News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

Not me this time. Derek tore the labrum in his left shoulder playing soccer a few months ago. He had laparoscopic surgery this morning to repair it. Everything went well and he is at our house spaced out on pain pills this evening.

The labrum helps hold the arm bone (humerus) in the socket. When it is torn, the shoulder can easily dislocate, and Derek had two tears, one short and one quite long. After about a year of recovery from surgery Derek should have a normal shoulder again. Meanwhile he will be in a sling for a few weeks, and in physical therapy for a few months.

In the picture below (taken during his surgery), you can see near the middle of the screen how the cartilage is peeled back from the bone

In the next picture, you can see how it has been stitched back together. This smaller tear only took one stitch, while the larger one took 3.

You can also see one of the laparoscopic instruments in the lower picture, though I’m not sure what it is for. Probably just a tube for inserting various instruments as needed.

Gisele and I are off for California tomorrow, spending a couple of days in the LA area before heading up to San Francisco for a few more days.

Derek and Apollo are staying home.

I’m leaving this morning for Florida for a couple of days. Unfortunately not to a nice sandy beach or the exotic Everglades — Gainesville is just about in the middle of the north end of the peninsula.

I’m spending two days at the University of Florida at a meeting about databasing plant specimens. I’ve written some programs at Arizona State University (ASU) that help automate the process and have been invited to Gainesville to share learnings with other herbaria.

Gisele thought about coming with me, but there wouldn’t be much for her to do while I was in meetings all day. If it was on the beach, that would be a different story.

Back home Wednesday, but then going down to the university in Tucson on Thursday with Les to discuss another program I’ve written that helps quantify how plants share similar environments — really just a database query that looks for relationships between geographic coordinates of specimens.

Hooking up with Les has been one of the best parts of retirement — getting to work on interesting projects with no stressful timelines or demands. The pay’s not great, though!

We’re in camp for the second night, but I have to say that so far this is not the wilderness experience I was expecting.

Yesterday we did eat lunch on the trail, but in the evening we came to a small community that welcomed backpackers, so we ate dinner at a deli, and camped in someone’s back yard. Breakfast the next morning at the deli, then hiked a few miles when we caught up with Kleenex who was talking with a woman in a house next to the trail. We ended up stacking firewood for an hour in exchange for lunch and a shower. A good deal either way.

An hour later we came to Hanover, NH, and walked around town. Tonight we’re finally camped in the woods, cooking our own food.

This morning I noticed that my boots were splitting apart at a seam, so I had to buy new ones in Hanover. Overpriced, of course. It’s a bad idea to start hiking a long distance in new shoes, but I have no choice.

Tired, sore feet but so far I don’t feel like I’m slowing Dale down too much. He’s being very patient, of course.

No, not Beirut, Lebanon New Hampshire. I spent the night in a hotel, and in about a half hour the shuttle will come pick me up and take me to 20 miles or so to where Dale is, just over the border in Vermont.
Here’s the little ten-passenger plane I came in from Boston.

Early tomorrow morning I catch a flight to Lebonon, New Hampshire (via Boston), where I will get a ride to meet Dale on the trail. I plan to hike with him for just a week. I’m sure I will be struggling to keep up!

The weather forecast shows clearing on Friday and little chance of rain through next week. I hope they are right.

Mom asked about Apollo, so here’s a brief update.

He continues to improve from his pancreatitis, and almost seems like his old self. He is eager to take walks, but tires easily. His appetite is back with a vengeance, though he has to eat an extremely low-fat diet for the rest of his life. We have him on some prescription-only dog food. It costs more than Costco dog food, but is much cheaper than a hospital stay.

We have tapered down the pain pills so he is just taking one occasionally, when he seems to be in pain. Not often anymore. And the other pills (appetite stimulant, antibiotic, anti-nausea, stomach-soother) have all run their course. It’s just anti-acid and phenobarbital (to prevent seizures) now.

Notice the shaved ankles (wrists?) where they inserted IVs. They had to use all four during the week he was sick.

On Friday he has to go back for blood analysis and an ultrasound to make sure his pancreas is continuing to improve.