Hip-Hip Hooray

We had an appointment with Paul's heart doctor after his last EECP treatment today. (drum roll...) And the verdict is (more drum roll)
We're free for a month. He said to give the treatments a month to work and make the decision then, about the next step. He said that if Paul isn't improved he'll do another angiogram and decide if further stents can improve his blood flow or if another bypass is the ONLY option left available.

Well, it's not exactly what we hoped for but at this point, we're just VERY relieved to have some free time to escape this town for a little while. It looks like we'll head to Paradise to visit with 3 of my daughters and go to Red Bluff to see my long time friend, Joy.

We are grateful that Heavenly Father has preserved us and provided for us this past 4 months. We are also VERY thankful to our dear friends in Homer for the loving care they've provided for our home and mail.

Our next update with the doctor is Feb. 13th, and I'll follow-up then with the future plans.

I'm a Follower

Huh, I just figured out how to follow the blogs of friends and family. There is a place on my blog where I put in my friends blogs and VOILA, all I do is click on them and read the latest post.
I'm not too Internet/blog savvy but every once in a while I get lucky.

Earl's Christmas hat

We have a grandson that loves everything Pirate, sooooo, I made him a winter hat.
Paul was good enough to model it for the picture.
Not bad for a first attempt!

Paul's new Sweater

With all the time we're spending in Las Vegas, you'd think I'd see some shows or Do something else more interesting, NOT so!!!

Paul has only enough energy to go to the doctors office everyday. So, I've gone to the local yarn shop and knit a few items.

Here is the biggest and most time consuming item.

I know it looks like a Fair Isle knit but it's the print of the yarn that makes it look like that. It took 3 weeks of concentrated knitting.

I've also made a sweater for me and a Qiviut yarn cap for Paul to wear in the Alaska winters (that is, if we ever get home). Qiviat is the musk ox yarn that is the warmest wool anywhere.

I'm having trouble with blogger uploading more pictures right now. I'll have to see if I can post the other sweater and smoke ring I made at another time.

Boy, has it been a LONG time

I thought I'd be able to blog our trip to California and Nevada, BUT...
We left Alaska on Sept 7th and started our journey to visit family (12 or 13 of the 14 children) and get a heart check up in La Vegas. Now, it's a long story and the internet access I've had has been slower than molasses or non-existent.

Our first stop was scheduled for Hyder, AK but a flat tire and damaged rim altered that goal. We detoured and search for a new or used rim all the way to Eugene Oregon. Multiple times we called the next several towns and were told they had the right size, only to drive (out of our way) to find they didn't know what they were talking about. We did, however, get to Hyder. Where I did have momentary internet access that allowed me to blog about the few grizzly bears we saw.

Since then we visited Kristi, Bobby, Kimberly, Julie, Kelsey, Dad, Candy, Sara, Chris and made it to Las Vegas. WHERE, internet has been very hard to find. I even brought a list of the Las Vegas free wifi sites along and have tried to use those. The thousand Trails we stay at has wifi but it's so slow, it's worse than dial-up. and those free wifi places are hard to find and use. Boy is Las Vegas a big place.

So, here is the update on Paul's heart check-up. He had a 64-slice CT-ANGIO that showed 3 of the 4 bypasses are still blocked. The options are
1. a second bypass surgery (more difficult for the surgeons, more difficult on the patient, higher mortality rate.)
2. EECP (up to 70% of people see some improvement for 1 to 2 years. It's a non-invasive treatment that encouraged the heart to grow new collateral blood supply to the heart.) The treatment is putting blood-pressure like cuffs on his lower body and extremities. They hook him up to an EKG that tracks his heart beats. The machine pumps pressure on the legs and lower abdomen when the heart is through beating and it released pressure when the heart beats again. That pumps the blood back to the heart and causes pressure to stimulate the heart to grow new blood vessels. They say you feel tired ,like you exercised, for the first week and you start to gain energy for the next 6 weeks .

The treatment is one hour a day, 5 days a week for 7 weeks. That pretty much takes up your life for a couple months! No to mention, it could take 2 to 3 months to get on to one of the machines. I did some fancy footwork and got him on in 2 weeks. It looks like we're a captive audience till Christmas.

There are lots of fun things to do here but Paul hasn't had the energy to do anything. I've found a great yarn shop and they have open knitting Tuesday and Thursday (5-7) and Saturday (10 to 4) so I've knit a sweater for me and 1/2 a sweater for Paul (so far). I've been asked to knit a poncho for Leslie and leg warmers for Julie and I found a fun yarn to make a baby blanket for Kelsey's baby (but only if it's a girl, sorry if it's a boy)

We have also visited Ben, Leslie, Jennifer and Rachel in Las Vegas. I even went to the Beauty School and had Rachel do my hair a couple weeks ago.

Well, I think that brings you up to date. Not much to report for such a long time but right now, no news is good news.

Kim & Richard's Fixer-upper, Sept 08

Kim and Richard are working to make this a home, it's in nasty shape to start but they have good plans and a good start.

Front door and living room window. 2 bedroom windows past fireplace bricks.







Living room window, front door and window next to breezeway and single car garage.








From the corner of the yard this is the back of the house. The kitchen window is behind a roll-up blind and the master bedroom and baby's room windows are seen. The garage has a window and the breezeway has a little fence.

Chico Arts Parade

Julie rode in a parade on Saturday. She was on a most beautiful horse standing over 16 hands high.