Maui Part 2 – Things to Do

Things to do:

  1. Snorkel
    • If you can even swim a little, you can snorkel. I can swim well enough to save myself and I love snorkeling. This is a little weird because I can’t stand water on my face which is part of why I’m not a great swimmer. It takes me a few minutes to get my brain to where I can relax enough to float face down in the water and hubby just hangs out until I relax. Once I do, I am ready to go. So if I can do it, you can do it.
    • The best snorkeling is early in the morning 8-9 am.
    • Rash shirts with sun protection are a nice to have.
    • Buy a cheap underwater camera and have fun taking pictures of the ocean life. It’s great fun to look back at your adventure.
    • Places to snorkel:
      1. Mile Marker 14 (Olowalu)
        • As you head south from Lahaina, you come to a beach at mile marker 14.
        • Very very calm water here. The books say you can go a mile out…I usually go until I don’t feel comfortable which is no where near a mile out.
        • The entry is easy. The beach is sandy. You can sit in very shallow water and put on your fins.
        • There is a spot where you will see a tiny wave coming in. Totally safe area and a lot of fun if you are snorkeling and don’t realize you are there and I assume it is a lot like a surfing feeling.
        • We have seen a turtle practically every time we gone here…we once saw 6 turtles of varying sizes. Please remember to keep a 10 foot distance.
        • 3Turtles

      2. Black Rock – Swim around
        • Make sure to check when the tide is going out and avoid that time. Otherwise, there will be a strong current getting to the Sheraton side. We’ve only encountered it once, but it was impressive.
        • Get in on the Royal Lahaina side and you will exit on the Sheraton side.
        • Most of the coral starts about halfway around.
        • We were there early enough once to see 3 manta rays near the Royal Lahaina side. Manta rays are very rare here, and always early in the morning.
        • MantaRays

        • Plenty of turtles go swimming by, but make sure you are looking down or you will miss them.
      3. Honolua Bay
        • A favorite of ours. Beautiful coral.
        • Check up at the lookout off the road to see how dirty the water is. There will always be some dirt in the water, but if the bay has too much dirty water, you run the risk of running into big fish like the 6 foot barracuda we saw once.
        • The big fish won’t be over at the coral, but the best way in is on the South side (left facing the water, but before the creek), but the coral is over on the North side.
        • The entry is very rocky. You can find a smooth rock to sit on in the water and put on your fins. Or if you are really talented, you could put them on in the water.
        • We’ve never seen any turtles here, but have enjoyed the Christmas Wrasse plus the plenty of other fish. Bonus points if you can find the rear axle of a Jeep in the water. 🙂 A great story goes with it if you ask the owner of the property.
      4. Redline Rafting trip
        • Takes you to Molokini Island.
        • It is a ton of fun and is on a boat where there are only about 18 other people. So more private.
        • The boat is like a pontoon speed boat. There are inflatable pontoons around the outside of the boat and when you get to the destination, you pop over the edge whenever you are ready.
        • The best thing is if you are there during whale season (Dec-May) and there is a whale on the way to wherever, they will detour to allow you to see them.
        • I highly recommend Redline Rafting
    • There are many other places to go snorkeling, so find a beach and have fun.
      • Note: A friend had his fuel line cut in overflow parking for Big Beach. We’ve never been there, but if you go there, try to park in the main parking area.
  2. Haleakala
    • Check the weather and find the clearest day you can and drive up.
    • An absolutely beautiful drive up to the volcano.
    • The volcano itself has no words to describe it.
    • Note: Take a jacket.
    • You can also bike down Haleakala. It’s a “watch the sunrise in the morning and then bike down” event. A friend did this and loved it. Note: this will require you to be up very early.
    • IMG 4284

  3. Drive to Hana
    • Plan on spending a day on the road.
    • Get the Road to Hana app…it will work off GPS even when you lose cell service and you will lose cell service.
    • The curves are a ton of fun.
    • We prefer driving counterclockwise around the east side. Less traffic that way and you get to see the desert area.
      The other reason is we end in Pa’ia and then we can eat at Flatbread Company for dinner. 🙂
    • Interesting things to see:
      1. There is the Garden of Eden arboretum (mile marker 10.3) on the road and they have a bathroom. Take quarters to feed the ducks. This is a nice break.
      2. Just past the arboretum heading east towards Hana is an area called Ke-Anae (mile marker 17). A great place to take pics of waves breaking. No swimming here though. The water is not friendly.
      3. Go see Lindbergh’s grave (mile marker 41). We finally found it last year. We kept missing the turn because the sign we were looking for is 10 feet off the road. It’s a somber stop, but very pretty.
    • Note: If you have someone hot your tail, they are probably a local and aren’t site seeing. Pull over at the nearest pull out and wave them on. You will make friends this way.
  4. Ioa Valley
    • This was closed a year ago due to damage from severe flooding. I’m not sure if it is open yet.
    • A great place to spend an hour walking around and not far from the Kahului airport.
  5. Poli Poli State Park
    • Note: You must have a Jeep to go here.
    • Poli Poli is up on Haleakala. Check the maps and you will see there is a separate entrance.
    • Where the road really starts is where a paragliding school is. It is kind of cool as you are driving up to see paragliders above you.
    • I am not going to sugar coat it, the road (once you get far enough) is rough, muddy, and full of potholes. But totally worth it.
      When you finally get to the little park at the end, it is beautiful.
    • There is a ton of hiking up there as well.
  6. Hiking
    • Tons of hiking everywhere…if you like to hike, Maui is the place to be.
      1. Poli Poli is fun
      2. IMG 8399

      3. Waihee Ridge Trail (aka the Mud Trail) – No kidding there is a ton of mud. A lot of fun though and if you are lucky and it is a clear day, there is a beautiful view at the top.
      4. IMG 9216

      5. Lahaina Pali Trail – To go up and see the windmills. Starting from the West, this trail seems to go up up and up. If you start from the East, it appears to be a more gradual ascent.
      6. Down at La Perouse Bay you can see lava fields and hike Kings trail. Lots of trails down there. Take sun screen and a hat. 🙂
      7. Haleakala has hiking on the sand trail. A lot of fun to go hiking into a volcano.
  7. Go visit Lorraine
    • The shaved ice lady.
    • She has what she calls coconut crack. Really good dried coconut. 🙂
    • Her banana bread is better than Julie’s and her banana creme pie is as good as Leoda’s restaurant (more to come on Leoda’s in my next Maui article).
    • It can be a bit disconcerting because you literally drive up to a lady’s house. But if her gate is open, she is open. All the bicyclists stop here.
    • Google Maps has her listed now as Lorraine Shave Ice in Kahakuloa.
    • To get to her place, drive the west side of Maui clockwise. The reason to drive clockwise is that the road is one lane in spots when you get close to Kahakuloa and clockwise, puts you next to the mountain instead of the side with the drop off. 🙂
    • IMG 0110

  8. Maui Vineyards
    • The vineyard is past Kula off of 37.
    • There is a good sandwich place across the street
    • If you like cats, there are usually some on the property to visit with
    • They have a bathroom.
    • And of course there is wine tasting
  9. Kite Surfing
    • Fun to watch even if you don’t want to do it. We spent an afternoon chatting with locals and watching the surfers. Take a high speed camera to get great shots.
    • Up at Kahului, take 36 until you see Kite Surfers. I can’t remember the beach name but you can’t miss them if they are out.
    • KiteSurfers

  10. Mele Ukulele
    • What’s a visit to Hawaii without buying a ukulele?
    • If you have an interest in a ukulele, this is the place to go.
    • They also have some very pretty ocarina’s. I got one that looks like a turtle.
  11. Front Street in Lahaina
    • This is the tourist place on Maui. There is parking at the South end that is free if you don’t mind walking.
    • There is a Banyan tree in the courtyard. Very cool to see.
    • There is also a Marina there. Check it out, lots of boats to go out on.
  12. Sport fishing
    • If you are interested in going out on a fishing charter, here is a place we used and loved: Luckey Strike
    • Tad is a great guy and we both caught a fish.
    • We got to eat mine, but my husband caught a barracuda which was too smelly and dangerous given it’s size to bring into the boat. We got a great pic of it though. 🙂
  13. Lanai
    • You can take a ferry from Front street to the island of Lanai.
    • Plenty of whales on this route during whale season.
    • There is snorkeling over there right off where the ferry lands.
    • There are vans to take you to the “city”. Very quaint place and nice and relaxing.
  14. Luau
    • I think a first trip to Hawaii in general requires a stop at a luau. They are fun shows to see. The food is pretty good and drinks are usually free.
    • The Royal Lahaina hotel has a luau that is pretty nice. We upgraded to get the tiki glasses to take home as a momento of our first trip.
    • Old Lahaina Luau is a luau we haven’t been to, but want to see. Please note that you need to buy your tickets for this luau as soon as you can. They sell like hotcakes!
    • There are many other luau’s I know at other hotels and resorts. Check them out and pick one. They are all well done.

There are many activities to do on Maui. Many more than I have listed here. So far, from all that we have done, you pretty much can’t go wrong with anything you try. At hotels and outside of some businesses are cards for things to do. Check them out and find something that interests you and go for it.

If you did something on Maui that was fun and you don’t see above. Please leave a comment. We are always looking for new things to try.

Back to School!

It’s been awhile since I’ve been in school. When I last attended school, it was at Purdue University in the Computer Technology department. I loved the lab work and helping others figure out the problems. I was one of those annoying people who never studied but got good grades; probably because I spent so much time in the lab. I did the same in High School. I sometimes wonder if I had applied myself in either school where would I be today?

I am cautiously optimistic about going back to school. I was a pretty good programmer out of college. At my first programing job I earned the nickname “jack-of-all-trades”. I did everything from design to implementation. It was a great place to learn.

I switched from programming to testing to expand my knowledge. And BTW I really enjoy testing or I wouldn’t have done it for the past 20 years. The way I look at it, it is way more fun to find the bugs than fix the bugs. 😀 Although it is fun to program which sometimes introduces the bugs.

But it’s been awhile since I wrote my last if-then statement. So, I’ve recently decided to take an iOS App Development class for a certification. It’s a Pass/Fail course and online. In theory if I show up every week and do the homework, I should be ok. The class also has people there actually in a class, so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Somehow I think taking a class today is going to take a bit more of my time than in the past. This class is said to move fast. Can my brain move as fast as it did in the past? Can I understand what the professor is trying to convey?

I have a great support system if I feel that I need it: I have a great husband who I can lean on with questions, a coworker is also taking the class, plus two coworkers used to teach the class, and then there are all of the other engineers at work that I could go to and ask questions.

I’ll be good. That’s what I keep saying. Belief in oneself is good for the self-esteem.

Wish me luck!

Maui Part 1 – Airline, Hotel, and Car

Hubby and I love Maui. For those who know us well, this is an understatement. We would move to Maui if we could. We have been on Maui every year since our honeymoon and we moved to the West coast to be closer to the island.

It started out as the cliche honeymoon: I had never been to a beach and hubby had never been to Hawaii, we went to Hawaii on our honeymoon. We took two weeks and spent one week on Maui and one week on Oahu. As our Maui friend Lorraine said regarding Oahu when she heard how long we were staying “Too long”. To say the least, we didn’t like Oahu. The Pearl Harbor museum was definitely worth our trip there and we broke that up into 3 separate days. Otherwise, Oahu is too busy. I likened the main thoroughfare to Michigan Avenue in Chicago. :/

We have also been to the islands of Lana’i (day trip) and Hawaii (The Big Island). If you want some chill time, Lana’i seems like the place to go. We liked the vibe we got there during our brief visit.

The Big Island we did not like as much. The one thing on The Big Island that is worth going to see would be the lava flow. Unfortunately, the lava moved right before we visited and we couldn’t see it. :/ If you are a big resort person, The Big Island would probably be a place you would like. We aren’t, so eh.

I think the big reason we like Maui so much is it is very laid back. Plus other than the road going up the middle, the ocean is pretty much always visible while driving. There might be spots where you aren’t as close, but wait 5 minutes and you will see the ocean again. We also like that there is so much to do on Maui. I’ll get into some of those items in future posts, but let’s just say snorkeling is a ton of fun.

So let’s start with the big three things you need to book before heading to Maui:

Airline:

  1. Hawaiian Airlines is our favorite by far.
    • They do flying right and their stewards/stewardesses earn their money. Unlike other airlines, they are always busy and don’t just sit in the back after serving drinks.
    • Everyone is so friendly. From the check-in, to the boarding, to the stewards/stewardesses, to the pilots, and to the people on the plane. I guess people are going to paradise, so everybody is happy.
    • The stewards/stewardesses are constantly bringing you something be it drinks, snacks, or [gasp] you get dinner in coach. 😀
  2. Alaskan is our second favorite.
  3. Delta
  4. American Airlines

Car Rental:

Yes, you will need a car. We use Dollar rental which is pretty big on Maui. They are ok…it’s a rental company, so whichever you like is probably fine.

Note: Sometimes you can get a deal with the hotel for a reduced rate on a car. So, shop around.

We HIGHLY recommend a Jeep. I mean…seriously…get a Jeep. If you want to get a convertible, go to Oahu. Maui is a place to have fun seeing and doing things. A Jeep puts you up higher than a car and if you need to park on the side of a road, a Jeep is the vehicle to do it. No, I don’t own a Jeep or know anyone who works for them. It’s just a very practical vehicle for Maui.

Hotel/Place to stay:

First time: Stay in or near Lahaina, HI it’s where most people stay. Leave staying in Hana for your next visit. Napili, HI is just down the road from Lahaina, so that would work as well, but stay on the West side of Maui.

A lot of people stay in Kihei, HI. Personally, I don’t like it. I don’t like even just driving through it. Why? Well, the vibe just isn’t right over in Kihei. It’s just not our jam. If it’s yours, bully to you. Note: There is good snorkeling and hiking past Kihei.

  1. Our preferred place to stay is actually a VRBO. I’m not going to give it out because it’s already hard to book as it is. I am self-serving here.
  2. But seriously, if you want to have a more private experience than a hotel, VRBO is the way to go. There are a lot of them out there.

    Things to watch for:

    • Great reviews
    • Pictures of the unit
    • Additional Parking costs
    • Towel service or at least a washer/dryer
    • Other fees added onto the hotel room cost
  3. Our second preferred place to stay is a hotel: Royal Lahaina
    • We stayed here two years in a row when we first started going to Maui. Our first year we stayed in the hotel which was very very nice inside. Our second year we stayed in the cottages. They are not as fancy, but are still nice and perfect for cleaning snorkeling equipment.
    • The best part about Royal Lahaina is that it is near Black Rock and is the side where you enter the water to snorkel around Black Rock.
    • Another cool thing is eating breakfast outside and watching the whales during whale season. There are also lots of Myna birds around and they are smart. We enjoyed watching them.
    • Sometimes there is a special where you can include breakfast and a car rental with your hotel.
    • Note: You will have to pay extra (like most hotels) to park your car.

    We have stayed other places, but I wouldn’t recommend them and I’m not going to mention them here because well you know how lawyers are.

    This ends Part 1 of Maui things to know. Keep an eye out for future episodes.

USPS

I swear our USPS office does not look at the mail. We received mail to our address for someone else. It looked important, so I wrote on it “Return to Sender – No such person at address”. I even included an arrow to the return address. A big circle with an arrow you can’t miss.

Yeah, it will be in our mailbox today. When sorting the mail for our mailbox, how do you not miss the big circle with an arrow calling out to be read. This mail will be put right into the sent mailbox. We’ll see how many times this will happen before they understand to return to sender.

Read people read! These words mean something.

Our post office has done this a few times. Last time, I had gotten a letter with a postcard from a company where you check a box saying you don’t want whatever it is and you mail just the postcard back to them.

I put it in our sent mailbox and received it back in our mailbox the following week. :/ It was a time-sensitive return postcard. Luckily, I had started early.

So I put it back in the sent mailbox and never saw it again. Whew!

What’s funny about the postcard is that our address wasn’t even where an address goes and it still came to us instead of the HUGE company address on the other side that had the postage stamp on it.

My grandmother used to “Damn” the postman. She’d be waiting all afternoon for an important letter and he would be late or the letter wouldn’t come the day it should have. I now get her frustration with the post office.

Are you actually back to posting?

OK…I am back…mostly…

Are you actually back to posting?
Yeah, I’m going to try and be more diligent. I kind of stopped posting when Skippy passed away. I was a little down and posting reminded me of him.

Now that I have a good app to post from, I think I will post more. AND I will even include pictures. I also think I am going to change from stories to more musings. I might still have a story or two, but mostly moving to just thoughts.

What happened to Skippy?
Well, the HCM is not what caused him to die. He wound up with a really really bad case of pancreatitis. They were doing all they could to make him comfortable, but he was in pain and there wasn’t anything more they could do.

While dealing with the pancreatitis, Skip was off his HCM meds for two weeks, and the disease had started affecting his heart again. The vet could hear the murmur getting worse. That is how quick it can take hold.

Skip was ready and we let him be at peace. So we made the painful decision to let him go to the rainbow bridge. It was the right decision.

This was his last picture:

SkipCrop

Do you have any new cats?
Yes, you betcha. It was way too quiet at home without Skip around.

For the first time, I didn’t go to the pound to get a kitten. I have always wanted a Ragdoll kitten, so we decided to get one or two. 🙂

We got two brothers. Since it has been 4 years since I last posted, here are baby pics and pics at 4 years old.

Calvin Statler:

IMG 0258

Hobbes Waldorf:

IMG 0259

Those are weird middle names?
We named the first names after the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip which is a favorite of my hubby (Note: upgraded from boyfriend…Hooray!). Their first names are for youth.

Their middle names are after the curmudgeonly muppets that sit in the balcony and heckle. The names of those muppets are Statler and Waldorf. The middle names are for old age.

What else have you been up to?
Probably the biggest change is that hubby and I moved across country to Seattle. We love it here! It is really beautiful here in Seattle in the summer — it barely rains. We make up for it with plenty of rain in the winter, but the summers are worth it. 🙂

Also, I have a Micro Blog in case you didn’t see the other post. It is mec2973.micro.blog. What I post here should show up there for micro.blog followers.

I will have to figure out how I want to handle the division. It might just be, one has more words. 🙂

Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy / Hypothyroidism / Allergies – 08/12/2010 – 09/06/2011

It is time for a full Skip update.  This last appointment has been trying for us, but mostly Skip.  Oddly enough, it was a combination of things and not just HCM that got us.

Since I last left you it’s been a year and 3 cardiologist appointments.  The first two appointments had no changes and therefore, I didn’t feel the need to write anything.  Skip’s labs were fine, meds stayed the same, and he acted perfectly normal.

This last appointment was a bit of a downer, but only slightly.  Basically, it has been 2 years since Skip was first diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and I feel lucky for every moment that I spend with him.  HCM can be a killer because it is usually found so late.  We were lucky.

This last cardiologist appointment started like the rest.  I took Skip to his regular vet for his yearly regular checkup and labs for the cardiologist.  Skip’s furry uncles (Oreo and Mason) were visiting at the time.

At his regular vet, the vet noticed that his tartar build up on his teeth was getting bad again (My boy absolutely hates to have his teeth cleaned at home).  It needed to be removed.  I told them, that I would schedule an appointment after getting approval from the cardiologist.

You see, getting Skip’s teeth cleaned isn’t as easy as it is for a normal cat.  With HCM, putting Skip under is more risky. The regular vet is awesome about being aware of Skip’s HCM and she does her best to make sure that he isn’t under any longer than he needs to be.

A couple of weeks later, I took Skip to his scheduled cardiologist appointment.  After they spent a couple of hours looking him over, I got the news I had been dreading since learning about HCM.  Skip had a teeny tiny amount of fluid in his lungs.  This is the first sign of congestive heart failure (CHF).

She said what was happening is that the heart is working harder than it needs to.  The capillaries are under stress and they leak fluid into the lungs for relief of the pressure.

The cardiologist said that it wasn’t enough for Skip to notice, but that she needed to make some changes in Skip’s meds.  She increased the evening enalpril to 3/4 of a tablet and added 1/4 tablet of furosemide.  The enalpril will help Skip’s heart to not work as hard and the furosemide will help remove the fluid from Skip’s lungs.

She needed to see him back in a couple of weeks to make sure that the fluid was gone from his lungs and do some labs to make sure that everything looks good with the addition of the new medicine.  Until the recheck, the teeth cleaning was not approved.  His lungs needed to be clear first.

I was disappointed.  I didn’t want to hear that the HCM had progressed at all.  But…as the cardiologist told me, this is just a little blip.  We’ve been lucky for 2 years and since we are on top of it, we were able to catch the CHF early.

I made up two weeks of Skippy pills.  I use the #3 pill capsules, and added the furosemide to the evening pill since I actually have room in that one.  The morning pill is very full.

Shortly after the cardiologist appointment, Skippy’s furry uncles returned for a longer visit.  It’s always a fun week when they visit.  While I think Skip gets a bit more stressed when they visit, I do think he enjoys having them around some of the time.  I figured that this would be a good test of the furosemide.

Once the two weeks were up, I took Skip back to the cardiologist.  They took a look at his heart and lungs plus took the labs.  The good news is that the fluid in his lungs was gone.  After getting the labs back, they said that Skip’s potassium was low.  The cardiologist was expecting this.  I guess the potassium is expelled along with the fluid, so they wanted to put him on half a 550 mg potassium tablet.  They want to see him again in 4 months to make sure that he is stabilized and the HCM has not progressed further. He was approved for his teeth cleaning as well.

Whew!  I was relieved.  It’s never a good thing to hear about fluid in anyone’s lungs let alone your beloved pet.  I called the regular vet and made his teeth cleaning appointment.  I made it such that we would be able to watch him over the 3-day Labor Day holiday weekend.  My other thought on doing it so soon was that as of right now is we know where his heart and lungs are at.

So, two days later, I loaded Skip up and took him to his regular vet for his teeth cleaning.  Poor guy had two vet appointments in one week. His vet did the teeth cleaning and called me once he was done.  They said he had a lot of tartar build up, but they got it all and he was doing just fine.  Because they only had him under for the minimum amount of time, I got to pick him up early.  This was nice because it gets him out of a stressful situation.  I guess he really didn’t like the dog that was next to him. 😉

Now Skip plus anesthesia is a funny thing when he gets home.  He gets ravenous while still loopy, he can’t walk a straight line, and he won’t lay still.  His poppa and I kept a close eye on him on Thursday.  I kept feeding him a little bit of canned food at a time and kept the hard food from him for a day.  His teeth/gums were tender on that first day, so I wanted him to just eat the canned food.  No sense in having the big chicken become afraid of hard food. LOL

On Friday, we gave him his hard food, but kept up with feeding him the canned food.  All day long.  Morning, noon, evening, and night.  Skip was in heaven. 🙂  So, everything goes normal on Friday, and Skip and I head to bed.

Saturday we get up at 7:30 am for Skip’s heart meds.  I put him on the counter and what do I see while still groggy?  Skip with a swollen right eye that he is keeping closed.  Well, swelling this time of year is nothing.  Skip has allergies and allergies can equal swelling.  So, I gave him 1/2 a tablet of antihistamine, but made a note to check him later on in the morning.

Well, I lost track of time, and at noon ran in to check him.  Yep, I still had a one-eyed bandit.  I had a decision to make…this was a holiday weekend which means if it’s something serious and I don’t take him in, we may be taking a trip to the emergency clinic which equals more cost.  But what if it’s not something serious? Am I a helicopter mom with my kitty?

I made a quick decision.  Something was wrong and I knew it in my gut.  Mommy’s know their babies best and should always trust their gut.  I called the vet and they said to bring him up.  It’s a good thing I did.  Skip had a scratch that was pretty big on his eye.  They gave us some antibiotics and eye pain meds to take home.  Plus his regular vet wanted to see him again on Tuesday to make sure his eye healed correctly.

I have to say it was nice to see the other doctor in the practice.  She’s the one who initially found the HCM and to whom I will always be indebted to.  We always see the other vet because of the urine sample.

Skip was miserable on Saturday.  Between his teeth and his eye, he just wasn’t feeling good.  I did cut back on the canned food on Saturday as well which probably added to his discomfort.  He needed to start eating his hard food again whether he wanted to or not.  He would go into the kitchen and eat apiece of hard food. Then would come out and look at me with only one eye open.  It was like he was saying, “Please mother feel sorry for me and give me the canned food.”  I didn’t relent and he went back to eating the hard food.

Skip was better on Sunday.  There was drainage from both eyes which we thought was odd.  And then on Monday Skip was playing with his toys again and acting normal.

On Tuesday, much to Skip’s protests we headed back up to his regular vet.  Hooray!  Skip’s eye was healed.  We were to continue the antibiotics in both eyes for the rest of the week, but Skip didn’t need eye surgery to fix his scratch.  The reason for the antibiotics in both eyes was just in case his allergies were starting an infection in the other eye.

During this whole week, I spent my evenings making up 428 pill capsules which will get us to December.  428!  That is a lot of pill capsules!  The problem is that the potassium pills are HUGE.  I have to cut the pill into eighths.  I called the cardiologist and asked if I could give him a quarter in the morning and a quarter in the evening.  She said that it would be fine to split it.

So the makeup of the pill capsules is as follows:

Morning Pill #1:
– 1/4 Plavix
– 1/2 Thyroid tablet
– 3/4 Enalpril

Morning Pill #2:
– 2/8 of a Potassium pill (It is actually cut into eighths)

Evening Pill #1
– 1/2 Thyroid tablet
– 3/4 Enalpril
– 1/4 Furosemide

Evening Pill #2:
– 2/8 of a Potassium pill (It is actually cut into eighths)

Once Sunday gets here, we’ll be down to two pill capsules in the morning and two pill capsules in the evening.  It’ll be nice to be back to normal. 🙂

To sum it up, after two years Skip’s HCM progressed a bit and we countered with upping one med and adding two new ones.  Here’s hoping for two more years of the same-o, same-o. 🙂