I realized this week that I'm am back in the habit of "working" during the week and taking weekends off. That makes no sense as my "work" (genealogy class prep, etc) can be done any day but it is just habit. Right now my volunteer stuff is taking a lot of time but it will significantly drop off at the end of June when all the classes I'm teaching will be over for the year. Oh well.....
On Friday night I went to the
Museum at Prairiefire's Neuroscience Happy Hour that is on Fridays, 6-7:30 p.m.. It is an informal presentation by a doctor from St. Luke's Hospital Neuroscience Department. I 'm a member there so get their emails and I ignored the first one a couple of weeks ago about a class on Dementia but decided to go last Friday and am really glad I did. Besides enjoying the free wine and appetizers, I learned more than I ever wanted to know about
Time is Brain: Guide to Recognition and Treatment of Strokes. The doctor was the head of their stroke department and knew her stuff. I learned I have a moderate risk for a stroke based on my blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, A-Fib, weight, exercise and family history of stokes. Some of the questions on the risk survey were just yes or no do you have them while other questions for what is my blood pressure, cholesterol, amount of exercise, etc. I know I have a lot of plaque in the heart arteries but did not know that I also have it in the brain arteries - it it is in one place in the body then it is in other arteries also. I always thought it was plaque in the heart that broke off and traveled up to the brain. Now I know the plaque is already in the brain and can just break off in the brain and travel to a smaller vein where it causes a blockage. I learned that 32,000 brain cells die every second during a stroke or
1.9 million die every minute the blockage is there. There is only a 3 hour window for them to give you the pill that may break up a clot from the first onset of a symptom. We hear that our blood pressure should be in the 120/80 range but for someone over 80, it should be under 150/85 - a higher allowable limit that someone younger. She also showed a video of a new procedure where they can go up through an artery in the groin to the brain and pull out a clot. It was all fascinating! They are scheduled through August with different topics on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month. I will definitely pay more attention to the emails I get from them on future Happy Hour's at the Museum.
Yesterday I went with a friend to the
Johnson County K-State Research and Extension's 2016 Garden Tour. There were 6 homes, all owned by Master Gardner's, and we could wander around their yards and see what they had planted, how the yard was designed, etc. We only went to 4 of the gardens and that took a lot of hours. Of course one garden was my favorite - I would love to have it in a yard. However, I am not willing to spend the amount of them she and her husband (both Master Gardeners) spend each week on their yard. They have lived there for 18 years so it wasn't done overnight. It wasn't just the plants, but she is wonderfully artistic and had so many creative ways to use yard art to add interest in the gardens.
Over the table on the patio, is a chandelier where she replaced the bulbs with little bowls and then planted cascading plants in the bowls.
This was an automobile wheel that she cleaned up, painted and them put ceramic tile on it and turned it into a planter. It was beautiful.
Interesting mix of flowers, yard art (sun dial) and shrubs.
And yes there were lots and lots of flowers.
So back to "work" tomorrow and working on my next class which is 2 weeks from tomorrow....
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