Thursday, September 3, 2020 - Lisa and I drove to Pierceton, Indiana about ten miles south of Warsaw, Indiana. We are at Yogi Bear's Jellystone RV Park which has over 1,400 parking spaces for RVs and campers. It is a huge park! The drive took about four and a half hours and our lovely GPS managed to take us cross-country in a couple of instances. Luckily, we did not encounter any low overheads. When we arrived at the park, our GPS directed a right turn when we really needed to go left. We ended up on a dead end road with no turn-around. Yes, I had to back the rig out of this predicament for about a quarter mile. Lisa walked ahead of me with the walkie-talkie and made sure that I did not hit anything or anyone. Not too big a deal though, and this was the first time that I have had a "wriggle" the RV out of an unusual situation. It all worked out fine. We mentioned to the park leaders that a sign would have been "extremely" helpful.
We do not have a lot of activities planned for this stop. We will visit with Lisa's sister in Valparaiso on September 6th which is Lisa's birthday. We also plan to see if Dale and Susan Nagel can go for another bike ride. The rest of the time will be used to make sure that Lisa's shoulder gets great attention.
Friday, September 4, 2020 - A life-changing day! Lisa and I worked around the RV in the morning to update the blog and prepare the trailer for our stay in the area. At around 11:30 we drove to Warsaw, Indiana to the Parkland General Hospital where Lisa was to see her new primary care physician. Lisa needed to see the physician so that she could get a referral to an orthopedic specialist who would help Lisa with her rotator cuff injury to her right shoulder. It has been bothering her quite a bit, and she has very limited movement of her right arm. We have not been kayaking due to her shoulder, and it is getting harder for her to ride the tandem. Everything went well with the doctor, and we were given the referral that we requested. It should be at the orthopedic specialist's office on Tuesday after Labor Day. This had all gone well and were pleased with the results.
We then decided to head over to Walmart to do some shopping. On the way to Walmart, I began to sense some pain in my chest. I had had this symptom in the recent past, and it seemed to go away after awhile. This time it did not go away. We were inside the Walmart shopping and the pain got worse with a little nausea and the pain traveling down my arms. It felt like someone was standing on my chest. It became clear that this was not normal. We quickly finished our shopping, and I drove us back to the emergency room at the Parkland General Hospital that we had just left. We knew right where it was and it was only about a ten minute drive. After the person ahead of us in line was done, I mentioned to the receptionist that I was having pains in my chest and that the paint radiated down my arms. She went right to the phone and a nurse came out to see me. The nurse immediately took me back to the emergency room while Lisa stayed with the receptionist to give her all of my insurance info. In the emergency room they immediately put me on a table and asked me a whole series of questions. They started IVs in both arms and a person wheeled up to the table with an EKG machine. He had me wired up in about two minutes and was running the test while the nurse asked me more questions. The EKG confirmed that I was having a heart attack. The nurse said that the helicopter was on the way and would be there in about eight minutes. They ran another EKG and confirmed that I needed to be taken to the Cardiac section of the Parkland Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Shortly, three very nice flyers came into the emergency room. They had just landed at the hospital, and they helped shift me over to their gurney that would fit into the helicopter. Shortly, we were on our way to Fort Wayne; about a sixteen minute helicopter ride. We landed on the top of the cardiac wing of the hospital, and they rolled the gurney off the roof, into the elevator, and into the surgery room. In about fifteen minutes, they were starting the surgery. They had determined that I had an artery on the outside of the heart that was blocked at 99%. This artery is not inside the heart, it is on the outside of the heart, and it feeds blood to the heart itself. They made a small incision in the area of my groin into a major artery going to the heart. They placed a camera and a device that could cut away the obstruction into the artery. What is weird is that the blockage was not in the heart itself, it was in the series of arteries that provide blood to the heart muscles so that it can keep beating. Essentially, with the blockage, part of the heart was not getting blood and being damaged. Time is of the essence and that is why things were happening so fast. After they cleared the blockage, they inserted a stent into the artery so that the blood could flow to the heart muscles. In just a few minutes, I had a fully functioning, open artery serving the heart. All of the other arteries serving the heart were free of blockages. Also, the main arteries and veins of the heart were not impacted at all and they were free of blockages. After what seemed like only 30 minutes, the surgery was over, and I was wheeled into a room on the cardiac ward; no stop in a surgical recovery room, and I was not put out by an anesthesiologist. I actually watched part of the removal of the obstruction with the clipping tool on a large monitor next to the bed. My abdomen hurt from the incision, but the area of my heart no longer hurt. The total time from the walk in at the emergency room to my arrival in the ward was about one and half hours. Pretty amazing. Every person I met along the way was professional and so, so nice. They were all working to help me get better and give me encouragement. It was simply amazing. I was told that I would be staying in the hospital for two days, but that was later changed to only one day. I was checked every 30 minutes for blood pressure and vital signs. I was given another EKG to ensure that the heart was not under duress. Everything was fine now. Every 30 minutes the bandage and area of the incision was checked to make sure that it was beginning the healing process properly. The nurses in the ward were absolutely the friendliest people I had met. If I needed anything, they would get if for me. I could not sleep with the constant checks. At about 9:00 at night, they pulled out the long tube that was in my artery and applied pressure to the opening to let the blood coagulate and seal the entry. Two nurses took turns and kept pressure on the incision for over 40 minutes. At 12:30 at night, I was able to get out of bed and use the latrine facilities. They began to check me a little less often, and I was able to get some sleep. The doctor came by and said that I could leave at around 5:00 in the afternoon; just 24 hours after the surgery. I was pretty happy about that. I am now on a host of medications, and I have to keep a better eye on what I eat. It was a super "wake-up call" for me. Luckily, it was only one stent and the rest of the arteries serving the heart are fine as well as the internal operation of the heart. I will need about ten days for the heart to actually heal from the damage caused by the heart attack. Luckily, I have had no adverse reactions to the entire event. After getting out of the hospital, I drove to Costco and back to the RV with no problems at all. I was still getting blood to my body, but the heart itself was not getting what it needs to function properly. The speed of the people helping me has helped immensely in reducing the damage that could have been done to the heart itself. I actually already feel better than I did before this event occurred. I just have to watch what I do for the next ten days. I can only lift ten pounds (which is going to be a real nuisance!). Overall, I was very lucky. I recognized the problem right away and quickly drove to the hospital. The emergency room medical personnel were super-fast and flew me to cardiac hospital right away. They conducted the procedure before I even knew what was happening. I am doing great now and looking forward to getting back on the bike. I wish I could salsa dance too.
We were planning to meet with Lisa's sister tomorrow (Lisa's birthday), but we ended up cancelling to give me more time to take it easy. Patricia and Mike live about an hour and a half from where we are right now and it would be a fairly long drive both ways. We are looking at the schedule to see if we can meet with them over the next few days.
This park, Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park, has over 1,400 slots for permanent residents and campers. It is the Labor Day weekend and every slot is filled. There is a small carnival in an open field near the main office, and bands are playing every night this week. Kids are all over the place, and there are at least 1,400 golf carts (at least it seems like that many) running around; some driven by young kids. You take your life in your hands when to step our onto the road. We have never seen anything like this before. Pretty interesting.
Sunday, September 6, 2020 - This is Lisa's birthday. We have driven into Warsaw, Indiana so that we can use the WiFi at the local Starbucks to upload two videos to YouTube for the blog. It also gives me more time to catch up on the text that I need to add to the blog. We have made plans to take Lisa to a nice restaurant tonight for her birthday; it is called the The Boat House and is on a local river. The Boat House was fun! The food was great and Lisa had an awesome sirloin steak while I had a salad; there is something wrong with this picture.
Monday, September 7, 2020 - We stayed around the RV park for the day since there was going to be so much Labor Day traffic on the road. We had met a super-nice family with a toy-hauler who were parked right across from us. We visited quite a bit with them and then I showed then how the drone works for taking photos and videos. I put each of them on the FPV goggles (which can see what the drone sees) and the flew all around the RV park. We all had fun and the family really seemed to enjoy the experience. We also went for a walk of about 3.5 miles. The humidity made it a pretty sweaty hike. We have been having thunderstorms in the area just about every afternoon and night.
Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - We slept in until 7:00 this morning since it was overcast and the Sun did not help to wake us up. We had pretty heavy rain throughout the night. Kind of sounds good when you are so comfortable in the RV and you can hear the rain drops beating on the roof. After breakfast, we drove to the Starbucks in Warsaw to get on their WiFi and conduct some business. At the RV park, we have very limited phone and text capability. We have no internet contact at all. This park is so large that, over the Labor Day holiday, so many people were streaming date that we had no service at all. Could not even text. At Starbucks, Lisa was able to contact her doctor to confirm that our referral for service with her rotator-cuff injury had gone through. We also were able to make and appointment with a orthopedic specialist for Thursday; just two days away. This is great since we are getting anxious to get on the road again. We hope she can get her Cortisone shot and then we can find out what the process for physical therapy will be. We hope that after the shot, she will be better able to use her right arm. We may be able to delay the therapy until we get back to California in November. Lisa is an organizer!! She has been able to get all these appointments, XRays, MRI results and provide them to the doctors. She is amazing.
NOTE: We are in the town of Warsaw, Indiana working to get Lisa's orthopedic help. Warsaw is the Orthopedic Capital of the entire World. All of the major companies that make artificial knees, elbows, shoulders, and everything else are located here. Warsaw is to orthopedic joint replacements as Elkhart is to RVs. There are "tons" of orthopedic centers where you can get a new knee or hip or anything that you want done. We have definitely come to the right place for Lisa's work and it was just a matter of luck. If you need a new body part, this is the place to be. Turns out that we were also extremely lucky that we are in the number one hospital system for cardiac work in the state of Indiana. God is guiding us through these processes!
Thursday, September 10, 2020 - We hung out around the RV until about 11:30 am, and then headed into Warsaw (10 miles) for Lisa's appointment with the orthopedic doctor scheduled for 12:30. They threw me out of the clinic since they will only let the patient enter the building (Covid concerns). I waited in the truck while Lisa met with the doctor. He noted that her rotator cuff tear was larger than she had understood before. He gave her a Cortisone shot and said that it would be okay to travel and have it taken care of when we returned to California in November. We are hoping that the shot will help and she will feel better over the next couple of days. So, "WE ARE FREE TO ROAM AGAIN!" We will be leaving this area tomorrow for Lancaster County (Amish Country) in Pennsylvania. It will take us two days to get there with a stop in Ohio near Pittsburgh. I am so ready to get on the road again.