In her floating “in and Out”, as she says, Bonnie sent an “All’s Well” email. She has a blue splint on her leg, not a cast, which will keep her pretty quiet for a time, I suspect. She will certainly become more loquacious as she returns to full consciousness! Thank God for this success, and thank you all.
How annoying is that?? The weather forecast this morning is shouting a winter storm watch for Monday night, with a predicted 6 to 12 inches of snow over our very gardens. And Bob just mentioned in passing my doorway that the tulips on the south side of the house are poking tentative but meaningful little green snippets up into the cold air. Bless them!
Well, Bonnie is on the last leg of her journey. Er…….. I said that to her this morning when I telephoned, as she was preparing to take 2 (two!) sleeping pills for the night, and she just giggled. It was certainly unintentional but appropriate.
This evening as we in the U.S. watch our favorite Sunday programs and get ourselves ready for another week, Bonnie will be having what we all hope will be her last surgery – forever would be just fine. It will be morning in Saigon, and surgery on her left leg will be performed, by Dr. Courtois. Did you check out his picture on the hospital’s website – FVhospital.com – ? Great credentials. He has told her that the kneecap is still intact, and the broken places are just below that, although some bone pieces have poked up under the kneecap. The knee joint doesn’t appear to have been affected, and that’s a very good thing.
Not sure how long the surgery will take – Bonnie feels that she won’t be back to the Mac until almost Monday midnight her time, noon Monday for us. She probably won’t go to ICU but back to her room after recovery. The doctor has already said she will be weeks in the wheelchair, and then more weeks, probably months, on crutches. Whatever it takes……
Bonnie’s in a private room now, with a view out over Saigon, and tall, misty buildings in the distance. She has forgotten how steamy hot it is outside until she goes to the outdoor patio, because of course the hospital is nicely cool and air-conditioned. She says she’s set up sort of an office in her room, with her Mac and papers and work space. Are we surprised?? There is a picture of her on her blog as she had her hair cut last week.
We are back from our short visit to the Cities, and Bob’s hip is fine now, no further exams needed. The same cannot be said for his knee, though. It’s been 4 months already, and there’s still pain and stiffness. Once he’s outside and the ground defrosts so he can get his hands dirty, I think he’ll begin to ignore those irritations.
We ate at several of our favorite places in Minneapolis, had a good visit with Pam and Dennis, and came home with a few books and leftovers and stuff on our list at Sam’s. Normal trip!!
On the way we stopped to steal many kisses from the lovely Lilly,who is now just 2 months old, born on 24 January, the day before Grandpa Michael’s birthday. Close call!! He is the absolute picture of a doting grandpa, too. He’s already buying all sorts of little toys and clothes – and cribs and seats – for his house to keep her in style. Last week he and Tracy did a few chores for me at the antique mall, and afterward told me that the Barbie towel I had on offer there had accidentally been broken as they worked. Yeah, that’s what I said, too? Towel broken? Well, it’s now at his house, waiting for the little sweetpea to come and visit and take a bath. 
She’s ready to go to sleep and has one of those “Are you finished yet, Great-grandma?” looks on her face. I wanted to take her with us for 2 days but Skyler quickly reminded me that I was probably not equipped to feed her….
Blue eyes lookin’ at ya!
I made the sweater, but the matching cap disappeared quickly, as like all babies, she’s not big on hats. (Mom Skyler doesn’t like baby colors…..and I refuse to knit anything in Gothic black!!) Daddy CJ got her to smile a teeny one for us before we left. They live about 50 miles away, with Skyler’s parents for the moment, and thank goodness it’s on our regular route to the Cities. They will shortly be moving into an apartment of their own.
There are a few other little knitted things O(n) T(he) N(eedles), in knitter talk, for her. What gorgeous baby and tot and children patterns are available now! One or two of my UFOs (Unfinished Objects) went into time-out when Lilly appeared. I’ll get back to them soon……
The knitting world – and now it is really a world-wide renewal, with Ravelry on the Internet bringing us so much closer – has changed so marvelously since the days when my Dad would come home from a long day of selling houses to tell my Mom that another of his clients was expecting, and he needed a baby outfit. What color? she’d ask, and go to the special dresser in their bedroom where she kept a dozen or two outfits ready to be wrapped. And each outfit consisted of sweater, soakers, bonnet and booties. And such pretty pastel colors!
Now the possibilities are just unimaginable, and not only in delicious yarns and fibers and colors. Stripes, different colored arms and cuffs, bright boats and trucks and dolls and animals and letters of the alphabet, bib overalls, ruffly skirts and jumpers and socks . . . . . and to a knitter they are even more fun to do, because they are finished so quickly! Can you tell that I love knitting?
Well, it is tax season after all, and next to me are a half dozen new returns to be done for my own clients. Our own return, as usual, is waiting patiently. Don’t have to work at the antique mall for two weeks, so all my attention can be centered on placating Uncle Sam in his revenuer outfit.
These next hours are certainly a good time to renew prayers and special thoughts for Bonnie. She’s the center of so much love and caring right now, and she does feel it.
I’d love it if you’d leave a comment here now and again!
It’s such a regular happening, most early springtimes, here in the north country. The Red River, on the west side of the state alongside North Dakota, flows to the north, and into Canada. It lies in a broad plain that stretches for hundreds of miles. When it rises, as it does when the snow begins to melt, the water reaches out across that expanse, flooding everything along the way. It’s happening again this year, because the large snowpack is rapidly melting but the ground is still frozen, so the water just spreads out as far as the eye can see. Terrible situation up there. We are too far east to be affected by it, and we are thankful for that.
Mademoiselle Bonnie is growing ever stronger and healthier. When her outer leg is healed, the surgery to reconstruct it can be scheduled, probably in 10 days to 2 weeks. She’s bright enough and well enough to be getting bored now. David will be returning to Paris in a few days,and Bonnie is really looking at some long hours by herself. Of course Monsieur MacIntosh is with her every moment, and there is some consolation there. She’s developed this new blog for me, and is offering her not inconsiderable technical skills to anyone who wants a blog of their own! I know she would really love to hear from many of you as well, to tell her a bit about your days in this “decession” we’re experiencing. Her email addy is:
lingvemulo@gmail.com
Drop her a few words – she’ll get back to you! You can read her blog, of course, as indicated in the right-hand column. She’s posted a few pictures from the past 2 weeks. Her snail mail address is:
Woolley Bonnie Cathleen
French-Vietnamese Hospital
6 Nguyen Luong Bang Street
Saigon South (Phu MY Hung), District 7
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Express Priority mail takes about a week or so.
Bob and I are off the the Cities for a few days for his annual hip revision checkup.That means delicious Vietnamese spring rolls and noodle soup (what a coincidence!) and Barnes & Noble and Sam’s Club and Half-Price Books and (real) Mexican food, if we have time.
I will avoid the LYS locations – that would be Local Yarn Shop, to the un-needled. Many thousands of us around the world are seriously dedicated to “knitting from stash”. That means no yarn purchases. A very difficult thing for someone who loves the feel of the soft, luscious new fibers just flowing every day from the spinning wheels and mills in so many countries. The bright vibrant colors of yarn made with milk, soy, banana, and bamboo. How green is that?
Finished a pair of vanilla socks in Lorna’s Laces, in darker reds and browns and a bit of blue and green. Moving on to Jaywalkers in Kroy blues that are almost finished. Taking a little colorful present to Lilly tomorrow morning on our way to the Cities – she is 2 months old. I’ll have a new photo of her soon!
Many things OTN – my brainless-knitting brown/rust/blue tunic in Carino wool and alpaca, lots of socks for in my purse all the time, more tiny things for the little Lilly…..and still working from stash. A certain invalid has requested a sweater she spied online, and as a result the stash was not up to the call. Therefore waiting for some Malabrigo at my LYS.
Tax clients have found me again this year, so I’m busy with numbers again. The antique mall continues to be a good place for me to hang out – er, work – a few days a month. Always interesting people wandering in and out there.
Is anyone going dark at 8:30 local time Saturday night? Earth Hour….
Sure wish I could wiggle my nose and be in Saigon….
Sorry for a little quietness – life does intervene!
Bonnie has made great strides, both in physical healing and action, and decision-making. In the past 2 days she’s had a haircut (by one of the nurses), shampoo, and today had a shower – with a garbage bag around The Leg. A lot of us have done that garbage-bag in the shower gig, haven’t we?? (more…)
An update of sorts. The surgery to put a plate in Bonnie’s shoulder was successful on Thursday, and by Saturday morning (Vietnam time) she had the sling removed from her arm and was back at the keyboard with two hands. She reported a bit ago that she has just donned a tank top, the first non-hospital clothing in almost 2 weeks. Progress!
David is preparing to return to Paris soon. His face has been screwed back in place for good, we hope. They readjusted his jaw and put in the necessary screws and wiring to hold it while it heals back up – he should be done with surgery if all goes well!!
Lucky Bonnie is able to enjoy some authentic Vietnamese cuisine (hospital-style) while David is frustrated that he can only eat soup and yoghurt… But David gets out in his wheelchair several times a day to enjoy the air on the terrasse, while Bonnie is still waiting for that exciting moment when she’s allowed to try the wheelchair…
But also on Saturday morning the doctor sawed open the cast on her left leg to see how it was healing – - and it wasn’t, not nearly as fast as he had hoped. He has decreed 3 more weeks, and then a big surgical event to rebuild the leg. This now is presenting a large problem, because the hospital bills are climbing. If Bonnie leaves the hospital, stays in a hotel for 3 weeks, and then returns for surgery, she will need money for the hotel, food, etc. Of course she can’t even be released until she settles the account. If she stays in the hospital, the bill will continue to grow. If she leaves the hospital and returns to Paris for the surgery, she still needs money to settle the bill. And they have her passport as ransom. Can you say Catch-22?
I am still trying to get some satisfaction from the office of the Minnesota state Senator Klobuchar. I haven’t heard anything further since Tuesday. I will begin to stir their bushes on Monday morning. Bonnie is thinking of several solutions, all of which could be beneficial. But not immediately. Anybody with any ideas is welcome to contact me at gemini2@northlc.com or Bonnie at <lingvemulo@gmail.com>. We are at our collective wits’ end. And that’s quite a substantial distance.
Picked up another tax client tonight. He and his wife were original clients of mine at H&R, but they had stopped going there due to fees they felt were too high. They are developmentally challenged and he works 2 full-time jobs to support them. He’s a sweet, good-looking young man and always has a big smile when I see him at Target or Cub Foods.
I’m running as fast as I can to finish the baby things I’ve been knitting. Got to get them to sweet little Lilly before she outgrows them!!
Legal activity moves ahead – perhaps some good may come from all this pain and disruption of lives.
About the spaghetti dinner benefit, we have several things lined up – a cotton candy machine, a hint of Scottish input (not liquid, now), and a few more items. What we need is a big hall, some cooks, and a rented 747 to take us all to Paris where most of her support network lives! I bet we could get some singing there too, from those choirs she always brags about……..
Well. We all need dreams, no??
Bonnie is back in surgery as I type – it’s morning in Saigon. They are putting a plate in her shoulder because it’s not healing as well as they like. I’m sure her little typing movements to her blog and many emails has not helped! I’m trying not to stay up all night to get the email she will send after she’s out of recovery and back in her room.
She and David are still in their room, 501A. They must have TV, because I’ve heard they are passing the remote back and forth. David had surgery yesterday to repair his broken jaw and cheekbone. He so badly wants Bonnie to be able to fly back to France with him, but that won’t happen.
Bonnie’s French medical insurance will in fact pay for all her hospital and doctor expenses, thank goodness, but after the fact. That is, she has to pay the entire bill before they will release her, and then submit the receipts to the French plan administrators. The hospital is holding her passport against that settlement of the entire bill. Each day the hospital asks Bonnie for more money, and she has been giving them a few thousand at a time. The bill is $20,000+, and the money is about to run out. I am in contact with the office of the US senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar. There is a possibility of a special kind of loan that is made to Americans who encounter serious emergency situations when out of the US. The loan can be paid back when the French insurance payments come through.
Bonnie has been able to email since Monday afternoon. Interestingly, she is lying on her back, with casts on one whole leg and on the foot of the opposite leg. She can’t move because of the damaged collarbone and ribs. But she managed to have someone lend her an ethernet cable for her computer (it wasn’t brought to her in Phnom Penh with the computer). She then puts a pillow on her tummy and braces her Mac against it so she can type.
We are also contacting several lawyers in Phnom Penh to pursue some sort of payment from the driver who caused the accident. We are learning more details about the accident, as she receives information from her Cambodian friends. She and David had been scuba-diving off the coast of southern Cambodia. They were heading to Ream National Park to spend their last day in the area hiking and exploring. A Land Rover drove directly into them head-on, killing the driver of the tuk-tuk (they look to be made of matchsticks, I think) and Bonnie and David were thrown out of the cart. The driver of the Land Rover was a 22-year-old mechanic who wasn’t supposed to be driving the SUV, which is owned by an NGO. Bonnie tells me this is a “non-government organization”, such as UNICEF, or some such. Her friends who own the dive center have written, telling her much of the details of that morning. She, of course, remembers nothing.
Bonnie wants to return to Cambodia to retrieve her belongings, and then fly home to Paris. It will be much easier for her to have the necessary leg surgery there, and no problems with the insurance then. I understand there is a line of friends queueing to offer her a few weeks of recuperation after that surgery!
Bonnie are presently online 6-7 hours each day, in my morning and her evening, and in her morning, my evening. So many things to deal with. Her Middlebury bank, lawyers, embassy, consulate, friends, credit card companies……………..we are working in as many directions as we can think of.
She is so grateful and pleasured by the many, many prayers and best wishes she continues to receive from everyone. If you’d like to email her directly just contact me and I’ll give you that address.
Spring arrives tomorrow – and aren’t we all just ready for that!! <big smile>
Good evening! Midnight at The Ridge……
Bonnie is now in Room 501A at the FV Hospital, and sounds better all the time. She’s still on liquids and thin yogurt. The collarbone break is of some concern at this point, because she’s moving a little and the doctor is watching it closely.
She is thinking very clearly now and making definite plans for the coming months.
Below: Grandpa Mike and Lilly, just a few hours old. He’s like a kid with a new toy – oh, will he spoil her!!
Changing to a pure date and time for new information – update is so boring, so same, so nothing!
Talked with Bonnie a bit ago. The nurses tell her that she will be moved to a regular hospital room from ICU – at about 5 p.m. her time (5 a.m. DST). She is looking forward to that. She’s sitting up a bit, although rib pain is still there, and she’ still flat on her back. She can hold the phone with her right hand, once they come in and give it to her, until her arm falls asleep, which takes about 15 minutes. She’s so anxious to get to her computer, perhaps in a day or two, and will be looking into finding a WiFi connection. Once upstairs she’s going to look into getting the computer on her lap, if she can sit up enough for it. And then begin to check for WiFi connections. I think she’ll have a window and be able to see the sunshine, which hopefully will work its own magic.
David’s flight plans haven’t been made yet. He so wants Bonnie to go with him, but she won’t be ready to go anywhere for a while. The doctors haven’t told her yet when she can be released. I told her that they certainly wouldn’t release her unless they know she has someplace to stay where someone can help her. She’ll keep asking. This sounds like weeks, for sure.
I told her that contributions are coming in for Srey Aun’s salary at the orphanage, and she is pleased at that.
Bonnie has a blog of her own, with hundreds of pictures and tales of her adventures in Cambodia are available. The URL for her blog, “BonnieSphere”, is:
Well, I was a little ahead of myself when I reported that Bonnie had left ICU. Not true. I KNEW I wasn’t understanding those barely multi-lingual nurses last night. She’s still there – we just talked for about 45 minutes, until her only usable arm fell asleep from holding the phone.
One of her ribs had punctured a lung, and there was a drain inserted to remove fluid. Today the drain was capped, and if it doesn’t show any more fluid she will be moved upstairs to the surgical floor. David wants to get back to Paris, and will probably be able to do it soon. Bonnie told him it will be at least weeks before she can go anywhere. She can’t move at all because of the ribs and collarbone, and the ribs are giving the most pain.
She has a great deal of concern because the hospital has already asked for – and received from her – $1500 to begin payment for her care. She does have French health insurance but isn’t sure how or if it will pay anything. Several of her friends will have to begin investigation to see about this. And now Bonnie is beginning to think about where she should go when the hospital does release her (or throws her out for non-payment, she says). There is much involved in this next decision. Fortunately, it is still some weeks away. The next small step is to get out of ICU.