Buck in the parking lot at Sierra Medical Center, morning before his operation.
It was our Life With Buck one-year blogaversary this month, but I haven’t done anything about it aside from renewing my domain name. I’ve been taking a breather from blogging, actually, to organize my thoughts and priorities after the horrors of this past month, and last week especially.
Last week Buck had to go into the hospital for an operation called carotid endarterectomy. (WARNING: do not click on that link if you’ve got a weak stomach.) You often hear that it’s a common or “routine” procedure, and some people have been confused by this word “routine” and thought the operation was a walk in the park. But think about it…brain surgery is routine at this point in history, but that doesn’t mean it’s minor. A carotid endarterectomy isn’t a walk in the park, nor is it as simple as root canal; it’s major surgery and it changes your life.
It was kind of an emergency, meaning that we were told about it on Tuesday morning, and he was admitted to the hospital Wednesday at midnight. Preparing to go into the hospital, Buck, in typical Buck fashion, spent two days frantically getting the operation prep-tests done, trying to meet the editorial 
deadline for work, and mowing the enormous and bizarre crop of grass that sprang up through nothing but dirt after that flood in July. (Look at it, can you believe that? It came out of sandy dirt!)
All this drove me insane, because I felt he should have been taking it easy. But you can’t tell him anything and he tried like hell to get everything done.
So then came the operation and Buck was of course a champ in the bravery department. He kept his sense of humor is firmly intact both before and after. While flat on his back in ICU with his voice barely above a whisper, he asked the nurse what the “entertainment” in ICU would be that evening. She misunderstood, or perhaps she couldn’t believe someone in his condition would be kidding around, and she plunged into an apology about budget cuts at the hospital wiping out the physical therapy program.
I came and went twice a day at the hospital and each time I parked next to or around this insane van because … well … I don’t know why. Maybe because I needed that continuity to give me a sense of familiarity or security. Because there’s nothing familiar about El Paso and I kept wishing like hell we were in Boston, and although Sierra Medical Center is a wonderful hospital and our experience there was fantastic, it really did suck not having our kids around (it happened too quickly to fly them here). To be quite honest, at one point I even missed my mother and wished she were there. So for wont of a better security blanket, I parked near this van to make myself feel better. I’d pull into the parking lot around 6-7AM and look for it, and it was always there in a different spot, this crazy van with FEAR THIS printed backwards on the front like an ambulance, so people could read it in their rearview mirror:
But Buck’s home from the hospital now, and he’s healing well. His mobility/flexibility gets better every day. We’ve made some drastic but necessary changes in the way we live. He’s otherwise healthy and we want to keep him that way. So now it’s not just the cigarettes that are gone; we’re living a low-sodium, low-cholesterol, low-fat diet. That certainly takes some getting used to, not to mention research.
I’m doing okay with the recipes I’ve found. The American Heart Association has great recipes (I’m scattering photos throughout this blog of the blueberry crisp I made this week, since blueberries photograph better than poached fish).
But I need to continue learning about this as I tend to take things to the extreme. For example, when I hear something like “low-sodium diet” I translate that to mean “no-sodium diet,” although Buck’s doctors simply want him to eat the AHA-recommended amount of 2400-2500mg of sodium a day. That’s a huge difference from no-sodium. So, obviously, I need to meet with a nutritionist and go over
some things. I’ve been searching WordPress to find a good low-sodium low-cholesteral low-fat blogger, but I’ve yet to find any at all, much less a good one. If anyone knows of such a blogger, please let me know!
We miss some foods, and we’ve become Mrs. Dash’s bitch, but other than that we’re doing okay. The AHA blueberry crisp is nice; warmed, it tastes exactly like blueberry pie. And no we’re not living on blueberry crisp, but like I said, it photographs better than poached fish or turkey meatloaf.
Happy Blogaversary! I’m so happy for you that Buck is home safe and healthy. You are right – that was major surgery and very scary. And the grass? How cool is that? Just when you were missing your gardens, up springs one just for you. I would have missed my mom too in a situation like that… I totally get it.
Thanks, LM.
Yes, the grass is insanely out of control, and unexpected. I saw something on the news this morning about weeds and grass that have cropped up all over the city, and the city isn’t really prepared to handle it. The news crew was in median strip of weeds that were like 5′ high.
Only my best thoughts and energies fly to you from my little corner of Blogsville. I’m a new reader of your incredibly creative and unique blog, but not so new that I don’t care about what’s going on with you and your family. My best wishes to Buck for a speedy recovery and to you as his friend and partner. You’re amazing.
Wish I could be of help in the diet department, but I have no self-discipline and it would take something like what Buck’s enduring to get me to change my ways, unfortunately.
While caring for Buck, remember to take care of yourself!
Steph
Thank you for your kind words and thoughts, Steph! That’s very nice of you.
Changing your diet is so annoying and, unfortunately, it does take a serious health issue to motivate most people like us into changing it. I’m hoping it’s like when I decided to drink my coffee black just to simplify the process. At first it seemed strange, but now I can’t imagine drinking it any other way. I hope eating healthy will be like that.
I was just about to e-mail you to see how things were going, then decided to check the blog first.
I’m so glad he’s on the mend. That whole episode was very worrisome.
But please yell at him for me for mowing the damn grass before the surgery. Good grief what a maniac he is.
Love to you both,
B.
Thank you, Barbara! I didn’t think about the underlying reason why he would cut the grass (and do all the other crap) when he was supposed to be taking it easy it til I read sonntag’s comment, and I think I agree that he was trying to keep things normal. I guess it was like dinner time for our four dogs when chaos would break out in the kitchen, and when it started to get really crazy the biggest one, the German Shepherd, would go outside and lay down on the lawn. This set the tone for the other three dogs, who suddenly quieted down and chilled out so we could make their dinner in peace. I guess that’s what Buck was doing, diffusing the situation by staying calm and normal. Which is probably not the reaction I would have had if it had been me.
Oh yeah, Happy Blogoversary!
Thank you!
Happy Blogoversary. I’m sorry to hear Buck had to have that surgery. You are so right – routine does not mean trivial in the least. And any procedure involving anesthesia involves serious risks. I’m so glad to hear he is recovering well. Your blueberry crisp looks fantastic! Love that bowl! Please pass on my best wishes for a speedy recovery and a healthy future to Buck. Eating healthy doesn’t have to taste bad. You’ll find your way. I’m keeping you both in my thoughts and prayers. Keep us posted when you can.
Thank you, Teeni! Buck is doing well, and your kind words and thoughts are very sweet. Blueberry crisp is a poor substitute for Little Debbie’s but we’re getting used to it. I should do a post on my bowl, or actually, it would be a post about collections. The bowl is a Polish pattern that I collected in the 90s, and I must have 100 pieces of it by now. I should really do it as a video, because even through almost all the pieces came from TJ Maxx, there’s a story behind a lot of them; a boring story about shopping, but a story just the same.
Glad to read the patient is home, on the mend and you are back at the keyboard sharing all this. I understand the mowing of the lawn, it’s the same as you seeking out the crazy van. Security in the familiar during a very frightening event.
If you approach the food adjustment challenge with the same zest and humor you approach just about everything else we’re fortunate to read bout in your (tada!, drum roll please-one year old) blog, you’ll be just fine.
Best to you both!!!
Thank you, SM! You’re right about the lawn, and I didn’t think of that until you mentioned it. The food adjustment has paid off already. I don’t know how much weight Buck has lost, but I’ve lost about 7lbs since I’ve stopped using salt and eating sugar. Now that’s a spicey meatball. But hopefully it will come as second nature, eventually. Right now it takes me about two hours to go through the supermarket — the place I hate most on earth– because of all the label-reading time.
Happy Blogaversary, and I’m glad to hear Buck is doing good.
Blueberry crisp sounds really good. 
Thank you, Peter Parkour. Buck’s doing well and getting better every day. And who would have thought a “baked good” could be healthy?
Happy Blogaversary!! I’m so happy that Buck is doing so well. That blueberry crisp looks good. I wouldn’t mind the recipe for that. Since I changed my diet my cholesterol went down 60 points without medications and my blood sugar went down 40 points. I have to watch sodium too because of high blood pressure. But since I make everything from scratch and i don’t use any salt it’s not too hard.
Sister B is right. What would possess Buck to mow the lawn? Maybe he got possessed by a lawn mowing entity. It must have been very difficult for both of going through that ordeal. I wouldn’t want my mom I would want Barbara.
Yes, I would have preferred Barbara myself.
Thanks for your very kind words and sharing that info about your blood pressure etc., because I look to you for inspiration. You’re doing great, and every night when I open that American Heart Association Cookbook I think of you and your WW recipes and how you prepare them from scratch every single day and night. I use you as the incentive to know I can do it too. I’ll get that blueberry crisp recipe to you.
Leaving salt out of recipes isn’t bad, it’s finding low-sodium products in the supermarket. I think El Paso has fewer choices, but I am finding them. Plus, I might start requesting some things be ordered.
Fuck routine! It’s routine for a boxer to get punched in the face. Doesn’t mean it’s part of your routine!
I’m glad he’s doing well and they didn’t clip his sense of humor vein. Hope it continues to improve and, from now on, stick to your own routine.
Thanks, B&G! Yeah, his humor vein is intact. And thanks for the great boxing analogy, I’ll be using it.
A “lawn mowing entity”!!
— hee hee- good one Joan!
Glad to hear that Buck is on the mend. What a kick in the ass! Or in the neck. With the improved blood flow to his brain his sense of humor should be even better now!
I’m with B&G on that “routine” line. I think it’s pure MD self-oriented patter, since they’re the ONLY folks for whom any of this surgical shit is “routine”. It’s probably their defense mechanism for getting over the shock of slicing into living people and hoping they survive it.
I SO would have parked next to that scary looking van too! It’s like a “contact high”.
BTW- on the Quaker Oats- get thee to a health food store and buy oats in bulk. They cost much less that way (like two thirds less!) and you’re going to need to eat them every day, along with Bob’s Flax Meal.
Oh, and happy bloggiversary! I’m sure glad I found LWB!
Thanks, David! And thanks for the heads up about buying oatmeal in bulk. I’ve been using Bob’s Flax ever since you told me about it in, I think, November? But I didn’t even think of buying oatmeal in bulk. I’ll do that from now on. Buck will be horrified (he saw a pot of wild rice simmering on the stove tonight and thought it was oatmeal, he thinks I’m obsessed with oatmeal), I’m sure.
Boy, one thing I’ve learned is that “routine” just means that they do it a lot, which means they screw up more often… like when they accidentally paralyzed my diaphragm during their routine overdosing-the-patient-on-morphine. Maybe they figured the best way to make me stop screaming about the pain was to kill me
I’m joking of course — but that picture on Wikipedia sure looked nasty! I tell you what, I would not be happy about someone digging around the biggest artery in my neck, that is for sure!
Good to hear that Buck came out of it in routine fashion. Here are some good vibes coming your way:
~~~~~>
Thank you so much, Stu! Did that really happen to your diaphram? If so, that’s awful. Thanks for the good vibes.
HUGE hugs to you and Buck. I’m so happy that he’s okay. It’s bizarre how these huge, life-changing things are now considered routine in the medical world. You could get flattened by a bulldozer and they’d just re-inflate you and send you home with aftercare instructions.
Your blueberry crisp photos are beautiful. Oh, and the lawn’s nice too.
(E-mail to follow soon.)
Thanks, MB! Yeah, I hate events of any kind. I prefer uneventful days and nights.
I’m so glad to hear Buck is healing well, that is definitely a big life change but it seems like you’ll get a handle of it soon (“”Mrs’ Dash’s bitch”…lol
)
Well things seem crazy but keep us posted on life as well as any new recipe finds
*hugs*
PS: happy blogaversary!
Thanks, Romi!
Yeah, the whole diaphragm thing really did happen. The part about them trying to kill me I was joking about… or at least I hope that wasn’t their intent!
Good thing I was high out of my gore when I woke up, because I might have freaked out otherwise when I realized I was hooked up to one of those dang breathing machines. Like most hospital experiences, it’s not one I’m interested in repeating