Let the Healing Begin and Well Played, ATC!
It's been 5 days since Tammy's hip replacement surgery. Her doctor told me the surgery went very well. He also commented that she had very little loss of blood during the procedure. He'll often see a loss of 1000cc in patients but Tammy only lost a tenth of that. I'm not sure what that speaks to if anything. He also noted a bone spur in her hip that was causing her a lot of pain.
She stayed overnight in the care facility there at Twin City Orthopedics and I picked her up at 6:00 the next morning, which was a solid 2 days too soon (but apparently, that's how it's done). The narcotics prescribed for pain have left her confused, tired, and confined to a bed we have set up in our den. Rachel came by over the weekend and spent the better part of 2 days with us, giving me some pointers on my duties as a CNA (certified nursing assistant). She was so helpful.
A nurse has stopped by our home a couple of times as well as a physical therapist. The nurse became concerned yesterday when she recorded a blood-oxygen-level in the 70s. A normal reading would've been in the high 90s. It's a result of the narcotics and their effect on her breathing. She instructed us to get to the emergency room at the hospital. I wasn't keen on getting Tammy out of bed and situated in the car due to her recent surgery but her O2 reading concerned us more so we didn't delay.
The doctor felt her condition was within the normal parameters with her O2 levels having risen to a more normal level once we arrived. She was discharged 2 hours later. Better safe than sorry. She's doing much better today and making notable progress every day but she has a long way to go.
I'm putting my stained glass projects on hold while I stick close by her side for the next couple of weeks.
The longest U.S. government shutdown (35 days) is over thanks in large measure to air traffic controllers on the east coast who called in sick and forced delays that would ripple throughout the system. That was enough (in addition to Nancy Pelosi's hardline against Trump*) to call Trump's* childish bluff and force him to reopen the government, if only for a few weeks. Well played, ATC and Pelosi—well played.
One concern I have after watching all of that play out is how so many people are living with little to no margin whatsoever in the way of a rainy-day fund. A disturbing number of people are just a paycheck or two away from homelessness.
And still, nothing is being done about the attacks on our elections by Russia. But not only that, Republicans voted last week to lift sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, a major player in Russia's attack on our 2016 election. He was the one that Trump's* campaign manager Paul Manafort gave detailed polling data to in the weeks and months before the election so they could more accurately target their attacks. I know—this is all new to those of you who get your news from conservative media. You may want to poke your head up and have a look around at what's actually happening because it's going to take a lot of us working together to fix this mess. But Trump* is responsible for record unemployment and a robust economy you say? No, not really.
I finished the Tour de Zwift series of rides today with 4 laps around Central Park in NYC. I really enjoyed the challenge of going all-out on those 9 stages over the past 4 weeks. I'm curious to see what it's done for my Functional Threshold Power (FTP), a measure of the number of watts I'm able to maintain for an hour. It's a handy number to know for when you want to do targeted training and develop training plans based on watts.
It's ridiculously cold outside tonight at -22ºf (-30ºc) with a high temp tomorrow of only -16ºf (-27ºc). It gets even colder tomorrow night. That's just nuts. There was a time a few years ago when I took pride in riding in temps this cold but I'm quite sure those days are behind me. Perhaps my Wahoo Kickr Core and Zwift program for riding indoors have made me soft in some ways. I'm okay with that.
That's all I've got.
She stayed overnight in the care facility there at Twin City Orthopedics and I picked her up at 6:00 the next morning, which was a solid 2 days too soon (but apparently, that's how it's done). The narcotics prescribed for pain have left her confused, tired, and confined to a bed we have set up in our den. Rachel came by over the weekend and spent the better part of 2 days with us, giving me some pointers on my duties as a CNA (certified nursing assistant). She was so helpful.
A nurse has stopped by our home a couple of times as well as a physical therapist. The nurse became concerned yesterday when she recorded a blood-oxygen-level in the 70s. A normal reading would've been in the high 90s. It's a result of the narcotics and their effect on her breathing. She instructed us to get to the emergency room at the hospital. I wasn't keen on getting Tammy out of bed and situated in the car due to her recent surgery but her O2 reading concerned us more so we didn't delay.
The doctor felt her condition was within the normal parameters with her O2 levels having risen to a more normal level once we arrived. She was discharged 2 hours later. Better safe than sorry. She's doing much better today and making notable progress every day but she has a long way to go.
I'm putting my stained glass projects on hold while I stick close by her side for the next couple of weeks.The longest U.S. government shutdown (35 days) is over thanks in large measure to air traffic controllers on the east coast who called in sick and forced delays that would ripple throughout the system. That was enough (in addition to Nancy Pelosi's hardline against Trump*) to call Trump's* childish bluff and force him to reopen the government, if only for a few weeks. Well played, ATC and Pelosi—well played.
One concern I have after watching all of that play out is how so many people are living with little to no margin whatsoever in the way of a rainy-day fund. A disturbing number of people are just a paycheck or two away from homelessness.
And still, nothing is being done about the attacks on our elections by Russia. But not only that, Republicans voted last week to lift sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, a major player in Russia's attack on our 2016 election. He was the one that Trump's* campaign manager Paul Manafort gave detailed polling data to in the weeks and months before the election so they could more accurately target their attacks. I know—this is all new to those of you who get your news from conservative media. You may want to poke your head up and have a look around at what's actually happening because it's going to take a lot of us working together to fix this mess. But Trump* is responsible for record unemployment and a robust economy you say? No, not really.
I finished the Tour de Zwift series of rides today with 4 laps around Central Park in NYC. I really enjoyed the challenge of going all-out on those 9 stages over the past 4 weeks. I'm curious to see what it's done for my Functional Threshold Power (FTP), a measure of the number of watts I'm able to maintain for an hour. It's a handy number to know for when you want to do targeted training and develop training plans based on watts.
It's ridiculously cold outside tonight at -22ºf (-30ºc) with a high temp tomorrow of only -16ºf (-27ºc). It gets even colder tomorrow night. That's just nuts. There was a time a few years ago when I took pride in riding in temps this cold but I'm quite sure those days are behind me. Perhaps my Wahoo Kickr Core and Zwift program for riding indoors have made me soft in some ways. I'm okay with that.
That's all I've got.
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