Sunday, August 27, 2017

Santa Monica Pt 3 ...

As we were leaving Bakersfield, you can see it was a tad hot - that's 41.7 celcius!

Man in his element!

Woman hating having to wear that stupid hat!  I do not do hats!

The road home...

Five lanes of traffic heading back in...

Slight traffic snarl... but it smoothes out pretty quick!

Fri 29/06/17 - Our last day in SM.  We took a stroll out to the pier.  Very overcast and hazy...


Plenty of people but not a lot to entertain us there...





We went for a walk to the shopping district of SM and I dropped a few dollars at Kate Spade, Pandora and bought some Sketchers.  We had lunch at True Foods - our first healthy meal of the trip.  Gus loved this salad (poached chicken, salad leaves, medjool dates, cranberries, apple, manchego cheese, farro, almond, jicama turnip, champagne vinaigrette) ...


Back to the hotel as we have all day to kill before our 10pm flight home...

Chillin in the lobby...

and finally, on our way to the airport (very low flying plane scared the crap out of me!)...  Santa Monica you've been great, a nice few days to chillax before heading home.  We'll shall return!


Saturday, August 26, 2017

The heart of the matter...



So, back on Thursday 1st June, I was at work, at my desk, when I felt my heart shift gears and start beating fast.
I have had this happen twice before, back 3 years ago in 2014 and also in 2012.  
I felt no pain or dizziness and just sat for a few minutes thinking it would subside. After about 10 minutes, I went and told one of the staff what was going on. After 20 minutes, I called my sister who lives close by and got her to take me up to the hospital, which is less than a kilometre from work.  I rang and let them know I was coming in.
Of all days, husband had gone to Adelaide to deliver a vehicle so he wasn't around.
.
As soon as I got to hospital, I was put in the emergency room where there are monitors and machines. I was hooked up with all that spaghetti of wiring you can see and they ran an ecg (electrocardiograph) and were quite alarmed that it was sitting around 180bpm, a tad too fast!
.
I had a canular put in both arms, one for bloods to be taken and the other for IV fluids to be run through.  After about 40 minutes, the Dr decided to try getting my heart back to normal by injecting a drug called Adenosine which decreases heart rate. They prepared me by attaching pads to either side of my chest in case I needed defibrillation as the adenosine effectively slows the heart right down before the rhythm goes back to normal - or so they hope!  The doctor said 'this is a very serious procedure and you will have the feeling of impending doom as we push the drug in and your heart will basically stop before resuming normal rhythm.  The feeling should only last for seconds.' I asked what happens if it doesn't work and he said 'that is what the shock pads are for!'...
Had it not worked, they would have given a second dose then another drug if that also failed.
.
So they injected the 6mg adenosine followed by a rapid push of fluid to hasten the response. I did feel a bit woozy for a few seconds then immediately I could feel my heart slowing down.  This took several minutes and even then it wasn't right back down to normal. 
.
So I spent the night in hospital with no further events and was discharged the next morning.  One thing I did organise later, was a hospital bag (I used to laugh at my Mum, who always had one packed). My sister had to fumble around a dark, strange house, trying to find knickers, pyjamas and toiletries, medication and my cpap machine for me! I now have a bag packed with general toiletries, night wear, slippers and thongs (for showering).
.
I visited my GP the following week who referred me to a cardiologist.  I saw him on August 8 and after viewing my ecg records from the hospital stay, diagnosed me with having Supraventricular Tachycardia. He then told me that I could have a procedure to fix it. It is called a
Electrophysiology Study and Radio Frequency Abalation
And the details are 
.
Also, little bit about Supraventricular tachycardia
.
So, I got a phone call yesterday saying I can have the procedure done on Monday 4th September in Adelaide at Flinders Private Hospital.

Eek!
Cheers - Joolz xx

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Santa Monica Pt 2 ...

The succulents out front of the hotel - fantastic!



Thurs 29/06/17 - We hired a Corvette for the day to drive to Bakersfield to meet some special people...








We dined at Hungry Hunter Steak House and met someone who'd I'd never met before....


Robynn and her son, Hunter - we have been blog and Facebook friends for nearly 9 years.  It was so nice to meet her and we had a lovely lunch for just over 2 hours before we had to say our goodbyes and head back.  She lives in Fresno so we each had to travel about 2 hours to get to Bakersfield.  Such fun!





Peach pie! Lordy!


Santa Monica ...

Tues 27/06/17 We arrived in LA and stayed at Loews Santa Monica Hotel

Lovely big spacious room...

This bar fridge is stacked full of drinks but once you remove them, you are electronically charged for them.  No room to add any of our drinks.

My pyro-maniac!

So this is how he kept drinks cool ...

Wed 28/6/17 - We went on a Wine Trail Tour of Malibu...our driver was Tom and he was very knowlegable about the area and pointed out things of interest.





Interesting how they grow the grapes on the hillsides as land is at a premium here...




We visited 3 wine centres and had some nice wines...





Delicious turkey baguette...

Gus's burger...





A fun day!