Easter 2014

Brunch at Harrington's by the Bay.

 Delightful in every way.

The only things missing were blue skies, blue bay and sailboats.

Happy Easter!  Laurie's comment was that even bunnies have an Uncle Tom :)

Update

By Sarah Temin — Apr 18, 2014 9:35pm

I just visited Esmertina and after a few days of not seeing her, the difference was quite something, for the better, though she still has some pain. She walked down the hall, which is great. And, things seem to be moving towards better. --Observations of Sarah

IV Forever

Wendy's "Jana update" for today:

                                                         ***************

I stopped by the hospital this morning for rounds. The abscess has virtually completely disappeared in scans and the drain has been removed.  Unfortunately, the process of removing the drain created a hematoma in the abdomen wall which is causing still more pain in a new location.  

Jana did have the fistula exam, and the result of that suggests that the final answer is that the abscess was tubular ovarian (that might not be the strict medical term) and not caused by a diverticuli.  

There are not any immediate next steps except for continuing days in the hospital with IV antibiotics and monitoring.  I do think I am observing Jana getting incrementally better, but there is still so much pain and discomfort it is difficult to evaluate.

                                             ***************************


 We spoke to J. this morning.  She is feeling a lot of pain.  She's receiving the IV antibiotics and some pain meds, but basically she is miserable.  Here at home, I have no pain as such, just some discomfort.  The ascites is getting worse, and it does grotesque things to your body.  We had planned to return to the Vital Step gym this morning, but I begged off because I don't think my "water balloon" would allow me to pedal, etc.  I see the oncologist tomorrow, and I'm hoping he can arrange for paracentesis ASAP.

Where's Noah?

Barb's Birthday

Palm Sunday began in a very ordinary way.  Grocery list, bills to mail, recycling, library.  The best part was in the evening - dinner at Shelly's - a birthday dinner for Barb!

We always have a good time with Barb and her family.  The kids are so cute, and Shelly, Chris, Adam and Melanie are always fun and interesting.  We had some good conversation with Barb and Jim too.

Happy Birthday Barb!

Jana Update:

Wendy Carter

Apr 13

Dear All --

I stopped by the hospital today and overheard another conversation with another doctor.  White blood cell count is down, but unfortunately not pain.  They were planning another CT scan today and then a different diagnostic test I cannot even begin to spell tomorrow.

I will stop by for morning rounds tomorrow and hear the result of the CT Scan.  The medical mystery now is that the abscess is being resolved, but this has not been accompanied by a lessening of pain.  

I'm afraid this means more time in the hospital and no light at the end of the tunnel yet for poor Jana.

Prom

South Fork High School Prom

As a sophomore, D. was able to go to Prom Saturday night because he volunteered for the clean-up committee  :)

Cottage, Omelette and Caring Bridge

Soon work will begin on our new T.C.  condo, so it's time to think about flooring, countertops, etc. The Cottage Show seemed like a good place to begin, and we did get some ideas and contacts (and free candy!) Afterwards we went to the Omelette Shoppe - we haven't been there for literally months!  It was fun and nostalgic.  There were only two or three employees that we recognized - lots of new staff. Latest Jana updates: 1. From Wendy: Dear All -- Jana is looking much better today.  She is more mobile, though still in pain.  I listened to a conversation with the head of the internal medicine team which is now responsible for her care. They believe a small diverticuli was responsible for the abscess, and are changing the antibiotics to reflect this.  If the new antibiotics don't lead to reduced white blood cell count and less pain, they will consult with infectious diseases. Jana will be in the hospital through Sunday and probably through at least Monday.  There was no MRI today and none scheduled.  Have a great weekend, Wendy 2. From Laurie: Nurse practitioner Cindy visited Jana this afternoon. There is a diagnosis debate among the different medical teams. One side feels Jana has a Tubo-Ovarian abscess http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/pelvic-inflammatory-disease-tubo-ovarian-abscess-topic-overview The other feels it's a Diverticula http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/diverticula The culture the team took from the aspiration is growing. Nurse Cindy said results may be available tomorrow. Jana is having a CT scan or a MRI today. The imaging will hopefully allow them to get a good view of the abscess area and help determine the source of infection. Nurse Cindy flushed the drain and said it will remain in place until less than 20ml drains in 24 hour period. Jana will have a contrast dye test on Monday. They will put dye in the drainage tube and hope it dead ends. They do not want it to track back to the colon. Nurse Cindy said the name of the test, it was something like a cystilogram, but some people call it an abscessogram. I can't find much about it. During the test an X-ray tech will watch the flow of the contrast. Jana told me she is going to be handled now be the internal medicine group. They are going to reevaluate all her medicines etc. she is currently on 4 different antibiotics. Jana will be hospitalized until Monday at least. That is all for now Laurie 3. From Sarah: Dear Family and Friends, A CaringBridge Site was created for Esmertina 123. We will use this online space to share health news, and you can write messages of encouragement in return. Please visit often to keep updated and show your support. Visit: Site Link:www.caringbridge.org/visit/esmertina123 Site Name: esmertina123 CaringBridge is a nonprofit offering trusted spaces where family and friends can connect and share during any type of health event. Sincerely, Esmertina CaringBridge — the Heart of the Matter Down deep, more than anything else, people want to stay connected. Especially during a health event. CaringBridge Sites are personal, protected spaces that help family and friends share encouragement, compassion and love. Please add mail@t.caringbridge.org to your address book or safe sender list. Please do not reply to this email. © 1997-2014 CaringBridge®, a nonprofit organization. 1715 Yankee Doodle Road, Suite 301, Eagan, MN 55121, USA My CaringBridge | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | Help Center

Doctor Day

If you're not seeing a doctor today, you are really out of the loop!

Today's Jana update from Laurie:

Jana's doctor checked in this morning at 6:30. Today is drainage/aspiration day. The procedure requires fasting and Jana is an "add on " so she is basically on reserve, if there is an opening it's her time to take the test. The doctor said it will be performed before 5:00 pm. Everything hinges on the aspiration procedure. If there is a lot of fluid, the drain will remain in place and Jana will return to her room to drip dry. If there isn't a lot of fluid they will take what they can get and culture the specimen. The cells and bacteria in the fluid will hopefully determine the source of the infection. The doctor feels the drainage should relieve Jana's pain and discomfort. If that occurs she would be released Saturday. If there is no fluid or the drainage does not relieve the pain......back to the drawing board. That is all for now. Love Laurie

This afternoon, Dick and I went to see Dr. Burke.  We got the official okie dokie that it's OK for the two of us to exercise at the gym.

Lunch at Bubba's.

Bee Well

Jana is still in the hospital and very uncomfortable.  I spoke to her shortly after 7 a.m.  She was unhappy and still having too much pain.  Her breakfast arrived while we were talking, so we planned to talk later.  Meanwhile, around 8:30 Laurie was on the phone with Jana when the Doctor came in - this is Laurie's report:

I was talking to Jana this morning and luckily one of her doctors walked in to give her an update. Jana put the Doctor on speaker and we received her updated plan of action.

Jana has been on antibiotics for almost 48 hours with no improvement in her condition. After palpitating her stomach today it is more distended. Pain level has not improved. White cell count has not improved. The source of infection is unknown.

This next part I'm unclear on as I was driving home from carpool and didn't think of questions till afterward. They feel the cystic mass is causing the pain. The Dr. mentioned it was the size of an orange. The team is planning on draining the mass tomorrow. They feel it has fluid in it but she did say it could be solid and have no fluid. After retrieving the fluid it will be analyzed and I don't know what happens then. I also don't know if all the infection fluid? ( don't know proper name) is in the mass. Jana asked if it could burst but the Doctor said no if I remember correctly.

There was no discussion of a release date. The doctor gave me the impression that the team will decide what to do next after they have examined the fluid. So unless there is a change in Jana's condition, she will spend a very long uncomfortable painful day in the hospital. The Doctor wants her to be ambulatory so no knock out pain killer. So basically there will be no new news until the mass fluid is examined. That is all for now. Love you, Laurie

We are all very concerned about Jana's condition and so sorry that she's going through this.

MRI Day

MRI for the patient, World of Warcraft for the Tech!  (That patient better pull in his elbows!)

A Day in the Life......

More laundry

Errands:

Buy new walker at Thompson's.  The other walker is in Palm City, so we're covered both places.  We wound up going to both Thompson's stores - the one on Union St. had the right one.

Pick up mail at Barlow P.O.

Get Dick's new lenses and spare pair at Cedar Run Eye Center.

Visit Kathee at the Visitor Center.

Cash refund check from Munson (!!!)  Still can't believe that one.  Guess I overpaid...

Go to Mall for lunch.  Dick walks Mall, I don't.

Call Dr. Burke's office for appointments for both of us.  We've been gone for six months so we need new referrals and approval from the Doctor to return to our gym.  We can see him Thursday.

Back home - sort through mail - catalogs, catalogs, and then some catalogs.

Pay some bills.

Still more laundry.

**********************************

Got a call late last evening from Jana.  She was at the ER with her friend Wendy.

  She had been given morphine and was being prepped for a CT Scan.  It seems she has an infection of some kind - she had a high fever and lots of pain.

 Right now it's almost 3 o'clock the next afternoon and she's still lying on a gurney in the hallway.  They want to admit her, but there's no bed available at the moment.  I just talked to her again, and she thinks maybe around 5 o'clock she'll have a room.  Her friends Wendy and Sarah are taking turns staying with her, and they both text us when there is news.

At this point she's had some good pain meds, the CT Scan and an ultrasound, and they still don't know what's wrong.  We are a bit on pins and needles today, but it's a relief to know that she's not alone.

Shall We Move to Finland?

Wouldn't this be perfect?   It's just the way it used to be here...when public education built our nation! (Except for paying teachers like doctors!)

Slept in this morning! A little laundry, a little unpacking (don't want to rush it), and a drive through town. We returned paperbacks to the library, ate breakfast at Sparky's, drove out past Lone Tree to see where our condo will be. So far the proposed lot is deeply buried in snow - we think they have been dumping snow from the whole development there. Temps in the forties today. We saw a ball game at the Open Space - some participants were wearing shorts and T shirts. Facebook tells me that Bardon's and Moomers were both open today.

Goodbye Palm City

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04/03/2014	You found  Give Me a Break!!!		Visit Log
As Snow Birds we spend our summers up north and that is where we are headed today. As Geocachers, we want to find a cache in every Florida county just as we have in Michigan. This is our first find in St John County. TFTC

A Day With Laurie

Off to the beach we go for a final look at the ocean. We went to Jensen Beach, one of my favorites.

The guard shack had two red flags flying - one for high surf and currents, and the other warning the public to stay out of the water.

We just wanted to see the ocean anyway. The beach was very crowded with sun worshippers and families. I was amazed at how many people were there! Afterwards we went for a late lunch at Chillin' the Most - a fun place with great service and super food.

Home for a rest, and then over to Gillespie's for pizza and a tennis report.  It was a superfine last day in Florida.  We'll be leaving first thing tomorrow morning.

April Fool

04/01/2014	You couldn't find Poppleton Creek Park		Visit Log
We took a break from packing the car for our trip back north and decided to take a break and seek a few caches. After a DNF at the cemetery, we came over to this nice park. As I approached GZ I thought "Oh, oh, this is my least favorite type of hiding spot." Oh well, April Fools! the joke's on us.
04/01/2014	You couldn't find Where The Dead Fern Grows		Visit Log
Well it's April Fools Day so the joke's on us. We are heading back north now so we won't be back here to look until fall.
04/01/2014	You found  FADC		Visit Log
Once we made it back to GZ, Mrs Bend whipped out her magic mirror and made quick work of the find. Signed the log and replaced as found. However, after logging a couple of finds, the joke was on us and we scored nothing but DNF's on this April Fools Day. Thanks for the Smiley.
04/01/2014	You found  Moore's Cemetery		Visit Log
We finished packing up for our return trip to the tundra and decided to seek a few caches before we reach the snow. This has sounded interesting. Thanks for the history lesson. It certainly represents a dark chapter in Florida's (and our country's) past. Log book is in good shape. We took and left nothing but we got a chuckle over the contents. Is there any significance in the screw we wonder? Signed log and replaced as found.

Aloha

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03/31/2014	You found  Aloha		Visit Log
Yesterday we did the multi that starts here in Palm City, it took 4 1/2 hours. This one took 4 1/2 minutes. We were dropping off some books and decided to take a look. At first we couldn't figure out how the cache owner attached a magnet to that concrete pole but then our geosense kicked in. TFTC

HomeComing, Caching, and the End of the Basketball Season

Coming home today!  They've had a wonderful Spring Break.

We had a really fun day geocaching - spent the whole afternoon on one cache :)  It was a multi-cache all around Palm City, Stuart and Port Salerno.  Some of the hides were very difficult, but in the end we did them all.  In a coincidence amazing to me, we met up with two caching teams during the day - and we had just met them yesterday!  It's a good feeling to see familiar faces in a new place.

We had a super lunch at the Manatee Island Bar and Grill- right before the final cache.

A lovely, relaxing place with terrific service.  I recommend it!

This is Dick's log of today's multi:

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03/30/2014	You found  Wakey wakey eggs & bakey		Visit Log
This caching adventure has been on our to do list for a couple of months. Stage 1 is just across the street from our condo and we drive through the parking lot 3 or 4 times every week. We talked about doing it but it seems that our round to-it was acting up. Since this is our last week in our Florida home, we decided that today was to be the day even before we met the owner at the KrumBens event. We packed up the cachemobile and pulled out about 10:30. Mrs Bend, the micro maven snagged the first two stages and then things started to go south. (Oh wait, going south came later) A couple of years ago our kids gave dad an iPod mini for Christmas and we have been using it and an iPhone instead of the trusty old Garmin 62s. Unfortunately for us, I have never learned how to load multiple stage coordinates into either one and managed to forget how to plug them into the Garmin. Thus the learning experience began. We slowly but successfully moved along from Palm City to Stuart and turned south. We cleared C through G and moved on to H. Based on the description, I thought I knew what we were looking for. The Garmin put us at the edge of the road but the hint said no. Because I have a solid hatred of palmetto hides, I was sure that was what we were looking for. With no luck, I decided to try to use the mini again and was in the car working on the problem when, who to our wondering eyes should appear but - - gettinlate who we had met yesterday at the KrumBens event. I explained my problem, he told me how it worked on his phone. He set to work on the hunt, I did my best to follow his instructions. Neither one of us could make it work. I decided to give it one last try before calling it a DNF when - TaDa!!! Thar she blew! We followed him on down to I and this time it was his turn. Moving on to J we made a wrong turn and lost gettinlate. We found the right parking lot and the Garmin and I were searching the area of the dumpster when Mrs Bend, without leaving the car said "Hey! It's right here." For K, once again I parked in the wrong place and bushwhacked through a swamp to approach GZ on the wrong side of the fence. Made the find on this one and this time, I stayed on the trail back to the road. Since it was after 1PM and we were both getting hungry, we surveyed the area restaurants and focused in on the Manatee Island Bar and Grill. Their food was excellent, Travis the waiter was special and the Hot Sauce is fantastic, two bottles are packed for our trip north. After a leisurely lunch by the water, we loaded back into the car and resumed our adventure, we found the proper road to approach the final and as we pulled up we saw some more familiar faces. The KrumBens had started yesterday in the rain after their event and had just arrived at the final. This journey has had touches of Old Home Week. After making the find, they insisted that we take the 2nd to find prize because I had stumbled upon it before they did. We took it and the Law Shark T Bug which wishes to visit interesting places. We leave for Traverse City on Thursday and it certainly qualifies as a very interesting place. We will take him to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes which was voted the most beautiful place in the US by the folks on Good Morning America. We left our card, a pin, and our pen. We got back home just after 3, this was a fun filled 4 1/2 hours. We had smileys on our faces long before we got this one on our profile. Thanks for your effort in placing this series, we think it's special, we greatly enjoyed it. A favorite from us. HOWEVER - This evening, Michigan basketball lost to Kentucky - so sad.  State lost today also.  We were hoping for three B1G 10 teams in the Final Four.  Wisconsin is the only one left.  It was so sad.  So we had a real roller coaster day. U-M Has Tourney Run End on Last-Second Shot by Kentucky Nik Stauskas March 30, 2014 • Photo Gallery  • Game Stats • Postgame Press Conference  (live) Site: Indianapolis, Ind. (Lucas Oil Stadium) Event: NCAA Tournament (Elite Eight) Score: Kentucky 75, #7 Michigan 72 Records: U-M (28-9), UK (28-10) Next U-M Event: Season Complete INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- The University of Michigan men's basketball team tied the game on a wild scramble with less the 30 seconds to go, only to see Kentucky bury a deep three-pointer with four seconds remaining in a 75-72 final on Sunday evening (March 30) in the NCAA Tournament Elite Eight held inside Lucas Oil Stadium.                                  ********************************************** The best thing is that our family is back home from Colorado :)

  

getbendgroup

Today's event was an Event :)

We picked up a veggie tray at Publix, and went over to Tradition Square to attend the "Making Madness" meet and greet.  It is always interesting to meet new cachers.  I found it especially interesting to talk to Groupertoes - a truly unique individual!  I also enjoyed Team United Nations and kpub.  And of course our hosts, KrumBens.  Cachers are cachers everywhere you go - friendly and interesting.  Quite an assortment of people!

After meeting and eating, Dick went caching with four or five others.  They called their group getbendgroup - a combo of gettinlate, basswoodbend and Groupertoes.

This is the souvenir we acquired for attending this event today.

Maker Madness
Acquired on 03/29/2014

03/29/2014	You found  tradition 4		Visit Log
We came up to Traditions today to attend KrumBens Making Madness event. After spending some time snacking and talking caching, we joined up with some of the other cachers to circle the lake and find a few caches. It is great to find a traditional sized cache in such an urban environment. After making the find, the log was signed and we left one of our new pens before putting it back where it was found. Thanks for placing and maintaining this cache.
03/29/2014	You found  A Beautiful View of the Madness		Visit Log
The group from the event cache expanded to 4 as we reached this cache site. As we prepared to start the search, gettinlate broke out a tool which put Mrs Bend's magic mirror to shame. Very neat, we'll have to get one. After signing the log and replacing the cache, we considered sitting a spell and enjoying the view but decided to score just one more before returning to the folks at the square.
03/29/2014	You found  A Team Rabit Rad Cache: Caching into Madness		Visit Log
The getbendgroup continued on around the lake on this windy day and as we approached GZ I started muttering. We have logged a number of DNF's on these "typical Florida hides". This time was different. We signed the log and put it back in the same "typical Florida" spot. BTW, this would qualify as a winter friendly hide.
03/29/2014	You found  A Bridge to Madness		Visit Log
After eating and greeting at the KrumBens Making Madness in Tradition Square! event, Mr Bend teamed up with gettinlate and Groupertoes to look for the new KrumBen caches. After a short walk, we scored the find, a FTF in fact, admired the unique container, signed the log, and replaced as found. Thanks for the fun!
03/29/2014	You found  August 6th		Visit Log
This cache was a fitting cap to a fun day. It was much discussed at the event and then a group set forth to search the parking structure for it. The find was made and the log was signed. Thanks to gettinlate it was replaced as found. Thanks again KrumBens.
03/29/2014	You attended Making Madness in Tradition Square!		Visit Log
Our sincere thanks go out to the KrumBens for putting on this event. We enjoyed meeting and talking to some local cachers and joining them in a search for a few caches. Thor, the God of storms and thunder was definitely smiling upon our group today, rain to the south and tornado warnings to the north but we enjoyed a day without either. We were blown away with the event. (Oh, maybe it was the wind) Again, thanks for the smiley and the souvenir.