Jan 21 - 29th

On Tuesday, the 21st, I flew all by myself to Houston to help Cappy and Nana after she had open heart surgery to replace a valve.

Now I thought the valve was on the outside of the heart but we learned that it is on the inside as you see in this first picture.

 This is what it looks like if you cut it and then look inside.  I had no idea the valve worked in 3 pieces.

 The red valve is healthy, the grey one is diseased.  No wonder the valve was bad, it couldn't move any blood.

 This is what the valve looks like inside the heart.

So Nana was in the hospital until Friday because she was having trouble with keeping her hemoglobins up and her heart in a steady rhythm or as the doc says in sinus rhythm - she kept going into afib.

Finally, on Friday she came home.  The next 5 days I helped Nana become a vegan.  I cleaned out the pantry, took Cappy shopping for groceries and cooked many, many meals, with many going into the freezer.

On Tuesday, I took Nana to a follow up appointment with her cardiologist.

While I was in town, Cappy took me out to dinner and lunch.  The first night we ate at a Japanese sushi bar and grill.

I ordered tempura vegetables, a cucumber salad and Cappy ordered a fruit salad and a chicken sushi dish.

A couple nights later, Cappy took me to my absolute favorite restaurant - Udipi Cafe for Indian food.  We ordered a sampler platter which filled us up but we just had to eat more dishes because it is so good.  I ordered the lentil crepes - my favorite and Cappy ordered curry - it was fabulous.  We also ordered a side of bread that came out looking like 2 pillows they were so fluffy.  I forgot to take a picture because we were so busy eating.

Another day for lunch we went out for Mexican and I had a spinach enchilada.  The last night I was in town we went to Ruggles Green - the coldest restaurant on the planet.  Anyway, I ordered a veggie taco.

Cappy ordered a Nut burger.  For dessert, we had a vegan flourless chocolate cake that was super rich and delicious.  We ate it too quickly to get a picture.

My flight home was memorable.  I sat in the 2nd row, right behind a soldier dressed in his dress blues.  Right before takeoff the Captain announced we had Special Cargo on board.  I immediately teared up - I knew what Special Cargo meant.  When we arrived at the gate, there were several soldiers outside on the tarmac, standing at attention.  We all waited patiently for the escort soldier to get off the plane and then we all filed quietly off the plane and congregated by the windows in the seating area.  I stayed and watched them escort the soldier out of the cargo hold with his flag draped coffin.  I heard many phones clicking pictures but I just couldn't.  I felt like it was dishonorable.  Slowly, we all drifted away and went to get our luggage.

A couple hours later I finally arrived home to hugs.  It felt good to be home.