bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- We left Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails at 9:00 AM. I followed Bob in the car, running interference with the crazy drivers. As we were driving out of the park, Bob called me on the radio to let me know there was a hot air balloon landing ahead of us.

We drove west to I-15 on SR 74. We turned north on I-15 and continued all the way to I-210 west. I had noted that the Blue Ox cover was coming off, so at one point, we turned off of I-210 to pull into a Park n’ Ride to fix it. We never found the Park n’ Ride, so we pulled off onto the side of the road and took it off, before continuing on our journey. It is hard to find a parking place for a 40 ft. motor home!

We exited onto the 118 freeway west , then a few miles later onto the 405 south. We took the second exit onto Roscoe Blvd, then a left onto Balboa Blvd. and into Balboa RV Park.

Susan welcomed us and told us we would be in site 120. The guy who is in our site, 169, was supposed to have moved his rig, and instead, he went to San Diego. He will not be back until late Sunday evening, so we will  actually be staying in 120 for two nights. We don’t fit, as it is a smaller site and has only 30 amp service.

Bob had to park the motor home between the sewer opening and this wall. He made it, but for us to be able to open the bedroom slide, he had to back into the site behind us. Fortunately, it is only for two nights.

Before we had left Menifee, Bob had gone to the freezer in our basement to get out some dog food. The freezer was not working! Fortunately, the dog food was still frozen, but we had hit a sale on chicken and we ended up throwing out all the chicken we had stored in the freezer. So we moved the rest of the dog food to the refrigerator freezer. This meant, that Bob had to figure out what the problem was; it was a loose wire, so an easy fix.

I was outside making sure that we did not hit anything when we were putting out the big slide when I heard, “oh crap” and the slide stopped.  We found that one of the cabinets had opened; the hinges broke, but the door was okay, so Bob is going to fix that tomorrow. We took a nap,  ate dinner, did some laundry and watched TV.

Sunday- Super Bowl Sunday! We went grocery shopping at Walmart, then stopped at Von’s to supplement, then on to Trader Joe’s for some wine.  We returned to the motor home, put the groceries away, and went to a plumbing supply store that was open on Sunday. Unfortunately ,they did not have the parts that Bob needs. So we stopped for gas, $3.86( the best we could find, the average is $3.99; it was $ 3.15 in Arizona).

Next we stopped at Blockbuster. We had noticed a $15.95 charge from them on our checking account. We had tried calling but it was not the correct number either on the bill or on the internet. So we stopped in to check on the charge. We had checked out a Dexter DVD on Jan. 3, I had returned it, through the drop box, on Jan. 4, before we left Van Nuys. The gal who was there could not find the DVD, so Bob is going to have to return tomorrow to speak with the manager. She had said it sometime happens that they put the DVD on the shelf without checking it back in. Hopefully we will get this resolved, as we have some movies we want to watch.

We returned home and started working on paying bills and updating the budget. Steve, the owner of the park came by to apologize for the mix up with the sites. He is pretty upset with the guy who is in our site. He had  reminded him that he had to move on Friday, and instead he took off for San Diego. This means that the people who were to move into 120 cannot get into the site, since we are in it, and we cannot get into our site, 169. The guy was supposed to move to another site, which is smaller, since his rig is smaller. Nice of him to inconvenience two other couples! He has known about this since he arrived at the park.

We ate lunch and I did laundry while Bob worked on fixing the cabinet door, until the game started. We watched the game. Yea Ravens!

Monday- My first day of work, back at West Hills Hospital. I arrived to a “we survived January 2013 and welcome back Denise party!”

Just loved the California flip flops balloons!

I was hugged and welcomed back by the Case Managers and welcomed by the nurses on my floor,  5 East. Nice to be missed and appreciated!

The day went pretty well. My passwords worked. Everything was great until I went to do some reviews. I was locked out of Interqual, the  Utilization Review software. I kept trying but could not get in. So I called IT and while on hold I worked on getting updated on all my email. About the time the IT guy said to me that I had not taken the Interqual class, I found an email telling me that I was going to be locked out ( dated Jan. 29) of Interqual. Nice to know that I had needed to take a class!. I had been scheduled to take the class in December, but Laura cancelled it. So now I am locked out until we don’t know when. I am having to do the reviews in Word, then email them to Laura, who copies them into Interqual and sends them to the insurance company. Oh well.

Meanwhile, Bob had met with the manager at Blockbuster. We got the refund. Evidently, the DVD was checked back in on 1/10, when someone else went to check it out, so they had fined us a late fee. Bob explained to the manager that we were not even in this area on 1/10.

Also, we still have not changed sites. They guy is not even responding to phone calls from Steve, so we still sit here, in site 120.

Tuesday-  A busy day at work. Still have not changed sites, except this time I noticed that there was an Explorer in the 169 parking space. A guy got out of it and took something out of the backseat, then went into the motor home.

Wednesday- One of those great days at work.  First though, I was to take the Interqual class. I found this out and to do it, I had to do about 45 minutes of ‘pre-class” work. I found out at 8:40, to I could not complete the pre-work in time to get into the 9AM class. Oh well!

Sometimes you just know that you have made a difference in some ones life! Actually, everyday I make a difference, at work, as I arrange for rehabilitation or equipment. This time I REALLY made a difference.

ICK factor warning!!

Since my census was down, I was assigned five of Mary’s patients. One of them needed to have set up a ‘fecal’ transplant. Yes, that is exactly what I mean! Yes, they really do these. I had read about it a couple of years ago, when a study had come out about this procedure. I won’t go into details, but  it is for “pan-colitis” which occurs when a person has had antibiotics and when the bowel re-colonizes, the bad bugs overtake the good bugs. The patient suffers , basically the stomach flu, all the time! It is pretty awful. By the time they are diagnosed with the pan-colitis, they have been through every medication to stop this and have lost a significant amount of weight, usually  8 months to a year later.

So I started calling hospitals to find a place to send the patient. First I called UCLA. it is really funny. When the guy answered the phone, there was a big pause, then he told me he would check on it and call me back. I am sure he thought I was crazy. I never heard from him again.

My second call was to an older African American southern woman at Cedars Sinai, named Gwen. She also hesitated, then informed me that I was looking for a colon transplant. I explained, no I was looking for a fecal transplant, I was not crazy, and she could Google it. Her answer was” honey, when I get off the phone that is the first thing I am going  to do!”  She said she would check on it and call me back. The third place I called was USC, and Stephanie, who also hesitated, said she would check and call me back. She did, almost immediately. They have three doctors who do them in their Colorectal Clinic. This turned out to be easier than I thought it was going to be.

I started gathering together info on the patient to fax to USC, when the phone rang, and it was Mary, saying that the Doc had cancelled it and was sending the lady home. Huh, NOPE! I paged the Doc and explained that I had found a place. He was ecstatic! He did not think there was anywhere around! So I ended up faxing all the information to his office and giving the info to the patient. We still sent the patient home, but at least she went home with some hope for a cure! The Doc was so excited because he has a lot of patients with this issue and it means he now has a way to get them treated. This was the Infectious Disease Doctor, not a GI Doctor. Next thing I know his partner, called because he was also excited, so not only did I make both of their days, I also helped not only this patient but a lot of other people! Yea!

How would you or I avoid getting this? I was very worried about this, since last March when I was hospitalized in Denver, The Doctors gave me very heavy antibiotics to clean out my bowels before they did the procedures.  So I knew I was at a very high risk of this occurring. As soon as our wheels hit the pavement when we were going back to Breck, I started eating yogurt. Can I tell you that is what you need to do to prevent this? No, but so far so good for me. This problem can occur months later, so I was really heavy on the yogurt, two a day, for two weeks. I do this every time I have antibiotics; so does Bob. NOTE: do not eat yogurt near the time that you take antibiotics by mouth! It will give you a very upset stomach. Eat the yogurt between doses.

When we arrived home, the Explorer was there again. Bob had spoke with Steve during the day, so he called him and told him the vehicle was there again. Steve went over and talked to the guy. The guy told Steve he had been in an accident. When I saw him, he did not look like he had an issue, but we trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. We are to move on Monday!

Thursday- a normally busy day at work.

Friday- Very busy, as all Friday’s are. I had to transfer a patient to UCLA for surgery on Sunday. This is different from Prince Georges Hospital. There the Doc’s do the hospital to hospital transfers, here we do them. A learning experience for me.

I was exhausted when I left work today! I am really glad that Bob is doing all the laundry and cooking!

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