Bill update

Monday afternoon after re-taking the census test I stopped by the nursing home to see Bill.  Marilyn was also there so I had a chance to visit with them both.

I used to hike with Bill until he fell on ice one year ago this week and hit his head.  The swelling in his brain ended up giving him the symptoms similar to many strokes.  He lost his ability to speak other than gibberish, though from his eyes he appears to be aware.  Also he is somewhat paralyzed on one side and can't stand or write.

I hadn't seen Bill since last summer and I had expected his condition to have deteriorated since then, especially since the government health care system won't provide for therapy anymore as apparently they don't want to throw 'good money after bad'.  With no therapy he hasn't improved, but even after all this time he looked good.  He didn't seem to have deteriorated any further.  Perhaps his 'good' physical condition is a result of being in  good shape from all the hiking he had done.  Then again, not exactly a good thing when one is now trapped in their own mind unable to effectively communicate with the world or do most things for themselves.

I spent three hours visiting with Bill and Marilyn.

Cheryl, Bill's niece from Wisconsin, is a 'Jill of all trades' and a photographer.  She had sent Bill three photos she blew up to various poster sizes and which Marilyn had hung on the wall in Bill's room.  They were very nice photos.  One was of the Northern Lights seen from Wisconsin, a waterfall we had seen during a hike she went on with us when she was here last Summer, and the third photo was of Lake McDonald.

More pruning and Bill

Wednesday I finished pruning the apple tree out in the pasture. I really only had to cut one large branch and then cut several other smaller branches with bad bark that looked dead. That will be it for this year on this tree. I don't want to overdo it and cut too much at one time. It will take a few years to lower the tree's height. I also had read that cutting too many of the upper branches is not good as the lower leaves, not used to the sun, get sunburned.

I had to stand on a step ladder and use an extendable pole saw to cut the large branch at the top. I did say the tree was very tall.

It was a nice day and I decided since I had the pole saw I would trim dead branches from some of the trees in the pasture. It does seem pointless. After all, these are 'wild' trees out in the pasture so what does it matter if they have dead branches? But I cut some branches anyway to 'tidy' up some of the trees' look. A number of trees grow together and since these pine trees are notorious for giving up on a branch near another branch and instead race to grow taller, getting rid of dead branches will help nearby trees to keep their live branches.

I found that a couple of pine trees have died. A couple nearby trees don't look as healthy as they should.

All told I spent hours out there cutting branches. No wonder I felt a bit tired when I got back tot he house.

With the warmer weather the animals are more active. The birds that live in the hole in the box elder tree trunk south of the house are back. Yesterday I noticed some birds under the gap where the house roof slightly overhangs the fiberglass roof over my door entry. I hope they don't get the idea that this would be a place to make a nest. The rodents also are active as a week or so ago I caught a shrew in my peanut butter laced mousetrap. This morning a mouse was caught in the trap.

Tuesday I stopped and visited with Bill and Marilyn at Brendan House. I didn't spend too much time with Bill as he got tired and fell asleep. Poor guy. His right half doesn't work, he 'eats' via a feeding tube, and he can't speak other than Martian. He was trying to do something as he couldn't talk to say what he needed. It was confusing to Marilyn and I. After a few minutes and a few tries I guessed what Bill wanted and he nodded yes. And here I don't think I am very good at charades.

I better get to bed. Thursday I am speaking about my bicycle riding and touring at a meeting.

Winter storm

It stormed overnight. The low temperature on my thermometer was -1 F. And the wind blew all night and only died down mid afternoon today.

The temperature inside my house was 45.6 F this morning when I woke up. Strangely it did not feel cold to me. *shrug* Last night when I had the wood stove going it was 69 F at the 10 pm news and weather forecast. That is how much heat the wind "blew" out of my house overnight. At least my well did not freeze.

The wind blew so hard I had a small amount of snow in my house where the wind blew snow through the lower corner of both the front door and screen door.

Snow drifts were all over. Because my fruit tree & garden fence acted as a wind break my driveway was drifted over. I had to shovel it all out before I could drive uptown. The wind did *help* me as it took part of the snow as I tossed it to the side of the driveway. It took me an hour to clear the driveway and I was cold by the time I finished. My fingers tingled as they warmed up when I came inside.

All this wind and drifting is unusual here and I felt like I was back in North Dakota or southern Minnesota.

I got my exercise today shoveling out everything.

By afternoon the wind died down and the sun came out. Even though the temperature only reached 14 F the sun is stronger and surprisingly it started to melt snow in protected areas.

When I was uptown I visited Bill. I only saw him for 10 minutes before a therapist came to take him to a therapy session. Bill was sitting in a wheelchair in front of a table and with a pillow under one arm. He was out in the common area. The only people around were a few other very old ladies in wheelchairs. A few Brendan House staff were flitting about. Still no seat belt on Bill. Apparently it is against Montana law to "restrain" a patient even if it is for their own safety. Poor Bill. He looked so sad. He sat alone in the common area with no one to talk to and nothing to see. He still speaks Martian.

Going full tilt and setbacks

I'm still here. Very tired though.

Saturday I skied 6 miles with Joyce, Karin and Greg. During one of my crashes my left shoe broke off the ski and I had to ski two miles down the mountain on one ski. That was harder than skiing up the mountain on two skis!

Then Sunday Patti showed up during the storm asking if I wanted to go skiing with her. Of course I couldn't say no. We skied a total of 14 miles and didn't get back until after dark - and that is even after the later sunset due to daylight savings time.

Saturday I went and seen Bill and Marilyn. I found out Bill had fallen out of his wheelchair again. Apparently early Saturday morning he fell out before Marilyn arrived. Bill has a red mark just above his right eyebrow the size of a half dollar. Carpet burn. He also has another bruise nearby. Marilyn told me Sunday night the x-ray showed a bump.

That is twice now that Brendan House let him fall out of his wheelchair. Marilyn said within the previous 24 hours Bill's roommate fell and a man in the next room fell. It seems as if staying at Brendan House is dangerous to a person's health. Then Sunday night Marilyn told me Bill's roommate suddenly died early Sunday morning.

Bill was semi-awake when I was there. When he answered me he spoke Martian. Not baby talk. I can make out some words of baby talk. I had no clue what Bill was saying. His voice was strong so my failure to understand was not due to not hearing the words.

These falls out of his wheelchair at Brendan House are not doing Bill any good.

I also found out Marilyn has the same shoe size as me and she lent me her pair of cross country ski shoes along with Bill's snowshoes. Since our weather is typical of January and not March (our high temperatures do not even reach our normal average low temperatures on these dates), it is good to be able to go outside and do stuff. Global warming doesn't exist as we are still in the middle of winter here. Tonight's forecast has a warning about dangerous wind chills and the wind recently starting roaring. More snow is in the forecast and maybe it will get above freezing by the weekend.

But I am tired. Last night I crashed right after eating supper. My wood stove was warm and as soon as I finished supper I was out like a light. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and skiing 14 miles burnt off most of my energy. Between skiing 20 miles the past two days, then shoveling several inches of snow off my long driveway today, I am dragging. Having my well freeze didn't help either as I had no water for part of today until I was able to thaw the water out. With all this activity and the prior warmer weather I forgot to plug in the light bulb to heat my well pump house. It was 28 degrees in there this morning.

Sawing in the snow

Today I decided to prune the apple tree down by the river. I didn't get to this task until the afternoon as I spent the morning running errands uptown and visiting Bill.

Or I tried to visit Bill. First I had to find out where he was. Brendan House moved him to another room. Every time I go see Bill he has been moved. Once I found his new room I found him to be sound asleep. I stopped by at 12:45 pm as I thought he would be done with lunch but not yet started with therapy. Instead he was asleep and Marilyn was not around.

From reports by friends Bill continues to improve. He did suffer one mishap when a Brendan House worker apparently neglected to strap Bill in his wheelchair and he fell out of it and landed on his head. Apparently Brendan House has not changed since the time my father was there.

Back home I decided to prune the apple tree in the pasture. With the recent warmer weather the snow has crusted over and for the most part I was able to walk on top of the snow. Every so often my foot would sink through the snow.

I have only trimmed the pasture apple tree once and that was a few years ago. So this tree is very tall and unruly. I can't reach the apples at the top and each season I have to rely on gravity to get those apples.

After working on the lower branches I was in the middle of using my long pole saw to cut a large branch at the top when the latest weather front arrived. An arctic front from Canada came into the Valley with strong winds and snow.

I finished cutting the branch and ran away when it fell. Then that was it for apple tree trimming. It was too cold and windy. Besides I need a ladder to reach another large branch on top.

On the way home I passed a large tree that had blown over a few years ago and which I have partially cut. The snow had let up and the wind seemed to be a bit less. I decided to trim a few of the tree's extra supporting branches.

I then decided to cut a little to mark where to use the chain saw to cut the tree later. Then I cut a little more. Then a little more. Then more. I decided this made a good workout and kept cutting even though the saw I was using was not ideal.

The snow and wind returned but I was too invested in cutting this tree and I mainly cut with my back to the wind. I was determined to saw through this tree.

By the time I cut through the tree the wind was howling and at times the snow was heavy.

But I did it.


Then through the storm I headed quickly back home. I lit a fire in my wood stove to warm my bones.

The wind is still howling tonight. The snow seems to have let up. Mainly the snow now is what had fallen earlier and is now being blown around. These cold temperatures are predicted to last into next week. This global warming is a myth. We've been nothing but cold this winter and usually below our average temperatures.

Update on Bill

Wednesday I visited Bill. The last time I visited Bill I stopped at Brendan House first and learned Bill was still in the hospital. Today I found Bill's hospital room empty and then had to walk over to Brendan House.

Brendan House is a transitional medical facility. I also found that in the years since dad had been in Brendan House they built a new 'pod' of rooms, in effect doubling the size of the transitional medical part of the nursing home.

An occupational therapist was working with Bill when I arrived. This was their first time working together and the therapist was trying to figure out Bill's abilities and weaknesses. The therapist was the same person who worked with dad years ago.

Bill is unable to talk and makes unintelligible noises when he tries to talk. But today he was awake and alert and understood many things, while some things passed him by during the testing with the therapist. He still has a ways to go as his right side doesn't work at all. Marilyn says Bill's condition seems to vary widely from day to day with good or bad days.

Another couple Bill and Marilyn know arrived and we all chatted until several Brendan House staff members came and chased us out of the room as they had to prepare the room for a new roommate for Bill.

Bill update

I learned today that Bill is doing better. He is now out of the drug induced coma, off the ventilator and breathing on his own. He still has a long recovery.

"I'll add that his surgery was successful. The surgeon was pleased, was the report coming through a surgery nurse. Of course, when the surgeon came to explain the surgery, he said it was good. Three catscans show no further bleeding. It is not known yet how he will come out of this."

Bill

I missed some bad weather back in the Flathead Valley. Friday they had a day of freezing rain and ice. Schools were even closed.

I just learned that on Friday a member of my hiking group, Bill, fell on the ice and hit his head when walking outside to get the newspaper. He ended up with a blood clot in his head and underwent three to four hours of surgery to save his life. These next three days are critical for him. Please keep Bill and his wife in your thoughts and prayers. Bill is 75.

This makes three years in a row where something bad happened to someone back in Montana when I was in North Dakota. A couple years ago Bill blacked out and crashed his car. Last year Joyce's sister died suddenly. Now this.