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Issue #1068
ncluding:

From Kyra

From Russ

From Nova Scotia Sus

The Ontarion

Hey There,

Seems to me I said I’d tell you about my hip replacement surgery so here goes. Our adventure / ordeal started (Thursday Nov 3) when I checked in at 6am at the patient registration office in Lions Gate hospital in North Van. We had been struggling with figuring out the conflicting instructions we had gotten regarding what to bring and what not to bring. The checkin person didn’t have any definitive answers so I kept my crutches with me and had Sue take the dressing aids home with her. There was no point in her waiting around all day or longer.

I then headed in to the prep area where I had to change out of my normal clothes and into those strange hospital garments that are meant to induce both embarrassment and drafts. Then it was over to a big comfortable arm chair where a nurse asked a million questions, took blood pressure and temperature and hooked me up to an IV and so on. Then various doctors and nurses stopped by to ask the same questions again. About 8am they walked me and all the stuff I was hooked up to into an OR where the surgeon and other necessary staff were preparing. The first thing they did to me was administer an epidural into my spine to freeze me from the waist down. That freaked me out until someone said the rest of me would be too groggy to feel see or hear anything, basically asleep. I remember being rolled over and supported somehow and that’s about it. I do remember being aware of the sound of tapping that might have been the surgeon hammering the leg side of the new joint into my bone, or not. I’m relieved that I didn’t hear any power tools even though they probably used them. That would have been a bit icky.

Then I woke up in the recovery ward. Or at least my top half woke up. From my navel on down I was dead to the world, a very strange feeling. Even stranger, It felt like my knees were bent up fairly high but when I looked, my legs were out straight. So I asked my attending nurse and she explained that bent legs were how my brain had lastly registered their position. Interesting. She said that as the freezing came out my brain would update the information. Cool. I was told that the freezing would last about 4 hours but it took about 6 hours for my lower half to join the rest of me. That presented a problem because it would prolong my stay in the recovery room.

Eventually I was able to be moved to the next phase where they monitor you and check all sorts of things and start administering pain meds etc. As well, I had to wait for the physical therapist who was running an hour late. That further put same day discharge in jeopardy. Once the therapist turned up he asked a lot of questions and gave me way more info than I could possibly remember. He included the info in written form so that was good. Then he had me up walking on my crutches and as I had practiced with them ahead of time it all went good. Finally he had me go up a flight of stairs and come back down. I aced that but just as I was sitting back into the wheel chair he had used to get me to the stair case I felt very hot. Next thing I remember was waking up in my hospital bed with a bunch of doctors and nurses around me. Then ran a bunch of tests. The nurse trying to draw blood had to poke me several times in order to find any. Turned out my blood pressure had crashed, and I long with it. Keep in mind I hadn’t had anything to eat and almost nothing to drink in over 24 hours and had gone through major surgery. All very hard on you.

Now my chances of going home was not looking too good as it was getting late and the therapist would have to test me again and he was running late again. Eventually he turned up and we decided to try the stairs again. I did them without too much trouble so the doctor and therapist discussed discharging me. The decision was that I could indeed go which I certainly wanted to do. The idea of spending a sleepless night on some ward was not appealing. So, someone phoned Sue to tell her to come and get me. Luckily we had made arrangements for our good friend and neighbour to drive our car for us as it was dark and raining hard with wet snow mixed in. Our old eyesight just can’t see well enough for driving under those conditions. An hour or so later Sue and Niel came walking in to get me. A nurse had already helped me get dressed so off we went headed for home.

Because of the required hip join precautions I had to ride in an almost reclining position. Once back in Squamish we had to stop at the pharmacy to pick up a whole bunch of meds which we did then finished going home. Once we pulled into our garage I had to extract myself from the car and make my way up the stairs which I did without any trouble although I was feeling a bit weak and totally exhausted. I then swallowed the required pain meds and with great relief painfully got myself into bed. Each day has gotten easier since then.

Crutches have proven necessary for dealing with the stairs in the house but once I’m on the main level a walker is much more convenient. I don’t need the dressing aids all that much because Sue is waiting on me hand and foot which is great but I almost feel guilty. Using the crapper is a problem because of the angle my hip must not exceed. Face it, things don’t work right when sitting on the throne in a reclined position. And that probably enough of the gory, boring details so I’ll leave it at that for now.

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Before going in for surgery I had managed to put together 2 versions of another song. And audio version and a video version. I’ve got the audio posted for this issue and the video will be posted for next week’s issue. After that there will not be any more music for a while as the simple act of playing my guitar let alone recording or videoing seems to be a bit beyond my abilities right now. So, enjoy these last 2 entries.

Much to most people’s surprise, this song is NOT a Hank Willians song but is in fact a Hank Locklin song. Most people don’t know that. Its called ‘Please Help Me I’m Falling’. It feels like Willians, it sounds like Willians but then most music back in his heyday sounded like him. But its not so there you go.

Please Help Me I’m Falling

(audio version)

doug

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From Kyra

Hello Squamidian community! It’s Kyra, Doug’s grand daughter, how is your day? I’m starting to send stories to the Squamidian! I’m almost 11 only two months to go! This is all for today. Talk to you next week! Bye for now.

Kyra

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From Russ

The 'Seiche'.

Having enjoyed all the pleasures offered by Lake Huron since I was about twenty three (soon to be 93), thought I had better know more about this body of fresh water that breathes. In addition to this puzzling phenomenon, the fluctuating lake levels is a natural process. At the present time, the water level is below normal by 75 centimetres (close to 1 yard) I hesitate to define "normal". The Lake Huron water level is determined by evaporation and outflow from Lake Superior. The amount of rain and snow that falls in the Lake Huron and Lake Superior watersheds impacts water levels however, the role of evaporation is not to be overlooked. Ice cover in the winter reduces the amount of evaporation that occurs. As a result, successive years with high ice cover contributes to higher lake levels. Because of Global warming we have not seen Lake Huron freeze-over from shore-to-shore in many successive years.

Don't look now, but long-term dredging to maintain the shipping channel on the Lake St. Clair River, the only outflow from Lakes Huron and Michigan, has gradually increased the discharge of water.

Before I bore you with Facts about Lake Huron, I want to tell you about the puzzling phenomenon -

The Seiche (pronounced saysh) The water level rises and falls about 20cm every 20 minutes or so. This is not apparent unless the lake is calm. I asked about the lake having a 'tide' and was informed, "The lake is not considered big enough to be tidal, and the movement is too fast to be tidal activity" but they provide an explanation for this activity, "A seiche is a standing wave and is caused when restrained parts of the lake are affected by wind and atmospheric changes" Confused ? Me too!

There is a Maori legend that explains this puzzling phenomenon. It is very 'colourful', and if you want to read it for yourself see "The Legend of Lake Wakatipu"

Uncle Russ.

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From Nova Scotia Sus

Well another week has gone by ...where do they go? More clearing of land and way more to go. Last weekend we had a wonderful visit from Sonja and Gabi. They toured around the property amazed at all the destruction but saw the potential too. It was such a delight to have them here.

Our weather has been amazing with warm Temps and sunshine. We really appreciated that. I want to thank Wayne for sending with Sonja the Bible that was my grandparents, Wilbur and Emma's. I will treasure it.

Take care everyone and hope Doug gets along well with his recovery.

Sus

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The Ontarion

Hello everyone!

Today is the last day of our warm weather for this fall I’m afraid! However, I’m not going to despair since we may still have several warmer days coming this month according to the CTV weather man! Next week is supposed to have a few more days of higher temperatures than normal. Along with these few warmer temp days, there is supposed to be some rain and of course some flurries mixed in with the rain. I guess we should be grateful for the late summer weather we’ve just had for the past two weeks. This is very unusual indeed and it’s been very nice. The past two weeks have allowed us to get the last of our outdoor work finished up before the coming snowy winter! Last week I pulled the snow blower out of the shed and changed the oil in the motor to ready the blower for the cold weather! Also, today, Adam and I pulled my snow tires out of the shed and Adam changed the tires and wheels on the Jeep for me so now I’m ready for the coming of the snow if we even happen to get some this next month and later! I’m hoping that the Canadian weather forecasters that say parts of Canada will have a very light winter and others will have a very heavy winter were right and that southern Ontario will have the light winter! After 73 years of winters, I’m quite fed up with the cold of Ontario Canada! I’m due for a nice mild winter in my old life! I remember back in the 50’s and 60’s when we could as kids, stand on top of the snow piled up on the boulevard in front of our house and touch the telephone wires over head! That amount of snow was fun in those days but I sure as heck don’t ever want to see those amounts of snow here in KW again! I’ll trade our weather with Florida any day except for taking their hurricane season!

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I just watched a show on TV called “Highway to Hell” and it’s showed the mountain highways in BC that are already being hit with incredible amounts of snow at this time of year and they can have it! The highways that they showed with all the snow and vehicle crashes are those mentioned by Doug when he talks about his motorcycle rides in the summer time! I guess the mountain’s high elevations allow for early cold temps and that brings on the snow! I hope Doug is healing well and will be able to watch out his front window as Sue blows the snow this winter! I’m sure Sue isn’t looking forward to taking on that task! Maybe they have a good neighbour that that will be willing to help them out with the snow removal when it comes! Carole and I are very lucky that we have Adam living with us and he takes care of most of our outdoor work winter and summer!

Hopefully I’ll still be able to do some of the snow blowing this winter! It’s quite difficult for me to wheel the snow blower around in the cold weather but some days I manage to do so!

No matter what this coming winter brings I’m sure we’ll manage!

If I was still in my 40’s I could handle the winters but now that I’m getting a tad older it’s not so easy!

WOW! Did I say “a tad older”? It’s even getting harder to type every week so handling things like snow clearing shouldn’t be on my list of “to do” things! Oh well, all I can do is hope to be in shape to help where and when I can!

I’ll just have to look after myself and hope for the best!

That’s it for this week! Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now…. Greg

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