Just a few days after my previous post Carol slumped down in the shower as I was helping her dry with her left arm in that wrist to elbow cast. I helped her to the bed, a distance of less than 5 feet, where she clearly was not responding well. Against her objections I used the service she has worked so hard to implement, I dialed 4911 on our landline and was reassured when Nancy, her co-chair, and Sharon both responded while I spoke with the 911 responder. Almost immediately Nancy and Sharon, both former nurses, were with us. Making sure Carol had clothes and comfort while we waited for the paramedics. First to arrive was CalFire Rescue and one of them occupied me with getting together all of her meds and medical history. Sharon drove down to the gate to admit the ambulance and guide them to our site. As I was getting ready to follow the ambulance to Temecula Valley Hospital, Sharon started putting things in my hands and in a bag so i would have what I needed when I got there. The last thing she handed me was the car keys which I had put down in my distraction. Thank you to Nancy and Sharon and to the whole 4911 team. You are such an important support arm in time of need.

The rest of the story is shorter. Between meds and a determination to keep her sodium levels down, Carol had succeeded to a magnificent extent resulting in low sodium and dehydration which lead to the faint (syncope). 18 hours on IV drip with saline resolved that and she was able to go home the next day. In two days she will see her Primary Care Physician and the Orthopedic Doctor to put a smaller cast on her. 

 That is I am sure TMI!

We had delightful visit with Miriam, Yechiel and family. They came to Temecula and stayed in an Air BnB in town. This put then 20 minutes from us as opposed to over 2 hours. We mostly hung out while the boys road their bikes on the Vail dirt bike trails or met with friends from Astro Camp who live nearby. We took a lovely ride on January 1, headed for Julian, but we met a major traffic obstruction. Apparently we were not the only people with that idea. So we went the other way through Roma and Escondido and north on the 15 to take a brief drive through Old Town Temecula which was also crawling with traffic. We were glad to settle back into the house on De Portola for the evening.

I am writing this on my new laptop. It is has a lot of storage packed into a very slim case. I think this is my third Lenovo ThinkPad . I will miss the numeric keypad, but I really don’t do a lot with numbers any more. 

In parting here is a picture of our West Coast family: Azriel, Miriam, Yechiel and Avi.