my heart rate is coming down slowly.  My heart's rhythm is still is still a random walk through cardio-land. This is not uncommon and many people live just fine with it.  It may be possible to get my heart back to a normal pattern, but in most cases drugs are required to keep it from misbehaving again. I've decided to consult with a cardiologist rather than rely on my internist for my treatment plan.  For one thing, I think he missed the possible complication I might have from taking blood thinners and having retina bleeding issues at the same time. I contacted a highly recommended cardiologist in town but he requires a referral from your primary physician before seeing you.  I had an appointment yesterday with my internist to get this, and hopefully I'll get scheduled with the cardiologist soon.

Speaking of doctors, today I will see somebody at the retina clinic to check on my current state and to consult about the blood thinner issue.  Then on Tuesday I have a routine dermatologist exam, and on Wednesday I have a follow up exam with my optometrist to assess my current prescription.  If I get in to see a cardiologist that will make a record of five physicians in one week. Happy Birthday, Dick!!!!!

There is, fortunately, some good news this week, too.  First, the ac in my new Subaru seems to be working just fine after getting charged up with refrigerant right before we left for Canada.  On Monday I'll have the dealer check the current level to see if it has lost any.  If it hasn't then the problem seems to be solved. If it has, then they should be able to tell where it is leaking from the dye they put into the refrigerant.  Also in good news, our pool solar heating system has been working well despite cloudy afternoons, and the temperature has been pleasant without having to cover it at night.  Finally, it looks like Pele has taken a snooze rather than belching lava, as seemed like she might a couple of weeks ago.  The magma has stopped surging underneath the summit -- for the time being.  There is no doubt there will be another eruption, but it doesn't look like it is imminent.

 

Ok, that's my entry in the Geezer Competitive Complaining Olympics.  Off to market and the beach.  Carpe diem.

 

A-Fib Club, Escape from Canada, Pele Perks Up

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

7/25/24

 

Aloha  Everybody --

 

Well, just two days after my 80th birthday train trip in Canada, I joined the not-so-exclusive A-Fib Club.

We were starting to take a hike in Jasper National Park when I felt light-headed and passed out,  I recovered enough to get back to town, but later in the Jasper ER I did it again.  An EKG showed I was in A-Fib -- an extreme form of heart arrhythmia. I was also dehydrated and had contracted Covid a few days earlier, plus something triggered a weird allergic reaction in which my tongue swelled up and my hands and feet itched.  Sound like fun, eh? Both the allergic reaction and Covid symptoms passed quickly, but the A-Fib is still with me -- a surprise birthday present I'd rather not have received.

 

We cut our trip short after a few days in nearby Banff -- a stunningly beautiful place overrun with summertime tourists and unfortunately grey and hazy from wildfires in the area. It was also very hot -- 95d one of the days we were there. We realized that continuing to Utah was out of the question, given the even greater heat there, plus my ticker issues. We managed to cancel our arrangements and fly back to Kona directly from Calgary through Denver.  You may have seen the news about the wildfires in Canada, which just a few days after we were in Jasper burned though the town and caused evacuation of the National Park.  The ER where I received treatment just 10 days ago is possibly gone now.We definitely made the right decision to leave.

On Thursday I saw my doctor and another EKG confirmed my problem.  I'll spare you the details (of which many of you are probably personally aware), but I'm now on four additional drugs to control the A-Fib and prevent a stroke -- a blood thinner. a heart rate regulator, a diuretic, and a potassium supplement (the last two hopefully will be temporary once my BP is lowered to a safe level).  

All in all I'd say this hasn't been the best birthday I've had, but it wasn't all a lost cause.  We loved the several days we stayed in Vancouver.  It is a beautiful city with great architecture, art, transportation system, food, and excellent beer.  Also, my train adventure through the Canadian Rockies was just what I wanted, including having dinner as the scenery rolled by and sleeping in our own comfortable compartment. Oh, and I should add that even though both of us got Covid, the symptoms were milder than an ordinary cold and only lasted a few days, something we attribute at least in part to our recent booster shots.

Returning home may not have insulated us from nature's current global fury.  Kilauea activity has just recently taken a significant jump.Volcanologists have detected swarms of  hundreds of small earthquakes near the summit that have come in several pulses.  This is an indication that magma is welling up and recharging the system to the point that there may be an eruption soon.  However, the magma has moved from the summit caldera to a fault region just south and east, so an eruption right at the summit is less likely now.  Of course, the recent activity might also stop once the reservoir beneath the summit is drained.  Time to sing a lullaby for Pele ...

Ok, that's it for now.  Off to market and our beach breakfast picnic.  Carpe diem!