The stories of all my travels are in my very extensive travel blog. That site links to my very road trip site, where there are maps and pictures and campground information for all the many places I have been in the last twenty-odd years.
I’m slowing down now, so I’m sorry to say that I may not lave anything new to add to that blog and that website in the future. … big bummer for me :(
But it brings us to this blog, where I natter on about health-related things that have more or less grounded me in the present day.
It’s almost entirely heart problems, although achilles surgery does sneak in there. The achilles was not really much of a story by itself, but it happened during COVID. Going to the hospital under COVID security made it a little interesting.
We start in 2009 with a standalone series of blog posts about discovering that I needed expensive surgery at age 62 and going to Istanbul, Turkey to get that surgery. A little bit of sightseeing and experiencing Turkey, but mostly hanging out in the hospital and getting things done to me.
In 2012 I made a second trip back to Anadolu Medical Center. I was age 64, still not Medicare eligible. The punitive nature of the American medical system made it cost-effective to fly back to Turkey for expensive followup tests. Since this trip was mostly travel and sigh-seeing and only a little bit of medical, it is on the travel site rather than here.
In 2013 I had my 65th birthday!! My health-life changed overnight!
I joined United Healthcare and my Reno heart physician went from being an annoying nag to my best friend. She could order meds and tests and I would happily take them / do them since they were suddenly affordable.
For the next eight years I just lived life. Went on road trips in my beloved Sprinter van, and lived life in downtown Reno. Then around the time of COVID the wheels came off a little.
The Reno doctor determined that I needed a Pacemaker, and about the same time my right achilles got extremely inflamed. So I showed up at St Mary’s Hospital for two operations in three weeks … in the time of COVID. Interestingly, the Pacemaker insertion required an overnight stay (which was no fun at all), but the achilles surgery was lightweight general anesthetic , and you’re out the door 4 hours later.
Now, here in mid-2025 (Trump 2 … eeeeek!) I have another story to tell. How I determined that I should relocate to the California side of the mountains, to be closer to the grandkids because they’re awesome, and closer to the kid (Martha) because I am getting noticable older.
It was a good plan, and who knows how it would’ve worked out of the ole heart had kept pumping on schedule, but it didn’t.