on the mend & some snow adventures

There's some good news with Rick's DVT. Seems like the treatment is helping and the clots have started to slowly dissolve. He's thrilled to be off the Heperin shots, which he was having to self administer in his abdomen twice a day. The Cumadin pills he's been taking have made progress, and his blood work shows that his blood has thinned to a good level. The downside is that he will be on Cumadin for a few months, we think. Which means he needs to be incredibly careful not to accidentally cut himself, since the medicine makes it hard for blood to clot on a wound. It also means the carpal tunnel surgery is on hold for awhile.

The good news is that he doesn't have to limit his physical activity, and so last weekend, we decided to spend New Year's Day up in the Pass to test out the new snow shoes we got for Christmas. Fortunately my brother-in-law is an experienced outdoorsman, so he was our "guide" for the afternoon. He even brought his camp stove up and made us all some hot chocolate while we dug out some snow seats to sit and sip the tasty cup of cocoa.

On our way out, heading back to the car, we came across a group we'd seen just minutes earlier. They had crossed back over a small creek using a fallen tree that was compact with snow. We'd crossed over it earlier and if you stayed straight on it, the path across was fine. However, as we neared that area, we saw that there was a guy who'd strayed slightly off the packed snow path, and fell through to the trickling creek. It was probably more uncomfortable for him being pinned with one of his snowshoes behind him, so at least it wasn't a real emergency that required medical attention. My brother in law stopped to help while we stayed along side the trail. Fifteen minutes later the guy was freed and we headed back to the car.

Rick had enjoyed being out in the snow, that later that weekend, we decided to try something new. So we signed up for snowboard lessons. Now I am not a strong skier, having not grown up around mountains. Rick has snowboarded a couple of times before, but essentially we were beginners. The ski resort had a deal for 3 lessons, lift tickets and rentals, so we opted for that. Not bad, three 2-hour lessons in all. We've done our first lesson and still have two more to take some time in the next few months.