Another Member of the Zipper Club

The past two months have been an emotional rollercoaster…the sadness of losing my best friend, the happiness of seeing Jana wed, the excitement of our Hawaii vacation, and most recently, the anxiety and fear that came with Verne’s heart surgery. As it happened, Verne had his semi-annual checkup with his cardiologist the day before we left for vacation. Having successfully medicated his heart problem for more than half his life, we expected one more routine appointment and report. We certainly didn’t expect words like “heart failure” and “surgery”. It came as a shock to say the least! It was agreed that delaying the surgery for one week wouldn’t make a difference and the doctor sent us on our way with wishes of a happy vacation. When I think back to our week in Hawaii, I have to say while the prospects of heart surgery were never far from our thoughts we did do a good job of living in the moment and enjoying our Hawaii experience.

Verne’s surgery took place at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center in Carson City, NV. The decision to have a cardiologist in Nevada dates back a decade to when Verne spent his workweeks in Carson City and weekends in Volcano. As it turns out, the drive to Carson City is not much longer and much prettier than the alternative drive to Sacramento, Besides, we never really thought we’d be spending more than two mornings each year with his cardiologist. In hindsight, that was wishful thinking. Briefly, Verne’s six hour surgery included replacement of his mitral valve, aortic valve, and maze procedure to hopefully correct his a-fib (heart irregularities). As of now, it has not. He spent four days in the hospital and was then sent home to recover, which will take about six weeks. We are one month into his recovery and I’m pleased to say he’s largely back to normal, just with less energy and an 8” zipper-like scar down his chest (thus, membership in the zipper club).

Breakfast at Black Bear Diner in Carson City (minus Raelin, Jana and Andy)

Verne enjoying the See's chocolates Maria brought him

Surrounded by family during those few days in the hospital reminded me of the same outpouring of
love and support we experienced as a family during Jana’s cancer treatment and surgery. Once again we managed to focus on the positive and find opportunities to laugh (and eat). Scott was a great support as he’d had his own experience with heart surgery having a quadruple bypass in 2015. The day following Verne’s surgery we spent a memorable few hours at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City followed by lunch at a quirky little hole-in-the wall that Scott had found on Yelp, The Lady Tamales. Lauren and I liked the place so much we made a second trip on the day Verne was to be released to buy two dozen tamales for home. The owner greeted us with an enthusiastic, “Hola, Chicas, you came back!” and gave us each one of her street tacos to try (at no cost). I think that all future trips to Carson City will include lunch at The Lady Tamales.

Verne having lunch at The Lady Tamales after his one-month checkup

Lauren spent most of May with us. We don’t have a lot to say about her employer, Nike, except for our closet full of tennis shoes bought with her employee discount and now their employee benefit plan, which provided Lauren with up to eight weeks of paid family leave. So thanks to Nike, instead of one bossy nurse, Verne had two! I couldn’t have handled those first few weeks of recovery without her. Once Verne could be left alone for short periods of time we turned our attention to other pressing matters, one being the sorting, organizing, and clearing of the loft in the barn. In a word, it was Konmari time. Lauren doesn’t come home any more without some part of the house, cabin or barn receiving her attention and skill at organizing. We spent an entire week up in the loft going through the contents of boxes and either repacking for further storage or dumping or donating. We took two truckloads of stuff to the dump, another eight truckloads to thrift stores for donation, and a dozen boxes of books to Friends of the Library. We then reorganized what was left in the loft. All in preparation of selling The Property, as we used to call it, and moving to something more manageable. 

We did find a few treasures during our work in the loft, including a box of old photographs. Lauren went through them all labeling and sorting into piles to be sent to family and friends. One was a Polaroid I’d taken of my older brother with his son and namesake, Gary, when he was about 5 years old. My brother was killed in a plane crash when he was 30 years old, not long after the picture was taken. Photos of father and son together are few and I know this particular picture will be treasured by my nephew. I feel very old to say this, but times have certainly changed since back then when my Polaroid was the latest in technology. The number of photos I took with that camera fit in a shoe box, due in part to cost. I was a very thrifty young parent at the time. The photos currently on my phone dating back less than two years total just under 4,000 and I’m not sure that any of them would be considered a treasure.

Thanks to all of you for your calls, cards, and prayers. I know Verne has felt very loved and that’s a good thing!