Ethan’s Journey

​is anyone else FEELING the days getting shorter and how that changes your sleep requirements? Summer, my favorite season, has slipped through my fingers. BOO!!!!!! I didn’t set an alarm this morning because I didn’t need to. I slept in almost an hour and a half. My body must have needed it but the days getting shorter does not help. I am hardwired to be awake during light and sleeping during dark. I would fail in Alaska.  I was packing my car up for camp. Moe got very excited. However, I wasn’t ready to leave. When I called him to go into the house he was very disappointed in me. He peered at me from around the corner of the house with disgust! He begrudgingly came in the house and laid on his bed pouting! When it was time to go, he rode shotgun (his choice). He navigated me to the lake! Dogs are funny. We stopped for gas mid trip and saw an Amish horse and buggy. He was going nuts in the car watching the horse closely! We made it to camp. Time for sleep!

​I waited the full 48 hours for a MyChart response from the kidney team regarding a kidney biopsy. I then called and spoke with a nice lady who is going to elevate my question regarding rejection to the doctor. I am trying to give the benefit of the doubt as she was out of the office last week. We all know the punishment of being out of the office and coming back to a pile of work waiting for us. The doctor called fairly quickly. We made a plan for Ethan. He will get his heart biopsy. If the comes back as there is rejection, Ethan will be treated and we will not do the kidney biopsy. Even if the kidney is also in rejection the treatment for the heart will also treat the kidney. If the heart biopsy comes back negative we will move forward with the kidney biopsy. I am satisfied with this solution. I think it is the most non-invasive solution to support Ethan and his health. So now we wait until next week to see what the verdict is.  Ethan has noticed he is having episodes of feeling ...

 I had an interesting situation today. I spoke to a lady who had been terminated from her position of 8 years. She worked at a previous position for 7 years. Total of 15 years experience. She had been terminated the previous day. Her claim is that she voiced concern over patient care and was terminated. Regardless of the details (each one with their own version), she was devastated. She was petrified of what was to come for her. She was terrified no one would ever hire her again because of this one thing. She discounted her patient care, her skills and her personality to this one moment. All valid feelings and fears that I would have if it were me. I stopped the interview at one point to give a pep talk. I evaluated her resume in real time back to her. It was a good resume. She could hold a job for many years. That is one thing not a lot of people can do in veterinary medicine. This blip in the road didn’t define her. I used my most valuable advice I received from another human bei...

​I sent a note to Ethan’s kidney transplant team inquiring about a kidney biopsy. I never got a response back. I did submit it as a non-urgent medical question so technically they have 48 hours to respond. Maybe the doctor turned her attention towards “more important things”. I am still holding a grudge over that! It was nice out today and I had all the windows open!  I did LOTS of laundry and washed as much as I could wash.  It was a pretty quiet day. 

​we made it home today. The drive was very smooth. The dogs rode very well without a peep. There weren’t any dumb dumbs on the road. Well there was one. But for a 3+ hour drive, that isn’t bad. I chatted on the phone with my mom and listened to a pod cast to pass the time. Once home I unloaded my things while the dogs watered the grass.  Ethan was home and the dogs went crazy. All 4 of them were excited to see Ethan. Jiminy was the first! He been-lined right to Ethan and used his doggy stairs to get up on the couch. He began flicking Ethan as fast as he could. I send Ethan text updates about how Jiminy is doing….mostly because he is so easy to photograph looking cute. I unloaded the van and unpacked. I got a jump start on laundry with all the dog blankets and towels we have gone through. This evening, I chatted with my brother to catch up with him. It had been a while, so we shared a few stories of how things are going and what we have been up to. Tomorrow I have a busy work day. I...

​Today was a warm and beautiful day full of sunshine. It wasn’t too hot, wasn’t too cold.  Paul worked on waxing the camper in the morning. I worked on tiring out the dogs.  We did a few walks, a bike ride and Moe went to the spa. That means I trimmed his toenails and gave him a lake bath. He promptly dried off while sunbathing. Paul and I took out the jet ski’s and hung out with some boat friends on the less windy side of Fox Island. Getting there was quite wavy. I got soaked, I figured it was going to happen so at least I had on my long sleeved rash guard shirt. I wasn’t cold at all. The sun was helpful with that. The water is starting to become a little brisk when we get in. Damn it fall….I am not ready for you yet! We had a campfire fire until it started to sprinkle. We made plans to relocate Nextdoor and hang out at the neighbor’s cottage. It was myself and 4 men. The conversation was quite interesting and ranged in topics from lip injections, to music, to suppositories a...

It has been 25 years since the horrible tragedy that changed our word forever. 9/11 - travel has never been the same, people’s families have never been the same, the world by saying things like “that was pre-9/11. I was outside and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath in. I could feel the sun warming my face, I took a moment to think about how many people perished on that day. How many people helped and then got sick afterward. It’s like the bad regift that keeps on regifting. ​A little later, I went to log into my banking app. After three tries of facial ID, I saw my reflection in the phone. I had a heavy deep scowl. Very much a frownie face. Once I fixed it and relaxed my frown, it worked just fine. I think frowning is my default face. It kind of made me laugh.  My Aunt and Uncle arrived and we decided to go to dinner. We ate outside over looking the bay. I cleaned and organized areas of the camper removing things that I don’t need or use. It freed up a lot of space. Paul arrived...

​I reached out to Ethan’s Heart Transplant team today to find out how his prospera test went. This is the research study test that is supposed to help identify people that may have rejection through a blood test. The purpose of the test is to try and eliminate biopsies whenever possible.   Ethan’s last test was elevated. Normal is .18 or below. Ethan’s readings have been .42 and .34. His heart team has advised doing a biopsy to check for rejection. I asked if there was a chance that these elevated values do not mean rejection. Her answer was simple “it is rare for someone to have these kind of numbers and is not having any issues, but I have seen it happen.” Biopsy is the best way to see rejection at a cellular level and with Ethan’s Kidney values low, I do feel he needs to have this done on his kidney as well. He does both of these tests without anesthesia. He is a bad ass! I reached out to the kidney team asking when our next appointment is (it hadn’t been scheduled) and if we sh...

​It was a bit drizzly today. A perfect day to work! I took the dogs out in between showers only to find the gift likely an osprey left me. Gross! I had to be creative to keep the dogs away so I could take care of this guaranteed stomachache. I am thankful it was a fresh-ish fish head. It didn’t smell yet. There was not a bug infestation. All good things. I worked into the evening. I had some things to catch up on.  The dogs did get some outside time prior to the arrival of the rain. The rain was mostly steady. The dogs really had to run in between the raindrops to go to the bathroom today. I was saying “hustle, hustle, hustle!” They mostly did a lot of sleeping in shameless positions. Paul got stung by a bee last week. It was a bumble bee, the big fuzzy ones. They don’t have barbs on their stinger, so they don’t die. Well, he has been struggling with swelling, not feeling great and swollen lymph nodes. It is changing the way things taste.  He got his haircut cut today and real...

​I got to work very bright and early this morning. I did my calls from outside mostly.  I did have a helper. He sat it his little chihuahua camping chair and napped in the sun. After work, I hung out with my cousin and shoreline neighbors until they decided they were going to go out to dinner. I was invited but politely declined. I had dinner already planned.  My cousin and I had a fire and had some good laughs. These two joined us at the fire and snuggled. The doors went up in Ethan’s barn. Yay! Progress!

​another great day! Around noon, Diane and I rode one of the jet ski’s over to the island. It is our sunning spot to get out of the wind. Paul brought Diane’s double tube so that we could float. We floated and chatted for a few hours before coming back. Diane had to leave around 2:30 ish. The wind picked up, almost to send Diane home. We rode back to shore safely, weather the waves that had gotten slightly better. This evening, we went down the shore line to visit with some friends. We met a new friend. We were instantly friends when I heard him say “I want to find a dead body.” “ME TOO!” I said.  We watched the sun set as we chatted away. It was another beautiful sunset this evening. Paul’s wound from 3 weeks ago is healing well. It is almost resolved. Paul was worried there will be a scar.  I have several scars that I wear proudly. Each scar has a story. It is part of our memory trail. Scars are conversation starters.  I wish I had a scare from when I was bit by a camel...

​it was great sleeping weather. Nice and cool with lots of white noise. I slept great. Paul complained that I was twitching in my sleep and kept him awake. I thought of Ethan when I stumbled across a praying mantis. I really like them. This was a male mantis. He was smaller and would soon be losing his head after a rendezvous with a cute lady friend. This afternoon we went over to a local beach. Paul rode the jet ski. Diane and I drove. Paul went down and stole a neighbor’s starfish floaty. We knew he was out of town. He used it for the afternoon. We sent him the following message: He will never suspect it is Paul in the picture because I blurred out his face.  Diane and I floated on the double tube for the afternoon. Paul floated on the starfish. The wind died down and it was down right hot in the sun. We had the tunes cranked and there were not a whole lot of people there. That was wonderful. It was a bit too chilly for the dogs to get a lake bath today.  Maybe tomorrow? We ...

​Paul woke up. It has been 48 hours after his double bee sting. When the sting happened my advice was basically the same as Vanilla Ice’s would be. “ICE, ICE baby!” Paul often will ignore my medical advice and google what he should do. It is typically always what I had already advised. He will ignore that fact and deny it. He will often ignore the google and wife advice and just chose to complain. His face was swollen this morning and I told him to put some ice on it. He was worried it was swollen so long after a sting, and I told him that it is typical and to ice it. So of course he went to google. He read outloud that peak swelling is 48 hours after initial sting. I immediately became annoyed and went to speak up….he cut me off and said “it also says here that you should listen to your wife and ice it.” It made me laugh. I tell him all the time “you should have listened to your wife.” When he has deviated from the device and gotten unfavorable results. We took the boat and jetski’s o...

​I took a comp day today for last week’s conference. I did still log in for a bit to go through emails and wrap up some things before the long weekend. Then….the day was mine. I did some walking with the dogs, bike riding with Moe, everyone got their nails trimmed and smooth with the grinder and relaxed. All four dogs were outside quietly….even ahem….Penny. I had them all tired out so much, they were angels for the afternoon. They hung out with their dog cousins, Maggie and Mindy. Doing dog stuff like butt sniffing and play bowing. I did a little garden work. I plan to do a little bit each day. We had a fire tonight. It is quiet on the shore so far. It was very dark away from the fire due to the clouds. I was disappointed that the only pigs I saw were cooped up in the pig pen. Who knows what tomorrow brings. Maybe I will make a hole in the pen and create some excitement….but likely won’t. Ha!

​After work, I headed to camp. The drive was fairly uneventful. I did stop at a fast food place. It was not fast food at all. In fact, it took about 20 minutes. I even went inside and no one was in line in front of me. The dogs sadly waited in the car wondering where I had gone for so long. Other people came in after me and got their food before me. What the heck? The town I was in is known for interesting sights and behaviors by some of the community. I am not impressed. After what felt like Iona, I  left with my meal. That was a real nail biter. Wasn’t sure I was ever going to eat again. Ha ha! I finally arrived at camp after hearing 2 separate dateline story’s. They were both equally enjoyable. It is warm and humid with a beautiful sun set. I am hoping some pigs get loose so I can make them my friend.

​More work has been done on the barndominium. The floor is poured, sidewalk in place and the front porch is spacious. The next month will be letting the concrete cure. Ethan continues to work on his application to the electrician apprenticeship program. We are having a hard time locating his high school diploma. I will have to order another one. We had a little bit of life happening at the time he graduated. There was no time for filing. We had some crazy storms today. Ethan reminds me of my dad when there are storms coming. My Dad liked weather and storms. Ethan is the same way…but two fold. He has an in depth weather app on his phone and he was watching the rotation of the storms, was watching how the clouds were forming. He saw a few tornados touch down via radar in our area. He was so excited. I sit back and enjoy the look of pure bliss on his face. Paul tells him all the time he should have been a weatherman. Apparently one of the farmer’s pigs got loose up at camp. She was runnin...

​How did the summer go by so fast? September 1 st already! I saw Kendall at the Liquor store today. They started classes this week.  So far it is going well for them. It is day 2 so I would hope so! Things went well with the surgery today. It was a long day. He was in surgery for about 7 ish hours. He is now recovering.  I tried not to bother Sarah too much. I did want to text her all day long.  I am still feeling tired from traveling. Paul snored all night so I didn’t have a restful night’s sleep. It sounded like a sea lion trying to play the tuba under water. I know that is affluent specific, but that was the first thing that popped into my head. Hopefully there will be no snoring noises that resemble animals with musical instruments tonight. 

​Paul and I both got our 4 ish hours of sleep and the alarm went off entirely too soon. I made some strong coffee to help. I had to ride with Paul to the airport to pick up my car since I didn’t fly into Rochester like I was supposed to.  I was totally feeling the burn of yesterday’s wear and tear on my body.  There was a steady rain this morning. Jiminy was living his best rainy day life today. It was slightly chilly and damp in the house. He took matters into his own paws and twirled himself into a soft, fluffy and warm cocoon to nap. Paul and I  both trudged through our day. I got a second wind this afternoon. After work I was able to do some meal prep in anticipation of going to camp for an extended stay. I got 17 meals in the freezer. Phew! Tomorrow I will stock up on more groceries.  I also made a chickpea and beet salad that was a nice blend of flavors. After eating on the go for the past few days, I need add in some veggies and protein.  I did have a bri...

​There was a man at the conference that I got giggling at. This poor guy. He was working at another booth and was really excited to talk about his product! I am not mature enough to be here! I am also glad I am not a man. I get excited to talk about vet med….I would hate to present myself like this. However, I do believe it was something in his pocket. Ha ha. Teardown was a nightmare. I had to carry a 40# box down to the business center. I rented a cart, was yelled at because apparently there is a “freight elevator” for big items like a cart. I was getting off the regular elevator and was greeted with a snarky lady barking that at me. No one was waiting to use the elevator for the one floor I had to travel. That seemed like a “her” problem that she was so cranky. The lady and guy in the booth next to me were kind enough to help me tear down the booth by myself. It was incredibly kind and I appreciated it more than I could ever verbalize. I was able to package everything into 2 more box...

 I woke up to a Baraat going on outside, 10 floors below. It was so loud! A Baraat is translated as “groom’s procession” and is an Indian wedding tradition. The tradition is that the groom’s family throws a high energy send off to the wedding venue.  Everyone was dressed up. There was music pumping. There was an announcer with a microphone. They were so joyous and upbeat. It was fun to watch and listen to. We have been seeing the people belonging to this group over the past few days. The women are all dressed up in their beautifully beaded traditional Indian attire. My coworker and my got a front row seat to this party, walking right by it on our way the conference. When we arrived at our booth, our chairs were gone. Boo! I guess the next 12 hours of working will be on the hard concrete. We stole those fair and square. We couldn’t even complain. We had to become thankful we had them all day yesterday. We worked really hard to get people to talk to us. I had to become militant ...