Patty sick, RV Show, Chores, and Texas Weather

January 25 – February 2, 2014 

We are having what seems to be typical Texas up and down weather again!  We seem to have 2-3 days warm and then back to cold, 40’s.  We managed to get laundry and grocery shopping done while the weather is cold though.  

We have used more propane this month than any other month since we started living in the RV 17 months ago. We just filled another 30# tank this past Saturday the 25th. Since we arrived here on the 28th of December we have filled three 30# tanks of propane.  That means we have used 2 since getting here.  The cost is pretty low here in Texas at $2.75 per gallon or $20 per tank.  We have been using both electric (fireplace) and propane to heat with.  The electric will keep the RV at 70 when the outside temperature is 45 or above.  Below 45 we use both.  We pay for our electric here and the electric rates are a little high here at $13.5 cents per kwh. Even though the electric rates are high and propane is cheap, it is still cheaper to use electric for heat.  Electric heat is much more efficient than the propane heat from the RV furnace.  A lot of the furnace heat is lost through the forced air flue.   It’s pretty easy to calculate the cost of using the electric heat, but not so with the propane furnace.  The electric heat from the fireplace costs about $5 per day to operate on high and half that on low.  If we had to live in the RV in the north with very cold temperatures we would need to do a lot of preventative measures to seal up the RV. We really do not see that happening anytime soon.

This past Friday, the 30th, Patty passed out at the swimming pool and was taken to the hospital via ambulance.  She was severely dehydrated which dropped her blood pressure to 60/30.  After getting her fluids up via an IV she was fine. She passed out at 3:15 pm and we were home from the hospital (1/2 hour away) by 8:30 pm.  I then cooked dinner and Patty went over to the dance being held in the clubhouse to say thank you to those that helped.

That was the short story about Patty passing out.  Now for the details.  Patty passing out really started a week ago Sunday (26th) with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). She only found out about the UTI when she was in the hospital the following Friday.  Anyway, infections cause blood sugar to rise in diabetics.  So on Sunday her sugar got very high and she was not getting it down as quickly as she should.  By Monday morning she was in DKA.  Patty was already working hard to get her sugar down and didn’t want to go to the hospital so she tried to manage it on her own.  Over the next 3 days she got her sugar consistently low but in the process she became dehydrated.  She didn’t know she was dehydrated and was feeling pretty good by Friday morning. Good enough that we went to an RV show in Mercedes TX that morning.  We walked quite a bit and were up and down in the RVs without her feeling bad at all.  We got back in time for me to go over to the pool to play water volleyball at 2pm.  Patty usually follows me a little latter and hangs out with the women at the pool until we finish around 4pm. 

The livestock auction area in Mercedes TX is where the RV show was held.  It's nice to see that we still like our rig more than any of the others looked at including a $120k DRV.  The DRV is better built as it should for that kind of money!

A couple entertaining a the RV show.

Patty came out to the pool a little after 3 pm and was smiling and waving at people.  She looked great!  Later at the hospital she told me she felt wobbly as if she were drunk when she came out; she just didn't tell me at the pool.  I was waiting for my team to re-enter the game so she sat with me near the pool edge.  We were talking and I was also watching the current game in the pool.  She told me that her blood sugar was back up to almost 300 again and that had her worried as she didn’t know why.  All of a sudden I heard Patty snore!  I quickly turned toward her and she looked like she was sleeping, right in the middle of us talking in the sun by two busy pools (one is just for volleyball) and a hot tub!  It took a few seconds for me to realize that this wasn’t right at all.  I got up and over her to look into her eyes and to try to wake her up.  Her eyes were quivering and rolled back and she was not responding to me.  I then started yelling that I needed help and that Patty was unconscious.  Someone called 911 and the emergency box was brought out to where Patty was.  There are at least 3 nurses and one physician here and all 3 nurses were at the scene within just a couple of minutes.  

Patty was unconscious for about a minute total. She was disoriented for longer, maybe 10 minutes.  Patty was cold and clammy. She was presenting symptoms of having low blood sugar.  The nurses were sure she was low and why not, she is an insulin pump wearing diabetic.  Having low blood sugar is the most common issue with diabetics and that will cause them to pass out.  I told them that I didn’t think she was low and that she just told me she was 280 a few minutes ago.  They felt I was wrong.  I was only going on what Patty told me, but, she did seem low.  However, I had never seen her go so quickly from normal to unresponsive from low blood sugar.  I didn’t have any other answer though.  We finally got her sugar level with her glucose tester and sure enough it was 280 just as she had said.  

The ambulance arrived in about 30 minutes.  The paramedics got her started on an IV drip of saline and found her BP was 60/30.  They couldn't believe she was still conscious! I followed the ambulance to the hospital.  This is the same hospital I had the cyst removed from my ear a couple of weeks ago.  The hospital did blood and urine tests and found she had a UTI.  The good news was that she was no longer in DKA!  They put in 1.6 liters of saline and her BP was again normal.  After about 3 hours of being stable she was released.

It was a miracle Patty came out to the pool instead of staying in the RV.  Usually, Patty would not come to the pool if she was not feeling good.  This time she came out even though she felt wobbly!  If she had of stayed in the RV and passed out she would have probably died!  I wasn’t coming back to the RV until after the volleyball games around 4pm.  She could have been unconscious for well over an hour before I would have returned.

On to better stuff.  Last night, Saturday the 2nd, we had a Super Bowl Party in the clubhouse.  I made chili as did 3 others.  We had hot dogs, chili, and many, many finger foods made by the members here.  It was too bad the game was so bad.  I really didn’t care who won but I did favor the Broncos as I am a Manning fan.  We bought 4 squares in the pool and didn’t even get close to winning.  This is why I don’t gamble very much.  

Chili ready for the Super Bowl Party at the park.

The game from where I was seated in the clubhouse.  We had over 60 people attend the party.  I took this before the people showed up.

Yesterday we had the typical weather pattern here.  We got out of bed to 67 and by noon it was 82 and sunny.  I started to play volleyball at 2pm and it was still sunny.  Then about 2:45 the wind completely changed directions from the south to the north.  It really is a weird thing here with the wind.  It is usually windy and it changes direction very quickly.  The wind was from the south at 25 mph one minute and then 25 mph from the north the next.  And boy did the temperature change quickly too.  Within an hour the temperature went from 85 to 60 and then overnight to 45.

I saw this while I was doing my daily walk.  No clothes sign.

Added mud flaps to the rear of the dually.  Look good but wrong size.  Trying to keep the RV from being the mud flap!

That’s it from here.  The weather is not going to be very nice most of this week so who knows what we will get into. Maybe play more golf if it doesn't rain.

Stay tuned.