How's Eldo Doing? Recovery Notes After Quadruple Bypass

Eldy's surgery was February 3, 2016. It was relatively quick, a three hour surgery and he came home from the hospital on the morning of the fifth day after surgery. You can read about the preliminaries leading up to his hospitalization, why he had to have a bypass and his hospital experience here. To review quickly, with no previous heart troubles, an episode of pain one day and his family doctor's diligence ("We haven't seen you in awhile and think you should come in") and notice of heart disease in his family, a series of visits led Eldy to have a quadruple bypass. He had an artery stripped from his leg and his mammary artery from his chest for the quadruple bypass. He had a six inch scar incision on his chest, a little puncture wound near his right ankle, and a more major scar of about two inches further up the leg on the same right leg nearer to his knee where they took the leg artery out. He had little wounds and scabs all over his chest where he had had monitors and little electrode pads attached to his skin from the surgery.

When he came home, he had a new regimen, pills and walking...The pills consisted of Lipitor, a statin, which is supposed to help lower heart related events by lowering cholesterol (preventing additional heart damage or heart attacks), Metropolol, a drug used to treat high blood pressure and angina, a pain medication called Ultram,  Lasix,  a diuretic to remove excess water from the body (which made him pee five to seven times a night, and Plavix, a drug used to inhibit blood clots, so I guess you could say a blood thinner. All these names are the common names for the medications. A baby aspirin was in the regimen as well. Not only that, but he also had to take Pepcid (over the counter) the first week he was home as he was having trouble with indigestion and belching constantly! Eldy had not been on any previous medication whatsoever prior to his experiencing some initial chest and arm pain that happened before all the events leading to the visit to a  cardiologist, except for the start of some blood pressure medication, metropolol, which his doctor started him on before the sequence of events leading to the bypass surgery.

Directions for recovery at home: He was told not to push or pull on anything, that meant he couldn't use his arms to push himself up out of a chair, nor could he bend over or raise his arms, he was told not to lift anything over five pounds, ( a gallon of milk weighs EIGHT pounds!) to sleep on his back for six weeks and wedge himself into that sleeping position with the use of pillows. He decided he would make his recliner his bed of choice for the first couple of weeks. He was in quite a bit of pain the first week and a half, but the pain medication which he was able to take every six hours really helped. He had to sit in the back seat of the car with his little love heart pillow wedged between him and his seat belt if we went anywhere during a four week duration.

He was to use his breathing spirometer daily once an hour for a set of ten breaths to keep his lung capillaries expanded and open for one month. He did this religiously every day. Sparky was proud of him! If you don't use your breathing apparatus to open back up the lung capillaries, you could develop pneumonia. That was a big motivator for him to keep using it! Here he is using it in the hospital. Once we got home, we kept forgetting the wash the tube every night, but no harmful side effects were noticed from not remembering every night!

He had to wear his white compression sox/hose for two weeks after surgery and they had to be washed out every night. We made sure we had two pairs so we could cycle back and forth between them. He was given leg exercises to keep the fluid and blood circulation moving...ankle rotations, small leg lifts up and down while sitting in his chair, things like that. He was told to use a different washcloth for each part of the body that had an incision. He was not to use the same washcloth for his leg as for his chest as an example. Sparky went and bought two sets of microfiber washcloths at the Dollar Store for him to use so we could wash them every night and still have enough clean ones for the next day.

Eldy had to weigh himself every morning at the same time before eating or drinking. If he gained two or more pounds overnight, then that was an alarm that fluid was building in his body and we were to call the doctor right away.

He was to start a walking routine as soon as possible. The first day was three five minute walks in the house. Each day he had to add one minute to each of the walks.  He did them in the house at first. It was kind of funny to see him walking around with his compression sox on and big ole surfer shorts that he wore to be comfortable.

Eldy did his walks faithfully, (and I'm still doing them! he reports) and this is pretty amazing. This is a man who NEVER walked in his life other than from the car to a restaurant or grocery store, or from the golf cart to where his ball lay. Eldy was a true couch potato, the only exercise he ever got since we retired from the RVing lifestyle to a permanent house was a little bit of walking on the golf course (using a cart) and to stores to and from the car. He quickly started to drop some weight from his belly and boy, is he looking a whole lot better!

How has the pain level been? Not too bad....the pain medication helped. He has been out of the hospital now for almost four weeks and he doesn't need pain medication at all. He is up to three 20 minute walks a day. His fatigue level varies from day to day. That has been the most discouraging part of the recovery process. Some days he feels terrific, then the next day he will feel like he just came home from the hospital and was run over by a semi. The least little exertion wears him out, so after a walk, he's ready for a little nap. They don't want you to take any nap longer than an hour, which was hard, because he wasn't sleeping much the first week he was home, with all the peeing going on! He has numbness in his right leg from the puncture wound to the upper leg wound where the artery came out. The doctor said that's normal and some people never regain feeling in that area, because to get the artery out, they have to strip it away from the skin, and the nerves are really affected by the procedure. He says the numbness might be improving little by little, but he can live with that, if that's the worst of the leftovers from surgery. He is still having some trouble sleeping, some nights are good, and some nights are bad. Now that he's not on the diuretic any more, he doesn't have to get up to pee!

Things we were told to watch for after surgery, to call the doctor to report:

1. Shortness of breath--that worsens or is new...some shortness of breath after exertion is to be expected
2. Signs of infection--temperature more than 101 degrees, redness, pain at the site of the incision, draining
3. Palpitations, skipped beats or racing heart
4. Dizziness, nausea or vomiting, excessive sweating
5. Clicking or popping sound or feeling in the chest, (that would be the wires moving or pulling apart) or drainage from the chest wound
6. Increased swelling in the ankles or feet, pain or swelling in the calf of either leg
7. Black, tarry stools, nosebleeds, bleeding gums, blood in urine or abnormal bruising

And of course the more major stuff to call 911...severe chest pain, arm, jaw pain, severe shortness of breath, loss of consciousness or near loss of consciousness, sudden numbness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body. Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, trouble seeing, speaking or understanding, and/or sudden severe headache (stroke signs).

Thankfully, none of these happened...We were blessed in that Medicare covers some home health visits for the first couple of weeks home. A  nurse came every day for a little over a week, then twice a week for the next two weeks. We were able to ask questions and the care was excellent!

We are happy to report that he is recovering beautifully at this point. He had his four week checkup and in a couple of weeks, he can resume normal activities. He is able to drive now....The window for resuming driving and normal activity will vary from person to person, but the best window is four weeks, and for more severely involved patients, six to twelve weeks. The doctor said that even after resuming normal activities, his chest is still going to feel "weird" for up to a year. Eldy will say now and then that his chest feels like it's dropping to the floor when he walks. Guess gravity becomes a bigger factor and a reality after having open heart surgery! He gets tired really really easy, so he takes mini naps now and then during the day. His appetite is good. Surprisingly, the doctor said very little about diet, but we already know to watch the salt, portion control (no more three brats at one sitting, Mr. Eldo!) and fats.

Thanks again to all who wrote and sent lovely comments and shared their experiences, and we especially loved it when people wrote and said they were readers and commented for the first time. Wonderful to hear from all of you...God bless you and safe travels....

                                                Eldo and Sparky, a.k.a, Eldy and Jeannie

A Followup on Eldy's Cardiac Bypass Surgery

Theresa and Eldy

Apologies for an extra long blog today, but there's lots to report! Eldy, of Where's Eldo? fame, (lol....) was scheduled for open heart/bypass surgery on February 3rd. His sister Theresa and her husband, Chuck, flew down to be with us having originally planned to spend the week vacationing with us anyway. Instead of enjoying breakfasts on the beach on Anna Maria Island, and taking side trips to explore our beautiful city some more, they spent a couple of days hanging out with us and boosted Eldy's spirits with wit and laughter. We had at least three days to spend with them before the day of the surgery. Eldy had pre-op blood work done, a chest Xray and some tests done two days before surgery just to make sure his body was ready for the big procedure.  We all had a wonderful meal the night before surgery at the fabulous Mattison's City Grille in downtown Sarasota. Sparky was trying hard not to think about this might be our last meal together but to think positive thoughts. Eldy was very quiet on the subject, trying not to think about it too much. He was scheduled for afternoon surgery on Wednesday, February 3rd but was required to report in at 7:30 AM that morning having had nothing to eat or drink since the night before, at least 12 hours before.

And so, the wait began...Here's how it went at Sarasota Memorial, one of the best cardiac care hospitals in the state of Florida.

7:30 AM...We reported in to the surgical waiting area...the waiting center nurse liaison gave Sparky a name tag identifying her as a family member. She explained how the morning would go, the different stages of surgery, how the surgery information board would show by color and doctor's name at what stage the patient would be in at each phase of the surgery from start to finish.

She gave us a web address for Sarasota Memorial for your phone where the patient is given a five digit code number and you can check on your phone as your family member moves through the different stages of open heart surgery...pre-op, surgery, intensive care, critical care, recovery room.

Not only that, but at each stage of open heart surgery, the family member is informed by a member of the cardiac care team directly when the patient is under anesthesia, hooked up to the heart bypass machine, when they come off the heart bypass machine, and when they are closed up and taken to the intensive care unit.

Wednesday, February 3

In good spirits 

10:30 AM....we were escorted to the next waiting area, the pre-op where Eldy had to get into the hospital gown, climb up onto a hospital bed and wait for awhile in an area where he was pre-prepped for surgery. This was where he had to get shaved by a very nice orderly/surgery assistant/?  The orderly and Sparky teased Eldy....and Eldy was able to joke back. We didn't get the man's name, but he was terrific in helping Eldy get his mind off what was about to happen. He was kind and gentle and very careful in his shaving procedure despite jokes about how he hadn't ever slipped, YET...Eldy was completely shorn of all his chest hair AND leg hair on both legs, in case they had to use either leg for the bypass. A line was inserted for the beginnings of drug administration.

The anesthesiologist  came in and asked all kinds of questions about previous surgical history, breathing patterns, and lots and lots of general health questions. He explained what would happen as he went into the operating room, that it would take an hour for them to prep Eldy for surgery in the actual surgical center. Lots of tubes and monitors to hook up before actually going under, and that the procedure would take about an hour.  Then the surgeon and came in and said that Eldy was good to go, and he wasn't going to repeat the previous office visit warnings as he didn't want to scare him right before surgery. The list he went over at the previous office consultation visit was VERY scary---heart attack, embolism, nerve damage, brain damage, stroke, kidney failure, pneumonia....and more. What are you going to do? Opt out of the procedure? Nope...you hope and pray that all will go well.

1:00 PM..Time for Eldy to be wheeled to the surgery center....Sparky hugged and kissed him and off he went....Looking back on things, the afternoon seemed to go by quickly with Theresa and Chuck there beside Sparky to keep her company. At each stage, just as the hospital had promised, the liaison came out to speak to us directly to inform us at what stage he was at. They DON'T tell you if anything is wrong, that is the surgeon's call to tell you after the procedure. They told us when the operation started, when Eldy's heart was hooked up to the bypass machine,  when he was off the bypass machine, and when he went to intensive care.

4:30PM... Eldy's surgery was completed and he was in intensive care. The entire bypass procedure had taken just a little over three hours. After Eldy was stabilized in intensive care, Sparky would  be able to see him.  At about 7:00 PM, the surgeon, Dr. Hoffberger, came out to see us. He had four bypasses instead of the six the cardiologist had predicted. He had a leg artery used from his left leg, and a mammary artery removed from his left chest area for the bypasses. There were no complications, and he did well.

8:00 PM....Sparky was allowed to see Eldy briefly. What was rather shocking and surprising to Sparky, she was able to walk right up to him in intensive care. She didn't have to put a mask on, nobody asked her to wash her hands or use hand sanitizer. With all the worries about hospital infections, that totally shocked her. Although the hand sanitizers were all over the place everywhere in the hospital, nobody was monitoring this in intensive care at this particular moment. At this moment, Sparky's heart almost stopped, unnerved by all the hardware, tubes and lines inserted all over.

He was completely covered up to his chin. His monitor screen looked like a space rocket console, and it was the size of a very big screen TV. Sparky had never seen so many tubes and lines and machines hooked up to one person. Not thinking, she put her hand gently on his chest and said,"Your pesky better half is here..." and the nurse immediately rebuked her! DON'T TOUCH HIM THERE! ---Sparky recoiled. OMG! WRONG SPOT! Eldy opened his eyes and smiled but became aware of the respirator tube and started trying to gag it out. The nurse quickly put him back to sleep so that he wouldn't get agitated with the tube in. He doesn't remember any of this, of course. Eldy remained in intensive care till the next morning, and was moved to the critical care unit. His breathing tube was removed by then.

Thursday, February 4th....Both our memories are fuzzy as to the time passage and the chain of events after the big surgery..... But he was on the road to recovery. Some of the things that we do remember and wanted to share....Eldy's blood sugar went haywire while under surgery. He became officially diabetic at the time of surgery and had to be put on insulin. He was getting injections and an insulin drip to manage the roller coaster sugar levels that had been triggered by the surgery. When you go through major surgery like that, the body may react in a lot of different ways...and Eldy's blood sugar was a surprising development. But that straightened out by the fourth day...He had no previous history of high blood sugar before that.

Eldy was so pumped full of fluids during surgery, he came out with elephant sized legs and puffy all over. You can gain as much as 40 pounds during a surgery like that from all the fluids that are pumped into you to keep you alive. Once you start recovering, they keep close track of your weight. Eldy was given diuretics to flush the fluids out, and potassium medication to replace the potassium lost. As soon as he took the diuretic pill, he had to pee and almost immediately, within just a few minutes. He had to go and often. He ended up having a container right beside the bed to pee in so he could use that since he couldn't always count on the nurse making it to him in time. The amount of fluid that came out of him was strictly monitored and measured. Gradually, the swelling of his legs and body came down.

Within one day he was up and sitting in a chair, but still hooked up to lines for insulin and IV drips for different things. It's hard to tell here, but his skin was ashy gray..Sparky was worried, but was told this was normal.

Within less than 48 hours, he was up and walking in a special walker. The walker is designed for cardiac patients not to put any pressure downwards. The chest and rib bones have been wired together and it is critical that there be no exertion of the chest muscles nor any kind of pull or push that might shift the wires to pull apart from each other until the bones have started to knit together. He has a six inch scar on his chest, and two incision areas on his leg, one down close to the ankle, and the other one near the knee on the left leg. Eldy will not be able to drive for six weeks and has to sit in the back of the car to avoid air bag pressure deployment in case of an accident. He will be using the heart pillow to cushion him from the seat belt. He will be sleeping in a recliner for the first week or so to keep him from shifting over on his side and moving the chest area. The goal for the hospital stay if all went well was predicted to be 4-6 days.

"Don't you dare take a picture of my backside!"

February 5th, two days after surgery...He's looking a LOT better...More tubes and lines have been removed...He's not getting much sleep as one night the nurses came in and checked his sugar with finger pricks every hour on the hour.  :-(

He was given a special breathing apparatus which is standard for heart surgery and other types of surgery patients. When you undergo surgery, the little sacs in your lungs collapse and they slowly recover afterwards and inflate back up with help from this portable device.

You breathe in slowly and try to keep the little ball on the right centered in its little space as you watch the indicator level rise. Eldy's goal started at 1500 and it is hoped he will be closer to 3000 as time goes on.

Deep breaths slowly in and out on this little device help those little lung capillaries inflate and keep pneumonia at bay. Eldy has done a fantastic job from day 1, surpassing his goals and religiously using it, 8-10 times a day, with a set of ten breaths at each practice.

February 6th...Three days....Lots of people coming and going...housekeeper, dietician, diabetes doctor, physician's assistant, nurse, nurse's assistant, and they are all really really nice, kind, and helpful, here at Sarasota Memorial, right down to the housekeeper, who asks us as family members, do we need anything? Can we get you anything?  Eldy continues to improve...walking a little more each day, today around the hallway, to the nurse's station and back. Pain is being managed well, but he definitely needs it regularly with a pain medication not quite so strong in between the require waiting time till the next dose. Today Eldy's white blood cell counts are a little elevated. Signs of a possible start to an infection. Antibiotics are administered quickly and he will have another blood check drawn tomorrow morning.  Nurse hears a little crackling in a lower lung lobe, possible signs of a little fluid buildup still there. Keep up the breathing treatments, Eldy, that will help take care of that. He does.

February 7th, Four days out....Target time for going home is tomorrow morning, Monday...Blood work comes back normal, the threat of infection has dissipated. The surgeon wants Eldy home as quickly as possible to keep from getting any infections in the hospital. Despite their best efforts to prevent that, it happens, so that's why the push to get patients home as quickly as possible. Eldy will be eligible for home health care, daily for at least the first week, Medicare will cover it if the doctor orders it. He does. The decision comes down from the power that be, that Eldy will be discharged tomorrow morning. Woo-hoo!

February 8th...Five days from surgery...time to go home! We sit and wait for SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS twiddling our thumbs to get cleared to go home. Paperwork has to be done elsewhere in the hospital. This is the only time we have gotten upset with the hospital. To have to sit and wait 7.5 hours for someone to say you can go home is ridiculous! Finally, the compulsory wheelchair arrives and we get out of Dodge.

The next time we see you, we will report on recovering at home....Until then...thank you to all of you who read us, and to those who read our Facebook postings, for all the good wishes and prayers through all of this....It was heartwarming :-) and encouraging to have so much support behind us.

Please remember that February is Heart Month. If you are among the boomer population, please get a stress test at some point. If you have family heart history, make sure you are getting your heart checked out regularly. Eldy had very few signs leading up to this, but we should have gone and gotten the stress test much sooner. He had shortness of breath over the years which he thought was related to his line of work, but the shortness of breath had increased quite a bit in the last year. He became more and more sedentary because he had so little energy and didn't feel like doing anything. The fatigue was much more pronounced. Sparky thought he was just sitting too much but it was a lot more than that. He started complaining about little pain twinges, but didn't think it was anything to bother the doctor with because they were so fleeting. His legs were bothering him a LOT. He had leg pain that would wake him up at night. Sparky thought he might have some blockages there but we never got as far as having a doctor say let's check that out. We now think that the blockages in the heart were causing some of these other symptoms. Sometimes people think a heart attack has to be the classic elephant-on-your -chest sign with left arm pain, but by that time, you probably ARE having a heart attack and the heart muscle is incurring damage as it's happening. Eldy was fortunate. He didn't have a heart attack. He had warning signs. His family doctor was caring enough to call him fortuitously one day after he had a particularly troubling episode of arm pain and twinges on the golf course, and the office said, "You know, we haven't seen you in awhile, we think you should come in." He relays the episode when he went in. They look at his family history again, then refer him to a cardiologist, and that's where the story began.....Please get your heart checked out if you have family history...Better to be checked too early than too late....The heart is a muscle, it doesn't regenerate tissue like some of your other organs can. Once it's damaged, you've lost part of it. Your life becomes more precious and shortened because of it.

Thanks for stopping by today...Eldo is on the mend and doing very well....We'll see you again soon!

Some Shocking News....

Eldy has been feeling really really tired lately....although he's been playing golf two to three times a week, the rest of the time he's been feeling exhausted. He's been taking way too many naps in his recliner lately. He's also had a few episodes of major heartburn, a little bit of chest pain. (Sparky told him to get it checked out but he didn't feel it was serious enough and the times that he had it were very few and far between up till now). His cholesterol is very good, there is nothing elevated there. But we noticed in the last six months in addition to his fatigue levels, that his blood pressure had been climbing a little bit. He has been complaining of shortness of breath off and on over the last two years. He has had yearly checkups but nothing stood out as alarming to doctors that he saw. He always attributed that to "white coat syndrome" because he gets nervous when visiting the doctor. He went to his family doctor, and after looking at different possibilities--dehydration and a few other things, his family doctor suggested that he see a cardiologist.  He was given blood pressure medicine to help regulate the pressure for the time being. Heart disease runs majorly in his family. One brother had six bypasses, and two heart attacks after that, a sister had a stent put in. There definitely seems to be a structural heart disease genetic component in Eldy's family.

There are several different types of stress tests. Many people are familiar with the treadmill/exercise stress test. Depending on your age and physical fitness, the doctors can do different types. The doctor did not do the treadmill one, but one of the others instead for Eldy.

• Dobutamine or Adenosine Stress Test: This test is used in people who are unable to exercise. A drug is given to make the heart respond as if the person were exercising. This way the doctor can still determine how the heart responds to stress, but no exercise is required.
• Stress echocardiogram: An echocardiogram (often called "echo") is a graphic outline of the heart's movement. A stress echo can accurately visualize the motion of the heart's walls and pumping action when the heart is stressed; it may reveal a lack of blood flow that isn't always apparent on other heart tests.
• Nuclear stress test: This test helps to determine which parts of the heart are healthy and function normally and which are not. A small amount of radioactive substance is injected into the patient. Then the doctor uses a special camera to identify the rays emitted from the substance within the body; this produces clear pictures of the heart tissue on a monitor. These pictures are done both at rest and after exercise. Using this technique, areas of the heart that have a decreased blood supply can be detected.

The doctor found an abnormality in one of his chambers. The doctor said he couldn't tell from the test whether it was major or minor, it was somewhat hidden. He said that sometimes medication could take care of it or sometimes it necessitates surgery, so he scheduled an angioplasty this past week to get a better idea of what we were looking at. We were expecting a stent possibility, a minor blockage, something like that.

After the angioplasty, the doctor told Eldy he had blockages all over the place. He said that Eldy was looking at SIX bypasses. We were shocked! The surprising part of all this is that they did NOT put him in the hospital immediately, but that a couple of days have gone by since we found this out. We are thinking that although six bypasses is severe, that perhaps the degree of blockages are not severe enough to warrant immediate hospitalization. The report is currently being sent to the surgeon and on Monday, we should be hearing when the surgery is going to take place. It should be sometime this coming week....

Before anybody says that Eldy should be in the hospital NOW and not waiting, (which is the hard part), know that this area has many, many qualified cardiologists and surgeons. If the cardiologist felt that it was not necessary for him to be admitted immediately, we trusted that decision. The cardiologist has excellent credentials. What we didn't realize is that the cardiologist does not perform open heart surgery. It will be done by a cardiothoracic surgeon. The open heart surgery is going to happen this week so we know that he's going to be well taken care of and soon. He is resting and taking it easy till that happens.

If anybody has experience with bypass surgery and what recovery is like, we'd be grateful to hear. We're just not sure how much assistance will be needed at home. We're sure we will be much better informed after hearing from the surgeon's office on Monday. Sparky will do her best to be a good Nurse Sparks.

We will keep everybody informed as to his progress and recovery.....Thanks for still being here to read us!

A Terrific Visit to Houston

A short, catch up blog today....Sparky went to Houston over the holidays to visit her youngest daughter and her little grandson, who's now 3 1/2.  It was a busy time but we managed to cram a lot of things into our visit...

We went to the Houston zoo, a really beautiful zoo, which is nicely laid out and saw elephants tussling with their tusks, and rhinos pushing and shoving each other....among many other wonderful exhibits. there's a marvelous children's section where kids can explore and play and have a great time. For more about the Houston Zoo, see here....http://www.houstonzoo.org

Sparky babysit her little grandson while her daughter went to work and participated in wrestling matches and tussling contests. Barron accidentally head butted Sparky one day and she heard a loud CRACK! And it wasn't her glasses that broke! We're not sure, but think there was a possibility of a slight fracture. Sparky iced it immediately, but it remained swollen and sore for several days....Three weeks later, and it's still a little tender....

We had fun making faces with each other...Barron would say, "GRANDMA!" as in "LOOK!" and he'd make a funny face.

Sparky would try to outdo him with an even crazier expression and he would erupt in peals of laughter. Every night he would ask Grandma to read him a story and tuck him in, quietly talking a little bit before going to sleep. We had some amazing conversations. He had five dinosaur silhouettes on his wall, and Grandma called them out one by one, "Oh, I see you have a Tyranosaurus Rex, a triceratops, a pterodactyl, a stegosaurus...." making conversation. But she accidentally got one out of order. HE says, "Actually, it's a...." and proceeds to name all five of them with their full scientific names IN ORDER. All righty, then...this kiddo is going to be a mover and a shaker some day! At least, that's what we hope for our grandchildren, and for them to be happy and healthy, too...Kerry is doing a great job of taking care of him and nurturing him to his fullest potential. He's almost ready to read, his daycare says!

We went to see a great kids' movie called The Good Dinosaur, by Pixar and put out by Disney. Sparky just loves Pixar movies... It was very good but a little on the scary side at times for a three year old. He managed to sit through just about entire movie with the help of popcorn, and then sat on Grandma's lap for the last fifteen minutes. Grandma didn't mind that at all....

The days went quickly by...Christmas was over in a heartbeat, and soon it was time for Grandma Sparky to head back home.....  :-(  Thank goodness for technology and being able to stay in touch a lot more easily when there's a lot of distance involved.....Until next time......

Thanksgiving Weekend in the Keys Part 2

We had rented our bikes yesterday, so today we rode around town and checked out a few things..We rode our bikes to the Eco Discovery Center in Key West and explored a bit. There's lots to learn here about the reefs...The center has over 6,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, and a mock up of Aquarious, the world's only underwater ocean laboratory.  The exhibits show the ecology of the Keys' habitats. You can learn about the seagrass flats, the hard bottom, the coral reef, and deep shelf habitat.  Sparky did not know much about the reefs, as she has never snorkeled nor scuba dived, nor has she lived in a coastal area till now.

There's a theater there, too, where you can watch a short film about the ecosystem of the Florida Keys by Bob Talbot, a famous filmmaker. It was a very beautiful center and very informative. You could easily spend a couple of hours there. AND--it's FREE!

We didn't have much time to stay and learn today, but we'll definitely return on our next visit and soak up more information. Excellent family destination and highly recommended!

We then explored some of the back streets of Key West and found Fort Zachary Taylor Public Beach with the fort nearby. Beautiful public beach, you can get into the park on your bike for 2.50, for cars it was a 4.00 admission. The beach reminded Sparky of Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island...

Lots of shade, lots of picnic benches, trails to walk, yoga classes, it's a beautiful beach area with lots of amenities, even a restaurant that looked nice! We had a cookout there....

Sparky decided we didn't really need paper plates for burgers, how about coffee filters in a pinch? Except she brought salad and dressing which promptly soaked right through. (Silly girl! says E. I tried to tell her maybe we should get some....)

You can even watch cruise ships leaving the Keys right close up and personal in the channel next to the beach! We stayed long enough to watch the sunset....

Our three days passed by way too quickly...Kelly even made time to run a 5K in and around Key West Saturday morning. It was fun getting up early to see her run... The early morning markets hadn't opened up yet.

Kelly and Eldy

Bike riding, the Eco Center, even a little night life....Key West has some WA-A-A-A-Y out there night life....Sparky wishes she had gotten a photo of the 6 1/2ft tall lady, er, guy in drag that almost dragged Eldy off the street and into the bar! Yikes! He couldn't walk fast enough to the opposite side of the street! :-)

We listened to some GREAT music that night at Willie T's....By the way, if you take a pedi cab, which we did just down Duval Street, don't be surprised if one of the drivers drops you off at the same bar we arrived at, which seemed at the time, a random suggestion. Later we figured out, that the pedaling driver actually probably got a tip for dropping us off at that particular bar, as he was wearing a tee shirt from that bar! An astute observation from Sparky's daughter, as Sparky was a little two sheets to the wind by then. :-) Eldo was hanging in there....

What else did we do while in Key West? Sparky ran around after chickens and roosters trying to catch a photo of a beautiful rooster that remained elusive to photographing, Sparky and Sparky, Jr., (that's Kelly, explains E.) climbed the lighthouse, all 88 steps, a small one compared to most, but still beautiful and a great view at the top.

And of course, we biked to the southernmost point on the island. There was a line halfway down the block, so we didn't wait. We did a drive by shoot. (oooohhh, that's bad, frowns E.) First Sparky, then Kelly.....

We heard some great street steel drum music from the reggae "mon"..... :-)

Reggae "Mon"

We watched some dancin' fools have a great time....And if you're there on a Sunday, on Duval Street, a bunch of guys dress up in sundresses just because it's "Sundress Sunday".

We ate at Sloppy Joe's--don't forget the web cam while you are there, go stand in front of the stage, and your friends and family back home can "look you up" on the cam. Wave HI! Then go buy some goofy souvenirs like these painted coconuts.....

Buy a risqué tee....(this one is mild, really...there are FAR FAR worse! )

Try Amigos Tortilla Bar if you crave Mexican food...the corn was AWESOME!

And don't miss, absolutely don't miss eating breakfast at the Blue Heaven, one of the coolest outdoor restaurants we have ever seen...pricey, but amazing atmosphere and excellent food....Tell 'em Sparky and Eldo sent you. :-)

Safe travels....It might be awhile till we meet again and have something to report.....Happy Holidays to you and your family...

Love, Sparky and Eldo     (Jeannie and Eldy)

Thanksgiving in the Keys? Why Not?

Sparky's daughter, Kelly, had the wonderful idea of getting together in the Keys for Thanksgiving this year. She wanted to get out of the cold, Sparky was thinking of getting INTO the cold, but the Keys? That's a no brainer...Keys-- or sleet and possible snow? Even Sparky will take the Keys over a dreary, bleak winter day. :-) Since Kelly is in the military, we were able to stay at a VERY reasonable price of 75.00 a night over the Thanksgiving holiday at the naval air base located there.

Sparky was excited to be on the drive to the Keys. She knew we were going to stop at the Oasis Center in the Everglades on the way down. It's in the Big Cypress National Preserve right on highway 41 heading south..It's always FULL of alligators. (And bear with us, Sparky just HAS to post these multiple photos of gators, explains E.) More to come on our way back home... :-)

There are BIG gators here in the drainage ditch right in front of the center. And, although you are NOT supposed to check out the drainage ditch/swamp Everglades area to the right of the driveway entrance to the Oasis Center, there are ALWAYS more big gators much closer and on about the same viewing plane as they are just beyond the guard rail from the road, Part of the guard rail has additional fencing to keep the gators away from the drive in entrance, but that fencing extends just a couple of yards. After that, a gator could easily come up the bank and right into the road (where Sparky was standing, says an exasperated E.)

Sparky counted TEN big fat gators today, with a ton of egrets and herons eating just beyond them to the right of the Oasis Center and seven inside the observation area of the boardwalk. Gators don't normally eat birds, they prefer something more along the lines of fish, but we have seen them chomp a duck. Sparky spotted this gator with a feather right on his snout, which made her think he had decided to eat a bird lunch today, not long before we got there!

Nice boardwalk and you can see lots of things besides gators...Sparky spotted this green heron below the boardwalk, as she was walking. The tail feathers were GORGEOUS! We hardly ever see this particular type of heron.

And here's a sign of the times.....Sparky finds this drone trend to be disturbing in more ways than one.

Back to our accommodations...The Navy has several locations around Key West, but we stayed in a little mobile home parked in a row of multiple mobile homes in one area of the base called the Trumbo Point. The one we stayed at was spartan but nicely furnished 2 bedroom (double beds), one small bath, with bed linens and all the basics for family living. No patio, no outdoor furniture or grill, but we did just fine.

The roosters woke us up every morning. EVERY morning. Bright and early. :-)

For Thanksgiving Day, our first day there, we had arrived late. We ate at the VFW post, which was advertising Thanksgiving Dinner for 19.95, a bargain in Key West! Kelly is like her mom, sometimes very non traditional...We had the prime rib! Eldo had the advertised special, turkey, mashed potatoes and dressing.

The next day we headed to the bike shop to pick up our rental bikes for the weekend. Nice big coaster style bikes, pedal brakes, no gears, and a basket on the front. You don't see road bikes in Key West. Come to think of it, Sparky doesn't think she saw a road bike there all weekend! You just see big fat tire bikes suitable for biking on crushed rock paths and sandy roads. Everybody is taking their time riding around which was fine with Sparky, as there was LOTS of road traffic. The bike rental places are all over the place but we rented from a bike shop called Sunshine Scooters just across the bridge on N. Roosevelt Road which was just a short drive from our place where we were staying. The rental was very reasonable, 12.00 a day, or 50.00 for a week. They also rent electric cars and scooters as well, natch!

If you want to bike around Key West, that's not a problem, but the bike paths sharing the road with cars seemed to be inconsistent. Sometimes a nice wide marked bike lane was visible, other streets you just shared with cars. It was a very slow pace all around town. If you wanted to be able to do some more serious riding, you'll have to ride elsewhere! Sparky saw a headline on a newspaper stand that said, "Key West #1 in Bike Accidents" or something similar to that which made her a little nervous. But, we rode anyway.... It was fun! Nobody is in a hurry, so that helps. It's the island way.....

And with that, we'll wrap up our visit today and have more for you tomorrow...

The Best Kind of Therapy is Beach Therapy

So they say.....There should be a lot of happy, mentally healthy people living in Florida on the coast, right? Well, that's a topic for another day...There have been a ton of articles in the local newspaper lately about how Florida's mental hospital/clinic funding has been cut and how dangerous the repercussions have become....Scary....

Back to more positive vibes for the day, BEACHY vibes...How about the Siesta Key Crystal Classic sand castle competition last weekend? It was FABULOUS! Not only is Siesta Key one of the top beaches in the nation, but it has AMAZING crystal sand quality, which happens to be a HUGE attraction for sand sculptors. They LOVE Siesta Key Beach and come in each year to build the most amazing ephemeral sculptures which are----(WAIT! says E. You'd better explain what ephemeral means...Not everybody will be on board with that...) Sparky just had to throw out a big word for today...Her vocabulary has been declining a bit since she's been working so much at school with kindergarten and first graders. Not that kindergarten and first graders shouldn't learn big vocabulary words, it's just that Sparky is on a different wavelength when she is in the lower grades. (AHEM! The blog, Sparky, the blog? In case anybody new is reading, Sparky has ADHD, and it seems to have kicked in high gear lately, explains Eldo.)  Ephemeral sculptures last only for a short time, the wind and rain will start eroding the sculptures almost immediately.

The process is really cool to build these....The sculptors get their sand really really wet and pack it down to get rid of air pockets. They use all kinds of cool tools of their own design or from other sources. After they carve, spray, smooth, cut, and define their designs, they spray a solution of water with less than 1% of Elmer's Glue mixed in to keep the surface smooth so there is a tiny bit of protection against the elements and drying. As far as the designs, there is no theme like the Chalk Festival, (see previous post just before this one) the artists just wait for the sand to "speak" to them and look at what they came up with!

And then they hope for good weather...It was a terrific weekend...Not too hot, no rain, light wind...There were about 12 sculptures in a roped off section of the beach. It costs 5.00 to get in to get closeup views of the sculptures, otherwise you can walk around the perimeter and get some pretty good glimpses of the artwork.

Here is the first place winner for 2015.....A cathedral with arms around it. Entitled "Tender Loving Care"...

The detail was amazing!

There were some kind of "out there" sculptures....This one had something to do with the mind....(Looks kinda like the way Sparky's brain operates when she's crafting a bazillion things at once, laughs E.)

And there was a fabulous traditional, well, not really, sand castle.....

Sparky loved the little drip castle trees along the edge....

Here's another view -- you can see another sculpture through the portal arch. There was even a little fire in the castle fireplace at the front entrance.

And Sparky thinks the sculptor might have added a last minute touch(?) in reference to the attack in France as it was unfolding the same weekend as the contest.....

 This one was a little strange....But beautifully done....

Here is another one, the title had something to do with "when I grow up, I wanna be...."

The details were so defined...Sparky wishes she could have seen the sculptors at work to see how they did it and what tools they used. See the detail on the shorts of the large dragon?  But she got there the very last day of the exhibition and the very last half hour due to work.

There was live music, and even an amateur competition ...This person did a wonderful job!

Not only was the Chalk Festival and the Siesta Key Crystal Classic going on on the same weekend, there was the Medieval Renaissance Fair this past weekend also. Sparky might still make it to that. It's the last weekend for it.....Thanks for stopping by today.........