Monday, May 25, 2009

Monday, May 25 A Family Weekend

Sorry for the lack of posts as I was down in San Jose with Joe's brother, sister in law and niece and forgot my password for the blog. Joe is doing well and has now spent 3 days off the vent for 24 hours. These were critical days of transition. He is still getting O2 through a nose plug but does pretty well. He is spending up to 5 hours sitting in a chair, has been swallowing ice chips (no beer yet) and going to PT Monday thru Friday.  I believe I am seeing a little improvement every day but when he moves to Kaiser, they will do their own evaluation and then we will get a thorough report.  He should be moving to Vallejo sometime this week but the pacemaker battery which is taped to his shoulder has to be installed under his skin. Kaiser and VMC are discussing who will do the procedure. Hopefully it will happen tomorrow and then on to Vallejo. Stay tuned all of you Berkeley-Oakland friends as Vallejo is much easier than SJ.  We really enjoyed our visit with the family and Joe was strong throughout the visit. Even though we can't thank each of you individual, you are all so important to us and we so appreciate all of your support. Love Sandy & Joe

7 comments:

  1. Hi Joe and Sandy,

    Glad to hear you had a nice visit with family---I knew you would.

    Well, Jim did not do the 90-mile ride. In his defense, the weather was still rainy. Later in the day the sun came out so he jumped on the bike and headed into the foothills. But, it was all a trick. The sun soon disappeared, gray skies returned, along with the rain so he was pretty soggy by the time he got back home. West of town he ran into the group who had done the 90-mi. ride (the rain didn't deter them). They had just come down the Big Thompson Canyon on the last leg of their big loop so Jim rode back into Loveland with them. I think he was hoping that anyone who might recognize him would think that he'd done the entire ride with the group.

    Still no baby.

    I know you'll be glad to be closer to home when you move to the next facility with a new crew of nurses to charm.

    Stay strong---both of you,

    Glenna and Jim

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  2. Hi Joe & Sandy!
    3 days off the vent is great!!!
    Muzzy's job will end on June 1 but heck, that means guess who is going to be doing some visiting? Maybe by then you will be in Vallejo. I hope you can stand seeing the both of us. I wish I still had my therapy dog tag from Daisy so I could sneak in with Olive. She looks close enough to pass for Daisy! Don't you think you need some pup therapy?? I bet you miss seeing Shasta.

    Muzzy, Nina and I rode from Berkeley to Vacaville this weekend as Tamra was performing at the farmer's market there. It was a blast and we had a tail wind the whole way. I was thinking...I bet that is Joe blowing us along and now I find out you are off the vent for 3 days so maybe it was! Thanks for that extra boost!!

    We think all the time. Now that you are getting stronger you will be able to endure some of Muzzy's old bike stories. I know they exhaust me so I hope you are up for it.

    We will look forward to seeing you both very soon!

    mb

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  3. Re: previous post

    Hah! I meant to say...

    We think about YOU all the time!

    Boy, bet I had you wondering for a while there...
    phewie.

    mb

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  4. Hey! What about the rest of us that want to hear Muzzy's bike stories? I'll bet I've forgotten most of them. And now that I'm older and not so wiser, I could use a good allegory or two. Metaphor? Whatever.

    So I propose that Muzzy post those bon mots here in the comments section. One a day. At least.

    Whadayathink?

    B. Wally

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  5. I vote for Muzzy stories as well and I am sure Joe does also. What a party we could have. Ice chips, applesauce and bike gossip. Sandy

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  6. Ok...Joe beware! I have heard all the stories and most of them when I am delierious riding up Wildcat or Pinehurst and completely defenseless.
    You have my permission to tell Muzzy if you have heard a story once, maybe twice before. Hah!
    Ice chips all round and let the gassbagging begin!
    Yer on!!
    mb
    B.Wally, yer in trouble now!l

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  7. On our many long training rides in the mid 70's Mark Pringle used to tell jokes that we measured in terms of miles because he would drag them out interminably. A 5 mile Pringle joke would be a real groaner.

    But I'm not going to submit you to such torture. At least not here. I'll save that for in-person visits.

    OK, OK, just a short one. We had ridden out to Livermore one spring and there was a low spot in the road that had flooded about 6-8" deep. I wanted to coast through it so I sprinted up to speed, then pulled my feet out of the toe clips (check wikipedia if you don't know what those are) and rested them on the hooks of my handlebars to keep them out of the splash as I coasted through the stream.

    Unbeknownst to me, a pickup truck had come up behind the others on the ride who waved it around to pass. It came by me while I was mid stream and sent up such a wave that I was completely engulfed in a tunnel like you'd see on a surfing calendar. I couldn't see out the end, was completely blinded and the effect was exacerbated because I continued to move forward with the truck. Eventually the wave slowed me down and I had to start pedaling again before I'd gotten out of the stream, so I ended up completely soaked from head to feet, and had about 50 miles left to ride home in wet woolen clothing. Of course, everyone else on the ride thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.

    -blm

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