Wet but Busy, Busy, Busy!

 It's been raining, raining, raining here at the Aerie. I barely had enough time to get out and mow the lawn on Thursday before the rains returned with a vengeance. The farmers who are growing pasture or hay must be ecstatic. The first mowing of hay will be exceptional and those cows turned out to pasture are certainly enjoying the new grass.

Don't worry. Cutting the grass only required my walking behind the self-propelled mower. Even the gas can was down to about a gallon so it wasn't a case of heavy lifting.

******

Terry got to see a neurosurgeon on Wednesday and they discussed her MRI. It clearly showed two pinched nerves and one old herniated disc. His recommendation was surgery as soon as they could. She goes for presurgery tests on this Tuesday (May 2nd) and is scheduled to go under the knife the following Tuesday. The Doc seems to think she will only have to be in the hospital overnight. We shall see.

******

I go for a follow-up with the vascular team on Thursday of this week--May 4th. I haven't noticed any complications from the angioplasty. I do wish Robert Packer Hospital was a tad closer.

Aah, Spring!

 We've gained over 10 minutes of daylight each day since the Solstice. Most of it has come in the afternoon which suits me fine. The grass has definitely enjoyed all the extra sunshine--and the rain. We had a quarter of an inch the beginning of the week and approximately half an inch Friday night and Saturday night. You might call those last two Camelot rains as they occurred at sunset. Anyway, the grass is really green and the dandelions, violets, and wild strawberries are blooming. The oaks and maples have followed the aspens in their flowering as well.

The forecasters say we may flirt with frost and/or freeze Monday and Tuesday mornings, but after that there are no low 30's in the future. 

I managed to plant some lettuce seed and onion sets last Saturday before my surgery. The onions seem to be doing okay and the lettuce should germinate sometime later this week.

******

I had my angioplasm/angioplast performed on Monday. Everything went well and, except for the small opening on my right groin where the surgical tool entered my body, I would never have known that Dr. B. had done anything let alone push a tube across my groin and down my left leg past my knee and into my calf/shin where he inflated a tiny balloon just below the previously installed stent to widen the vein he used as a by-pass. Oh, and there's now a pretty strong pulse down there in the left foot which was the whole reason for this particular procedure. I go back the first week of May for a follow-up and to have the pressure tested. Until then I'm sworn to do know heavy lifting. I was told to do some walking, however, and being behind the self-propelled lawn mower might be considered walking, no? I'll leave that for later in the week, however.

******

Terry got the results of an MRI she had the week before my surgery. Seems she has TWO pinched nerves in her spine which is why the shots she had been getting weren't exactly working. One shot managed to hit one of the pinched nerves and relieved pain in her hip but not her knee, then the next time the shot worked on the pain going to her knee but not the hip. She goes to meet with a neurologist/spinal surgeon this week to discuss her options.

******

Currently, Terry is enjoying a weekend at Greek Peak with her stitching pals. I don't recall if this is a set of classes or just a sit-and-stitch weekend, but either way she's got a girls weekend to herself while I hold down the fort here at the Aerie.

Spring/Summer Is Here

 Or at least the temperatures so indicate. We are enjoying a burst of warm (80 degrees) temperatures this week. 

Our local garden store opened on Wednesday with some trepidation, "Last year, when we opened at this time we gt 3" of snow!" Not this year! 

The aspen trees have burst into leaf over night and the hillsides are covered with a mix of red and white haze as the red maples and oaks match them. The flowering trees won't be far behind. Hay fields and pastures are suddenly very, very green. 

That reminds me: I better check to make sure the lawn mower runs. Electric start and all, the battery may have run down over the winter.

I've added a layer of fresh garden soil to three of the vegetable beds and bought some white onion sets to put in the ground ASAP. Except for the lettuce, seeds will wait for Terry's birthday (May 3rd) or Mothers' Day (May 14th). The pepper and tomato plants won't get planted until the first week of June. 

******

Paid a visit to Dr. B, my vascular surgeon yesterday. It was my six month check-up on the bypasses I've had in both legs. Testing showed the right leg to be A-OK but a reduction in flow on the left side from 96% to 87% and ultrasound showed a constriction downstream of the stent. This was sufficient for Dr. B to order another "angiogram with possible angioplasty/stenting" to be done on Monday morning. This will be the sixth (?) such procedure since TSHTF back on June 2, 2019. 

Dr. B, once again and with lots of eye rolls, said that I should limit my activities for a month after surgery. No heavy lifting, no strenuous work, yadda, yadda, yadda. Looking at the calendar, there's nothing I've got planned from April 17 to May 17 that might fit those categories. Heck, I usually let at least one generation of dandelions flower and got to seed before I mow the lawn so I should be able to obey this doctor order--this time.

******

Terry had an MRI done to try and determine what has been causing the crippling pain she has been having in her back/hip/knee. She's had shots in her back that have produced mixed results. The first provided relief for nearly a year. The second lasted less than a month. She has also had shots in her knees as well as fluid removed from those areas. Those treatments have been good for about six months.

The MRI was a precursor to a visit to a spine specialist (neurosurgeon) and possible surgery for her. All this is reminiscent of my experiences culminating in 10 hours on the table back in 2015. (I still have pain in my lower back despite the scraping out of bone spurs, stenosis, and fusion performed back then.)

*sigh* 

******

Fishing trip to Caesar's is once again on the calendar. June 20 is the departure date for Joe and I. We got Ollie to agree to rent us a satellite phone for emergency usage so I would feel better about being out in the back of nowhere for a week. Looking forward to it since my last trip was back in 2018. 

******

Terry and I booked a five day visit to Disney World for November. She's been wanting to go to EPCOT for a long, long time and I finally caved. We will also be visiting the Animal Kingdom while we are there. 

Hopefully, what ever medical problems we are experiencing now will be cleared up by then. If not, we may be renting either a wheelchair or a motorized cart--or two.

******

That is all for now! 

******

Forgot to mention:

I started on next winter's firewood. Dropped a big ash tree and cut it up into firewood lengths. Still have a couple more to drop but they will have to wait until mid-May per doctor's orders. They are clearly standing dead, however, since the bark is peeling off. As a result they won't need much seasoning.