Dedicated volunteers

Our community, Venture Out, is successful because of the large number of volunteers who help out around the community. 

Our two primary line dance instructions, Deb and Kay (on the stage) were recognized with gifts for their contributions through the season by those of us who have appreciated their teaching so much!

Side note: I am just starting to help with review sessions for the absolute beginner line dancers.

The golf cart returns!

I have written about the problems that we have had with our golf cart -- they stared on New Year's Eve (in the morning) when it would no longer go into reverse (and ultimately wouldn't go into gear at all -- previous posts: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-golf-cart-challenges.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/01/what-are-they-doing.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/03/off-for-repair.html). After Carl and Al had done diagnostics on it, they figured that it was the controller. Carl called a golf cart repair person that a neighbor, Don, had recommended, and the repair person picked it up earlier in March.

The repair person confirmed that the controller needed to be replaced. He also found some other issues with the golf cart. We confirmed for him to go ahead and replace the controller and the rear-end which was evidently hanging on only by a thread... 

The repair guy wanted us to come by and test drive the cart before he brought it back to us -- it turns out that the new controller in combination with the older motor makes some interesting sounds, and he wanted us to know that before he brought it back. We actually stopped by there on our way home from the hospital, noticed the odd noise, had it explained to us, and indicated that we were okay with the repair.

He returned it on March 18...

Our golf cart returneth!

We had tried to see the new rear end when we stopped by the repair shop, but it was easier to see with the cart up on the trailer.

We have enjoyed having our golf cart back!

St Patrick's Day

Carl was discharged from the hospital on late morning of St Patrick's Day. He wanted me to dance with the line dance group in the St Patrick's Day parade within Venture Out -- I had missed participating in the annual Line Dance Fiesta while he was in the hospital, so he wanted me to be able to participate in this event. Unfortunately, the day was very warm (98F), so (fortunately) the decision had been made that we would only dance at two locations in the park. Carl and I drove over to the nearest corner to our house and I got to participate with the dancers...

Gathering up to dance -- the other dancers were part of the golf cart parade, so we waited for them to arrive. 

At the beginning of the dance -- if you'd like to see a video of a part of the dance, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/2ode4hvbCvg 

Unfortunately, we weren't as practiced as we have been in previous years... just lots of conflicts that prevented us (as a group) from spending much time preparing.

There were a lot of creatively decorated golf carts in the parade!

After Carl's momentous week, both he and Miss Kitty needed a nap! *Everyone* is glad that Carl is home!

Observations on the hospital floor - part 2

More observations from the inpatient floor...

Carl continued to work with his incentive spirometer.

As we were walking the halls, different monitors would be alarming -- as we passed this one, it indicated that Carl's room had requested water! We didn't even know that we could request water via the patient call device. 

We *did* notice that it did not seem that they were very speedy about responding to calls -- most of the times that Carl would call for the nurse, it was because she had asked him to press the call button when his IV was complete. He would, but it would be 20-30 minutes before anyone would respond. At one point, he noticed that his IV was leaking. He pressed the call button, and no one responded. We knew how to pause the IV, so we hit the pause button, and then I went out to try to find the nurse. All the nurses appeared to be in other patients' rooms. I found a PCA (personal care assistant, not the one assigned to Carl, but another one) and asked her if it was okay that I paused the IV. She interrupted a nurse going into another room, and the nurse said that was okay. 

Eventually, another nurse came in and confirmed that Carl's IV had "blown out" and they would have to place a new one. Unfortunately, they sent a trainee nurse to try to place an IV in his other arm. There was a reason why they didn't initially put the IV into that arm... the vein at his elbow is just not as accessible. She tried to insert the needle causing significant pain but without success. Then she was checking his forearm, mentioning that his veins were deep in his arm and they may have to use a sonogram to place an IV on that arm. By this time, Carl was tired of being a guinea pig. The trainee nurse eventually placed the IV in his hand/wrist area, also very painfully, but he had a working IV port again. 

As we were walking the halls, we also saw the monitoring station. Carl had a number of monitors stuck to his body and they could monitor them from the nurses station. In the Observation area, he was attached to the monitor in his cubicle and it had to be disconnected for him to walk around.

On the floor, the monitoring was done "wirelessly" -- he had wires that ran to this device that he had to carry with him, but he didn't have to disconnect it to walk around.

Carl took pictures around his room as we were waiting for his discharge to occur...

The IV pole and control device for IVs, nurse's control station which is to ensure that the correct patient gets the correct medication at the correct time and at the correct dosage.

The hospital room - Carl enjoyed sitting up in the chair in the far corner of the room. He could move the IV pole over there and sit more comfortably than in the bed.

The toilet room and shower room

On Tuesday late morning, they finally processed the orders for Carl to be discharged. We came home with two oral antibiotics and directions to follow up with Carl's primary care doctor and pulmonary care doctor. We have since followed up with both of them, and he has referrals for another chest x-ray in two weeks, another round of blood work to make sure that he still does not test positive for Valley Fever, and to follow up on a dark spot on a lymph note that was discovered during the CT scan in his initial ER visit.

Our social life has been upended with medical appointments! 

Observtions on the hospital floor

Some pictures from the hospital floor where Carl was moved after being admitted to the hospital...

As we were doing our laps around the hallway, we saw these "Med Sleds" on the wall of the hallway outside the stairwell. We asked one of the techs on the hall and I think she said that they would enable just two workers to be able to get a non-ambulatory patient down the steps safely. (https://www.medsled.com/)

A framed photograph displayed in the hallway of a crested saguaro cactus in bloom - so pretty!

Carl getting his steps in... note that he has grey socks, indicating that he is allowed to get around on his own.

There was a walking map on the hallway wall letting us know how far we would walk in a lap! The nurse asked that we not leave the area in this wing of the hallway as it was possible that Carl's wireless monitors would not be able to continue to monitor him. We figured that 3 laps was less than 1/4 mile.

When I got home, I took a picture of Miss Kitty to send to Carl -- she was missing him and he was missing her, but not her waking him up at 4am... that was taken care of by the people taking vitals and administering IVs and taking blood for lab tests or taking x-rays -- yes, at 4am, or 3am, or 2am, or whatever time of the day or night!

Spirometer progress

One of the doctors told Carl that improvement on the spirometer was his "ticket to leave", so he definitely worked on it!

Here is a video of him using it: https://youtu.be/hrRRegsM_8k 

Note that he is breathing *in* (sucking in) to do the measurement. One thing he learned was to blow all air out before starting so he had more lung capacity to breathe in.

Up to 1750!

Carl kept on asking, "Where do I turn this in so I can get my ticket to leave?!?!?"

Moving upstairs

Late Saturday evening, Carl was transferred to an inpatient room upstairs in the hospital...

A much bigger room...

... and private! It had a door between the room and the hallway! Imagine the luxury!

And even an ice bucket thoughtfully provided in the bathroom! (well, maybe not...)