GroupWBench

Ivy Speaks

Wow! Almost caught up. Yippee!!

We have taken the dogs on lots of day trips. Mostly to the hardware stores and hiking at various places. They are pretty well behaved and easy to take with us. We go to a group training class at least once a month. Rylee loves to get in the truck and go. Tucker who was so reluctant to get in never hesitates now. Big win since he is over 90 Lbs and lifting him to load up is no bueno.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In May, Rylee woke us at 3:00 a.m. She was crying, howling, and jerking her poor body like she was in the most terrible pain. We first thought she was having a nightmare but quickly realized it was a seizure. It lasted about 5 minutes which is a very long time to listen to your pup scream. The cats ran and hid. Tucker was whining and trying to get to Rylee. He had to be restrained. It was a very scary three ring circus for that period. I’ve been assured that Rylee was not actually in pain and I hope that is true.

When the seizure was over, Rylee was so disoriented and off balance. She clearly did not recognize us or where she was. It was the first time Stan has been afraid of any of our dogs and she had him worried. I’m sure she was in self-protection mode, but it was a few minutes before we were willing to approach her. After that she was just exhausted. As soon as we could we got her to the vets. Of course, it was over and all they could was bloodwork which was normal. They said it could be that she had a reaction to something in the yard but not likely and that sometimes it is just a once in a lifetime occurrence. Wait and see. We waited and after 3 weeks we began to relax so naturally she had another one in week 4. This did not last as long but seemed more intense. We headed back to vets, same process and because it had been a month between the seizures maybe just wait it out. It was only 3 days before the next one. This time we were better prepared for what to expect and how to handle it, so we were able to have some video of it for the vets to see. At this point, medicine was the clear option. We started her on a mid-level dose of zonisamide, so we could increase or decrease dosage as needed. In the meantime, we also learned that the heartworm/flea control we were using (Simpirico Trio) could cause seizures so that was changed immediately. I’m relieved to say we have had no seizures since adding the medication and changing the heartworm/flea control. No one is sure which was the magic but we have slowly reduced the dosage of her meds with positive results. We are at about half the dosage we began with. Fingers crossed that we can eventually get her off the meds completely.

We finally got the boat repairs and updates done and Stan and friends got her back in the water. Yippee! Yes! So wonderf….. wait for it… This is the time I turn it over to Stan to explain, just remember we are the Wentz’s and nothing is rarely simple or easy.

Stan Writes:

A tale about sinking the boat for exercise and fun.

We pulled the boat out of the water last November so that we could do a little work on it without fear of sinking into the mud at the bottom of the lake.

Pulling the boat was scary. Fortunately, I had some very competent help. Gene and his son helped me get the boat towed around to the trailer. Then we spent a couple of hours getting it lined up over the support pads and then slowly dragging the whole shebang out. It took us several tries before we got it right and were able to pull the boat up to the top of the hill where we could start working on it.

The first task to take care of was rebedding the strut that supports the propeller shaft. This required quite a bit of boat yoga down in the bottom of the lazarette. Basically, I sat near the bottom with my legs across to the far side and reached under my legs to unscrew and remove old bolts and a wood backing plate that had rotted. It sounds simple, and would be for Elastigirl from the Incredibles, but it was truly awkward and painful. Once I had removed the old stuff, I got a nice piece of hardwood trimmed down to the exact shape of the narrow little spot at the bottom. We put butyl tape all over both sides of the hull so that it was between the strut and the hull and between the new wood backing plate and the inside of the hull. Then Ivy stood under the boat and held the screwdriver so that the bolt wouldn’t turn as I put four nuts on and squeezed the butyl nice and tight. The good news on this fix is that it ended a long-time dribble that was slowly getting worse. The butyl sealed nicely when the boat went back in and hasn’t leaked a drop.

Next was replacing the shaft seal where the propeller shaft enters the boat. The old one was a brass packing nut that squeezed wax impregnated fibers against the shaft. It was designed to drip very slowly to keep it from over heating from the friction. We pulled it off and replaced it with a very cool dripless seal. Surprisingly, the only difficulty with this job was getting into position to do it. Like the strut rebedding, this also worked great when we put the boat back in the water. No drips or leaks. It worked as advertised.

Then came what I thought would be a pretty easy job. I needed to strip the paint on the bottom and repaint it. Sounds easy enough, right? Ah, but there are some complications. First, bottom paint is pretty darn toxic. So, Tyvek suit, breathing filters, full face mask, and rubber gloves. Then I got a grinder with fairly heavy grit sandpaper and spent evenings after work bending in awkward positions under the boat and grinding off a few square feet at a time. Blue dust was everywhere. I could have joined the Blue Man Group if I had any musical talent. It was hot enough that I could only work a couple of hours at a time on it. The work was nasty, dirty, and no fun at all. Once I had ground off all of the old paint, I had to paint on a couple of layers of epoxy barrier coating, then multiple coats of the really expensive ablative bottom paint. I got it all on and looking good, then had to do the equivalent of a fan dance with stands and pads to support the boat so I could paint the spots where the trailer pads held it up. The whole simple scrape and paint process ended up taking months. I added an extra week to the process by buffing and waxing the sides of the boat. Holding the buffer up there while I balanced on a ladder was a good workout.

Once it was all done, our friend Gene came back and helped me put the boat back in the water. That was a simpler job than loading it onto the trailer. We just backed it in until the boat floated off. We pulled it over and tied it off and I hopped in and made sure we had no leaks. I was thrilled that there were none. Thus ended my run of good luck.

I fired up the engine and it started right up. Then the overheat alarm came on and I killed it.  After trying to get it going several times, we gave up and towed the boat to our slip. The next day I did some troubleshooting and discovered that mud daubers had set up shop in the water intake for cooling the engine. New hoses, a bit of clean out, fixed that. Unfortunately, when I fired the engine up it overheated again. The impeller had died without water to lubricate and cool it. The replacement took a week to come in. I replaced it and the engine worked fine. Ivy and I even took the boat out for a sail just to prove we hadn’t forgotten everything about sailing.

The next week I went out to the boat for something and noticed it looked a little funny sitting at the dock. I usually have to step up about a foot or so to board the boat. Now the deck was about even with the dock. I knew they had been doing something with the dock, so I didn’t really worry about it. I opened the hatch and that is when I realized that the boat was so low because it was filling with water. Water in the cabin was knee deep. Drawers were floating around the cabin. It was a real mess and the boat was close to the point of having enough water on board to drag it to the bottom.

I hit the switch for the bilge pump, it sputtered a bit before it started pumping water off the boat. Something had jammed the float and kept it from turning on automatically. I called Ivy to come help, then I grabbed a bucket and started bailing like a madman. I took water from the cabin and dumped it into the cockpit where the cockpit drains let it flow out. There were hundreds of gallons of water on board. I had moved enough water that I was dripping with sweat and starting to slow when Ivy came to my rescue. We had a mini bucket brigade going between us and found a sustainable pace. Slowly, the water level in the boat came down. Eventually, we got the water level down far enough that it was only in the bilge. We looked around at the mess; cushions were dripping, everything in the under-seat lockers was wet and much was ruined, our auto inflating life jackets had inflated themselves, and everything was soggy and smelly.

We were exhausted from bailing out the boat. If you ever need a good workout, stand in knee deep water and lift full buckets up one gallon at a time. I did hundreds of squats and lifts. Ivy dutifully grabbed each bucket load and moved it out to the cockpit and dumped them. I felt the workout for a couple of days.

With the water out of the boat, we had two big tasks. We had to find out where the water came from and we had to clean up the nasty mess it left behind. I shook the bilge pump around and it started working automatically again. It had taken the leak a week to fill the boat so I felt okay that the boat wouldn’t refill overnight. Ivy checked it the next morning and there was water in the bilge, but the pump was handling it. I got back to the boat after work the next day and started looking for the leak. My first thought was the work I had done. I checked the propeller strut bolts – no water there. I checked the shaft seal – no water there. New hoses I had installed to replace the ones that had been full of mud dauber mud – no water there. It seems that my work wasn’t the culprit that almost sank the boat.

I started looking for where water may be coming from. I traced a line of wetness and found that there was a steady fast drip coming from the bottom of the water strainer. I did some more checking and suddenly the whole thing became clear.

They say that when they look at aircraft or big industrial accidents there is always a chain of events that lead to the disaster. It isn’t just one failure, but a series of them. Our chain of events was short, but fully present. When we put the boat up after that one sail, I didn’t close the seacock that supplies water to the engine. We have tags for each seacock on the wall by the hatch and when we open one, we move the tag to the seacock. This way we double check and ensure that all of the below water level openings are closed. I had put the tag back and got distracted before actually closing the seacock. We had never forgotten to close one. Normally, leaving that seacock open wouldn’t really be a problem. However, in having the boat out of the water for months in the heat of summer, the forty-year-old clear plastic that lets you see if the water strainer was filled with debris had cracked, letting a fast drip of water start coming into the boat. Then, a little piece of debris managed to block the float in the bilge pump so that it couldn’t float up and turn on. That allowed that fast drip to fill the boat with hundreds of gallons of water for Ivy and me to lift out of the boat. If I had closed the seacock, we might not have discovered that little leak for ages.

The rest of the clean-up and dry out took a couple of weeks. Ivy did a great job with all the cushions and rugs. The boat looks pretty good and a new water strainer that doesn’t leak is happily in place. Now we just need a bit of the warmish December weather so we can take the boat back out again.

Back to Ivy:

Around July, I found a Tai Chi and Karate class nearby. I checked it out and was happily surprised to see it is run by one of my old Karate buddies. He teaches Goju and was practicing with Balfour back about 5-7 years ago. I started with the Tai Chi as it is much easier on the body, and I wasn’t sure I could hang in a Karate class. I was still practicing yoga twice a week and had a fitness class once a week. I was pretty proud of myself for getting motivated. Then I pranged my shoulder, there wasn’t a “oops, that hurt” moment so I figured it was just a pulled muscle and I babied it for a bit.

Early in July, Stan found that he would need cataract surgery, which we scheduled and he kinda freaked out over. He is super sensitive about his eyes. But he had the surgery and it went fine.

It was mid to late July when we got a call from Leo, telling us that Selene was in the hospital and that she was seriously ill.  It began as tingling and weakness in her extremities. After several trips to ER and Drs who kept telling her it was Covid fatigue, just wait it out. She woke one morning and could not stand, and the tingling was becoming pain. She was finally admitted into the hospital and was diagnosed with Covid related GBS.

 I had heard the term but didn’t have any real idea of what it was.

Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves.

The condition may be triggered by an acute bacterial or viral infection.

Symptoms start as weakness and tingling in the feet and legs that spread to the upper body. Paralysis can occur.

Leo and I worked in shifts staying with her as she was in great pain and could not do anything for herself. We would get her in a comfortable position and it would last maybe five minutes then the spasms would start again and she would need to change positions. She described it as an extreme spasm and cramping sensation. Leo was amazing, keeping up with the kids and work as well as spending every free minute with Selene. There was no sleeping for Selene because of the pain. None of the meds seem to touch it. It was exhausting and so scary. After a few days the Drs began a plasma exchange. This was also new information for me.

Plasma exchange (plasmapheresis)

This involves being attached to a machine that removes blood from a vein and filters out the harmful antibodies that are attacking your nerves before returning the blood to your body. Most people need treatment over the course of around 5 days.

This seemed to be the only thing that offered any relief from the pain and after a few times of undergoing this procedure she began to slowly improve and at that time she was able to begin PT. She was blessed with prior good health and healthy habits in addition to a “never give up!” attitude. These things along with good medical care paid off wonderfully. She was in the hospital almost a month. The hospital staff were shocked at her speed and level of recovery. She is still recovering and may never fully lose all the tingling or regain total dexterity in her hands. Having said that, she is back to most of her “normal” life, caring for her family and teaching/practicing yoga and other activities. I could never describe how terrifying the whole experience was for all of us, or how proud I am of her and her family for maintaining a positive attitude and the care and support they offered each other.

Once Selene was out of hospital, I decided that the Tai Chi was not quite physical enough and so I added the Karate class. I can proudly say that I had not lost all my skills and did not embarrass myself, I had maintained pretty good technique and speed if not strength. Of course, it couldn’t be that easy and the universe reminded us that yes, I am a Wentz, too. After about my 3^rd class I noticed my knee was a bit more crunchy than normal and after the next class, that knee was quite swollen. The shoulder had not disappeared as I had hoped for and now my knee hurt. I really wanted to believe it was just a sprain like my shoulder but finally had to see the orthopedist and had an MRI which clearly showed a meniscus tear. I scheduled knee surgery for the end of September.

 

Oh. Let’s not forget that Stan bought a great recumbent bike earlier in the year. He was greatly enjoying it as it did not hurt his neck like the regular bike did.

That is until he had the front tire blow out as he was traveling at great speed down a hill. He was pretty torn up but kept saying he was fine. Which he is… now. He should have had stiches where he tore open his shin and he ended up needing an MRI to be sure he had not chipped a bone in his hip. I’m just thankful he knows how to take a scary fall and that he protected his head.

 

 

My surgery went well, and the PT was great. Once the knee was healing, I needed to see about my shoulder. I saw the same orthopedist and her belief is a torn rotator cuff. However, we are doing PT before the MRI and I can really see improvement. I’m hoping that with time and PT I can avoid another surgery. We’ll see how it goes.

Well I think that just about brings us up to date. The highlights of another year.

My mantra for the rest of the year is:

Nobody claim 2023 as “your year”.

We’re all going to walk in real slow.

Be good.

Be quiet.

Be cautious and respectful.

Don’t touch anything.

And hope for the best!