Gotcha!

As I was walking from the car into the shop where I have piano lessons, I finally saw several robins!  Yay.

So,  I went right from piano to DQ.

Jude is 5

Here is Kyle & Heather’s little Jude, his 5^th birthday pose, 

I thought you might like to see what a little man he is growing to be.

No Robins

A long tradition in the Johansen family, well at least for the past 10 years, is to head to Dairy Queen after seeing the first Robin of the year.

I have yet to see a robin.

But I think today is my day.

More and more ground is showing as the snow slips away.

***

Getting ready for Quilt Camp is a process.  Putting together kits of projects so that I can take only what is needed to camp and to be sure I have everything I need to complete the planned project.

The project pile

Block of the month info

This Spring my list, so far, is:  Block of the Month for Jan, Feb, Mar; Log Cabin quilt using pin-wale corduroy; American Flag bargello kit; Graduation gifts - wallets, credit card holder, adventure bags; table toppers out of vintage fabric; microwave bowls; graduation banners and more.

Plus I have binding to put on a finished quilt.

Should keep me busy.

But first, gotta find that robin!

Big Lake and Quilts

I took a drive today to do some quilt business at a sweet little quilt shop, Fisher Under Cover, in Port Wing, WI on the shores of Lake Superior.  It was my first visit to Tammy's shop located in an old church in this quaint little town.  She has a nice shop with lots of inventory in not much space yet it did not feel claustrophobic.  It is light and airy and cute.  

I dropped off 5, yes 5, quilts for long arm quilting.

1.  Sunflowers

2. Wizard of Oz

3. Burlap rectangles

4. Block by block flannel

5. Coffee and Latte

I'll post photos of the completed projects when I get them back in about a month.

It feels great to have ALL my UFOs at the quilter.

Unfinished projects are a weight on my shoulders.

And since quilt camp is just 2 weeks away, it is nice to be caught up.

I met Mary & Sharon at the shop and then we had lunch at the Bear Paw Cafe.  It was a cute, cozy cabin style diner with great food.

***

On the way home, I stopped along the lake a few times, trying to find a photo of the ice shards that are buckling off the lake as the melt starts.

My photos don't do justice, but maybe you'll get the idea.

It was a nice day for a drive, 50 degrees and sunny on my way home.

I got a little sleepy in the sun, had to take a cool down & stretch break about 1/2 way home.

It was a fun day to be out in the beautiful Wisconsin countryside.

Planning

Quilt camp is just 2 weeks away.  I've started putting together kits of projects to sew.

In the process, it occurred to me that I still had a broken sewing table.

So, today, I glued it back together.

Fingers crossed that it works.

At first blush, it looks like I have the pieces lined up nicely.

I'll check it in the morning.

I did the gluing in the garage because of the fumes.

The snow is melting away.

There is still lots of snow cover, but I'd say about 1/2 the depth it had 10 days ago,

I did finally turn off the Christmas candles.

I liked having them on for the light, I'm looking for an all season solution.

March Madness is up next, hoping our Badgers get at least to the Sweet 16. 

Hey Jude!

February 28 is Rare Disease Day. 

Kyle & Heather have been offering tshirts to friends and family 
to benefit Polymicrogyria Awareness.

This year,  the back of the shirt said "na na na na Hey Jude" like the Beatles' song. 
The Luck basketball team wore the shirts during warm ups for the remainder of the season.

So, what's new with Jude? 

Little Jude is doing quite good.  He had some genetic testing done and found out that he has a very rare gene. He is only 1 of 9 known cases in the world and the first-ever for the Mayo Clinic. They believe this rare gene probably caused his polymicrogyria. 

He has not had pneumonia since last April and since last November he's been doing his respiratory therapy only once a day instead of twice. He's been able to start eating more food that is juicier, like peaches and grapes. Peaches are his favorite! He's able to drink about 4 ounces of water a day now, from a straw, if Mom or Dad are present,  and Jude is more and more verbal all the time.

He's really a little sports nut and always wants to know if the Badgers won. 

At his brother's sporting events, he is glued to the action for the entire game without any encouragement from anyone.

He's quite a little character and puts a smile on the face of everyone around him.

The encouraging thing for me lately, is that I've seen the parents have to reprimand him a few times so he is moving from the special, hands off, sickly child to a normal little boy!

That is progress.

❤️

Sectional Finals

What an exciting day!

Gage's family gathered for the big game.

Parents Kyle & Heather,
Aunts Lora & Angie, Grandma Lois & Great Aunt Wanda

Gage arriving, game face on.

Cousin Anders, Sister Ruby & her pals had their seats picked out

Cousin Emily (Red Jacket) and her crew

Cousin Noah home from North Dakota, with little buddy Jude

Brother Jack home from college with little brother Jude.

Soon it was time for the opening tip off.

The Luck Cardinals played a great first half, with few mistakes and many great plays.

It was intense, Jude's expression says it all.

Gage was firing the three pointers from way behind the arc.

Gage had a bunch of rebounds, I'm not sure of the exact stats.

The shot that brought the crowd to their feet was this 3 pointer at the halftime buzzer.

Up by 5 at halftime.

In all the times we have played McDonell in tournament play, I don't remember that we ever led, during the whole game...but in this game, the Cardinals led the entire first half.

My niece Emily was making a statement about the fairness of this game location.

Gage never gave up, nor did any of his teammates.

The second half was more physical and maybe the refs could have called a few more fouls.
The refs are always an easy scapegoat.

 So, the end result was not what we wanted.

The good news is, only 2 members of the team were seniors, so the starting 5 will all be back next year.  I think I'll book a room at Madison now for next year's state tournament.

Cardinal Pride is strong! 

Aunt Lois (the other great aunt) sent me a couple of photos today from the Chippewa Falls paper.  I'm the one with the camera in my face in the 1st photo and the ball in front of my face in the second. 

An Editorial Comment

• The Luck kids were ready to take on the private school, McDonell Catholic School on Saturday, the game was scheduled to be played at Chippewa Falls High.  This was the Sectional Championship game, and traditionally these games are played on a neutral court.  In this case, the game was played at Chippewa Falls High School, less that 500 feet from McDonell.  Neutral?
• The WIAA sets up the tournaments in Divisions based on the size of the school.  For a small town like Luck, the students come from the surrounding village, township & rural area.  Enrollment is whatever the population provides for.  For the private Catholic school of McDonell, enrollment is controlled and students can be recruited & come from anywhere that the parents are willing to enroll them.  Fair?
• McDonell has had a great basketball team for the last several years, this will be the 4th or 5th consecutive trip to state.  What does that say about the fairness of this system when one school dominates over all the schools in this division?  Fair? 
• Seeding for the tournament is done about a week before the regular season ends, seeding controls home court advantage until Sectionals.  The McDonell coach was quoted in saying that he made sure that they got a good seed so they would have this advantage.  Fair?
• All I want is for this to be fair for the kids.  Maybe the private schools should have to play in a division higher to even the score?  But money talks so I'm sure this will never change.
• And so it goes.

Hectic health

After getting that plumbing squared away, and all the towels washed, I was looking forward to the Sectional Basketball Tournament game in Cumberland on Thursday night between the Luck Cardinals and the Birchwood Bobcats.  I slept hard Tuesday night and woke up Wednesday morning with a very rapid heart beat.

I reached for my Fitbit and put it on, it was recording a heart rate of 165 bpm.

Much too fast.

I felt like I had a little chickadee trapped in my chest and it was fluttering to get out.

I laid back down for awhile thinking maybe it would settle down.

No such luck.

So, I started to make my plan.

None of this is particularly smart, but it's how I spent my morning.

I took a shower, trimmed my toenails and fingernails, did my hair and got dressed.

Then I sat for a bit hoping my heart would settle back into a normal rhythm. 

I knew I should not eat anything, so just drank some sparkling water.

I did a little internet research and finally decided I was headed to the ER.

I grabbed my extra phone battery and went out the door.

Once outside, I remembered it was trash/recycle day and since the driveway was finally ice free,

I pulled the bins to the street.

Then I hopped in the car.

I drove about 1/2 way to the hospital and thought my heart was back in rhythm, so came back home, but once I was in the house I knew I was foolish, so back to the hospital I went.

I found a parking place but it was not too close to the ER entrance.

I sat for a bit trying to decide if I could walk that far, but in the end, I did.

I was ready to sit down once I was inside.

Of course, once I told the ER clerk that I had rapid heart beat, things started happening.

A nurse appeared quickly and I was taken by wheelchair to a room.

I was told to get my shirt off and get into a gown and lay down.

Once they had the first EKG leads attached and saw my heart rate, they took action to get an IV started, bring the CRASH cart in the room and the doctor appeared.

Everyone was very professional and in a way, it's fun to see them in their zone doing what they know needs to be done and done quickly.

It was determined that I was in atrial fibrillation.

A common heart condition.

The course of action was to give me a bolus of medication meant to slow down the heart and let it resume normal rhythm on its own.  The first bolus did almost nothing, so a second bolus was given.

There was a little slowing of my heart rate after the second bolus, but not enough.

The cardiologist was consulted.

It was decided that I would be admitted to ICU and then the Cardiologist would perform a cardio conversion by electrical shock.

I was given a shot of heparin in my abdomen to start the un-coagulation process in prep for the procedure.

I asked everyone I could to please advocate for me to have the procedure Wednesday evening so that I could stay overnight, and drive myself home the next day.

I also was really hoping to be able to get to the Sectional Basketball Tournament game on Thursday night at Cumberland.  

Luck  was playing Birchwood.

So, up to ICU I went, still with the chickadee💓 in my chest.

Once in ICU, it was a waiting game.  The Cardiologist was busy putting a pacemaker into a patient and would see me as soon as he could.

The ICU staff was top notch, they had a good feeling that the doctor would want to do the procedure Wednesday afternoon.  They did what they could do to get ready, just in case.

So when the doctor walked in he asked me a few health history questions, and determined that since I had only been out of rhythm for less than 24 hours, he could do a simple shock.

Within minutes, big pads were attached to my chest and back,

Versed sleep medication was administered 

and before I knew anything, I was waking up with a normal heart beat.

Amazing.

No more chickadee flutters.

Versed is a drug that takes away your memory of procedures, but you are not really asleep.

Once I was awake, my nurse told me that I kept talking and said to the doctor, "I have a really important basketball game tomorrow night, am I going to be able to go?"

I remember nothing.

So, when I said, well what did the doctor say, she said he said yes, I would be able to go.

😁😁😁

So, after the procedure I had a big supper, started on a couple of new medications, and rested.

My IVs were disconnected.

I was fitted with a portable monitoring device so I was mobile in my room.

The nursing staff was enjoying having a patient that did not need critical care and I was liking being able to go to the bathroom and move around without ringing for help.

Summary of my week.

I slept fairly well but was glad to see morning.

The doctor was in early to see me, 

talk over my follow up plan, the new medications 

and wrote orders for discharge.

I had a nice view from my corner room, but I don't mind if I never see it again.

I took a nap in the recliner while I waited for the paperwork to clear, 

once the IV needles were removed, 

I was out the door.

A nursing student walked me to the front door and I walked to my car and drove home!

I had to stop at Walgreens on the way home for meds and also at the pet store for cat food.

I felt fine, just tired.

Once home I took a big nap and that felt great.

Then it was time to shower and get dressed in red.

Nephew Kris and I had planned to drive together before the rest of this deal,

so he arrived and drove to the game.

The rest is history.

Luck ends Bobcats' run, 83-63 

Gage had a large group of family at the game.

Fun facts:  Dad had atrial fib about 8 years ago, and the same doctor cardioverted Dad.

I think I was pretty calm through the whole episode because I had been through it with Dad, I already understood the malfunction and the risk of blood clots.

But I wasn't counting on following in Dad's footsteps on this.

Because I had not had this before, the thinking is that the stress over the plumbing problem might have been a contributing factor or perhaps sleep apnea since it happened at night.

I'll be tested for the apnea after I see the Cardiologist in his office.

The thinking is that I'll be on the blood thinner and heart medicine for only about 6 weeks.

I'm counting on it.

3am blues

I woke up needing to go to the bathroom at about 2 a.m. this morning. For whatever reason, I decided to walk out into the kitchen and noticed that the floor was way too shiny. 

And about that same moment I can hear the water running.

So, I ran for the shut off for the pump and got the water stopped. And then started looking for the source of the leak which turned out to be in the wall behind the dryer near the hookups for the washer and water. There must be another fitting in there that we have yet to replace. 

This is the problem!

So, then I pulled the 3 big rugs outside, they will be frozen until Springtime I suppose. Then I used every single towel out of both linen closets to try to sop up the water before the carpets and everything else were wet.

What a mess!

It was about 4am when I went back to lay down,  hot & sweaty.

I figured out how to send a text message at a certain time,  so wrote the message to my plumber to send at 6am, and finally feel asleep. 

My plumber is coming this afternoon.
  I'm hoping he can fix it from in the house, the access to the crawl space is under a bunch of snow!

In the meantime, I drove to Birchwood to buy tournament tickets for Thursday, 

Go Cardinals!

 then I stopped and had breakfast & used the bathroom at my local diner,
 last stop was Menardos for new entryway rugs.

Now,  I'm going for a quick nap before the plumber arrives.

And so it goes...

Exciting times

This time of year in Wisconsin is always exciting for high school sports.

The Girls State Basketball Tournament starts in Green Bay this Thursday.

 The Boys start Sectional Tournament play on Thursday, the winners of which will go to the State Boys Basketball Tournament.

The Luck boys are still in it, winning the Regional Tournament by a narrow margin.

Thursday night, the Luck Cardinals take on the Birchwood Bobcats in the (neutral ground) gym at Ashland, Wisconsin  Cumberland, Wisconsin

It will be a long short bus ride for both teams and all of the fans, I'm planning on being there to cheer on Great Nephew Gage & his teammates.

2019 02 10 Gage is #2, this was the Luck at Frederic game.

Go Cardinals!