November 26 - December 9, 2017 
November 26 - December 9, 2017  |
Sunday November 26, 2017 Sorry for such a long time, Family get togethers and my Mother's ongoing problems have kept me busy. My Mother, Vivien, has had an ongoing problem with her left arm. She twisted it several weeks ago when she tried to climb up the stairs by her self. She had the arm put in a soft cast for weeks and it still is hard for to do anything with it. Then the other day she twisted her right arm and had to go to the emergency several times, including Thanksgiving Day. The doctors are now saying her bones are so brittle she has permanently lost all function in her Right arm. Her left arm which has been a problem for a long time is still not cleared to use. She is now in a straight jacket of sorts to keep the Right arm from being moved. She now has around the clock care which can be a problem with finances. She has a house that is worth a lot of money so we may have to borrow money on it or move her to an assisted care place. She is totally against that so we need to do some research and then on Wednesday Pat, Susie and I will go down to talk to her again. On Thursday I have to go in for my pre-op for my scheduled Knee replacement on December 4. I will be out of commission for a week or so. I am tough so I am sure I will be driving again after a week or so. Our late harvest wine is perking away and Friday it was down to 32% sugar. Josh will be back on Monday and we will analyze to see where the alcohol is. I want 25% sugar and 10-11% alcohol. The wine will be bottled in January. Tuesday November 28, 2017 Two of my best friends are now 75 years old. I hope I will be there next year and on to Italia We had great response on our free shipping for Good Friday and beyond so let me know if you missed out as I have said I want to sell wines at great prices............ So I like Espresso, but I like when I get it in a restaurant since it is not as hot. Here I have a great espresso maker............. so if anyone here, ask, I will make you an espresso, but may take awhile so have some wine if interested when here., ..............so tonight I went out and loaded too much in the cup for espresso ground as usual to a very fine point. My espresso is intense so I made too much and burned my tongue because I did not wait for it to cool.............. So Josh was back today said he had a great time with his family. He said the plane flights were an adventure. We have all the info for our bottling in January. Jose and Josh are doing a great job, and of course Catalina and Jesse are her to help all of us including me since: I am having my knee done on December 4, it will be fun since I can drink more wine for pain relief, yes it will be fun starting on December 4........................................................................... Saturday December 2, 2017 I am getting ready for my surgery on Monday so I will be out of commission for a few days. Josh and I have decided to delay the blending of our 2017 wines until after our Open House on December 9. By then I will be in fine shape to decided on which barrels to use. Here are two links to where we are staying tomorrow, the night before my surgery. The restaurant looks great..... http://www.harvestinn.com/ http://www.harvesttablenapa.com/ Wednesday December 5, 2017 I am alive!! I would not recommend a full knee replacement to anyone unless you absolutely need it. The pain is intense, more than I remember when I was 69 years old 5 years ago. Here's what I had to say about that first operation: Sunday May 6,
2012
10:00 Pm: I am trying to get up for the operation on Wednesday. I have been doing too much, like putting new birthday gifts together. They are nice but a workout for an old guy like me. Tomorrow I go for a check up with my new doctor, an internist. She is younger than I so she will keep me healthy, we will see if she qualifies. I had a customer here yesterday and pleaded with me to do both legs the same time. He said I should come to his hospital and we could get it done next week. There were two customers here who worked at that hospital and I know they have power so I assume they could get it done in the next week or so....BUT do I want both knees done at the same time............... I am having as much trouble with my right knee as my left one scheduled for Wednesday. I have been so surprised with my right knee. When I was 16 I tore or pulled my tendons in my right knee. I had a lot of trouble navigating stairs. It hurt for weeks. That right knee has not given me trouble until the last few months, 53 years later. Back in December I went to an orthopedic doctor who had done 100's of knees. I wanted an opinion because I was having trouble with my left knee. I got the impression he was not into the latest thing....long story. When I was manipulated by this doctor while an assistant was taking exrays...I hurt. My legs are bowlegged. He tried to stretch out and pull my legs so they were less bowlegged and I believe my right leg suffered. Of course my concern is can my right leg hold up when my left leg will be useless for a week. Do I ask my new doctor over in St. Helena...(Not the one in Santa Rosa, he is no more).....please do both knees? I have heard Dr. Coon does not like to do both knees at the same time. I guess I will ask tomorrow, because I will not have time again until the end of October....Bottling, July and then............Harvest................ Friday May 11, 2012 I am alive. There is pain so I did take a little pain killer. I got little sleep the first night so 4 ounces of tequila last evening and one glass of wine was plenty for me. I will try a glass of wine again tonight. The ice machine they gave me does not seem to work well so I may just use an ice bag. My knee is very large from the swelling so I need to find out how to decrease it. I called Dr. Coon's office and the answering machine told me to leave a message. It has been 3 hours with no call back so I am not happy. Catarino is just about through planting our new vines and I hope to go out in the vineyard next Monday to see if everything is under control. I will have more about the operation at another time. Right now I have to walk awhile and put some ice on my knee. 8:30 Pm: Yes the pain is strong, but is nothing like my hernia operations many years ago or my emergency appendectomy four years ago. I have stopped taking pain killers. I can deal with the pain because it is down my leg, NOT in the middle of my body. This evening I am feeling pretty good. I cooked dinner as usual which caused Pat to be upset because she thought I should be resting. I can imagine most people who have knee replacements don't do what the specialists suggest the first few days.....if they did it is painful. I could be wrong by doing so much but I am trying to do what these specialists who probably have not had a knee replacement ask us to do. Maybe they know something. The main thing I want to do is move around. The specialists want us to walk over one hour a day. I dislike walking unless I accomplish something. (Like today I got some wine for a customer.....I even used the walker a little. It has a basket to carry back the four bottles) I hate exercising.....what do I accomplish. Unless I accomplish something when I exert myself I have no interest. (I have done some of the basic exercises that are suggested). SO I cooked dinner both the last two nights. That way I can walk around the kitchen. My FITBIT (a great tracker, look it up) says so far today I have taken 3400 steps and traveled 1.63 miles And used up 2050 calories (I usually use over 2700 calories all day but it is early in the night). That is not bad for someone who has gone through this surgery. I think cooking my dinner, tasting some wine and having an espresso in the winery keeps me active. Tomorrow is another day.......... Sunday May 13, 2012 I had two small glasses of Gin tonight and some wine so again the pain is less. The pain today was intense so I even tried one narcotic pill which did not help. At this point I have used 4 of these pills and the staff at Dr. Coon's have provided me with a total of 160, maybe some people need 8 a day for 20 days. Tomorrow I want to traverse out in the vineyard. I gave up the walkers two days ago and have been traveling about three miles a day according to my Fit Bit. I have walked a lot and walked up stairs constantly. Tomorrow in the vineyard I want to see if I can walk over uneven ground amongst a lot of rock. It will be a big test. Catarino is near through planting our new vines so I want to see what has happened. I am ready!!!! Wednesday May 23, 2012 9:00 Pm: I am doing better each day, but I am impatient. My knee is getting stronger. It is now better than my right knee which may be later. I am elevating a few times a day BUT I dislike it because it is hard to get near the computer. So I usually go up and ice down at 11 and 3 and read Gone With The Wind.....82% through. Gee it would have been fun trying to tame Scarlett......what a unique character, the book and then Vivien Leigh. What a performance. She had quite a life after Gone With The Wind when she was 26 years old. So I have been grouchy again. But at a good time..........It is so nice I can walk again so Catarino and I had a great travel out in the vineyard the other day. We had a nice stay in St Helena the day before and the operation was delayed until l:00pm on Monday. Actually I think I was given more drugs this time because I remember nothing after I went through the big doors into the operating room. The next thing I knew, it was 4:00pm. The recovery after that was not easy. At 8:00pm I was told to get up and try to walk with my walker. I could not bend my foot back but I was encouraged to get up and try. I was about to fall when I was caught by the nice male nurse. He was persistent so we tried again at 9:30. I was successful then but I still had very little balance. I was still numb on my right side where the full knee was done. That Monday night into Tuesday morning I got very little sleep! They had put vibrators on my feet and every 30 seconds I would hear a rumbling sound. Also I could not get comfortable. I was on my back so I tried to lean to the left away from my right knee with little success. About 6:00am I was interrupted by a nurse to draw blood. At that point I gave up trying to sleep. I was told the physical therapy nurse was coming in soon. That did not happen until 10:30. Susie and Pat were in the room by 9:30am so that was nice. I actually had no pain until driving home at 1pm!!!............. The drive home was a hard time, maybe the hardest I have experienced. Susie was driving but I had to pee! Flash back to 7am: I was told I had to pee before I could go home. They had put a catheter into my penis so the pee could go out automatically. When it was removed I assume it had blocked the passage somewhat. I was encouraged to drink some liquids. Between 6:30am and 11:00am I stupidly consumed 2600 ml of water and tea. That is the equivalent to over 84 ounces of liquid!!! It had to come out at some point and the first time it was 12 noon. Very little came out between then and when we left at 1:00pm. Our drive home was to be one hour. After about 20 minutes I had the strong urge to pee. As you know to hold your pee can be painful, but I have never had to hold back 2600 ml. I had to clamp the flow with my fingers!! At the 45 minute mark I said to Susie, I could not stand the pain anymore or I would pee in a plastic bag I saw near. So we made a stop at Field Stone Winery. I could barely get out of the car with the pain coming on from my knee and the urge to pee. Yes, I got out in the vineyard so I could fertilize one of their vines. Until this morning I have had to pee all that 2600 ml of liquids. Last night I added several more ounces of wine and water with pizza. I paid for it many times in the middle of the night since I had to get up several times. I still had no trouble sleeping most of the 11 hours in bed......... Yes Susie and I made homemade pizza last night. She did most of the work, but I helped by guiding her. It was a lot of fun, but the pain in my right side was finally coming on strong. As usual, I had some Tequila. This time it was only two ounces but it made me feel warm and more comfortable. I had taken 2 Ibuprofen three hours earlier. I then had one glass of wine. Tonight I may try more. At 2:30am last night I decided to take two oxycodone. It is a class one narcotic. I got up at 5:00am to pee and I could tell the Oxy worked better than Ibiproen. I am taking some now at 2:00pm and will not take more until 9:00pm. In the mean time I will try a little Tequila and wine at about 5:30. It will be fun for awhile until the pain starts again when I go to bed. Actually when I am in bed staying still the pain is very little. It is when I get up, the pain is intense..........Tomorrow is another day |
Dave For any comments or questions I encourage any of you to e-mail.....david@coffaro.com |
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