I am very lucky to be able to say that I am still here. I had the heart catheterization as scheduled on April 24 th. My cardiologist was able to insert a stent into the right front artery of my heart. It was 95% blocked. It seems he had quite a challenge as my arteries are smaller than normal. The catheter tore the artery wall after the stent was inserted. That sent me into a heart attack! I remember the pain but I was so sedated that I did not really know what was happening. My cardiologist had to repair the tear and insert another stent over the repaired area of the artery. I was actually taken into the heart lab twice and cathererzied twice! He wanted to be sure that everything was okay.
It was no cake walk, but two stents later I was able to go home the following day. One of the first things I noticed was that I could take deep breathes. That was something that I was not able to do after years of smoking. I was able to get my appetite back and my strength came back slowly after about a week. I am on the road to healing and I will begin a cardio-rehab program down in Mount Vernon next Tuesday.

I was fortunate enough to be in such a wonderful hospital - PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington. The cardiologist who did the procedure on me was an international expert and I am lucky to have had him taking care of me.

All of this heart stuff is new for me and it is taking sometime for me to wrap my head around it all. I have always been healthy most of my life. Especially during my senior years. Now, I am dealing with the reality of it all. I am glad that I chose to quit smoking a year and a half ago. That has helped I am sure. I am also sure that it caused most of my coronary artery disease, though.

Tomorrow I go for a echocardiogram to find out if there was any damage done from the heart attack. I am hoping I am fine there.

I look forward to getting back into a daily routine of exercise and we sure could use a vacation after all of this!



 

I am off for a Heart Cath procedure early tomorrow morning. I've had episodes of chest pain since I quit smoking 15 months ago. A Nuclear Heart Study was abnormal. There is blockage in one of the big arteries that wrap around the heart. My cardiologist thinks it is the artery on the back of my heart.

They will probably insert a stent in the blockage area.

I can't wait for it all to be over so that I can resume my normal exercise routine. But, I am very grateful that my doctor caught this in time before any heart-attack occurred.
 

I had to change my membership to an upgraded one instead of the Premium one I have had for the last four years here.

Today I noticed that I had not gotten any email since May 15, when my membership switched over. I failed to notice the limit on the upgraded memberships email.

So, if anyone emailed me after the 15th. I did not receive it. Sorry.
 

We went to Honolulu again in the middle of April, 2011. This time we took a tour of Pearl Harbor. It was very interesting and we really enjoyed the history lesson in the movie ahead of the tour.

We have had a late spring here at home and the escape to a warm tropical climate was much needed and appreciated!




 

We lost our beloved Russian Blue cat, Bentley, in the early spring. Although, we still have our sweet five year old Beyonca, who is jet black, with fur like velvet.We missed our male kitty so much that we couldn't resist these two kittens from Petco.

They are a Russian Blue mix, just 13 weeks old. Ron picked one and I picked the other from a litter of three males.

He named his Ozzie and mine Ringo! Here are the latest additions to our family.


Ozzie is in the foreground on the left side and Ringo is in the foreground on the right side.
 

I am discouraged with these new and complicated additions to WDC. What is the purpose in making all these changes that some may find rather discouraging?

I clicked on an auction that I had posted to and the lettering there was so HUGE that I could scroll forever and still not make "heads nor tails" of it!!!

I doubt that I will be keeping my membership here when my year is up.

Does anyone else feel this way...or is it just little ole me?
 

We arrived home yesterday from a wonderful vacation in Honolulu! A first time for both Ron and I, and what a great time we had!

I have sent out my donated packages for jeweloftime-images are comin! 's auction. So I am caught up there.

I might add that I DO NOT like the new changes to our portfolio's!!! I wish we could go back to the way it used to be.
 

Shingles are gone! Thank God.
Now, I am taking a step back for awhile. I'll be checking back in from time to time, though.
 

Well, I certainly started off the New Year with a BANG! I've got shingles and they HURT!! OMG. What next? Getting older is really full of surprises. Seems like those things you caught as a child can come back to haunt you in later years...oh no!

We had a wonderful Christmas in Moses Lake this year. Plenty of food to eat which included Patricia's Christmas cabbage along with a pork loin roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, Waldorf salad, green bean casserole, baked yams with onions & olive oil, and dinner rolls. We watched David Foster's Hit Man Concert, what a treat that was! Hope everbody had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas sure came fast this year! We are leaving early Christmas Eve morning for eastern Washington. We are going to spend Christmas with Ron's sister Patricia. Mom will be spending Christmas day with us at Pat's also. We are looking forward to seeing them both again.

We have no snow this year. But, we will have our white Christmas at Moses Lake. Right now Stevens Pass is bare and dry. Not good for skiers up there yet...but just fine for traveling over the mountains.

So, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas! And I'll see you when I get back.

Well, it's that time for a blog update again. It's after midnight here. I'm tired and going to go to bed now, but first I thought I had better do another blog entry. I haven't been on here much lately. I'm getting over a bad eye infection. Got to heal up good before the trip east of the mountains for Christmas.

No snow here yet! Just plenty of deep freeze weather. It did actually get up to 40 degrees today though. My daughter's pump froze up on them last week and they just got it repaired today. Sure took a chunck out of their Christmas $$$! Poor girl.

It was much too cold out this morning for the guys to go riding motorcycles, so Ron and I went to town and Christmas shopped instead. We had a real heavy frost on the ground and the decks this morning. The guys are smart not to ride when it freezes like that. You just never know where those patches of ice will be on the blacktop, when you're out on a motorcycle.

We needed to get more of our Christmas shopping done and today was the perfect day for it. It was cold , but it was sunny out. A far cry from the stormy wet days of November. I think we are drying out some here now. The colder air is moving down from British Columbia and bringing with it frosty mornings and colder nights. Just the kind of weather to get you in the Holiday mood. I was able to get the rest of my shopping done for my kids and grandkids. Now, I just have Ron to buy for. Oh, and his Mom, also. I will probably end up buying something online for Ron like I did last year. I really like to shop online for him, and so far I have succeeded in being able to please him that way.

I saw nothing in the stores we shopped in that I would consider getting him. So I have been looking online at what Zappos carries in fleece for men. Sure, I have to pay a little more for it , but they have free shipping and I love their fast deliveries. Order it one day before 2:00 PM and it is here the next day! Seriously! Last year I found him a gorgeous thick fleece black jacket. Almost, like a Berber, with a mock leather on the elbow. I loved it and he loved it too! It fit perfectly. He will have to get it out of the closet and start wearing it soon, because the jacket he wore to town today wasn't really warm enough for these temperatures we are having now. We plan on going east of the mountains to his sister's to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with her and his Mom this year. That is if we don't get snowed in like last December! I hope we don't get snowed in this Christmas.

I am looking forward to spending Christmas at Moses Lake this year.

I sure hope everyone in the states that's here had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was great...except for one thing - I have an eye infection in both eyes and I have to limit my time spent on the computer.
 

My daughter out did herself for my birthday dinner last Wednesday. She fixed TWO big rib roast's and baked me TWO Devil's Chocolate cakes with nutty frosting! Yummy!

All of my kids and all of my grandkids were there for dinner to celebrate my birthday and Thanksgiving all at once! I was very overwhelmed with their love and devotion.

We had a real fun day and I was able to take lots of pictures of them all. Those grandkids of mine are growing up so fast. All of them are teenagers now but two - Jayce & Christian. Christian has a birthday tomorrow and he will be eleven years old. He is my youngest grandchild. Then Jayce, his brother turns thirteen the day after Christmas! So that is when eight of them will all be teenagers! Gosh, it doesn't seem possible. Where did the years go?

The boys were playing rock band and foosball most of the afternoon. What noise!!!

I came home on Thursday to a quiet house again. I have to admit...it was nice to have peace and quiet after all the noise.


** #1344644 Not An Image **