Sheep Cartoons again

Some fun sheep cartoons!

Two heart surgeries on Friday

Some of you folks know of my heart conditions. I have Atria Flutter which means the upper part of the heart goes at flutter state, fast beating up to 300 beats per minute. I also have half heartbeats which means the blood does not flow into the lower chamber and thus no oxygenated blood goes into the body. My heart rate is 39 beats per minute and should be 65-70 beats. So, I get tired and wore out quite easily and after about 6 hours I am exhausted. I can only work my dogs in about seven minute shifts, then need to take a break. I had a heart procedure in Feb that tried to reset the heart and get rid of the atria flutter but it didn’t work. So now, everything had has snowballed so I have to have two surgeries tomorrow.

The first one is an Ablation. It is a “procedure used to selectively destroy areas of the heart that are causing a heart rhythm problem. During this procedure, thin, flexible wires are inserted into a blood vessel in the thigh, groin, neck, or elbow and threaded up through the blood vessel and into the heart under X-ray guidance. The wires allow the doctor to record the electrical activity of your heart and determine what kind of heart rhythm problem you have.

Then, your doctor will find the tiny areas that are causing the rhythm problem. The wires are used to send energy to those areas in the heart. This energy is in the form of heat or freezing cold. The heat or cold destroys, or ablates, the heart tissue. Destroying this tissue can cure your heart rhythm problem.”

This will fix the atria flutter issue. That is the first surgery and they will monitor me then do the second surgery.

The other issue is my heart is going at 39 beats per minute and it should be double that. Since my heart rate is low as well as my blood pressure, I get fatigue easily. The Doctor will install a pacemaker and it will ramp up my heart rate to 70 beats per minute.

“A pacemaker is a small device that's placed under the skin of your chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms. This device uses electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate. Pacemakers are used to treat heart rhythms that are too slow, fast, or irregular. These abnormal heart rhythms are called arrhythmias. Pacemakers can relieve some symptoms related to arrhythmias, such as fatigue (tiredness) and fainting. A pacemaker can help a person who has an abnormal heart rhythm resume a more active lifestyle.”

My surgeries are at noon tomorrow and they will do the Ablation surgery then the pacemaker surgery. I will be staying overnight so they can monitor everything and hopefully I will be home on Saturday. It can take up to six weeks for everything to be normal again so I won’t be tossing bales of hay around. I am off work on sick leave for two weeks then will be telecommuting for two more weeks. Then back to work and it will be great to have energy again, have a normal heart rate and be close to normal again.

So say a prayer for me, give your loved one a hug and snuggle with your dog. Life is too short and you should live it to the fullest. I will have my friends post to the comment section on everything turned out as well as Facebook. Until I am up and about, I will have recipes and cartoons for the blog.

Take care! This should be last of the heart surgeries!

Heppner- Ruben Cardenas and Vangie

Ruben and Vangie at Heppner in March 2012.  They are quite a lovely team. Off the field, Ruben is a very nice person. You can tell he loves his dog.

At the post.

 Nice fetch.

This one ewe thought she was going to bolt but Vangie made her rethink that foolish scheme.

Setting up for the shed.

A little tongue action.

Caption Contest Winner

"You put your left paw in, you put your left paw out..."

The winner by random draw by Tess is: SLUJ

Please contact me by April 18, If not, then a second draw will be done.



Finally Home

I was in Oklahoma City for almost two weeks and just got back this weekend. I am trying to play catch-up and woefully behind. It's nice to be home and that old saying of "No place like home" is so very true.

I will have to finish the Heppner photos as well as the photos I took when I was in OKC. In case, you were wondering, it was work and not a vacation. I did eat quite well and gained four pounds while I was there. My jeans got tighter! No worry, as I will eat normally and exercise to get it off. In OKC, the food is very rich and delicious and the beers were $1.00 a bottle so needless to say, I might have had a few!

The farm was fine when I got home. Wayne, Diane the Vet, Audrey and Janet took care of the dogs and sheep feeding in the evening while Getty did the morning feeding and misc chores. We had one lamb born when Wayne was at the farm so he got to name him and his name is "Banjo"

More tomorrow as I am still recovering from the trip. Friday was a 20 hour day and with my heart all messed up, it wore me out. The girls did miss me, although Maid adored Getty as he used her for chores. Rainey has been super clingy and sleeps in my arms at night. The good part about her is she really  matured since I was gone and got more push.

Off to feed the sheep and play with the dogs.