Dad and daughter Indian food chow-down

While Pamela was visiting, on Monday, Dylan was working remotely, and I was leading a review class of absolute beginner line dancers, so Carl took advantage of having a person who enjoys Indian food to go out with him...

Carl's plate

Pamela and Carl at Guru Palace Indian Buffet Restaurant

I'm glad he got an Indian food fix!

As the season winds down...

Once March starts, we're officially in "wind down" season around Venture Out. There are constant questions of, "When are you leaving?" as people prepare to return to their homes in other parts of North America.

The block where our RV lot and casa are located is an active block with regular block parties about once a month. Even though we are no longer living on the block during the season, we're only a block away, and they still welcome us joining their parties. The last one of the season was on Sunday, March 22...

The host for the party arranged for The Outlaws, a band made up of residents of Venture Out who also happen to be former law enforcement officers (thus the name), to entertain.

Cooper, the dog of our friends, Don and Linda, was auditioning for a position with the band. I guess since he isn't former law enforcement and since he can't play an instrument, he didn't get a place in the band (besides which Don was demanding that he return home!). (Cooper is the sweetest dog ever!)

Carl's youngest daughter, Pamela, and her husband, Dylan, drove over from Albuquerque for a few day visit -- they got to participate in several activities around the community -- including the block party!

Some of our friends at the block party -- we were all seeking shade as the temps were over 100F -- we were thankful when the sun went down enough that we had shade and the temperature began cooling.

Some of the block party participants enjoying the band...

Another view of folks enjoying the band -- note that they are all clustered in the shade!

Taylor was hosting the party...

The pot luck was set up on his driveway.

Folks enjoying the potluck -- 

There were quite a number of folks from the block (800 Douglas) as well as other friends participating. Taylor had the 800 block of Douglas folks introduce themselves and share how they ended up at Venture Out.

Phil was playing his "air guitar cane" at one point during the evening.

It was a fun time to get together with friends, and we were glad that being in the desert means that the temperature drops quickly once the sun goes down (and, even when the sun is up and it is hot, being in the shade can be comfortable, particularly if there is a breeze!).

Our Rooted group get-together

I posted about our Bible study group (it is called "Rooted") doing a service project at Feed My Starving Children (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/02/feed-my-starving-children.html). As it is ending the time of our group's commitment, we did a 24-hour fast together and then broke our fast together with a time of prayer and then sharing a meal.

We met at Lori and Marty's house -- she had this beautiful display of heirloom tomatoes that she had just harvested from her garden. She said that the hot weather we are having is causing the plants in her garden to bloom much earlier (like in March rather than May), and causing plants like her tomatoes to stop bearing earlier than they would normally finish.

We had a delicious potluck meal to break our fast. It has been great to get to know this group of folks during our season in Mesa.

 

At a recent Friday Night Dance

Carl took some pictures and a video of some of us line dancing at a recent Friday night dance...

The line dancers try to sit near the dance floor on the east side of the ballroom. 

We can usually count on one or two of the regulars to pick a dance for whatever song the band is playing!

Here's a video of part of this dance - "K is for Kicks" danced to "Lay Down Sally" being performed by Rocksmith, Friday night dance, 20March2026: https://youtu.be/xWpmwg5O_k0

The Honda gets a bath

The amount of pollen had nearly turned our red Honda into an orange car... with all the other things going on, we decided to go ahead and get it washed at a car wash instead of trying to do it ourselves...

It was a rather "alarming" experience -- literally! as the car's collision avoidance system was hard pressed to deal with all the things coming at it!

Thankfully nothing crashed into us! And... before we got out of the car wash, I finally figured out how to silence the alarms!

 

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...)

 

Improving breathing

On Friday in the Observation area, a respiratory therapist brought Carl an "incentive spirometer". 

Carl had been saying, "I can only take about 1/2 a breath," or, "Now it feels like I can take about 3/4 of a breath." The respiratory therapist wanted Carl to work on improving that...

On Friday, Carl could only get the spirometer up to about 750. The therapist wanted him to get it up to 1500 -- so, indeed, he was at about 1/2 a breath.

By Saturday, with his pain controlled, Carl was able to get the spirometer up to 1500!!!

At this point, we were thinking that we might be able to head home, but, unfortunately, the medical staff were concerned that his infection would not be addressed by oral antibiotics, so they wanted to admit him to the hospital.

While we were waiting for a room to be assigned (many hours),  

... an imaging tech came by and did a sonogram of his lungs.

Observations in the Observation area

In the Observation area of the Emergency department...

... there were these signs outside some rooms cautioning that the resident was a high fall risk...

... or, when the sign was flipped over, that the resident was just a normal fall risk. We didn't realize when we were in the observation area, but the socks that they give to the patients reflect whether they are a fall risk or not -- yellow socks = fall risk, grey socks = able to transfer and walk unassisted. (Carl had grey socks.)

The Observation area was not a very restful place. While there were walls between the areas where the beds were located, there were only curtains between the rooms and the hallways. Carl's room was right near the doors that led into the Observation area from the regular emergency room so people were being brought in all hours of the day and night and the doors were opening and closing, which was very disruptive.

The second night in the Observation area, the lady in the room next to Carl's got a phone call after 11pm (quiet times were 10pm-6am). She was talking quite loudly... Carl thought, "maybe a few minutes", but after 20 minutes he loudly said, "It is quiet time, please get off your phone!" The lady didn't get off the phone, but talked more quietly for another hour or more... Needless to say, Carl didn't get very good rest. There was no accommodation for a guest in the Observation area, so I went home and took care of (or was taken care of by) Miss Kitty.

Back to the hospital

Thursday (a week ago) found us returning to Banner Gateway hospital... Carl's pain had ramped up and we could not get it controlled at home, so we returned to the Emergency Room. The nurse doing triage was one who had attended Carl on Sunday when we were at the ER.

This time, they did more testing and eventually decided to keep Carl in the Observation area -- also part of the Emergency Department, where they could monitor him more closely and see if the antibiotic and pain management therapies were working for him.

Settled in for the night in the Observation area

Breakfast Friday morning -- when Carl's pain was managed, he really felt amazingly well -- not able to get a full breath, but able to walk around and sit up and enjoy eating.

The status board in the Observation area let us know that he could be discharged at any time.

Lunch -- meatloaf with potatoes and gravy and broccoli -- that was a huge serving of meatloaf and about half a crown of broccoli!

While in Observation, they were able to administer a couple of broad spectrum IV antibiotics which had a better chance of addressing the infection that Carl had. They could also administer pain medications via IV. It took a little while to get the right combination going, but after about 36 hours, Carl's pain was under control and his breathing was becoming easier.