Location: Hearth of Haynesville RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana
It's been a little more than two months since I made a post and the holidays have come and gone. I've been stationary for September of last year and I think moss has started growing on the Liberty's tires. All of the family was able to attend Thanksgiving and all but one of my grandsons attended Christmas albeit a few days after the actual day. Anytime the family is together is a great time. I completely understand the difficulty in gathering the entire family at the same time. That's why over the years we have focused on Thanksgiving as the annual meeting time. Any time other than that is lagniappe (cajun word loosely meaning 'a little something extra'). My son and daughter who live a couple of hours away and each has two kids who are involved in many school activities. That's life, or at least that's my life.
My initial plan was to hit the road after the first of the year. I had to delay that because my X-wife had several doctor's appointments that I needed to attend. Yeah, yeah, I know, she can go alone just like I do or one of the kids could take her. But, with me taking her, I'm making it easier on the kids as well as hearing first-hand what the doctors are saying. She has several medical issues but one of the major issues is her heart problems. She suffers from congestive heart failure, enlarged heart and a reduced ejection fraction. A couple of quick and way oversimplified definitions: Congestive heart failure allows fluid to build up around the lungs and heart resulting in shortness of breath and fatigue. Ejection fraction is the percentage of blood your heart pumps out with each heartbeat. Normal is 50% to 70%. Hers is in the mid-20's.
But there is good news just around the corner. There is a new device developed and approved back in 2019 called a Barostim. We had never heard about it until her P.A. and Cardiologist mentioned it at her last appointment. It is very interesting how it works. The device is located under the skin around the collar bone with a wire run under the skin to the Carotid Artery alongside the neck. That wire is sewed to the artery. That part of the Carotid Artery senses things happening in your body and sends that information to the brain so it can direct the heart, lungs and kidneys. If you have heart failure, the signal sent to the brain gives some misleading information. It tells the brain "we're having problems, time to change the heart rate, retain fluids and increase blood pressure. This implanted device replaces those misleading signals with new ones from the device which is programmed and adjusted my medical people. The success rate is in the upper 90% range and people show dramatic success. We are very hopeful for positive results once she is approved for the procedure.
Her evaluation for the Barostim was to be Monday, the 26th but that has been canceled by the doctor due to extreme weather predicted for this area over the weekend. By extreme weather, we're talking about ice, snow, sleet and temperatures in the low teens. The temperatures are supposed to be below freezing for around 50 hours. That's too cold for Liberty. She is built to handle temperatures down to about 25 degrees if the temperature is above freezing the day before or the day after. This is mainly due to Liberty radiating heat through the floor which protects her down to 25. However, if it's below freezing for very long (more than about 15 hours), the radiant heat is reduced resulting in frozen water lines. Liberty has had frozen water lines before but has never had a waterline break due to the cold. Her waterlines are mostly PEX lines which can handle temperatures in the low 20's without bursting, but the main problem is the plastic fittings which may burst at or around the 25-degree mark. So, with that in mind, it's time to head south to warmer weather. I did this same thing a couple of years ago and went to Galveston to wait it out. This time, I'll be heading to Sam Houston Jones State Park located just north of Lake Charles, Louisiana in the southwest part of the state. They are due for low temps too, but I think Liberty will be able to handle them. I'll pull out tomorrow a little before noon and return next Tuesday. It'll feel good to get away for a while even if it is fighting the cold.
I'll make some more posts while I'm down south. I'll upload a few pictures to finish out this post.
This is our campsite at Heart of Haynesville. The campground if filling up due to a construction project going on in the area. To keep my site from being taken, I'll leave a traffic cone, sewer line, etc in the site. 
This was taken from the balcony at a condo my X-wife and I rented on our annual trip to Galveston. 
It doesn't get much better than enjoying a nice cup of coffee while watching the sun come up over the Gulf of America.
One of the days spent with my granddaughter enjoying a mani/pedi with her grandmother. I sat patiently waiting. 
This was a selfie my youngest grandson and I took when I attended the Veterans Day at his school. 
An unusual sky as I was looking out Liberty's door.
I'm not going to proofread this post before posting. I'm just too tired.
Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment