5 days equal 5 weeks

 A nurse from my health insurance company gave me this formula. For every day you spend in the hospital you'll need a week of recovery once you go home.

So I've completed the first week of 5. Geese, I don't have a life, again. (I wrote this on Thursday, and by Friday I did feel a lot better!)

I'm having dizzy spells, hanging onto furniture. Who me, anxious? Heart, lungs, skin, pulse ox, blood pressure, nebulizer, therapeutic vest, pills, pills, pills! Go to tests for this and that. Calls to and from nurses, insurance, appointment schedulers...when do I have time to just be myself?

Warning - a long discussion leading nowhere follows. 

There was the scary certified letter Wednesday. The mailman comes to your door and you have to sign that you've received the letter. It is like a legal document. Why? This was from the hospital from which I'd been discharged just a week before. OK, maybe they thought I could pay the bill myself, instead of the insurance company. I signed. And stood inside my apartment and opened it. 

La dee da- a standard Dear Patient form letter, with attached "Important Message from Medicare" - in bold face type. It has to do with discharge from the hospital.

I read quickly through the form letter from Medicare, about appealing something.

I go back to the first one...read more carefully. Look for any dates regarding all this. None anywhere. Not even on the envelope. Appeal what?

Why did I get it?

What's it referring to? Somehow the forms refer to being discharged before I felt I'd received adequate care. Being a form letter, it says 

"if you want to appeal (regarding discharge too soon or not feeling medically able to go home) you must contact the Quality Improvement Organization no later than the day of discharge, before leaving the hospital." (underline mine!)

Methinks this is another one of those "they doth protest too much."

QIO isn't given any reference in the letter. Incidentally, there's no way to contact them. Incidentally, I was discharged a whole week before receiving this form letter! 

Oh the Medicare Important Message form does give some QIO numbers and how to appeal your Hospital Discharge (even after deadline - with your Medicare health plan.)

Ah ha. I remember news stories now that this hospital has been sanctioned by Medicare. Maybe this is what it's all about.

Nothing to do with me. I received a discharge summary. I've since reviewed the discharge with my primary physician. What a load of baloney! 

My doctor made sure I had followed his orders (I think, by setting up oxygen at home.) Wait wait. The oxygen wasn't set up until the second day after I went home. Perhaps this is his CYA (cover your ass, if you never ran into that before)! He did say he didn't want me coming back to the hospital with anything related to not having oxygen that first night. Well, I've had it.

And I've doubly HAD IT with this hospital! Ever since HCA bought it out, and half the specialty doctors left, and then all the subsidiary doctors have been brought into their corporate umbrella, it has not done well with the local population. Almost all the nursing staff and technicians are "Traveling Nurses." They used to be called Temps. But they actually work for HCA and are housed by the corporation in towns where they're employed, and apparently put out bids for where and how much they'll work. My phlebotomist was from Sarasota FL and bids for 3 or 4 days a week, a month at a time, here in Asheville, and gets well paid.

I really have had very good care, except for the construction noise the last day. Wait wait, I filled in a survey and said that, and then this letter arrived.

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I really needed this...

Daily Om gave this little helpful reminder last Thursday. 

These small moments can help rebuild a sense of safety, reminding you that calm is still available, even in difficult moments.

When anxiety takes over, it can feel as though your mind has raced far ahead of you, spinning worst-case scenarios, what-ifs, and stories that leave you feeling dysregulated. Somatic grounding offers a way back to center. Rather than asking you to think your way out of this overwhelming moment, it invites you to return to your body — and to the stillness of the present. Part of what makes these practices so comforting is how simple they are. You do not need perfect techniques, a special ritual, or hours of free time. Even small acts — feeling your feet on the floor, relaxing your shoulders, or noticing the rise and fall of your breath — can help interrupt the spiral and bring you back to yourself. Over time, these small moments can help rebuild an internal sense of safety, reminding you that calm is still available, even in difficult moments. Try this gentle practice: Sit somewhere comfortable, and let both feet rest on the floor. Notice the steady support beneath you. Place one hand over your heart and the other over your belly. Take a slow breath in. Then let your exhale be long and easy. Slowly look around the room and rest your eyes on three things you can see. Let yourself arrive here and be held by this moment. May it offer you a small but meaningful sense of peace to carry with you through the rest of your day

Freedom means responsibilities

Out that door. This is the little discharge cubby (don’t know their term for these numbered cavelike rooms)  where I heard the last wishes from my Doctors. Yes, I will watch both ways, yes I will continue to breathe…and take my pills as directed. Just let me OUT!

 Not at all flattering, but modesty had to go by the wayside while my body was poked, stuck and measured in so many ways by so many others.

Am I well? Well, as much as I can expect for right now. Much much better than last Friday night. So as always, there were trials and errors by the medical team. But I was well treated…up to a point. More on that later.

For now I just want to be back in the reality of my home, my coffee, my machine from which it flows whenever I wish. Freedom!

Responsibilities are hitting me. I’ve been fed, bathed (no kidding) and medicated all by the wishes, whims, or timing of others. Now I had to figure those things out for myself.

After my dear friend picked me up Wednesday afternoon, we drove by the pharmacy to get my new antibiotics. Then to the pizza place where I got a personal pan pizza and chicken Caesar salad to go. Then pull my cart into the house, sit down and eat a slice of pizza. (After all one has to keep up one’s strength.)

Then set up the breathing equipment here at home again…to have oxygen when needed. 

When needed? Is there a bell on me that goes off when I need it? This continues to be a nightmare. I have no idea. Here I am trying to make a decision whether to wear the cannula and carry the portable concentrator (see, I finally learned a term for the thingie) or not.

Trial and error . Mmmm.

It’s 35 degrees outside, and the sun is up. I love seeing the dogwood in full bloom after 5 days away. Maybe I’ll go closer and get more photos. Frost warnings for the next day. Dogwood winter, it happened.

Gratitude to still be able to enjoy the beauties in life. Blooms. Weather. Sun on a mountainside outside my windows. Bird song. The puff of the concentrator by my side proving I’m breathing!

And so grateful for the care which I’ve received.

Thank you to all who have communicated with me. I’ve never looked into the eyes of all of these great supportive bloggers (except a couple who live near Asheville.) But the humanity shared is worldwide. Each day has the gift of your own sharings here, as well as true connections in your comments. I did cut back on my blogging time (aren’t some of you glad for that!) but it was a daily plus when I could look on my iPad and see what was happening in Scotland, Germany, Sweeden, New Zealand, Canada and other US states.  My deepest appreciation for blogger.

Friday was freedom day!

Late afternoon yesterday I finished every test they could think of, and with a wad of prescriptions in hand, I left the big old medical facility.

I really haven’t done it yet as I write this…but I’m in street clothes again. Shoes! Do you know you wear these little footies with plastic treads when a patient? It’s a big adjustment to have real shoes on after 5 days.

Sorry, photos aren’t posting. And before this gets published in the morning I probably am not going to feel like doing it at home tonight – putting in photos.

OK, at dawn  I added these last two hospital photos, where I had the swallow test with barium...and they said it looked ok. Yay!

A great big thank you to all my Blogger friends who have supported me this week with lots of fun and loving comments!



Springtime at my son's home in Cortez CO

 I love taking photos of the places I visit (in case you haven't noticed!) Warning...this post has a LOT of photos!

Today I'm going to be a bit domestic, and focus on the home and garden my son and his wife put their energies into...and reap some great bounty, as well as a lot of comfort and healthy living.

Perched on the edge of a canyon, a mostly unassuming house offers just the right blend of new craftsmanship with the original building...and a huge kitchen garden.

They just started waking up the garden, enclosed in an 8 foot fence to keep the deer out. Nearest neighbor is a good distance away. Mountain in the distance to the west is "Ute Sleeping Indian" mountain. Beyond it is Utah. Next photo was taken just past those arches looking back in this direction toward the house. 

This is the short side of the garden. It is probably twice as long as this.

Tai is raking some hay in the beds.

Here Kendra is putting in some early seeds. Tai is turning the compost (out of frame). 

Their cat, Shiva, stalks invisible things near the compost, with the shed beyond sheltering the bags of pressed-sawdust used for their wood stove in winter.

Across the back of the house is a large patio with the view over the canyon.

I loved looking out my bedroom/Kendra's office window to see this huge cedar. 

And beyond the cedar is one of their Ponderosa Pines.

Tai and Zora playing ball...you can even see the blue ball in front of the dog. She sometimes misses and it goes over the edge and down the slope a ways, usually stopped under some bush or cactus. There's an electric fence which keeps her in the yard.

Tai's art work hangs in various places throughout the home. And Kendra's green thumb is also evident, with plants everywhere.

A wonderful corner window in the kitchen overlooks the vista through the jade plant. (I'm going to use one view of this for my header photo for a while!)

A large well equipped kitchen keeps the good food coming.

Wednesday is bread making day (here two sour-dough loaves are cooling). Tai makes the bread, and yogurt weekly, since he's at home during the day to check on things. Kendra is pretty much in charge of the garden, though he helps as she needs, and she cooks most meals while he cleans the kitchen.

The front yard looks toward the back (north side) of Mesa Verde.

While the dining room looks over the canyon.

And the living room provides a quiet place for conversation or reading.

Though of course Zora thinks anywhere Tai sits is a place to play.

OK, I'll quit now. There were so many more photos...they took a vacation to visit with me and take me everywhere. Let's see, we still have a lot of pictures from Moab UT and the Arches National Park. I'll give them to you in smaller batches!

Today's quote:

Be a true representative of the goodness in your heart, and don’t expect it to be easy or even noticed.

Adyashanti

PS, while I was loading these photos, I was "taken back to Colorado" and a phone call shocked me back into sitting in North Carolina...wow, I'm still somewhat there!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week - as I took a lot of photos but avoided this position to do so. But there are a couple of photos included of my family members squatting down!

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

Browning Montana, 1910

Chief Dan George

President Kennedy welcomed the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) at the White House in March 1963 to discuss tribal sovereignty, economic and educational opportunities, and prejudice toward Indigenous groups.

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Personal note: I'm back in my Black Mountain apartment, which is just as cluttered and comfortable as ever. Electricity means cooking and refrigerating. Only water for flushing (and apparently sewers work!) So I brought some drinking water, and things to cook. One must go about 30 miles east to get many things, though Ingles, the local grocery is open. Another store, Hopey's has different kinds of things at reduced prices. I heard the laundromat has opened, as well as a pizza place for carry-out. There's a curfew at 7. We must take garbage bags to town dumpsters, as the garbage trucks all were damaged in the flooding from the storm. So why did I come back at this point? I'm aware that I am adding to a population that relies on outside help at some level still. But I hadn't planned ahead enough when I left, and two of my medications were out as of today. I could get one filled by Tuesday but the other was through a mail order pharmacy, and I didn't want to go to the bother of having my prescription sent to a new address...and the delay of shipping would be probably a week. I had refills of both sitting here in my home already. If push comes to shove, I might have to leave again, especially if the water situation worsens. But that's another day.

PS. I had difficulty going to sleep last night. I kept seeing highways that would fall off into oblivion, or end in  a wall of blackness. I'd try to concentrate on something else, but these visuals would intrude, it seemed like hours. I had no difficulties on the road coming home yesterday mid afternoon. Eventually I got my 8 hours of good sleep. Perhaps some PTSD from the storm conditions remains.

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Today's quote:

“We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil,” McCain wrote. “Americans never quit…. We never hide from history. We make history.” John McCain

Home again home again, jiggidy jog!

My first view from South Carolina of my mountains of home...the Appalachians!

Being tired from driving, I stopped to see if there were any interesting fish to bring home to add to the 3 neon tetras. Just a few. So a couple of Sunburst Wag Platties, and a couple of Glow-light Tetras have been introduced.

I then took a nap, and was awake for a while...but probably not for midnight. At 77, I can skip that.  It's just another day upon which I will be grateful to wake up.

I'll have to catch you up with my travels in reverse order this time!

Finally the Appalachian Mountains of home

 Suzanne finally was tired enough to let me drive through the turns around Knoxville, where I once lived. She took over again for the last leg through the mountains to Asheville.

 I've always loved seeing the Smokies as you go east.

 The first highway sign saying Asheville is just 59 miles ahead. Heck, we've got several thousand miles under our belts (seat belts) by now...this is a breeze.

 Welcome to Haywood County (NC!)

And coming home, we only took a few minutes unloading my stuff into my car, which had been parked at Suzanne's for the whole time.  It turns out that wasn't a great idea, because some rodent moved in and tried to set up housekeeping in my heater, and left a big pile of cotton and a terrible smell.  Fortunately the animal didn't end up being found when the mechanic pulled out all the nesting materials, and the air blows freely and without scent through the system now.

I've been home the rest of the month of October, and slipped right back into my old habits pretty easily. But I've also had all these photos to post here.  No more. They are all out in the web now. And I'm going to be posting more local photos over on Alchemy of Clay (just because there were so many of these from the trip!)

Vacation photos (no not all of them!) and Mesa Verde part 1

Finally time to see the best of my vacation photos...and yes, I took way too many! But this is my photo album for saving them...I can just search for the ones from each place on these blogs...ha ha.

Son is off to work, M-F at the Cortez High School.  He's a Gear Up Advisor...helping kids and their families so the kids will graduate and go on to college (a federally funded program!) He mentors the young people from their freshman year all through school, so will work with incoming freshmen each year for 5 years.  Since Cortez has many Native American kids, from several reservations nearby, he's dealing with some long-standing issues from that minority.

Zora and I will wait till he gets home...as well as when Kendra is finished with her work...which is sometimes at home.

Kendra's office at home!

 Entrance to Mesa Verde park headquarters/visitors center.

 A wonderful statue, but hard to photograph!

Our guide told us that we'd see most if we traveled on the route on the right.

 View from Visitor's Center parking lot.

 Our first overlook...

Before the end of the day, we stopped at a bar in Mancos and met a new relative!

Tomorrow I'll show a bit of the Chapin Museum and the views there.  We did go to the Mesa Top Loop (I think.)