Hello from Park Sierra. We returned on Thursday after a 5 day stay at Jojoba SKP Park near Temecula, CA. Unfortunately, it wasn't all fun and partying there, as we had planned. Tuesday we were supposed to attend a gathering at Dick and Carole Schneider's to watch the election returns and do what Boomer friends do best, eat and drink and talk. Mid-afternoon we had a visit from friends Jim and Kathy Jensen who were also parked in the boondocking area with us. Jim was telling us an interesting story when Elaine decided to go out and turn off the generator. She was in a hurry to get back to hear the rest of the story so she didn't pay attention and on the way back in, she hit the corner of the bedroom slideout so hard with her head that she actually bent it. She also opened up a huge gash in her forehead and scalp. She was bleeding quite a bit but we put lots of paper towels on it and an ice pack, which slowed the bleeding considerably. Then the debate began as to whether we should go get it stitched up or not. Elaine said she would butterfly it herself if we could just get some butterfly bandages. Kathy and Bill, the workkamper guy at the park, decided we had better take her in and they found out where the nearest Kaiser urgent care center was and printed out a map to it. Jim and Kathy went with us but when we got there, the doctor took one look at it and said it was too big a gash and all the way down to her skull and we had to go to the emergency room at the Inland Valley Medical Center across the street. So we went over there and after about an hour in the waiting room, we got in and Elaine was treated by a physician's assistant. He cleaned it up and got the bleeding stopped with epinephrine, then meticulously picked all the hair out of the wound and spent about an hour suturing it. The amazing thing is that Elaine was not really in any pain until after the suturing and didn't even get a headache! They insisted that she get a cat scan to make sure she didn't have a fractured skull or bleeding on the brain. They gave her a couple of painkillers and a shot of antibiotics and we were able to leave the hospital at about 11:30 PM. The next day she still felt OK so about noon we started driving back towards Fresno, stopping along the way to get her Rx for antibiotics filled. By the time we got back to Park Sierra the next day, her eyes were swollen and blood had seeped down into her tissues so she had 2 "black" eyes. The left one wasn't bad but the right one looked like she had been mugged. Once she took a shower and washed her hair, she actually didn't look too bad. We went to our own doctor here on Friday and she will have the stitches taken out next Wednesday. It is very lucky that this injury wasn't worse because we are supposed to leave for Africa on the 26th and we do NOT have travel insurance!
It has been nice to be back at Park Sierra where we have already had a very nice Happy Hour with friends this afternoon. We will be getting ready for our trip, doing taxes, catching up on paperwork and packing in the next few weeks. Tomorrow we will be picking up my granddaughter, Paige, in Merced where she now lives with her Dad, and she will ride with us up to the Bay Area. We are having a meeting of our new tenants, our old tenants, and Elaine's daughter Tarra, to coordinate the changeover at the end of this month for our Santa Clara rental house. It will be a chance to see Tarra for a few hours too. Wish we had a little more time while we are there to visit other old friends, but this will be a one day visit.