Feb 7th 2020

After a rather tumultuous weekend I took Connie to St Alphonse hospital in Boise, on Monday. She had slept little over the weekend and was seriously having trouble breathing. It took very little contact with the staff till she was admitted. Unfortunately I have had a lot of hospital visits over the years and I have been super impressed every time I go into one of the Hospitals in Boise. This was no exception. The reason for her difficulty was fluid in her chest cavity. Why it was there in the first place was of course the mystery. I won't go through all of it, but I just got her home last night.

The biggest problem was that they couldn't find a reason for such a sudden onset of Congestive Heart Failure. The problem is that the heart "ejection" rate had dropped to 15%. None of the normal reasons for this to happen were present in her life style. The only thing that was posited was her "normal" to her, fast heart beat. It is about 102 resting. She has always had a low blood pressure. They say that you have so many beats of your heart before it quits. So far this is the only reason that they can find for what has occurred with her heart. She has no symptoms other than shortness of breath.

In any case she was eventually fitted with a "life vest" that is in essence a defibrillator that she will wear all the time, for the next three months, until she either gets better or she has a "Heart event". If she does, they will then fit her with a pace maker.

We left the Hospital at 3 PM beating most of the worst of traffic, made a side trip to a Burger King for a Milkshake. ( While she really was impressed with the staff and Hospital, she is not a fan of their food! ) The to Norco Medical to pick up oxygen bottles and a oxygen condenser, then to Costco for her new meds. She had four prescriptions to get 3 of them were $7.00 the other one was $600.00. A call to the physician resulted in a medication that cost $9.00. The original was two generic drugs that were combined and new. They have been advertising it on TV its called Impresco, or something like that. What a scam. We eventually got home at 8 PM.

It is now 0730 and she slept well, ( hated the hosp bed) and things are on the right track. Time will tell. Thank all of you for your concern.

Feb 2020

One of my friends in western Oregon has been wondering if I was still alive, so I guess its time I checked in. Of course winter is my quiet time. I generally do a lot of reading, with a bit of Coyote hunting, but they have been quite scarce due to the drop in the Rabbit populations. I have only seen three so far, and they didn't survive that sighting, so they may be even more scarce this next year.

One very unwelcome event that is still unfolding is that Connie has developed a rather serious case of Congestive Heart failure, just in the last two or three weeks. We are still in the beginnings of finding out what the problem was, and she has only seen a Heart Dr once, and nothing has been done yet other than one test. She is going to Bend for her care, so if I want to go with her it is a four hour drive for me. Unfortunately I am all too familiar with the disease  since that was what killed Karen. She has been here with me for the last three days and she is having a hell of a time. Hopefully they will get something done in this next week that will go to giving her some relief. Sleep and getting enough air is the problem.

Here are some sunrise pictures for you.