bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- When we went to bed last night the temp was 5,  this morning it was 16 when we woke up. We have hot and cold running water, but still no refrigerator. It is easy to make ice outside for the coolers! The repair has been moved to Wednesday.

Bob walked the dogs and fed Freddie, who today, was more interested in getting some attention, than eating. While we were paying bills, Craig called. Terilu is still in ICU and the MRI or CAT scan, which ever, showed that the bleed is smaller. They still want to keep her at least one more day, transferring her out of ICU and continuing to work with the coumadin. They usually don’t discharge you directly from ICU, so they are waiting for the trauma doctors to show up to write the transfer order.

We went to barbecue night at the activity center at 5 PM. We had been told that it was chili night and we were having a chili cook-off, but it was changed because there is a big RV show in Denver and many people went down to Denver to either go to the show or to work at it. They forgot to make the announcement on Wednesday. So Kathy had started a crockpot full of chicken chili. We discovered this when we went over to sign up to bring something this morning. Kathy and Betty were there doing laundry. So Kathy brought the chili and I brought a cobbler for dessert and a salad. Jeannie and Dave sat with us. We started watching the game at 6 PM, and by half time we had given up on the Broncos and started playing Mexican Train. John joined us; Jeanne and Dave left to go home to bed, as Jeannie had to leave to go to work tomorrow morning.

Sunday- Brian and Kathy picked me up and off we went for our GSA day. I was scheduled on Peak 9. Mike stopped me, as I had emailed about a private tour of the mountain when the SMSC arrives in late February. It is all set up!

When Bob took the dogs out for their morning walk, standing in the middle of the road was a coyote! I am not sure who was more surprised! Bob thinks the dogs smelled him, but did not see him. The coyote took off and disappeared.

I took the bus over to Beaver Run and skied down to the base of the Quicksilver lift for my first duty. It was extremely busy, with lots of people coming out to ski. We have 54% of the mountain open for skiing. This week is also National Safe Skiing week, so they had the Helicopter scheduled to land at 11 AM, the avalanche dogs to do the demonstration at 12:00 and the Avalauncher ( they launch a tennis ball [for the demonstration] instead of explosives to have controlled avalanches)scheduled for 1 PM. The helicopter did not land due to their being very busy and the winds. Since there was not a lot of snow, the burial was pretty shallow, and the dogs had no problem finding the volunteer in the snow. This all took place on Peak 8 and 7, so I missed everything. I also missed seeing Shawn White practicing on the terrain park, again!

It was a pretty busy day, with a lot of calls for the ski patrol. I called in a young gal, about 20 , who had altitude sickness. One of the patrollers, Mike, came to get her with the sled. She was from Florida. Her parents where there, and they already had a tank of oxygen scheduled for delivery to their condo today, so they just took her back there and put her on the oxygen.

We had our meeting at 3:45, then Allison and I took the bus back to Peak 8.  The bus driver was Amy, who lives here is Tiger Run. We had not met before, but she and her family are planning to come to the chili cook-off on Saturday evening. It took awhile for us to get back to Peak 8, and we spotted a fox in one of the parking lots on the way.  Kathy and Brian were waiting for me. We were the only ones left,. Chuck was waiting for us to turn in our radios and Mike was pushing us to get out the door as he had to lock up and wanted us to go home. This was about 4:30.

We had planned to go to Mi Casa for happy hour, but the place was packed. So Bob and Denise ( the other Denise who works Sunday) called us and we went to Taddios, an Italian restaurant. They had $ 3 beers and wine. The appetizers were $5 or $8. In celebration of the waitress also being Denise, we rec’d  30% off a 16” pizza, plus we ordered some appetizers- cheesy garlic bread, fried mozzarella, and meatballs.  I think that is the first time I have ever been someplace where there were three Denise’s!  They had a pretty good white zinfandel wine and some good beers, so we will be going there again.

We stopped at Craig and Terilu’s motor home on the way back. There was an envelope for her taped to her locker, so we took it to her. It was good to see them back at Tiger Run. Terilu is feeling okay. Randy and Jane had delivered soup to them for dinner and Freddy was really glad they were home!

Monday-  We woke up to snow and the temp last night was 10 and this morning it was 26.  I decided to skip the rec. center because we need to clean the refrigerator.  We took it apart and cleaned the inside; that took a couple of hours. The repair has been moved to Saturday, so we still have four more days! At least it is easy to freeze ice cubes and containers of ice outside. We had changed the car repair to next week, so it will be a quieter week for us.

After cleaning the refrig, doing some laundry, and vacuuming, we went to the activity center to the hot tub and took showers. We returned, ate lunch, and Bob made phone calls. We had noted that our ceiling fan has been making noise. Bob took it apart yesterday. It works, but he thinks it is on its last legs. So he called Alfateers in California, and ordered a new motor. They were a lot less expensive than going through the manufacturer. We can’t just go out and buy a new ceiling fan, as this one is 12 volts.

We took a short nap. It has been snowing off and on all day. We have had about an inch so far. We are hoping for more on the mountain.

We picked up Brian and Kathy and drove to the Senior Center for dinner. Terilu is not feeling well, and Craig had to pick up prescriptions at Safeway so he drove himself. When you sign up for the Senior Center dinners, if you are not going to attend, you have to cancel by 9AM. So Craig went to dinner with us and brought carry-out for Terilu. Sandy, a gal who has recently bought one of the Chalets at Tiger Run joined us.

Dinner was a delicious pot roast, with au gratin potatoes, salad, zucchini and yellow squash, a tasty mushroom/onion gravy, carrots and onions. Chocolate cake for dessert. The dinner was fantastic. Everyone was raving. This new cook is great.

Since Terilu is not feeling well and Craig is still sore from his fall last week, Brian and Kathy are taking their Wednesday GSA day.

Tuesday- We were up and out the door early to go skiing with the 50+. We cannot get into the locker room until 8:30, since they have to get the GSA’s through their meeting and out the door. When we left the motor home the temp was –12. It was –7 in Breck. We went to the 50+ meeting, and up the Colorado lift. Marian and Tom run the 50+ at Breck. When we reached the “blues”, Marian said that they did not have enough Guides for today. So I ended up running the moderate blues. Kathy did ‘sweep’ which is always the last person, who comes down the slope to make sure that everyone is doing well. I tried to get Kathy to lead, but she refused. She likes sweep as she says she can ski at her own speed. Since the “C: lift was open, Kathy and I decided to go over to Peak 9. So we did one run down Springmeyer, then headed over to the C lift to go to the top of Peak 9. Just as we were approaching the top, the end of the lift disappeared in a white out. The forecast was for ‘breezy’ today, with ‘windy’ tomorrow. Last week when we were over on 9, Gold King had become very busy, so we had decided to do it first. We quickly skied out of the wind, and over to Gold King. Unfortunately, it had not been groomed. But we all made it down the slope well. When we arrived at the bottom, I apologized to the group for taking them on an un-groomed slope. They were all okay with it, but we decided that we had done our challenge for the day! We went to the Mercury lift, and everyone decided that they were cold, so we went up the Merc and went into the Peak 9 restaurant.

Once we peeled off our frozen outer clothes, I went over to check the wind chill. On the bottom floor of the Peak 9 restaurant,there is a thermometer and a wind speed dial. There is a paper chart, and when you take the temp and wind speed you can calculate the wind chill. The temp was –2, and as I was standing there, the wind speed whipped up to 45. That made, as close as I could estimate it, as the closest temp was zero, the wind chill was –53. Brrrrrr!!! Actually, I was not too cold. I increased the temp of my electric boot warmers, and my hand warmers where keeping my hands warm in my mittens.  I also had on my facemask, so I looke dlike I was getting ready to rob a bank. I had on my ‘fat jacket”. which is an LLBean jacket, which makes me look bigger than I actually am, but is very warm.

After we thawed out, we went down American, a black groomed run. Then back up the Merc and down Cashier, a nice blue. Betty left us, and we went up the Peak 8 Super-connect to go to lunch at the Vista House.

I had seen Bob skiing below us when we were on the lift, and he had been cold and had gone into Ten Mile Station to warm up. The rest of his black group had gone over to Peak 10, and they came back and had to warm up in Ten Mile also. Bob has those nice pants we bought him from Breck last year, but they are more of a wind breaker, so his legs were really cold.

We met up with Brian and Bob at Vista House. We had started with a group of 9, but Mary and Jim, who I have met several times, decided to go home, and a father/son combo met up with their wives. So we had two guys left, Randy and Tom. Brian and Bob joined us after lunch, and we skied Spruce ( a black) and then one of my favorite runs, Swinger, which had now been groomed for the first time this year.

Bob and I left, ran to City Market to pick up 3 lbs. of ground beef. We walked the dogs, and I made dog food(1 lb) and started the chili for this evening, using the other 2 lbs. of ground beef. The chili went into the crock pot and we headed down to the Senior Center for the “Intro to Square Dancing” chili dinner. I had volunteered to make chili because that way we know that there is no bell pepper in at least one crock pot of chili! The intro appeared to be a success, as there were a lot of people there. I had 8 people, Brian/Kathy, Craig/Terilu, Phyl/Neal, and Joyce/Dan.  I danced with Brian and Kathy danced with Bob. They had a great time, but I am not sure that they are going to sign up for the classes, which I can understand, as they are leaving in April and would not have time to dance before they left. To learn to Square Dance, you have to dance a lot to become comfortable with learning the dance moves.

Craig and Terilu left after dinner. They broke the news that they are having to leave. Terilu is having respiratory problems and is in a lot of pain. The pain medications that she was taking at the hospital in Denver seemed to have masked a back injury. They had also found some scarring or something on the chest X-rays in Denver in her lungs. So they decided that they need to go to a lower elevation and to their own doctors. They are planning to leave as soon as possible. To be perfectly honest, she really does not look good. Her eyes are glassy, she has no appetite, her color is poor and she has no energy. It is a really good idea for them to leave, but we are going to miss them!

Wednesday-  The motor home was rocking during the night from the wind. Kathy and Brian had volunteered to take Craig and Terilu’s places. Kathy needed another day to make her 20, and Brian is just trying to see how much he can ski this year.  I went to the Rec. Center to exercise.

The wind picked up, although it was not too bad here at Tiger Run. The RV repair guy had called yesterday to say that he was coming up to install the cooling unit in the refrigerator, but Bob received a text ( don’t text us we do not have a text plan) letting us know that he had been blown off of I-70 and would be coming tomorrow. I had taken a nap and Bob told me this when I surfaced.

At 5, we went over to the activity center for the wine and cheese. I had defrosted some  “ Wholly Guacamole”  and added some ingredients to make Guacamole for tonight and again for tomorrow. So it is Guacamole week( as well as chili week! )

Steve and Doreen had purchased a card for Terilu, which we all signed. Craig told everyone that they were sorry that they had to leave as they felt like they were leaving family. Yea, we feel that way too…. They went back to their motor home so that Terilu could lay down.

Around 7, we started playing Mexican Train, Doreen won again this week! There was Betty, John, Brian, Kathy, Doreen, Bob and I . We had a great time with lots of teasing and laughing! When we left, about 9 :45, it was snowing! They announced on the news that we are under a blizzard warning from mid-night to noon tomorrow.

Thursday- We slept better last night as the wind did not rock the motor home. Since we have Craig and Terilu’s cooler, we cleaned that out and let it dry. We borrowed Steve and Doreen’s ‘freezer”. We have a freezer in our basement, but theirs is larger than ours. They had offered it before, and we should have taken them up on it. We moved everything that does not need to be frozen to it, and set it on refrigerator. This is a lot easier! Since we are still under the blizzard warning, we do not expect the RV tech guy. The weather does not look good for tomorrow either! 

Bob went over to help Craig with taking down the insulation and trying to unfreeze the tires. He returned the cooler. Craig had purchased a case of toe warmers from Cosco. We were buying a box from them, and Brian/Kathy were purchasing  two boxes. We took a second box and sold one of their new, never used, earpieces to Tom for the Motorola radios we use for GSA. So he was also paying Craig for these items. Craig had gone up to the locker room and told Sandy they were having to leave. He is also trying to get some money back for Terilu’s lesson package and the “Babes on Bumps” program that she had signed up for….

I started some laundry and walked over to assist Terilu with packing up the inside of the motor home  Kathy and Brian were also there. We vacuumed and put items away. The sun came out and the road at the tunnel cleared so Craig decided they were launching at noon. We stayed in the motor home while Terilu took a quick shower. Terilu was telling us that last evening she had gone to the bathroom at the activity center. She was in the handicap stall and could not stand up. Linda ( she cuts my hair)  found her there. She called Craig and the two of them walked Terilu out to the car. So they are going strait to St. Anthony’s in Denver.

At just about 12 they took off. Linda, Dee and Al escorted them to Idaho Springs, with Al driving their Jeep Cherokee and then driving back. Meanwhile, I called the hosts, Fred and Marinanna at the Elks Lodge in Westminster to make sure that there was an open place for their motor home. There was, so I let Craig know.

We returned to the motor home. In the afternoon, we went to the Loosey Goosey wine and cheese.  Craig called in the evening to let us know that they found blood in Terilu’s spinal column from T3 down on the MRI. So she was admitted to the Neurological ICU. They had been so concerned about her head, and the pain med masked her back pain, that they never discovered that she was having a problem in her back.  Also, her oxygen level was 82! They put you on oxygen at 89! I never could figure out why they sent her home without oxygen, since they had trouble getting her off the oxygen the first time that they sent her home. They knew she was going up another 4,000 feet in altitude!

Friday- Because there was a possibility that the RV guy was coming today, Bob and I had traded GSA days. I rode with John to the mountain. I was assigned to the gondola base for my first run. I was with Jane and Denny, both who were new this year. Jane is a retired nurse and Denny is a retired GI doctor. We had a nice time down at the bottom greeting people.

I was free until 2 PM, when I had to do the Peak 7 hut until 3:15, and lock up the hut for the day. Before lunch, I was taking some pictures of a group of guests, when I heard a call from Denny that he was going to be late for his hut duty. So I called Janet, the supervisor, to tell her that I would go cover until he was able to get there.

I ran down to the base of the lift and rode up to cover. Denny was only a few minutes late. The skiing was wonderful, as it was snowing. I went to lunch at Ski Hill Grill, and lucked out, arriving just as they were passing out free,  fresh, still warm, cookies!

After lunch I did a couple of great runs on Peak 7. I had decided to get on the lift on the other side, so that I could do one more run before my hut assignment. This was about 1:30. When I reached the top of the lift, I got off to the right. The lady on my left cut me off, I ran over the back of her skis, and had my first fall of the year. I did a face plant into the snow. Since I was going so slow, my skis did not come off. It was a stupid fall, but I immediately knew I was injured. Since my ski did not come off, my legs/ankles were in a bad position. The woman stopped, and helped me get my skis off, as I could not do it in the position I was in. I got up, put my skis on, and glided over to the Peak 7 hut with my weight on my right ski, as my left ankle hurt. Jane saw me coming and said, ‘you look cold’. I told her no, I was injured, so she assisted me into the hut. ( I was to relieve her, but she and Denny took my shift). We knew not to loosen or take off my ski boot, as it works quite well as a splint. She phoned the ski patrol, as I knew that I could not ski down. I also told her to call Janet on the radio, and ask her to call the hut. Janet immediately did, and Jane explained that I was injured. The patroller, Justin, arrived. I begged him to take me down on a ski mobile, but since it was a 10-50, he had to take me down in a sled. I really, really begged! 

While Justin was going to get the sled, I called Bob. I could hear Bob perfectly, but he could not hear me very well. He did understand– injured, ski patrol, FAR!

Justin and Jane helped me out of the hut to the sled. Justin slid me down his legs, then I shimmied over into the sled. You go into the sled with your head facing down the hill. The patroller then skis down the hill with you behind him. I was glad that I had a guy, as they do have some of these little gals who do this! All I could think of was the square dancing patroller from Cooper Mountain, who a couple of weeks ago had torn his ACL while taking a man down the mountain. He was close to the bottom when it occurred, but he struggled not to lose the guest in the sled. EEEK!

So we glided down the slopes. Justin was awesome, letting me know when we were going to go down steeper areas and that he was not going to let me tip over. Since I love this slope, and ski it often, I pretty much knew where I was the whole time. I was really dreading the steep part at the bottom, but it was not too bad. The sled was cold and the ride was bumpy!

Janet could not get to the FAR ( first aid room) to meet me so she had called Tom to meet me. I had heard that Tom was like a mother hen when one of us was injured, and bless his heart he certainly was! He called Janet at one point saying that we had not arrived and Janet let him know that Jane had called to let her know that we had just left the hut. Tom met us at the FAR and assisted Justin and I getting me over to the gurney from the sled. Tom took my skis and radio and headed over to the locker with them.

Justin took me in and the paramedic, whose name I never found out, took my vital signs. Justin assisted me with taking off my boots. He offered me pain meds, but if he gave them to me, I had to go by ambulance to the BMC. If I did not take them, then I could go in the free “fracture taxi”, so I declined the meds. I had heard a crack when I fell, and was afraid that I had broken something, but if I did, it was not displaced. My whole foot and ankle hurt, and I knew it was swelling. Taking off the boot was not too bad and Justin immediately started icing the foot/ankle. Since the whole thing, including my leg up to my knee hurt, we could not isolate what, exactly, was injured. Justin took my information and the paramedic called for the ‘fracture taxi”.

While Tom was in the locker room, Tom Braun, from Tiger Run was there. He saw Tom ,the supervisor, with the clipboard listing the locker numbers and combinations, struggling to get our locker open. Tom B helped Tom get the locker open, Tom grabbed my boots, and when Tom B closed the locker he realized it was ours. So he offered to take my boots over to the FAR. Tom said no, as he wanted to check on me. So Tom, Tom B, and Bob all arrived at the same time.

Tom checked on me and went back to work. I asked Tom B to call John to let him know that I was not riding home with him. He called John and left a message, then he called Betty, John’s wife to let her know. He spoke with her. She also called John and left a message. Then he called his wife Marian. So the telephone lines were going, with everyone being informed I was injured. Brian and Kathy were even notified.

John never checked his phone, and Betty called him in the locker room. He answered the phone and told her he was waiting for me! She told him what happened. They drove by our motor home, but we were not back yet.

I was transferred, by a nice guy named Brian, another paramedic, in the ‘fracture taxi’ van to the BMC ( Breck Medical Center) which is run by Centra ( St. Anthony’s). Actually, the FAR, which is a free service, is run by Centura also.  The BMC is an emergency room and is in our insurance plan, so we are hoping that the visit was covered 100%, although I did have to pay $25 for the xray. I was already in their system because I had my mammogram done at the hospital in Frisco.

Bob followed in the car, and we know to park in the hotel next door, which allows 2 hours free parking. He had taken everything except my coat with him. The staff checked with Breck to make sure that since I was working when this occurred that they thought Breck would pay for everything. Nope, I am a volunteer, so neither of us expected Breck to pay for the ER visit.

Bob helped me out of my uniform pants. They even made me take off my long underwear bottoms. ( I was glad that I had shaved my legs, TMI?) Then I was off to Xray.

A resident came in and checked me over. She did a through exam. Then the 18 year old doctor arrived. I swear, that was how old she looked! Then she did another thorough exam. Both of them had done the ‘reflex’ for my Achilles tendon, and it was testing okay so neither of them thought that it was torn. There was a small shadow on the back of the heel bone that could be an issue or could normal for me.  So they gave me an option of a bubble cast or a walking boot. I took the boot. Then I had a choice of crutches or a cane, I chose a cane. They could supply the crutches or we could buy a cane at City Market ( $17). By this time, the pain had lessened considerably  and we could tell that it was located on the sides and back of the ankle. ( although my left thigh was sore, but that was muscular).

We were out of there in 1.5 hours. Bob stopped at City Market to drop off my pain prescription and to pick up a cane. He bought me a red one, which has roses all over it! So he gave me red roses (so sweet! )

While Bob was in the market, I called Jeanne back, as she had called. She was in Denver and had visited Terilu. She said Terilu was doped up on pain drugs, but was doing okay. She also was very pleased as she knew her back doctor and neurologist. She even knew the nurse who was caring for Terilu. She was very pleased with the care that Terilu was getting! That made all of us happy to hear that!

Jeanne let Dave and Craig know I was injured. Bob dropped me off at the motor home, took the dogs for a quick walk, and went back to get my prescription. He cooked dinner and we settled in to watch TV, with me in the recliner with my leg propped up, iced and I had two canine lap warmers.

Terilu called me from the Neuro ICU and we had a nice chat. I took the pain med and dropped off into a drugged coma for the night. I did have to get up at around 2 am to take my next dose. The staff at the BMC told me to sleep in the walking shoe, to keep my Achilles tendon flexed, so I did. They also told me not to put on a sock so that I could keep an eye on my foot/toes. I  followed that instruction tonight, but will not in the morning.  I do get up and walk every hour to avoid a DVT and I check the foot frequently.

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