Flat E and the trip to Virginia

Flat E and I went on a business trip to western Virginia. Visiting Lexington, VA we stopped at VMI, Virginia Military Academy. This is a place the some of our forefathers had some adventure during the Civil War.









From Lexington, VA, we traveled along the Maury River were the leaves were pretty. We also found an old lock set for traveling the river, the pictures are below.





After doing some business in Lexington, VA, we traveled to Buena Vista, VA that was only a few miles away. This is another small town in the Shenandoah Valley. Since it was during the fall, the colors were pretty. We also saw a cool sign in the city.





After I did my business, we then traveled back toward Lynchburg, VA from Buena Vista,VA along HWY 501. It starts out along the Maury River, then at the peak of the mountains, 501 parallels the James River where again the colors were great. The views are not as great as out west, but for Eastern Mountains, the view was pretty great.









And then we saw a cool snail. Flat E was too big to fit into the picture.



Hope you like the pictures. We are off to NYC next.

Last Update for K and the Gall Stones

K is doing much better today. She is eating without nausea and has only limited pain, typically A. A will get her laughing and the incisions will hurt, and A will keep going making K laugh harder, making it hurt more, but in a good way, I guess.

K and the Gall Stones, Update 3, Plus other stuff

It is now about 6 PM and K is feeling like she got run over by a truck. All of the nausea, as well as the two procedures have irritated her throat, so when she tries to eat or drink, it hurts. But she says that she feels way better at home than at the hospital, so that is good. Doing anything I can to help, but mostly just leaving her alone to sleep.

Meanwhile, A is on Fall Break but had to take the PCAT this morning. I got up at 6:25 this AM to make sure she was up, but apparently she had slept through her alarm. I knew that I was to hear noises and there were none. I made sure she had a good breakfast before going to the test. The test started at 8:45AM and was done at about 1:30PM.

C also wanted to spend some time at home this weekend, so I have also been making sure her laundry was done while she visited friends today. She needs periodic breaks from school and took Friday and today to give her mind a rest.

Hope your day is going great.

K and the Gall Stones, Update 2

I got the call from K this morning at 6:45 AM. The Doc officially said that she could come home. I will be leaving in a few minutes to get her, but first had to get A off to take the PCAT.

I will post more information later today.

Update, 9:00AM

K is now home and is resting as comfortably as possible given that she had gall baldder removal surgery. She is happy to be home, because the hospital is no place to get any rest.

K and the Gall Stones, Update

K ended up spending last night in the hospital as today the doctor is going to do a ERCP. That means that there was an escapee gall stone that was left over from the laparoscopic procedure that needed to come out. They do this by endoscope (the E in the above acronym). The doctor either destroys or extracts the stone, but one way or the other, it means another painful procedure.

It was done on K at about 1:30 PM today and the Doc says that everything is now fine. This miscreant stone is the probable reason that K had such bad nausea after the initial removal and over night. Now that this is done, K seems in good spirits, is eating liquids without nausea and if she can eat solid foods later this evening or tomorrow AM, should be home by noon.

Thanks for the calls, thoughts and prayers for K. We appreciate the concerns.

The first Flat E trip

E from the left coast sent a Flat E to me so that it could travel the world and report back to her class on those travels. So traveling we went. Below is a picture of Flat E getting ready for our road trip by hanging out at my car. She is waiting to leave on a 900 mile round trip driving from Greensboro, NC to Baltimore, MD.


No matter who you are, it is important to buckle your seat-belt!



Our first stop was at the University of NC to see my cousin A. We had breakfast but did not go onto the campus.



The next stop was some business that D had to do in Raleigh, NC. All Flat E saw was the outside of some industrial building, so there was nothing to photograph.

After that, D and Flat E stopped to see cousin C at the School for Science and Math. We had a great lunch and we got to take some pictures.





As you saw in another post, Flat E and I got to see our cousin ME outside of Washington, DC. Unfortunately it was late and too dark to go see any of the sights, but man are there a lot of cars in Washington, DC.

But a really cool thing happened, Flat E got a bead of her own at the Hotel.


The next day, we visited the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. Many roads are called Francis Scott Key after the guy who wrote the Star Spangled Banner, our National Anthem.



We got to see a big, huge coast Gard Ship. It was 200 feet long.



Here is a picture of Flat E and the harbor



And this is a sailing ship docked at the Inner Harbor. It was huge with all that rope!



At Flat E and I got to see a real submarine docked. It was fierce looking. One of the employees was nice to take the picture.



And here are a couple more views of the Harbor.





It was a fun place to go. Flat E and I are going off to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia next week.

Visit to The Suburbs of DC

As noted on someone else's blog, I stopped by to visit MEH in MD on Tuesday evening. She had just come from a soccer game of Sh's, so we met about 7:30PM. ME was kind enough to offer me some home made tacos that were delicious. Thanks ME

As we visited for about 2 1/2 hours, we discussed the many changes in both of our lives. We laughed at many thing, seeing the funny side to many of the day-to-day life issues. In the end, she and I solved many of the problems that we face, but those that have the power to implement those changes have not yet called us. We wait for that call.

As my travels will take me that way more often, I will get to see her on a reasonably frequent basis. It is always fun to share time with her or any of my cousins.

On a fun request from the left coast blogger I brought Flat E with me and got a picture of ME and Flat E together. Here are the pics.

K and the Gall Stones

K had gall bladder removal surgery today. She had some nausea during the day and even up to dinner time, was unable to keep any liquids down. This alone would have kept her int he hospital overnight. Everything went rather as expected but during recovery, the Doc told me that there appeared to be an inflamed duct indicating recent gall stone activity.

Because of this, they are keeping K in the hospital tonight and going to do a endoscopic test tomorrow making sure that either the stone has cleared or they will clear it. So for tonight, K is in the hospital, feeling rather badly after the surgery.

On a positive note, she did have half of a fruit smoothie this evening that she was able to hold down.

More updates tomorrow.