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Welcome Home... Us, not Francine!

On August 14th, after a full day of work, we set off on our trip—a lesson learned: always take the day off before leaving! Our journey started on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, taking us through Louisiana, then up through Texas to visit family in Plano. From there, we continued to Moore, Oklahoma, for more family time, and then ventured through Kansas and Nebraska into South Dakota. We explored Wall, The Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Mammoth Park, Crazy Horse, and Custer State Park over several days. Our adventure then led us into Wyoming, where we hit a snag in Casper—a flat tire. Thankfully, Les Schwab fixed it for free! We managed to cross Highway 26/287 just before it was closed due to the Fish Creek Fire and arrived at our campsite in the Grand Tetons with plenty of time to relax. We sat back, enjoyed some adult beverages, and watched the sunset—perfect ending to the day. We explored Yellowstone and stopped by the Elk Horn Archway in Afton, where our dog had his stitches removed, and
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103 days ago.. and now 20 days left

Well, life has certainly not been boring since we returned from the Total Eclipse trip!! Tori's eye has healed, thankfully. Has had no further issues with the uveitis, which we were told might reoccur as it is an inflammation, not an infection. Binx & Tres are still coming by regularly for kibble and pate. Sadly, Midnight injured his ACL and ended up having to surgically repair it ($2500!!) but is now in his 2nd week post-op and recovering nicely. Hard to keep him on "bed rest" as he is still quite active, in spite of coming up on 9 years of age.  My health has significantly improved, likely due to reduced stress and better sleep. I completed all my annual check-ups, and everything is as expected. Working freight at my job has also given me some strength training, which is a nice bonus. Thankfully, none of last year's issues have returned! All tests, including Hem/Onc, came back with great results—no diseases, including connective tissue disease, and no genetic pr
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Texas 2 Step...the last until Aug. 23, 2044

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Guess what? We made it! We drove all the way to Texas to witness the Total Eclipse this time. Remember back in October 2023 when we chased the Annular Eclipse? We were fortunate enough to catch that one in Bandera at my Dad's place, despite some challenging weather. This time around, the weather gave us a run for our money on April 8th. But with a mix of map-reading prowess and a touch of weather magic, we managed to stay a step ahead of the clouds. We ended up southeast of Mason, TX, where we had a perfect, uninterrupted view from the beginning of totality until just after it ended. We arrived home late Tuesday afternoon to a warm welcome from all four kitties. After touching base with Tom to arrange Midnight's release from summer camp, we quickly unpacked before hitting the road again bound for Bracken Fen Kennels. Wednesday saw us back at our respective jobs, slipping back into the familiar rhythms of daily life. However, Saturday evening, following the Farmer's Market a
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Leap Day!

     And boy, have I ever leaped! So, it has been quite some time since I last posted to this blog. That, in and of itself, says a lot about how these last 32 weeks have been. As many of you know, DaVita and I parted ways in early April of last year. Then there was my health crisis the end of May.       I was not in a hurry to seek employment as we had our annual 32-day long "Big Trip" planned for July 15-August 15th. Since it did not happen, I went to work for a different dialysis company (Fresenius, DaVita's competitor) the end of July, and spent the rest of last year working in a clinic that was chronically understaffed. We did get away in October to see the annular solar eclipse in Texas at my childhood home, but that was it.      After a few months in that fast-paced clinical job, it became evident to me that I had returned to work too early after the 4 simultaneous arterial dissections. I either overestimated the speed with which I could bounce back or I underestima
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The Trip That Wasn't

We were taking 32 days to go to Portland (via family and friends in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Portland, New Mexico & Texas) and back, seeing several state and national parks (including Great Basin, Crater Lake, Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Wind Cave, and Palo Duro Canyon). On Day 1, a mere eleven miles south of the Arkansas state line, our truck broke down. We called Good Sam & they called Michael from A to Z Towing.  We spent most of 7/15 at Firestone. At 2:30pm they had a verdict, which was that the repairs were outside their scope of practice. We called Good Sam & they again called Michael from A to Z Towing, who towed us to the shop attached to the wrecker company, EZ Automotive. As the shop was closed until Monday, Michael called the owner. After explaining our dilemma permission was given to bring our camper as well as the truck. Michael set our camper down in the parking lot and ran an extension cord so we had power. We also had running water. Thankfull
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Well, damn....

My head/neck CT scan was FINALLY done (by Ochsner) yesterday afternoon. Memorial hospital’s vascular surgeon (Dr. Andrea Barker) is STILL refusing to address the issue of my persistent/recurrent right occipital headache, even though it occurred on 5.27.2023 with the iliac/celiac artery dissections & the splenic infarction. Full disclosure? She says she has no need to see me because my (chest) CTA was fine. Meanwhile, Ochsner suspects the cause of my constant head/neck pain is vascular and (as it occurred same time) is most likely related to the event that occurred on May 27 th . Hence their willingness to do yesterday’s CTA of my neck and head.   Ochsner called me with my results at not quite 5pm yesterday. Lots of medicalese but the gist of it is this: I have a proximal extracranial right vertebral artery dissection (VAD) with partially thrombosed dissection flap and mild native luminal narrowing with an additional focal dissection of the distal extracranial left internal caro
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2 weeks later....Memorial 0, Ochsner 4

Well, while I would love to regale you with tales of great healing and a miraculous return to my prior self, that is not the case. I had my follow up with Memorial’s “transitional care management (TCM)” doctor a week after I got home. It was beyond useless. When I brought up my concern about the right occipital headache that has lingered since May 27 th , telling her it feels like someone slammed a brick into the back of my head and I vomit every damn day, she stated “that is not related to your issue" -- even though they occurred at the same damn time as the celiac artery dissection with splenic infarction as well as the dissection of the entire course of the left common iliac artery!! She did tell me I was welcome to go to ER if I thought it necessary. Or make an appointment with a primary care doctor (which I tried but he can’t see me until September 7 th !). I actually thought Laureli was gonna punch her in the face. We went home and I promptly called Memorial’s vascular surg
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