Sweets

Not so Wordless Wednesday ?

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990. This month, we pay tribute to the incredible impact this landmark civil rights law has had on the lives of individuals with disabilities. Join me to celebrate Disability Pride Month.

-----------------

Art in Bloom came about with

First the painting...

Flowers at Art in Bloom 2025, Center for the Arts, Black Mountain NC

———-

Then an arrangement of a different order at the Asheville Art Museum.

I think I preferred these hands to the ones done by Andrew Wyeth at the Asheville Museum of Art as seen in a previous blog.

----------------------------

Joanna Macy, at 96, is preparing to leave this life. She has been an ecologist, activist and teacher for many years. Here's a little snippet of what she has said:

-------------------

A heated half brownie with two flavors of ice cream giving such a wonderful treat. Easy peasy too! I think this is the most decadent sweet I love most these days. Of course a slice of really good - you name it...!

What's your favorite sweet?

----------------------------

An old photo:

It may not be pretty, but those tapes and an IV line were part of my treatment which gave me a stent on my heart to save my life just 5 years ago in March. I sometimes love medicine. This was at the beginning of Covid and the hospital staff were learning how to do their jobs with so many more precautions. 

And by that October I was part of the 35th Cohort of Ornish Rehabilitation at our hospital. Here I had a heart monitor watching my heart as I would soon start more exercises. That wholistic rehab program meant stress relief, meditation, diet and exercise as ways to change my life in order to be healthy. I'm doing most of those (and only get one brownie a week and split it for 2 servings!) Unfortunately the Mission Hospital was acquired by HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) and became a "for-profit" venture, so the Ornish program was cut, and a simple exercise program continues for rehabilitation.

But I'm still a "wholistic" gal.

Yesterday I started having chiropractic treatments for my sore neck, especially when bending down! About most of western (and eastern) culture these days has people bending their necks down for phones. Mine started to hurt more and more, so I am going to a new woman in town, and I liked my first treatment a lot. Holistic wellness. That's what a whole person should have. She gave me three things to do for the next week. But the main thing she did was to push on some acupressure points which released some tension. I could just feel that melting away.  She does a kinesiology approach to determine what and where to do things. I'll go back next week!

Just 4 years ago...

I've been thinking about how it was just 4 years ago.

If you're a kid, it probably seems a lifetime ago.

But for me, I feel that yesterday suddenly our world was turned upside down, millions of people were dying, and nobody had a cure. All the restaurants suddenly closed. All the retail outlets closed. Grocery store shelves were bare. Nobody who was in the entertainment industry had a job any more...at least live entertainment. You just didn't go where other people would also be inside with you.

We suddenly wanted to eat outside on patios (when we first went back to restaurants.) Doors all had signs on them, masks were required.

It was the COVID-19 pandemic.

And so far, it's escaped TV shows. But believe me, at some time, there will be a show with the setting (medical perhaps) and the background of the early days of the pandemic.

I just found a memory on Facebook, which they somehow cull through to give me just a few of the ones I posted...but this one was about how to deal with the virus when you caught it.

Good advice from a nurse on Twitter if you should get the virus:

I know we’re all tired of hearing/talking about it, but one thing I HAVEN’T really seen going around is advice for what happens if you DO get coronavirus (many of us will), only advice for how to try to AVOID it.

So as your friendly neighborhood RN, a wee thread:

Things you should *actually* buy ahead of time (Erm, not sure what the obsession with toilet paper is?): Kleenex, Acetaminophen (Tylenol) in 325 mg tablets, Ibuprofen (Advil) in 200 mg tablets, Mucinex, Robitussin or DayQuil/NyQuil, whatever your cough medicine of choice is.

If you don’t have a humidifier, that would also be a good thing to get. (You can also just turn the shower on hot and sit in the bathroom breathing in the steam). Also a good time to make a big batch of your favorite soup to freeze and have on hand.

If you have a history of asthma and you have a prescription inhaler, make sure the one you have isn’t expired and refill it/get a new one if it is.

You basically just want to prepare as though you know you’re going to get a nasty respiratory bug like bronchitis or pneumonia. You just have the foresight to know it’s coming.

For symptom management, use the meds I mentioned. For a fever over 101, alternate Tylenol and Advil so you’re taking a dose of one or the other every 3 hours. Use both cough suppressants and expectorants (most cough meds have both). Drink a ton, hydrate hydrate. Rest lots.

You should not be leaving your house except to go to the doctor, and if you do, wear a mask (regular is fine, you don’t need an N95). You DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE ER unless you are having trouble breathing or your fever is very high and unmanaged with meds.

90% of healthy adult cases thus far have been managed at home with basic rest/hydration/over-the-counter meds. We don’t want to clog the ERs unless you’re actually in distress. The hospital beds will be used for people who actively need oxygen/breathing treatments/IV fluids.

If you have a pre-existing lung condition (COPD, emphysema, lung cancer) or are on immunosuppressants, now is a great time to talk to your PCP or specialist about what they would like you to do if you get sick. They might have plans to get you admitted and bypass the ER entirely.

One major relief to you parents is that kids do VERY well with coronavirus— they usually bounce back in a few days, no one under 18 has died, and almost no kids have required hospitalization (unless they have a lung disease like CF). Just use pediatric dosing of the same meds.

(If you want to share, copy and paste.)

And (knock on wood) I've not yet had the virus. Incidentally, this nurse was wrong, as many kids did get very sick with COVID.

I got to have a heart attack. Not until May 15, 2020. So the protocols were in place for COVID when I went through ER. But since I have a chronic cough with my COPD, it was confusing for them. For hours I was in isolation, because the hospital had run out of COVID testing supplies, and they would have to send the test out to a lab which might take a day for results. Then my Dr. said to get my test done immediately and it was negative. (I had no fevers, and just pain in my neck and shoulders as heart attack signs.) But of course my blood work kept showing something that they know indicates a heart attack. I depend upon labs...because we all know a heart attack in a woman presents differently than a man. No numb left arm, no sweaty clamy face, etc.

Anyway, 4 days later I went home with a stent on my heart and lots of new meds to take, most for the rest of my life.

But I was right there with these front line care teams. I got to see them at work, seriously overworked, since there were so many patients coming into hospitals. Did they have enough beds? I got shuffled around a few times...so they were working on that.

And I remember just 4 years ago, Millions of People Died from COVID in the pandemic.

Millions of first responders worked above and beyond, as well as care teams in medicine.

I won't forget.

And here are some good links from PBS' NOVA giving some not-so-current information about the pandemic.

Covid and Climate Change for breathing- by Drew Lanham, ornothologist and conservationist in 2021

Lingering Symptoms from COVID-19 are “Unprecedented” published 2021

I think I'm going to go looking elsewhere for more recent findings. I'm quite sure the medical professionals have been studying this virus for the whole 4 years it's been around.

Today's quote:

It’s precisely the people who are considered the least “likely” leaders who end up inspiring others the most. Everyday people and everyday acts of courage eventually change everything.

AI-JEN POO

Remembering

An event that culminated in a stent on my heart - the pain in my neck and back started on Wednesday, May 13, 2020.

I went to my family practice doctor. They did an EKG, but the results seemed confusing... but he gave me something to help me sleep, and a new drug for high blood pressure. I slept that night, but by the next afternoon, the neck and shoulder pain were awful. I had to sit up, couldn't lie down. I went through another 24 hours like this, then on Friday afternoon, I finally asked my friend to take me to the ER.

Fortunately I said I not only had neck and shoulder pain, but heaviness in my chest. That got me in to see a nurse and get an EKG immediately.

The waiting room was mobbed, this was about 4 months into the COVID pandemic, and there were lots of sick people. We were finding out each night on the news how many people died, and how hard it was for hospital personnel to get the PPE (personal protective equipment.) And we heard of all the people who died without seeing their loved ones, and there couldn't even be funerals for them.

So I walked voluntarily into that situation. I didn't know if I'd see my friend Helen again. She drove around (she told me later) until I texted her that I was staying for a while. By then I had been tested for COVID of course. I told the staff that I had bronchiectasis which made me cough all the time. They didn't care, they had to get me tested.

And the hospital had run out of the testing chemicals, so was sending tests out to a lab, and it could be several days before results came back. Fortunately one of the doctors I saw pushed to get the test performed asap.

So by 1:00 am Saturday May 16 I finally was deemed not to have Covid and could slip into the first available surgical opportunity, and got the stent which saved my life.  By then the medical people had convinced me I had a heart attack. They had also had to go through lots of blood tests to prove it. 

Then the recovery started, with 3 more days in the hospital. People often complain, but for me I was in heaven. People were waiting on me all the time. They knew when I needed to take what medicines, and supported all my physical needs. Even the food was welcome. I didn't have to prepare it or clean it up. I never had to make my bed. The only times I've had this feeling of being "waited upon" was other hospital visits in my life. Fortunately I didn't have much pain, but was just kind of weak.

When I went home, I had to adjust to making my own decisions, and how few things I was actually able to do. 

So I like to mark May 16 as my Stent implant day...when a tiny little instrument was pushed up to my heart through my wrist artery. I'm very grateful to be around still to celebrate today, just two years later. And incidentally, after completing the Ornish rehab program and changing my diet to mostly plant based...my last blood work showed a cholesterol number of just 51. That's down from over 200 before the heart attack. But I need to get out and exercise more still.

This is the gym at the Cardiac Center.

I am so glad to still be around. This year my family is marking another granddaughter's graduation from high school. She's my 5th grand to graduate. There's just one more to come in a couple more years! I hope to still be around for it.

Today's quote:

Everything is nothing, with a twist. 

—Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

Sparse but cheerful bouquet

I've enjoyed the scent of the carnations. The yellow mums, not so much.

I could smell the carnations a little! Yay!

I just watched (on 5/12/21) a seminar by the experts who produced the film Forks Over Knives 10 years ago.   It was great to hear of the strides that have been made by people eating whole food plant based diets.

I started Low Fat Plant Based eating after the Ornish program...and this arm of vegetarian thought wasn't even mentioned by the Forks over Knives experts in the film or the seminar on May 12, 2021 ten years later. Dr. Dean Ornish designed a life style program to help those of us who survived a heart episode, offering a way to reverse heart disease. I may waver sometimes from it, but it has good research behind it, and is in agreement with the Forks over Knives Whole Food Plant Based diet. Thank you to all the research which resulted in these healing concepts that are not supported by the pharmacological industry nor the medical insurance industry.   Barbara Rogers

PS...on the gas shortage! Today, 5/13/21 Thursday, gas is back in the pumps. But people are still lining up! Such a funny species!

• Today's quote:

When we laugh, we give ourselves over to

the immediacy of the present moment.

A month gone by

It's hard to believe that a stent was inserted into an artery on my heart (the Left Anterior Descending Artery, LAD) just a month and a day ago.

I'm slowly healing...being a bit short of breath when walking around especially if carrying something and wearing a mask. But the various doctors have said my heart was down to 38% from the norm of 50% (the normal amount of blood that is pumped in one beat.) My son and I don't understand that only 50% of the blood in our body is pumped at a time...but then just thinking of that much surging around is pretty awesome.  This is part of my re-education that I want to learn more about.

I'm working on my apartment re-certification which must be done annually to receive any reduced rent based on my financial circumstances. That means waiting to get the bills from hospital and doctors, then submitting them to landlady. I may not be able to submit them this month because they bill the insurance first, then the balance will be mine to pay. I'm not looking forward to that, but hope to make a contract to have monthly payments (for a few years to come probably.)

Other than shortness of breath and finances, my life is doing pretty well.

I must consider how when I retired (in 2007) all those years ago, I dragged along things that I would do in my "retirement years." Now the box of photos that I wanted to make into collages is still stored collecting dust. As well as all my old journals that I imagined I could merge into an interesting book or two...and would you believe, the emails I wrote back and forth since 2001 with my two high school best friends who've died since then. At least the emails are on the internet, so not collecting dust!

Instead I became active making pottery and sculptures in clay for 12 years. What a long time to indulge myself! I made good friends though, in the pottery studio and in selling my pots.  And ignored the many  things that were waiting for my attention. Indeed, I just added to them! Now I've got many shelves of pots and sculptures...as well as big tupperware tubs stacked along the walls.

So in the next month, my challenge shall be to choose one thing to give attention to...a retirement thing. I'll let you know how that progresses!

Today's quote:

To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common -- this is my symphony.
-William Henry Channing, clergyman and reformer (25 May 1810-1884)

Artifacts

This turtle rattle has become important to remind me that my healing must proceed at a very slow pace.  I'm grateful that at least 3 animals are represented. The turtle of course, a rabbit in the fur at the handle, and some kind of leather wrapping handle and holding shell pieces together.

 I don't know what makes the rattle inside, and am not about to take it apart to find out.  I got it at a pow wow or festival many years ago.

That tiny little tick on my wrist is where the catheter was inserted to find what was wrong with my heart. I'm told a dye went through my veins until it showed where the blockage was, and a balloon was inserted with a tiny stent, thus opening the LAD artery on the wall of my heart so it would again provide blood to the big muscle. I don't know how much damage had been done to my heart (though I think the doctor told me in his short visit on the day before discharge.

Since the cardiac floor was full, he had to check his notes to tell me what percentage of my heart function had been hurt by the blockage...and his notes covered both sides of a sheet of 8-/12x11 paper...with a line separating each person's details. At least he pulled that out once to refer to it. Imagine then talking to 25-30 people who had just had heart surgery, and who were in different stages of recovery!

Maybe it wasn't that many. But I tend to believe it could have been.

So I have a tiny hole where the catheter, stent and balloon were inserted into my heart. I'm amazed. Many other people had the catheter inserted into their groin. And they often had more than one stent implanted.

Hearts are amazing, and heart medicine is too.

I never felt a heart attack, so I'm even more amazed, and keep wondering whenever I have muscle twinges, is that something like it? I don't know. Yet. And I hope I don't for many more years.

In the meantime, slow wins the race.

The LAD artery and emotions

There it is, the Left Anterior Descending artery...

LAD on the right side of this photo, where my stent was placed

I have now learned it's position, but I still don't know much about heart function. Isn't it a bit strange to have such a wonderful organ pumping blood throughout my body, but I don't know much about it?  Guess what this student will be focused upon in the very near future?  But I won't bore you with it.

I will however say that with all the drugs I've been on for the last week (none of which were to either relieve pain or change my mood) I have had the usual deep thoughts. Deep thoughts also come when sleeplessness happens, usually due to various tests that had to be run every hour or so.

The heart is considered by poets and artists as the seat of our passions, our love we have toward others, the emotional center.

But just look at that ...a quivering mass of muscle working to move blood around.

So I thought of how for several years I've been missing any passion in my life. Joy, great and deep compassion, enthusiasm, sorrow...but not much passion. Was this from having that artery get blocked more and more? Was part of my pushy personality from trying so hard to push blood through that little space? (Friends can attest to this truth.)

I remember the first hours of being hospitalized, when they knew something was happening with my heart, but they couldn't figure out where or how. My personal experience was of having difficulty breathing due to the cough, and having many memories in my inner eyes, some of which I would tell to go away. I got many ancestors, and told them I wasn't planning on joining them soon. I let go of all my own decisions and turned everything over to the caregivers, knowing that a greater caregiver was in charge not only of myself but their hands as well.

I also saw the confusion and pain in their eyes as they confronted their own fears of Covid-19. I was given The Test; it meant 3 people in the room, one of whom was apparently being trained. Then the person in charge had to tell me the hospital couldn't run the test themselves because their lab was out of "re-agent." So it would be 24-48 hours after the test was sent to an outside lab. That was just the way it was. (But that changed, as so often happens!)

One of those people had great tattoos along his arm, and while I was being probed through my nose to  my brain for 10 seconds, he told me to hold his hand. Yes, in those crazy "no touch" times, he offered his gloved hand to squeeze. It helped.

And since I told them I hadn't eaten for 12 hours, he came back with some crackers and ginger ale for me a few minutes later. That meant putting on another gown each time he came into my room. I don't know his name, but he was truly a "helper" which I told him. He said he knew exactly who Mr. Rogers was, as he had grown up in Pittsburg.

I told each of the helpers how I appreciated their being "front line" personnel, being out in the trenches doing what they knew how to do in order to help each sick person. I think they appreciated that I took time to discuss the pandemic with them. I made good connections with almost every one of them. What brave and talented people are in the medical profession!

no clue it was my heart!

You've all heard that women experience heart attacks differently than men.

I had shoulder pain, all the time, and it wouldn't let up when I tried to lie down on my side to sleep. I'd finally gone to my general practitioner on Wed. after trouble sleeping for several nights.

But let me back up and just let you know what I already had going on...Bronchiectasis...the inability to clear mucous from my lungs which led to chronic coughing. For that I already had 2 kinds of breathing treatments, one of which was a C-PAP to help me breath while sleeping. Anyway, I had not been getting to sleep and had pain all across my shoulders. The more pain, the tireder and the more coughing, of course.

I also already took a blood pressure medicine, and that Wed. afternoon I had the highest reading I'd ever had at the Dr. office. So he put me on an additional blood pressure medicine.

My doctor also gave me Soma, a muscle relaxant, and prednesone, a steroid...for 5 days.  Nothing for the pain. I could tense my muscles, but then they wouldn't relax. My chest was just tense, a bit heavy feeling. No pain there. I finally took some ibprofen on Thurs. night and fell asleep. But Friday was more of tiredness. I didn't feel like doing a thing.

I can sit here at the computer for hours, and so I did that on Fri, but then was tired and tried for about 3 hours to rest. I remember raising my arms while lying on my back gave some relief.

I called the pharmacy to see if I could still take ibuprofen with the Soma, and they said yes.  I may have called the doctor's office earlier as well, but I'm a bit fuzzy about that.  They did say the doctor isn't working today. Someone said, it sounds like you might need to go to urgent care and may need an Xray. But it was close to 5 pm on Friday by then. And the only other option was E.R.

So I called my friend, Helen, who said she'd be glad to take me to ER. And away we went.  I walked into a kind of busy waiting area, after they took my temperature. I already was wearing my mask. I told them I had shoulder pain that went into my chest. A cardio technician heard me say chest pain, and she took me right away to do an EKG.

And it was abnormal, so off I went for more testing.

None of which showed a heart attack.  I had a CT scan, and blood work, and about 2-3 hours into much discomfort, a cardiologist came and stood at the foot of my bed and said:

"You've had a heart attack.  You've had a heart attack."

I never had an acute episode of pain. And so when I consider it now, I don't know when it happened at all. I now am very cautious of shoulder pain...since that was my only clue.

Yes in the next 5 hours I got a catheterization and a stent installed in my artery which was 100% blocked. More on that later...

But this is another patient who was female who had a heart attack without the standard symptoms. Pay attention ladies. I sure am!

Things just keep changing

Well, it's great that I was so full of inspiration I've been writing blogs ahead of time, because now I've caught up, and can't put much effort into writing tonight.

It's Tues, May 19, 2020. On Friday last week I felt so bad I went to the hospital in Asheville. Turns out I had had a heart attack.

So today I got home, after having wonderful care by such a great medical and nursing staff. I have a stint now in my LAD artery in my heart.

And for all the folks who've already been through this, you know I'm wiped out.

There are wonderful people at my church, my dear friends, who will be bringing me some meals. I had a dear friend take me to the hospital (after all I had no idea it was my heart), and Helen picked me up today.

Have I got stories to share!!!

PS, I missed reading all my blog friends for 4 days, so will be catching up.