APD

8-29-23 ALICE PECK DAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, LEBANON, NH: I transferred from the hospital to this rehab facility last Friday and have been busy with PT and OT. The fever never recurred and all the cultures and imaging were negative. The leg swelling and tenderness are slowly resolving.

APD is clean and modern, the staff are to a person are helpful, responsive, pleasant, smiley and a great to work with. The food is on order and not bad. I’m getting stronger and more versatile with the all the implements. My private room is large with a big window looking west. 

Our plan is to check out Saturday morning and drive back to NJ with all the dogs and be met there by Alison and Dan and Anna and Gardner. Lily and Danna will come to VT for the weekend and bring the red Subaru to NJ with all the stuff donated for Covenant House and Beth Israel.  

My roomn at APD.

Fever.

 8-22-23 DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK MEDICAL CENTER: I had the procedure Monday morning. The rest of the day was post- op until the   nerve blocks wore off Monday night and the pain kicked in. Dilaudid and Tylenol helped, and at this point there is very little pain. PT had me up in the bed sitting for a while in the afternoon. July visited twice, once with Maizie.

In the afternoon I had a temp of 100°, which set off blood cultures, urine culture, chest X-ray to hunt for a possible infectious culprit. Four hours later the temp was 98°. So we’ll see. I’m using the breathing gadget all the time.

Here's what I look at all day. Nice drawing of the procedure with plates on both sides of the tibia and lots of screws

Inpatienience

8-20-23 DARTMOUTH-HITCHCOCK MEDICAL CENTER: I’m still an inpatient. I had the operative procedures last Sunday and Monday to establish external fixation of my fractured tibial plateau, half of the knee joint. This procedure is a temporary solution.

Internal fixation is the permanent fix. I am on  a NPO after Midnight  order, which is medicalese for nothing by mouth after 12 PM so that the stomach will be empty before anesthesia the next day and the repair. Will it happen? Maybe, but I’ve been NPO a few times already, and been left at the altar—jilted. 

Alison and Dan were here for most of the day today and yesterday. It was nice to have the company. Judy has been here everyday, usually twice a day, at least once with a dog, her specialty. The four of us had a chance to talk with an orthopedic on call today, Dr. Fort, and got to explain our [my] particular needs. Alison has sent me pix from the gardens.

Jon and Siobhan, Anna, Lily, Maggie, Lucy, Bob, Bill, Lynn, Carol, Roger, Ann, Laura-Beth have all called in the last few days or been here. Val and Steve have been in ME looking after Steve’s Mom, Mary.

Fingers crossed.

 

Magnolia, Wood, Solar, Wiring, Soffit, Gate, Knee.

8-13-23 VERMONT: There’s lots of news, some good, some not. Matt and Hillary moved the new magnolia over the bridge with a tree hand-cart. We laid planks across the swamps on either side of the bridge to get it across. We planted it on the slope where the original red maple had been, now dead and gone. They dug, and I sawed off the many roots that appeared. We back filled with potting soil. The site was damp but not wet. We have had 2.9 inches of rain since the last post.

We bought a half-cord of wood from neighbor Dwight, who delivered it on Monday. I stacked it in the wood shed over the next few days.  

The Solarflect, solar energy people, were here again on Tuesday and the latest possible plan from the head electrician is to run the wiring to the big barn and replace the inadequate wiring in the conduit that runs from the barn to the house. New plans are in the works. 

Tyler the electrician was here and put a new line in the kitchen so that the microwave will not flip the circuit breaker.

Scott and Cedar were here Friday to repair the soffit on the back of the old house that always forms huge icicles. They took out some of the insulation in the eaves, unnecessary, found no mold, great, and closed it up after repainting. 

Seeing Scott reminded me that I had promised a new gate in the deck railing. I built it on Saturday linking the two rails with cross pieces and a diagonal, cutting one side free and mounting hinges, then cutting the other side free an mounting a closure. During that last step, my rickety step ladder wobbled, and I fell off the ladder, about two steps above the ground. 

My Apple Watch knew that I fell, asked if I was OK, I wasn’t, and called for help. Turns out, after an ambulance ride to Dartmouth- Hitchcock, that I broke my right tibia in a few places within the knee joint, similar to the accident I had on the left knee while skiing a few years ago. Sunday, today, orthopedic surgery did an external stabilization that will be followed by definitive repair in the neat future. I am totally non-ambulatory now.

New blooms: gooseneck loosestrife, monkshood, white-star clematis, more echinacea, late anemone, blue lobelia, black-eyed susan. 

All the dogs--Maizie, Blanca, Blue, Bally.

The pond bank beds are getting full.

Me stacking wood with help from Maizie and Blue.

All ready for the fireplace.

Knee repair Erector Set. The ankle is out of the frame on the left.

More Rain, More Plantings.

8-7-23 VERMONT: Frequent rains continue here with another 1.55 inches and more today. It’s been cool, and today, cold with afternoon temps in the fifties.

Alison and Dan are visiting. We went to Saap in Randolph a few nights ago and last night saw ‘Oppenheimer’ at the Nugget. Tonight we’re eating here and might grill if the rain stops. 

I planted another yarrow, Achillea millefolium “Red’, two more lilies, L. orientale ‘Baferrari’ and ‘Casa Blanca’ on the pond bank with the others previously planted. I brought home the magnolia, M. soulangiana, ‘Betty’ for the area across the bridge near the new maples. Getting it to the site will be an issue with all the soggy areas. The root ball probably weighs 300 pounds. 

A kingfisher has been here every day getting fish from the pond. Butterflies, bees, wasps, and hummingbirds have been using the milkweed, bee balm and echinacea.

New blooms: white turtlehead, first aster.

Kingfisher, immature, will loose most or all of the rusty feathers when grown up.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. You can see all six legs, two antennae, tongue, four wings oin this pose.

Red Admiral working echinacea.

Hybrid lily 'Muscadet', smells gorgeous too.

First aster growing with phlox. The aster appeared almost to the day that the last daylily bloomed.

White turtlehead is growing in the sun and appears months before the pink turtlehead that is growing in the shade.

Last Third of the Summer.

8-1-23 VERMONT: Today it has cooled off in the evening, going down to the upper forties. It was a beautiful day, smoke free and no rain. We have had lots of rain—1.55 inches in the last week and almost 12 inches in July—a record. 

I’ve bought a lot of stuff and started planting. I put two yarrow on the pond bank by the lambs ears, Achillea millefolium ‘ Pomegranate’ and ‘Red’, I got seven roses for the corner of the bank that we covered to kill the goldenrod, two Peach Lemonade, Rosa ‘Radpastel’, Lotty's Love, Rosa rugosa, Snow Pavement Rose, R. ‘Schneekoppe’, Purple Pavement Rose, R. ‘Rotesmeer’, Rosa Sunny Knockout. Two lilies, Lilium Oriental Muscadet and Baferrari, will go on the bank where thing need some extra interest at this point. And wait for it—a red Japanese maple, Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ on the bank near the drain. Most of them are waiting to be planted.

New blooms: pickerel weed, cup plant.

Another hybrid daylily.

Echinacea attracts all the pollinators.

Goldfinches have been here all summer, sporting vivid color.

Cup plant is a big, tall spreader. I had pulled it out of this bed because it was too aggressive, but this one cropped up this year. Notice where the opposite leaves meet at the stem and form a cup, hence the name. The cup holds rainwater for the pollinators, I don't think the plant uses it.