Archives for December 2019

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2019 – Shopping Day

Ran into Dunnellon to get propane tanks filled, and did some shopping while we were there, including having a nice lunch at The Front Porch Restaurant. Got back to camp and started packing up a few things, as we will be leaving Thursday and heading down to my brother’s in Jupiter.

Monday, Dec. 16, 2019 – Ride Day on Apollo to Reclaim Markers

Hubby ended up having a rough night, not so much because of his breathing, but because his old clavicle break has been acting up lately, probably because we’ve been off our regular routine, which was managing it quite well. I brought him an extra pillow, which helped, but he didn’t get much sleep, his mind was very active for some reason. I suspect he may have slept a bit TOO much during the day yesterday, and no question, his circadian rhythm is off after being in the hospital where they woke him up every hour during the night. Once I got him out of bed, I saddled up Apollo for our final job here, reclaiming the markers on the orange trail. Thankfully, a friend of Jo’s had already picked up all the green trail markers, so I only had the orange trail to do, so off we went to do so. It didn’t take Apollo long to figure out what we were doing, and he was brilliant today at stopping and letting me grab the marker before slow jogging up to the next group. It was a bit longer than I had anticipated, over 11.5 miles, which is nearly twice the longest ride I’ve taken on him in a LONG time, so he was pretty wore out by the time we got back. A nice cold rinse and some hay, and he was all set. Next job was to get Hubby on a dialysis session, and we’re going to have to start new buttonholes, which is a process that will take several weeks, and starts today with me not quite sure about it, but fortunately, both sticks were good, and we were off and running! An error free day, that went on very long because we were told by the dialysis unit that we had to keep our blood flow rate way down, which lengthened the time considerably, but frankly, I thought the more we could clear out his blood after last week’s debacle, the better. Eventually we finished, and settled down for the evening, after a productive day (including two loads of laundry!), and hopes that Hubby will have a better night sleep after staying awake most of the day.

Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019 – Mostly Rest Day

As promised, we did very little today that we didn’t have to, sitting outside in the screen room in the fresh air for a good part of the day, until Jo showed up and asked me to help her pick up water troughs and buckets that were still out on the trail, which I was happy to do. It didn’t take long, and we were back in camp at dusk, perfect timing to feeding the horses and settling down for the evening. Hubby slept in his chair last night, but he’s ready to try sleeping in the bed tonight, hoping he can breathe okay. Fingers crossed!

Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019 – Race Day and Hubby Comes Home!!

What a busy day! Full of new experiences! I got up while it was still dark, did my usual chores, packed up all the little things I needed for the day, saddled up Flash in the dark, which was a first, but thankfully there was almost a full moon to help me see by. We rode out while it was still pitch dark, and though Flash was a bit confused and reluctant, he did what I asked and soon settled down, riding down the moonlit trail which was quite fascinating. I’ve never ridden at night, though I know a local group down in Jupiter does moonlit rides, I always thought it was a strange idea, but I guess I can see the attraction. Anyway, dawn was just breaking as we arrived at the equestrian center right on time at 7:00, but the vet check area wasn’t quite set up so we waited for a few minutes. Even though Flash was tacked up, they were kind enough to do the vet check anyway (because I’m a newbie and don’t know any better :-} ), and he passed with flying colors, except on the impulsion section, because I’ve never trained him to run alongside me (not to mention I tripped on my spurs and took a silly fall!), but that’s something I can teach him in a short time. It’s probably just me, but to my mind, there’s something fundamentally wrong with the picture of me running along side my horse. What can I say, I’m a rider, not a runner! Anyway, we got his rump marked in crayon with the number 16 and went back to the trailer where I got him plenty of hay. He was whinnying up a storm, making friends with all the horse neighbors, and very attention, though not disturbed to all that was going on around him. I got the impression he was really enjoying himself. Anyway, the time came to start the race, so Flash and I, in accordance to advice I had read and heard about how to go about your first race, I held us back while the first group made a mad dash, and a few others followed behind, letting probably a dozen horses get out first, then set off on Flash. I had decided to let Flash run his own race, and I would go along with it, unless I thought he was getting into trouble. So off we went after the strung out horses. Flash, since he was already warmed up from the ride over, started very fast, quickly passing a bunch of horses one at a time until before long, we were neck and neck with the first group out. He cantered and gaited and stayed with the group for the rest of the entire first 14 mile leg, until about a quarter mile out, when I slowed him down, as I had heard that letting his heart rate come down before getting back to the vet check would help. Well, that turned out to be a mistake, I think, but I made quite a few today. Great way to learn, though! Anyway, I knew to check in with the timer, which I did, then went to the trailer and untacked him, rinsed him down, checked his heart rate, and eventually, when it seemed low enough, took him down to the vet check, which he again passed with flying colors, except for impulsion. Then I learned something I hadn’t realized, that we had to wait for another 45 minutes or so before we could leave on the second part of the race. Well that little bit of information would have changed a LOT of things I did had I known, but anyway, that’s my fault for not looking it up beforehand, which had been my plan, but I never had the time. Anyway, we rested and ate and I had a conversation on the phone with Hubby’s doctor about releasing him today, though he was hemming and hawing and making excuses about new things that cropped up, but I made it clear that unless it was life-threatening, he was coming home tonight. Before I knew it, it was time to get back on the trail. Because I had gone slow that last quarter mile on the first half, I didn’t get out with the same group I came in with (not that I would have anyway, because I didn’t really work that hard to cool Flash down the way I should have, another newbie mistake), so we left on our own. Flash wasn’t quite as speedy on his own, but soon some faster horses came up on us, and he joined in the fun then. We cantered and gaited for miles with them, until finally I could feel Flash starting to flag a bit, so I made him slow down, letting him know he didn’t HAVE to keep up with the faster horses, and I think he appreciated that. We walked for more than a mile, which he hates to do, so I knew he was truly tired. And why wouldn’t he be, he’d been going about 10 miles an hour for more than three hours, I’m surprised he held out as long as he did! We had a couple more horses catch up to us and we were off again, with only about a half mile to go, so we arrived in camp “swanking,” which is always a requirement from my perspective (old story from my husband). Anyway, we checked in with the timer, I headed over to the trailer and untacked Flash again, rinsed him off, checked his heart rate until it was almost down to sixty, then took him over to the vet check area, where they gave him another good score except for impulsion, and several people gave me some advice on how to train him to run beside me. I appreciated that, but I know how to train him to do that, I just never had the time or reason to do it before, but now I do, if I decide to do this again. Then I learned that out of 42 starters in the 25 mile race, I had come in 12th! Not bad for a newbie! Several people congratulated me, telling me that was an impressive start, that Flash was a natural, particularly considering I haven’t really been training him up for this very much, and that he had the whole month of October and part of November off, and not really much riding at all over the last few months. We had a great time, I just love this little horse! I let him rest for a while, then learned that the awards ceremony wasn’t going to start until 2:30, so I figured I had enough time to ride Flash back to camp, change, come to the awards ceremony, then head off to the hospital, which is exactly what I did. I had many compliments at the awards ceremony about how well marked the trails I had done were to follow (one woman told me Stevie Wonder would have been able to follow my trail!), which was good to hear. I ended up winning a souvenir hand towel (for participating), a $10 gift card to Riders Warehouse, and a Christmas stocking of horse cookies. My time was 3:51, and my placement was 12th (which I know would have been better if I had known more about the cool-down cycle, etc.), so now I have some goals to better next time, should there be one. (I’m pretty sure there will, I really enjoyed it!) It would have been even better had Hubby been there to share it with me, and after the awards ceremony I headed out to “break him out” of the hospital, as I jokingly told some of the ladies who knew what was going on. Moments before I arrived at the hospital, Hubby called me, sounding better than I’ve heard him in days, so I was much happier about the possibilities of taking him home. I learned they had dialyzed him, taking a smaller amount of fluids off, so he was feeling much better. His fistula seemed to be working okay, so they removed the catheter from his neck. They said he was having extra heartbeats, but couldn’t tell if he had returned to a-fib or not, and tried to sell me on a bill of goods about elevated liver tests and waiting for the results of his last x-ray. Bottom line, it was all nonsense, and they quickly backed off and we were released in short order, leaving the hospital just after 5:00, while there was actually still daylight! I thought I’d be fighting them for hours, but we did it! We got him home!! I resumed my chores, fed the horses, and settled down for the evening, excited, happy, but tired, of course, and Hubby slept most of the evening as expect. Plans for tomorrow, to do absolutely nothing!!

Friday, Dec. 13, 2019 – Finish Trail Marking, Hospital Day Four and Event Dinner

Another shot of Dayquil, another ride out to finish marking the orange trail, though Apollo gave me some trouble because he could smell a lot of pig activity on one section of the trail, so bad I had to get down and walk him for a bit to get over it, but we managed to FINALLY finish marking all the trails I was assigned, so I’m very happy to have completed that job. I ran out to the hospital, where I learned they had checked Hubby’s fistula and couldn’t find anything wrong with it, so they took a black magic marker and marked up his arm where the vein was so that the people in dialysis could find it well enough to dialyze him. REALLY??? They couldn’t do that two days ago??? Ridiculous!! So two days wasted and a catheter stuck in his neck because some genius couldn’t figure out that marking where the vein was might be helpful to the dialysis folks. Did I say we were getting a bit disgusted with this hospital? Let me crank that up to, we can’t wait to get out of here, this place is terrible!! Anyway, they managed to do a good dialysis on Hubby today, and though he is still weak from the pulling of too much fluid, he seems to be heading in the right direction, but still with a ways to go. I had to leave him early for the event dinner, arriving there just in time to be the last in line for the dinner, which was quite nice for a catered dinner in a tent, provided by a local Animal Rescue league. The organizer, Jo, was kind enough to mention how grateful she was for all the help I had given her this week, as well as many of the other volunteers, and it was a nice dinner that lasted about two hours, including the ride meeting. I still didn’t get enough information as a “newbie,” so I’m going into it a bit blind, but I hooked up with a couple of more experienced women who allowed me to leave my stuff in their trailer overnight, as I’m going to be riding Flash the mile from the trailhead to the start of the race. Finally heading to bed, hoping for a good night sleep, but there’s a forecast that a heavy storm is coming through overnight, so I’m not counting on a full night sleep. Well, that and I have the alarm set for 5:30, a bit earlier than usual, but a necessity to get to the race on time! Busy day tomorrow!

Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 – More Trail Marking and Hospital Day Three

Had a decent night sleep, but my cold/flu relapse is still keeping me from sleeping through the night. Took some Dayquil this morning, which helped, and got out on the trail to do some more trail marking on the orange trail, but then I ran out of clothespins before I reached the end of orange, so it’s going to be another day out to finish the job. By mid-afternoon I was back at the hospital, where I learned they we so desperate to dialyze Hubby, they put in a temporary catheter in his neck and got him up to dialysis. I found him on a machine, realizing he was almost done with a session that was trying to take off almost twice as much fluid as we typically do, which I feared was going to be big trouble later, which turned out to be true. He was so weak by the time he got back to his room and later that evening, he could barely make it to the bathroom (which was across the hall!), and needed help to be back to bed from there. I don’t understand how this hospital can just ignore all of the information we give them! They know I do home dialysis, but never discussed his prescription with me, so they willy-nilly into what is “normal” without checking first. Anyway, it was a bad evening at the hospital, and we’re getting rather disgusted with the place. We’ve been to many hospitals all over the country, and this one has to be the worst. No communication, terribly inefficient “transport,” the room is horrible, no windows, no dedicated bathroom, it’s like being in a cave. Anyway, it was not a great day, except for the part when I was out riding in the woods on my horse. That’s always the highest note of any day!

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2019 – Ride Day and Hospital Day Two

I had promised Jo, the organizer of the endurance race this weekend, that I would run the trails one last time to see if there was any additional marking and/or trimming that needed to be done, so Flash and I set out to do just that. I took a bunch of trail flags with me, and had quite a few to put up on the green trail, just to clarify wherever there was any doubt at an intersection. It was hard to get Flash to slow down long enough to stick a clothespin on a branch, and it usually took several passes and some stern warnings, but we eventually got it done. We also made great time, even though we stopped a lot along the way. Very happy with the ride! I found that the Orange trail also needs additional markers and some trimming, so that’s my plan tomorrow, on Apollo, who will hopefully be willing to stand long enough for me to lop some branches off and hang some markers. I wanted Flash to have two good days of rest before the big event on Saturday. Got back, gave him a bath (most useless exercise ever!), changed clothes and headed for the hospital. They managed to fix his A-fib, one shock and it was back to normal, I just hope it last longer than three days this time! Then he spent the rest of the day waiting for a dialysis bed to open up, and once again, “transport,” first telling him at 3:15 they’d be moving him up shortly, then at 4:45 telling him they would get him by 5:00, then at 5:35, sick of waiting for “transport,” I put him in a wheelchair and hauled him up to dialysis myself. They had machines open, but Hubby needed to be in a bed, so I went back downstairs and brought his bed up, which didn’t make anybody happy, but I was sick of wasting time. Sorry, that’s just the way I’m built. Anyway, they then got him ready, and proceed to try to use his existing buttonholes, even letting me have a chance, but the vein didn’t seem to be working at all. Then we switched to sharp needles and just tried to find the two veins. That took three technicians and about 40 minutes before we found two working sites. This was a strong clue that the “fix” they did on the fistula wasn’t going to work, and by the time he got done with his prescribed two hours (it was now almost 9:00), it was too late to do anything again, so now it was ANOTHER night in the hospital! I had run out and picked him up some chili at Publix, so at least he had food since he had missed dinner (and he didn’t want any more hospital food anyway), and I had to leave him with his dinner because I had to get back to camp. The horses got fed around 10:30, and me about 15 minutes later, so it’s going to be midnight by the time I get to bed. Exhaustion is starting to creep in…

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019 – Hospital Day

Set the alarm for a pre-dawn wakeup call, and was moving about in the dark getting ready to spend the day in the hospital. Got the horses fed, the propane tanks loaded up in the truck, gathered my other essentials like my computer and, of course, Hubby, and were heading out just after 7:00 as the sun was rising. We arrived just after 8:00 at the ER, where I dropped off Hubby, then proceeded to look for a hard to find parking spot, which took over 20 minutes. Registration was incredibly easy, as they have a rolling cart that comes around once you’re taken into the back, which seems to be almost immediately, at least once I arrived. He was looked at promptly, had his labs done quickly and efficiently, seen by a doctor several times with a barrage of questions, before they said all we could do now was wait for a slot to open up in Interventional Radiology. I took the opportunity to run some errands, grab some breakfast at Dunkin’, get some hay from a haymaker and propane and horse feed from Tractor Supply, and fill up with diesel before getting back to the hospital. Hubby opened with the possibility that they would want him to stay overnight and do the procedure in the morning, which did not make me a happy camper! A short while later when they came and got him to take him back for his procedure, they managed to fit him into the schedule, which raised our hopes again. Unfortunately, even though they finished the procedure in relatively good time, he sat in his room for many hours waiting for a dialysis bed to free up, and then for “transport,” which turned out to be a big problem for some reason. Anyway, by this time, it got too late, and since they discovered Hubby’s heart was in A-fib, they decided to keep him overnight, fix the A-fib in the morning, then dialyze him in the afternoon. We had no choice, and besides, it was all stuff that needed to get done, so I guess we might as well let them do it. Of course, it cuts into my training with Flash a bit, but since he was going to be busy all day, I can get a ride in before coming over. I’ll miss him not being with me, but my snoring has evidently been keeping him awake for the last few nights (my cold/flu has come back in spades), and his coughing has done the same for me, so hopefully we’ll both get a better night sleep. Drove the 40+ miles back to camp, got the horses taken care of and went to bed.

Monday, Dec. 9, 2019 – Marking More Trails With Jo, Women’s Christmas Party

After getting up early and trying to get the ball rolling on getting Hubby into an Interventional Radiology unit to get his fistula unplugged, Jo arrived right on schedule at 9:30 with her ATV, and we proceeded to start marking up the trails, as well as doing a little bit of clearing up on a few sections. She had hoped to finish up by noon, but it was about 3:30 when we got back to camp, a very tiring but production day. At least we finally found the Orange Traily Bypass! She invited me to the local horsewomen’s Christmas Party at Willards, a local pub we had visited once before last time we were here (though we rode here on horseback last time, as they have tie-ups in the back of the restaurant), so I rushed around to finish making phone calls about Hubby’s admittance, which had gotten stuck on trying to get into U of F Shands, so I finally talked to someone at a local Fresenius clinic who advised us to go to the ER at Northern Florida Med Center. The nurse practitioner wanted us to go tonight, but considering how late it was, we knew nothing would happen before morning, so we decided we’d go first thing in the morning. I fed the horses, took half a barely lukewarm shower before running out of water, then having to run out in a towel to get more water in the tank via a hose so I could finish rinsing off. I just managed to get dressed and out, arriving just 15 minutes late, but before a lot of other people who came more fashionably late. The first person I saw was my friend Julie, who we first met at Sugar Hill near Watkins Glen, NY almost a decade ago. She used to live right across the street, but had since moved over to live on the water, but she happened to be visiting, so she came to the party. She and her husband had planned on visiting us tomorrow (she knew we were camping at Black Prong), but I explained that we would be in the hospital all day, so she needn’t bother stopping by. Anyway, we chatted a long while, and I made a few other friends as well, and Jo finally made it, too. We had a huge pot luck buffet (I took my signature curry deviled eggs, which were gone before I even got to them!), and then there was a gift exchange (I ended up getting a very plush hand towel which was perfect for me, something practical and that didn’t add hardly any weight to my already overloaded trailer), and I wrapped up a copy of my book, which was popular enough to be traded around at the end of the night. There were about 60 women there, some of whom I had seen coming and going at the trailhead during the past week, and it was quite a cacophony of voices throughout the evening! It lasted longer than I had expected, but I made it back to the camp around 8:45, and Hubby and I settled down with some tea and TV for the rest of the evening. So tired from all the work outside today, lots of walking, sure hoping for a good night sleep!

Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019 – In Search of the Orange Trail Bypass, Missed Again!

Since I missed the bypass yesterday, I was determined to try to find it today, but of course, since I was going backward on the Orange Trail, and there were almost no markings in that direction, I soon got turned around. I never was sure if I found it, at least not until I got back to camp and downloaded our GPS track, only to learn we were practically on top of it, but just missed getting there. At least now I have a better idea where it is! I had asked a couple of local riders where it was, but there directions weren't too thorough (which is typical of locals everywhere, as they're so familiar with the trails they have a hard time describing it to someone from outside the area...), so I didn't find it anyway. Nevertheless, Flash and I had a fairly laid-back ride, lots of walking just to build up his stamina, until we headed back toward camp, when he largoed as fast as he could most of the way back to camp, so a good workout considering. Once I got him back to camp, I started on Hubby's dialysis session, which was a disaster. I couldn't get a flash on his arterial, so I tried changing needles, which seemed to work, but then the cartridge seemed to clog up, so I went through the process of putting in a new cartridge. That seemed to help for a little while, but then his arterial starting spiking really high, and when I couldn't fix it, I called the NxStage tech guy, and he said it was likely an access problem, and said we should stop the treatment and don't try to rinse back, so I did. When I took off his venous line, sure enough, there was a big clot in the line, so there were some problems. I tried to listen for a thrill, but there didn't seem to be one. SO disappointing, as until last Wednesday, his access was going like gangbusters! Grrrrr! Now I'm going to have to spend time tomorrow trying to get him into a local hospital to get his fistula declotted again. This will be the fourth time this year! We're convinced it's just because of the awkward position of this fistula, it's just so far under his arm that it's impossible for him to not put pressure on it, even when he doesn't sleep on it. Don't know what the long-term answer is, but the short-term is hospital for yet another procedure. I was in the middle of a couple loads of laundry, so we had to keep running the generator for a few more hours, a big waste of propane if we're not dialyzing! Anyway, we finally settled down after that, a bit frustrated at this turn of events.