Dear People,

As we again retreat into isolation here on our sunny four acres while delta marches and munches into Michigan communities, one would think that there would be a lot of peace and very little drama. One would be wrong--there is always drama!

Some of it is very good and quotidian, like our delight in having the first handfuls of raspberries off the bushes we planted this spring. Or the joy we've had in this last litter of puppies, now leaving for new homes this week, every single one going to a family who has fallen in love with puppies that other family members or neighbors got from previous litters. We did not have to do any advertising at all...these are just such special creatures, calm, empathic, loving, intensely loyal--and beautiful to boot. One of our pups went to a woman who has an autoimmune disease. He is a natural therapy dog who (without any training) tells her when she is about to have a flare. Another buyer told us that getting her pup was 'the best decision we've made as adults.' 

Some drama has been challenging. This summer, Gary has had a lot of lightheadedness and even more fatigue than his new normal since the strokes. We started checking his blood pressure regularly and no wonder he was drooping; week by week it dropped and dropped until it hit a low of 78/45.

Our regular PCP was on vacation at the time, of course, but we did get in to one of her colleagues who was quite interested in the fact that in 2013 Gary was one of the several hundred lucky Americans that year who had a pheochromocytoma, a rare and very large but non-malignant tumor on his left adrenal gland. He had to have the adrenal removed along with the tumor. She wondered if the remaining adrenal was not up to the task, so referred him to an endocrinologist.

While we were waiting on that appointment, it occurred to us to check more diligently into the side effects of the one prescription med Gary was still taking. I remembered thinking when he was put on it that it wasn't something good to take long term but hadn't researched it since. Hmm. The Mayo Clinic and other sites list low blood pressure as one of the side effects. Looking more closely, Gary had about six of the other eight or so side effects as well. Since he was in between the specialist who had prescribed it and was still waiting to get in with a new more local specialist and there did not seem to be any instructions about titrating off, he just quit taking it. Within a few days, his blood pressure was up into the 90s over 60 or so. And his other symptoms also started to improve. (He did get into the new specialist last week who agreed that the side effects made this an unwise drug choice.)

He had pretty much gotten back into his lifelong normal bp of @115/65-70...and then this afternoon came in from working looking pale and exhausted. His blood pressure was back down, 83/55. Gulp! So back to the PCP tomorrow.

The good thing is that we are slowly building a network of docs that we feel positive about. That is a huge relief, even though we still have to drive 45 minutes up to an hour or two to get to any of them.

The other drama this week, both very good and very bad, is that our daughter Kat and Ryan are having their wedding on Saturday. And we won't be able to be there...it's complicated.

Here's the back story: last September after Gary had his first stroke, Kat and Ryan drove straight through from Idaho to Michigan to come help out. I think Kat was hit pretty hard with the realization that she had come very close to losing both parents in the previous year as I'd had unexpected open heart surgery that past December. It was not clear to any of us (still isn't) that either or both of us had much likelihood of living as long as our respective parents (3 out of 4 lived into their 90s, my mom until 99 1/2). Or, that we would ever be able to travel across the country again.

So she and Ryan got a Michigan marriage license and with Gary and his sister Joy as witnesses, I officiated their legal marriage in our orchard the day after Gary got out of the hospital. The plan was to have their wedding with everyone else once Covid loosened its grip, which didn't happen as hoped. This is one of those tense times in history when the choice seems to be to find resilience, or be crushed. Their wedding planning has been nothing if not resilient, flexing time and again to the craziness of these Covid waves crashing down. While the marriage begun in our orchard could have been adequate in a pinch, it still felt essential to celebrate their wedding with Ryan's family; after all, they love him dearly! (And we know why :)

'Surely, by September and with the vaccines,' they thought last spring, 'things will be settled down enough that we can have our wedding on our anniversary!' They have pared it down and still further down, as Idaho's numbers have spiked, hoping to keep it small enough to be safe enough, especially for the people in Ryan's family who have significant medical issues.

After all their meticulous paring and planning--outside in a spacious meadow, a food truck with boxed meals rather than a buffet, lots of sanitizer, masks and distancing--their caterer came down with covid yesterday. And her boyfriend, their good friend who was going to be their officiant, is under quarantine. And we're 1,994 miles away....I have been breaking out in itchy bumps and it's not just from my allergy to puppy kisses, or mosquitos. 

I hate to end like this, but this is a story that is still being written. I'll try to let you know what happens. In the meantime, my effort to cope this weekend is to plant a couple hundred more daffodils in the orchard to add to the ones that our granddaughter and I planted at the spot where the happy couple stood last September 18!