A Medical Alarm, A Purchase, Then on to Ninilchik

Our day started around 6 a.m. with Don saying something very important, but in a calm voice, while I was starting to drink my first cup of coffee and therefore still a little groggy. “I was supposed to inject 4 units of insulin, but I mistakenly did 20 units.” I suddenly woke up. You did what? That’s 4 1/2 times what you needed! You might go into hypoglycemia or even coma! It’s a good thing I know where the hospital is (thanks to Carol)! I called the 24-hour Tri-Care hotline. The nurse wasn’t on duty yet – call your primary care physician. I called Dr. Ramirez in Arizona and got a recording – they weren’t open yet.

Okay, now what? Call 911? Punt! Get some sugar in him, get some food in him, test blood sugar again. So far, so good. Take showers, get dressed, watch him closely. Go about the things we need to do to get on the road, but reserve the right to stop everything and take him to the hospital. Oh, but will the base hospital treat a retiree? Hmmm, policies may have changed in war times. We’ll cross that bridge when/if we come to it.

“How are you doing?” “Okay.” But he doesn’t always tell me the whole truth, so I’m still watchful.

He was planning to drive first this morning, but I decided to take over. We pulled out of the campground around 8:10 a.m. and got diesel and propane on base. We drove in rush hour traffic in Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska where over 40% of the state’s population lives, and still didn’t have any slowdowns! As we left the downtown area, Don said Best Buy on the south end of town would be open in less than 1/2 hour, so if I wanted to stop and buy a new camera he wouldn’t mind the delay. (Now I knew he was thinking clearly and not suffering from the overdose. Not 2 minutes earlier I was thinking the same thing!)

I had done some research online last night and decided I was ready for a slightly larger camera to get some more capabilities. All my searching kept leading me to the camera I had seen in the downtown shop earlier in the day – the Canon PowerShot SX130IS. It was $249.99 at the camera shop, $191.99 at Best Buy and reported to be in stock.

So, of course, I took the exit to Best Buy. We had to wait about 20 minutes for the store to open. I was one of a half-dozen shoppers waiting for the doors to be unlocked, and the first to walk in since the others were all very polite men! I found the camera quickly, and spent a minute or two looking at smaller pocket-sized ones to be sure I didn’t want to stay with that size. A very knowledgeable employee came to see if I was finding what I needed, answered a few of my questions, and I bought the camera. The in-store price was $229.99 but they honored the website price, and I was out of the store 15 minutes later. Total cost was just under $300 with a 3-year extended warranty, a case and a supply of 8 lithium AA batteries. About $100 less than I paid 3 years ago for the camera that just died, with no extended warranty. (Thanks to my readers who offered suggestions. Your comments helped me make the decision which camera to buy.)

Meanwhile, Don had re-tested and reported good numbers for blood sugar. Hurrah! He and Shadow had checked out the best route out of the parking lot to get back to the freeway. He offered to drive so I could play with my new toy. He seemed fine, and continued to be okay the rest of the day. Thank heavens! A possible tragedy avoided!

Here’s the new camera:

I played with it during our drive. Too bad it was cloudy and rainy all day, but I got a few good shots. Here’s an unusual train, with the passenger compartment in the top level of the taller unit which is also the engine, and a cargo car following.

Mud flats from glacier runoff.

We’re definitely not going kayaking in this rapidly flowing river!

A bicycle/walking path beside the highway, viewed from our lunch stop in a rest area.

Arriving at Deep Creek State Recreation Area. A steep descent toward Cook Inlet.

Oops, a little traffic to contend with.

We can see our group at the far end. Dennis directs us to our site. The famous little green man sits atop Jean and Claudette’s Jeep.

We pull in between the Tiltons on the left and Jim and Pat on the right. Thanks for saving this great site for us!

As soon as we’re parked, I’m going crazy with my new camera, taking pictures of eagles circling overhead, a unique house with a lighthouse-like tower, seagulls, etc. I won’t bore you with the 200+ shots I took, but may add some of them to a future blog post.

It was great to catch up with the ‘gang’ including Ken and Jan Tilton, who write an excellent blog, in case I haven’t already linked to them (I think I have). We had a great time this evening, with dinner at the local American Legion Lodge. Later, we watched eagles and seagulls, observed a group cleaning their fish after a very successful day on the water, and had a nice campfire. Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

Bringing the first few fish to the cleaning table.

What a haul!

The 50-lb halibut was caught by a young lady in the group. Sorry, didn’t get a photo of her. Lots of meals will be had from this fish!

Seagulls were waiting to attack the discarded fish carcasses.

When one of the fish remains hit the water, so did the seagulls!

The inspector had to measure and take samples.

Larry got some bones for making jewelry.

Eagles are everywhere! Here are a couple doing an interesting dance in the air.

Our rigs parked in a row.

An interesting home up on a cliff. Looks like a lighthouse.

Campfire chatting after dinner.