Although we didn’t really have a plan yesterday, Donna had a few things to do. First on her list was an appointment with her doctor. She had a minor procedure scheduled and the appointment was a pre-surgery consultation. Her doctor noticed the recent road rash scars on Donna’s leg and asked her what happened.
Donna told her about her bike crash and said, “I had a concussion too.” Donna went on to tell her about an odd thing that happened on Friday and Saturday. Her speech was scrambled a few times. At one point she was talking to someone and said, “I see you got the memo.” What came out was, “I see you got the menu.” She repeated it twice, then with much effort was able to say the word “memo.”
Later, she ran into Deann Bolinder at lunch. They had chatted on the phone when Deann heard about her bike crash. Her husband had a bike crash 11 months ago and is still experiencing issues related to concussion. Donna was telling Deann about her word issue the day before and asked her if that was a symptom. What came out was, “Is that a system?” Again, she repeated it twice before she could say with great effort “symptom.”
That evening, Donna phoned me. She was telling me about her word issues. She said she thought it might be due to stress and the busy, noisy conference setting. Except what she said instead of “noisy conference” was “noisy concert.” Then she laughed and said, “I can’t believe I said concert – I meant to say concert.” She able to say conference on the third try.
After telling her doctor this, the doctor asked if Donna had seen her primary care physician (PCP). Donna told her that she went to the emergency room the day of her crash and had a CT scan that was negative. Her doctor told her to see her PCP before she could schedule the procedure, which requires anesthesia.
Donna came home and spoke with her PCP’s office. Her PCP was concerned about brain injury and instructed her to go immediately to a hospital emergency room for another CT scan. Because of the trouble with words, Donna’s doctor was concerned that she might have a late subdural hematoma. I drove Donna to Scripps Mercy Hospital on Washington Street. While she was being admitted, I drove over to O’Reilly Auto Parts and dropped off the old chassis batteries from our coach for recycling. That was something I needed to do while we still had the rental car and O’Reilly was just down the street from the hospital. They actually gave me a $10 store gift card for recycling the batteries!
I came back to the hospital and found Donna in an exam room in the ER. She went through a few questions and an exam with a nurse practitioner, then waited for about an hour before someone came and took her away for the CT scan. After the scan, we waited for another hour before the nurse practitioner came back and said her scan was negative – no sign of brain bleed or stroke. We had to wait another 15 minutes before a doctor came into the room and went over the results. The consensus is that Donna was exhausted from preparing for and working at the conference. That coupled with a lack of sleep at the hotel and the noisy environment caused post concussive symptoms where her brain was misfiring. A period of rest should allow her to fully recover. She has a follow-up appointment with her PCP next Monday. At that time, Donna and her doctors will decide if she should have the surgery next or postpone it to allow her brain time to heal.
Meanwhile, I had phoned Enterprise Rental Car and told them that we were at the Scripps ER and wouldn’t be able to return the rental car by 4pm as scheduled. They were very good about it and told me it would be okay If we could get there by 6pm, there would be no additional charge on the weekend special rate. When we returned the car at 4:40pm, we were also a few miles over the 300-mile limit. They waived that as well.
We walked back to Mission Bay RV Resort along the Rose Creek Trail. Donna wanted to go with me to return the car because she felt like taking a walk after spending the afternoon cooped up in a small exam room in the ER. I showed her how to access the trail from the neighborhood to the south of Garnet Avenue.
When we walked back into the RV park, I saw a cool looking travel trailer in the overflow area. It has a riveted aluminum skin like an Airstream but it’s painted, not polished. It was all closed up with the windows shuttered. I don’t know for sure what it was.
Cool looking travel trailer
Another cool trailer came into the park Sunday night. We found it parked on the west end. It’s a tiny house on a trailer chassis. We met the owner and builder, Jen, last night. She bought plans for the tiny house and attended construction classes before she built it. Jen was in town for a tiny house Earth Day show. She towed her tiny house down from Salt Lake City. Her house isn’t quite complete – it’s a work in progress. She gave us a tour of the interior. I would guess it’s no more than 130 square feet plus a sleeping loft and a small storage loft.
Front door at the rear of the tiny house trailer
Tiny house on wheels
Jen said this was her first trip with the trailer. I looked the trailer over and asked her if she had checked the lug nuts. She said she didn’t, but planned to go to a tire store to have them done. I told her I had a torque wrench and would check the lug nuts for tightness. This is important on trailers. The lug nuts loosen from undamped vibration. Most trailers aren’t equipped with shock absorbers, just stiff spring suspension. Jen was leaving to go to a meeting of tiny home enthusiasts. I told her I would check the lug nuts and check her tire pressure as well while she was out.
While I was tightening the lug nuts, her neighbor came out of her Airstream trailer and asked if I was supposed to be messing with the tiny house. This woman was well into her 70s and looking out for Jen. I told her what I was doing and she said she had an air compressor if I wanted to use it to air up the tires. We chatted for a few minutes. She’s a widow and as it turns out, went to Point Loma High School here in San Diego in the 1950s and travels alone with her Airstream full-time. She has kids in San Diego, Monterey and Seattle. So she travels up and down the west coast from San Diego to Seattle. We meet the most interesting people in our travels.
Back to the trailer lug nuts. I had the torque wrench set to 100 ft-lbs. All 24 lug nuts needed to be tightened. Some of them were very loose and needed more than a quarter turn to tighten properly. After setting them at 100 ft-lbs, I went over them again at 110 ft-lbs. Both Dexter Axle and Lippert (the two biggest suppliers of trailer axles) call for 90 to 120 ft-lbs torque on 1/2 inch axle studs. I don’t understand why they specify such a wide range instead of giving a number and a plus/minus range. I go for the middle of the specification.
Her tires call for 66 psi. I found all four tires were 14-15 psi too low and reset the pressure. Low pressure is a killer – it’s the leading cause of tire failure such as blowouts. With that done, Jen is ready to hit the road and head home to Salt Lake City this morning.
Last night, Donna prepared walnut-crusted tilapia. We haven’t had tilapia for a while because 90% of the frozen tilapia on the market is farmed raised in China. From reports I’ve read, it’s questionable whether this is a healthy choice because of the farming practices in China. Donna found fresh tilapia from Mexico at Sprouts. Again from reading, I learned that 70% of the fresh tilapia on the market comes from modern Mexican facilities such as Regal Springs. Most of the rest comes from Equador. We feel better about eating this fish than Chinese farm-raised tilapia.
Walnut-crusted tilapia with asparagus & red onion saute
The fresh tilapia was delicious. It’s Tuesday, so that means pickleball this afternoon at the rec center. Donna is planning to stay home and rest.
