The Truck Brake Saga

I had to take my truck to the Brake Store this morning. My brakes are definitely due for replacement. They are making a grinding noise when I come to stop and it’s easily two weeks overdue.

So first thing this morning, I loaded the e-bike into the bed of the truck and took off for Golden Rule Brakes. There were a number of people in line when I got there. I sat down with my coffee and awaited my turn.

When my turn came, I took it. He got all my info and I went out to re-park the truck and unload the bike.

I took off for home. I had a slight problem at the start when I realized the chain had come off the peddle sprocket. I was easily able to reattach the chain. I was only about a mile away from home and there was a break in the rain we’ve had for the last couple of days, so it was going to be an easy ride.

Or not. 

I had ridden a few blocks when I noticed the bike was making an odd sound. It was as if the rear tire was rubbing on the fender. I soon figured out that the tire was losing air. By the time I got to Indiana and Howard, the tire was flat. 

So I had to push the bike home from there. No big deal. It was only a few blocks away from the house. But, with my reduced stamina, it was quite a slog. I had to stop after each block to catch my breath.

I made it home with only my stamina in distress, which I have now recovered.

Now I have to wait for the bad news of how much my brakes are going to cost.

11:27AM: Ooooooh. This is ugly. The grand total for everything they found that needs work on is just short of five grand.

I am having them do the brakes which is going to be $1,800.

The remaining work includes replace front sway bar bushings, replace front struts, and replace rear shocks. The total for all that is about $2,400.

I guess I’m going to get that work done but I’m not sure when.

3:47PM: I just got the truck back and boy is it nice. It stops really well and it doesn’t make that horrible noise. I’ m happy for now.

October BP

 

Return from GrapeTown

We have returned from our trip to Prosser to get some grapes. We got 100 pounds of Cabernet Franc.

We ran them through the crusher today and they are sitting in the vessel, awaiting the pitching of yeast.

That will be in a couple of days and then we will move on the pressing the grape pulp in about a week.

Breathing Report

For the last two days, I've had issues breathing when I wake up in the morning. I have slept well through both nights, but starting at around 5:30, I start having trouble getting a full, satisfying breath. Lying on my back or my stomach improves the situation slightly, but it's still an issue I'm aware of. 

When I get up, I feel like I'm struggling to get a full breath and then after a few minutes, all is well.

I've gained nine pounds over the last week and I've notified my Doctor about that and what's happening with my breathing.

I've been instructed to increase Torsemide (the diuretic that makes me pee) to two pills in the morning and two in the evening for three days and then report in and let them know if I lost any weight.

We are off to YakVal for the weekend for some wine tasting and to get 100 pounds of grapes.

I'll report in when there is something to report in on.

Stanford Transplant Decision

Just got off the phone with Nurse Tamara from Stanford. They have turned me down for a transplant.

I have also received a letter from Tamara that says, "Our team does not think you would be a good lung transplant candidate due to your prior surgical history, pleural plaques, age and kidney disease."

She also talked about the difficulty they believe it would be just to remove my lungs. She said something about calcification or some other sticky matter that makes my lungs attached to my ribs, something like that.

So now the question is, how long have I got? But then, none of us really know that, do we!?

 

September BP

 

Stanford Trip Two

A few hours ago, we arrived home after a quick trip to Stanford University. The purpose was for a couple of tests, to meet some other doctors, and hopefully get on the list for a transplant.

We will have to wait a bit longer for an answer to getting on the list.

At that point, we will have to decide whether we move to California to wait out the call for a new heart/lung or are we able to stay here until we get that call.

We left last Sunday and had a long drive to Redding, CA. From there it was about a four-hour drive on  Monday morning to Stanford for our first appointment at 1:00PM, which was a CT scan of my chest, lungs and abdomen.

We then drove back to San Fran to stay with Arnie. We had a great dinner that night with Arnie and his daughter, Rebecca at a Tai food place whose name was unpronounceable.

We had more appointments the next day and again on Wednesday, at which point we were finished. I decided to hit the road for the trip home and try to get to Bend, Oregon on the first leg of the trip.

The only mishap was getting rear ended on Monday morning just south of Redding.

We were looking for a place to gas up and picked an exit that turned out to have no gas stations. At the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp, Susan stopped and checked the traffic coming from her left. The sun was just up and very low in the sky, making it hard to see the traffic. She moved up a bit more and stopped. That's when Andrea bumped into us. 

It was a very low speed bump that caused a little impression in our bumper and slightly mis-shaped the bottom of the rear lift gate.

She was very sorry and upset and we exchanged information.

I finally called her insurance company on Friday and made the report. It was quite an ordeal involving lots of questions from an agent, more of the same questions on-line, and then more of the same questions on Susan's behalf, since she was the driver.

The only thing missing was a bunch of 8x10 color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a full explanation of what each one was on the back to be used as evidence against us. Or in this case for us.

And that's not true either. We took plenty of photographs.

Now we wait to see what happens next.