Log Book
March 2009
March 2009
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| March 2009 |
Maricopa, Arizona
We celebrated Sam’s 74th birthday on March 1st by attending a music festival at Temple
Emanuel in Tempe, followed by dinner at Claim Jumper. Too bad Sam had a bad cold and
could not enjoy the dinner much.
Susie spent most of her time the first half of this month playing cards (bridge, hand and foot,
canasta); working out in the pool and hot tub for an hour every day (20 minutes of power
walking, 20 minutes of specific exercises and 20 minutes of power walking); doing her home
exercise program 3 times a week for the right knee; and going to physical therapy 3 times a
week. She is definitely making progress: moving her right knee cap (which was frozen) by
flexing the quadriceps in her right thigh and walking much better. She was discharged from PT
on March 13th with a home exercise program which she does for both the right and the left
legs. The PT also demonstrated to Sam how he can stretch her right leg (placing his arm under
the calf and gently pulling up while pushing down with his other hand on the top of the knee). It
will probably take a year to achieve what will be considered normal knee function and do so
without pain.
Sam played cards sometimes, checked emails, got our computer cleaned up and working with
Outlook Express so we can download emails from Yahoo and read them later. But most of the
first half of this month he spent trying to recover from a terrible cold. He eventually gave it to
Susie (who lost a week of pool workouts as a result) and Susie’s mother.
We learned something about Susie’s childhood while in Maricopa this time. Susie had
attributed the fact that her family never played cards to a Baptist thing. Well, that ain’t so. We
found out that they didn’t play cards because Max, Susie’s father, was partially paralyzed as a
young man and couldn’t hold them comfortably.
San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico
March 16 we drove back to Hermosillo. We spent Monday night at City Express Hotel (the same
one we stayed in after Susie’s surgery in January). Susie was able to visit Dr Linda Guerrero-
Walker, the physical therapist who worked with her after the left knee replacement. She was
concerned – rightly so – about the problem with the right knee, but was pleased with the
progress of the left. Susie had X-rays taken of her hips, thighs and knees, so that Dr Linda
could assess bilateral bone symmetry; all turned out good. On Wednesday morning Susie got
another pair of glasses (she only had one pair with her current prescription) and then we
headed back to San Carlos. We arrived back at the boat before dark.
So on Thursday, March 19, Sam started doing the pack mule thing – unloading the stuff we
bought in Arizona and carting it down to the boat for Susie to put away. This was hot work, and
we were paying for bottled drinking water to shower with because there was a water main pump
problem in town and hence no city water on the dock. So we ended up being exhausted after a
few days. By March 23 he was so ill and coughing terribly, making his ribs and diaphragm very
sore.
On Tuesday March 24 Sam went to see Dr Laux (at Dr Canale’s office) here in San Carlos. He
took a history and during the interview process asked Sam how long he had been taking
Atenolol (a blood pressure medication). Suddenly we both remembered why he had stopped
taking this medication in 2005 – because it caused him to have cold-like symptoms and the
normally minor cough he suffered since his open heart surgery several years before became
such a severe cough that his chest and diaphragm muscles hurt. Dr Laux and Dr Canale,
suspecting Atenolol was the major culprit and the cold a minor part of the problem, advised Sam
to stop taking Atenolol and prescribed an antihistamine/decongestant and nasal spray. Within
24 hours of stopping the Atenolol, the cough had improved 50%. Because the cold and cough
symptoms are also a side effect of Lisinopril (which Sam started taking in 2005 INSTEAD of
Atenolol and has continued until now) Sam stopped taking that as well. Within a week the
cough was nearly gone, or at least it returned to the same level it was before he re-started the
Atenolol in February. Seems his Kaiser physician, after seeing Sam in February, wanted him
taking both the Lisinopril (which he has been taking with minor problems since 2005) AND the
Atenolol (which he stopped taking before because of problems with the severe cough). Both of
these are blood pressure medications.
Sam has been monitoring his blood pressure several times a day since he stopped taking the
blood pressure meds. There has been no significant increase or decrease compared with a
similar period of time while he was taking meds. He is convinced that his higher blood pressure
began in 2005 when he crushed the radial head in his right elbow, and is the result of pain.
The BP readings are consistently higher when he has more pain – with or without blood
pressure medications, and whether the pain was from his right arm or as a result of the
coughing. He will be discussing this matter with his Kaiser physician (who is currently on
vacation) in a few weeks time.
While Sam has been messing around with meds and colds, Susie has been continuing the
home exercise program and tries to walk twice a day around half the marina. Some days are
good, other days feel like things are regressing, and some days she just wishes her right leg
would fall off. We took some measurements and found that her right leg is larger than the left
by 1” at the thigh, 2 ¼” at the top of the calf and 2 ¾” at the bottom of the calf. She has started
wearing her old knee brace for extra support, and the legs feels stronger when she does. She
continues to walk with the cane and continues to take pain medication. And even though she
doesn’t always want to, she does her exercise program DAILY.
We started announcing that we had a 1994 Infiniti for “trade” on the radio net the day we got
back to San Carlos, and put a for sale sign on the car. Several offers were made but no one
ever came up with the money. We have stayed here in San Carlos in order to sell the car, and
it has been more difficult than we thought it would be. We may have a buyer, another cruising
couple who is working on their boat in the Marina Seca (dry storage) yard. If we don’t get a
better offer by April 1, we will go back to see them.
Friday’s we play cards at Tequilas, for about 4 hours. We usually eat a meal out on that day;
otherwise, Susie cooks on the boat. It helps keeps our costs down. There is a great place here
in San Carlos – Tony’s Truck – where we can get wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables,
chicken, beef, cheese, honey, bakery bread, etc. We have been enjoying the fresh asparagus
and spinach especially – you can’t always find them here.
We hope to be able to leave San Carlos the first week of April – if the car sells and when we
have a weather window to cross the Sea of Cortez. Several boats have crossed over within the
few weeks – San Carlos to La Paz – and other boats have been returning from the Baja back to
San Carlos, where they put the boat on the hard until next year. We hope to be able to make
Loreto Fest 2009 this year – the end of April – we have been in Mexico for the 2006, 2007 and
2008 Loreto Fests but it never worked out that we were in Loreto at that time. We should be
able to achieve that goal this year.
We celebrated Sam’s 74th birthday on March 1st by attending a music festival at Temple
Emanuel in Tempe, followed by dinner at Claim Jumper. Too bad Sam had a bad cold and
could not enjoy the dinner much.
Susie spent most of her time the first half of this month playing cards (bridge, hand and foot,
canasta); working out in the pool and hot tub for an hour every day (20 minutes of power
walking, 20 minutes of specific exercises and 20 minutes of power walking); doing her home
exercise program 3 times a week for the right knee; and going to physical therapy 3 times a
week. She is definitely making progress: moving her right knee cap (which was frozen) by
flexing the quadriceps in her right thigh and walking much better. She was discharged from PT
on March 13th with a home exercise program which she does for both the right and the left
legs. The PT also demonstrated to Sam how he can stretch her right leg (placing his arm under
the calf and gently pulling up while pushing down with his other hand on the top of the knee). It
will probably take a year to achieve what will be considered normal knee function and do so
without pain.
Sam played cards sometimes, checked emails, got our computer cleaned up and working with
Outlook Express so we can download emails from Yahoo and read them later. But most of the
first half of this month he spent trying to recover from a terrible cold. He eventually gave it to
Susie (who lost a week of pool workouts as a result) and Susie’s mother.
We learned something about Susie’s childhood while in Maricopa this time. Susie had
attributed the fact that her family never played cards to a Baptist thing. Well, that ain’t so. We
found out that they didn’t play cards because Max, Susie’s father, was partially paralyzed as a
young man and couldn’t hold them comfortably.
San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico
March 16 we drove back to Hermosillo. We spent Monday night at City Express Hotel (the same
one we stayed in after Susie’s surgery in January). Susie was able to visit Dr Linda Guerrero-
Walker, the physical therapist who worked with her after the left knee replacement. She was
concerned – rightly so – about the problem with the right knee, but was pleased with the
progress of the left. Susie had X-rays taken of her hips, thighs and knees, so that Dr Linda
could assess bilateral bone symmetry; all turned out good. On Wednesday morning Susie got
another pair of glasses (she only had one pair with her current prescription) and then we
headed back to San Carlos. We arrived back at the boat before dark.
So on Thursday, March 19, Sam started doing the pack mule thing – unloading the stuff we
bought in Arizona and carting it down to the boat for Susie to put away. This was hot work, and
we were paying for bottled drinking water to shower with because there was a water main pump
problem in town and hence no city water on the dock. So we ended up being exhausted after a
few days. By March 23 he was so ill and coughing terribly, making his ribs and diaphragm very
sore.
On Tuesday March 24 Sam went to see Dr Laux (at Dr Canale’s office) here in San Carlos. He
took a history and during the interview process asked Sam how long he had been taking
Atenolol (a blood pressure medication). Suddenly we both remembered why he had stopped
taking this medication in 2005 – because it caused him to have cold-like symptoms and the
normally minor cough he suffered since his open heart surgery several years before became
such a severe cough that his chest and diaphragm muscles hurt. Dr Laux and Dr Canale,
suspecting Atenolol was the major culprit and the cold a minor part of the problem, advised Sam
to stop taking Atenolol and prescribed an antihistamine/decongestant and nasal spray. Within
24 hours of stopping the Atenolol, the cough had improved 50%. Because the cold and cough
symptoms are also a side effect of Lisinopril (which Sam started taking in 2005 INSTEAD of
Atenolol and has continued until now) Sam stopped taking that as well. Within a week the
cough was nearly gone, or at least it returned to the same level it was before he re-started the
Atenolol in February. Seems his Kaiser physician, after seeing Sam in February, wanted him
taking both the Lisinopril (which he has been taking with minor problems since 2005) AND the
Atenolol (which he stopped taking before because of problems with the severe cough). Both of
these are blood pressure medications.
Sam has been monitoring his blood pressure several times a day since he stopped taking the
blood pressure meds. There has been no significant increase or decrease compared with a
similar period of time while he was taking meds. He is convinced that his higher blood pressure
began in 2005 when he crushed the radial head in his right elbow, and is the result of pain.
The BP readings are consistently higher when he has more pain – with or without blood
pressure medications, and whether the pain was from his right arm or as a result of the
coughing. He will be discussing this matter with his Kaiser physician (who is currently on
vacation) in a few weeks time.
While Sam has been messing around with meds and colds, Susie has been continuing the
home exercise program and tries to walk twice a day around half the marina. Some days are
good, other days feel like things are regressing, and some days she just wishes her right leg
would fall off. We took some measurements and found that her right leg is larger than the left
by 1” at the thigh, 2 ¼” at the top of the calf and 2 ¾” at the bottom of the calf. She has started
wearing her old knee brace for extra support, and the legs feels stronger when she does. She
continues to walk with the cane and continues to take pain medication. And even though she
doesn’t always want to, she does her exercise program DAILY.
We started announcing that we had a 1994 Infiniti for “trade” on the radio net the day we got
back to San Carlos, and put a for sale sign on the car. Several offers were made but no one
ever came up with the money. We have stayed here in San Carlos in order to sell the car, and
it has been more difficult than we thought it would be. We may have a buyer, another cruising
couple who is working on their boat in the Marina Seca (dry storage) yard. If we don’t get a
better offer by April 1, we will go back to see them.
Friday’s we play cards at Tequilas, for about 4 hours. We usually eat a meal out on that day;
otherwise, Susie cooks on the boat. It helps keeps our costs down. There is a great place here
in San Carlos – Tony’s Truck – where we can get wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables,
chicken, beef, cheese, honey, bakery bread, etc. We have been enjoying the fresh asparagus
and spinach especially – you can’t always find them here.
We hope to be able to leave San Carlos the first week of April – if the car sells and when we
have a weather window to cross the Sea of Cortez. Several boats have crossed over within the
few weeks – San Carlos to La Paz – and other boats have been returning from the Baja back to
San Carlos, where they put the boat on the hard until next year. We hope to be able to make
Loreto Fest 2009 this year – the end of April – we have been in Mexico for the 2006, 2007 and
2008 Loreto Fests but it never worked out that we were in Loreto at that time. We should be
able to achieve that goal this year.
| NO PHOTOS March 2009 |