Collapse of the Lung (May 12)

"Jen, I'm afraid to even speak this out loud." "What?" she replied. "I think my lung collapsed again." So began last Saturday morning, getting out of bed at my mother-in-law's in Wisconsin. With her massive surprise birthday party that evening, we wasted little time in taking me to the University of Wisconsin Hospital.

The ideal location, timing, insurance, and connections all were in place when my lung collapsed, forcing me to credit God yet again for taking good care of me, even when it seems like a collapsed lung is more cause for complaint than compliment. Our health insurance had started on the first of the month through Jen's job, so we were covered. Through two connections, one through Jen's friend who works at the hospital and the other through doctors my mom works with in Michigan, the cardiothoracic surgeon instructed us to inform ER he was expecting us. Talk about an in.

The ER folks were nice and not too busy, quickly confirming my lung was indeed collapsed and probably moreso than when it first collapsed last July in Texas. I was not in great pain, only a little short of breath and more sore from my back and shoulder muscles trying to compensate for the lung's limitation. No trauma caused the spontaneous pneumothorax; being a tall, lanky young male increases one's odds. Better than heart disease or cancer I suppose.

The few hours of waiting for my inpatient room were well worth it. I had the room to myself, a flat screen TV, cable, DVD player, cell phone coverage, room service (that's what they called their dining options), and best of all, wireless internet. I misspoke and told someone, "This hotel, I mean hospital, is pretty nice." Exceeding expectations, the surgeon called that evening to explain things and answer a few of my questions. The surprise birthday party went off without a hitch. Jen even came to visit with me that evening and was back bright and early for the pre-op with the surgeon at 6:00 am.

The minimally invasive VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery) procedure involved two small incisions, one on the front and the other on the back of my chest, as well as a chest tube between the middle ribs for a total of 3 holes. I was under general anesthetic the whole time and didn't feel a thing. The surgeon cut and stapled off the part of my lung that was weak and causing these spontaneous pneumothoraces. Then a pleurodesis was performed to fuse the lung to the chest wall, thereby making it difficult for a pneumothorax to develop again (4% chance of recurrence). The chest tube withdrew bad air, allowing the lung to re-expand. The procedure took about an hour.

I came out of surgery like the last Fruit Loop floating in the bowl of milk, thanking everyone in sight for their good work, proclaiming how good I felt and how thankful I was that my lung was fixed. I vaguely remember the words I spoke; hopefully my hearers quickly forget as well. I slept a lot that day and didn't eat a thing. They set me up with on demand morphine (at the touch of a button) that was kept under lock and key. It made me thirsty, which made me drink and throw up. My throat was sore from the breathing tube used during surgery.

The worst part of the day was trying to suck up a ball of mucus that would not dislodge itself from my throat. I even asked the nurse for suction akin to what they use on you at the dentist's office. After about five minutes and my sore throat worsening, I asked the nurse to take a look. She said she saw nothing. Jen solved the mystery, exclaiming, "It's his uvula!" (translation: the hangy ball in the back of your throat). It was swollen to the size of a quarter. I nearly cried and hit the morphine button again.

I spent the Monday and Tuesday taking things easy and working to regain my strength. Friends and relatives from Wisconsin ate meals with me and visited after work. My mom and grandparents made a surprise visit on Monday. I spent the evenings watching the NBA playoffs as I fell asleep. The Pistons finally won their series after I was discharged.

The surgeon removed the chest tube on Tuesday in one swift motion, revealing the bloody snake that had been inside my chest helping my lung to stabilize. Jen estimated eighteen inches were actually below the surface. I hit the morphine button as much as I could before it was removed. To my surprise, it felt like a gentle thud. I thought something had gone terribly wrong, but all was well.

I was discharged on Wednesday. Fresh air never tasted so good! My chest was sensitive to the bumps in the road. We spent that night in Wisconsin. Thursday, we returned to Chicago. I slept long hours at night and took naps during the day. The pain wasn't much. I felt sluggish, timid, weak and out of sorts in the days that followed. I'm told it's all normal after general anesthesia and a hospitalization. Walking outside, having friends visit and showering in the morning all seem to help. I will return to work this week and see how it goes.

My concluding thought is gratefulness for God's provision, family and friends who supported me through it all, especially Jen, and the wonderful advances in medicine that fixed me up so amazingly. I have to give my compliments to my surgeon and all the other doctors, nurses, aides and staff that cared for me so well at the UW hospital. I hope it never happens again!

To the Salt Palace (Feb 2)

Happy Groundhogs Day!!

Okay, so the Salt Palace is not really a palace. It is what Saltzburg means in German. We got on an early morning train from Vienna to Saltzburg and shared a compartment with 3 guys (Austrian and German). They were all wearing suits, seemed very well educated, and worked for a company called CARBON Climate Protection. Cool cause to work for! These guys were one of the highlights of the trip for us! We had great conversation, and they were not bashful in telling us what they thought about everything from cars, to politics, to Ukranian women, to history and travel and general US/Europe situations like the Iraq War and the European Union. The main talker of the group said he has one book that he would like George W. to read about how great civilizations/empires fall: they spread their borders too far and neglect matters at home!! He even told us his predictions for the future of Europe, the U.S. and China.

We arrived in Salzburg and our travel companions continued on to Munich. We immediately liked Salzburg. It was a breathtaking city to walk through, and after lunch we made our way to "Bob's Special Tours" for our Sound of Music Tour!

We saw the back of the house that is used as the VonTrap family home in the movie.


We saw the avenue where the kids are climbing/hanging from trees.


We saw the gazeebo where the scene occurred that my family refers to as "the horse trot scene", and the 16 going on 17 song is sung.


We saw the mountain that the family escapes over into Switzerland (but it is really Germany on the other side of the mountain. NOT where you want to go when being chased by Nazis!)


And, Andrews favorite, we saw the international headquarters of Red Bull. It's built on a lake that the founder dug so that he could build his building in a lake.


It was really nice that they took us out into the lake district. The water here is still so clean you can drink from it safely! Many of the lakes are around 300 feet deep and lie between mountains! Beautiful! Anyone considering retirement should consider this area of Austria! Everyone speaks English and it is one of the most beautiful places on Earth! Our little digital camera could not capture the splendor.


We ended the day by buying some Mozarttafel (Mozart Chocolates) and heading to the train station. Tonight we sleep on our way to Paris.

Our Favorites: Vienna

1: Everything closes at 6pm! Supermarkets, jewelry, clothing stores, souvenir stands, everything! The streets are dark!

2: Most people speak English, and speak it well! The don't stumble over vocabulary OR grammer! More than I can say for us here in the U.S.

3: WARM APFELSTRUDEL!!!

4: we've learned great history here! Wow Austria!

Which Palace Today? (Feb 1)

February already? Only 13 days of Europe left!

Our first stop today was Schonbrunn Palace, the only European palace to rival Versailles. It used to be the summer residence of the Hapsburgs....located conveniently 4 miles from their winter home in the city center. We took the Grand Tour and saw 40 rooms. That sounds like a lot, but there are over 1400 rooms in this Palace!!! During WWII only 1 bomb fell on it, and it was a dud. The ceiling has since been repaired and all is well.

We saw there the "Secular and Religious Treasury" that included (Jen is dripping with disbelief and sarcasm and she writes this) a piece of the cross of Christ with a nail hole in it, the nail that pierced Christ's right hand(see photo), a bowl that caught Christ's blood (see photo), and the ever important unicorn horn. Okay, it was neat to learn more about Catholicism and the process a relic goes through to become "Pope certified".
I just had already had enough with relics on this trip. History is neat, relics are not.

For lunch we went to a place recommended to us by-you guessed it-Rick Steves! It was "Restaurant zum Scherer". Andrew got Hieferschwanzl (boiled beef) and Jen got Hungarian Saftgulasch (Gulash) and a pretzel. Cultural, but expensive for lunch. It also seems that indoors in Austria is a smokier place to be than indoors in Italy was.

We planned to go to the Opera House (Photo) for a tour, but then discovered along with some other baffled tourists that it was closed today! There go our plans! Being the flexible tourist we are, we decided to go see the "New Palace" that was never lived in because the empire was defeated before the buildings completion. They had quite a collection of musical instruments and armor. Not really our thing, but fun to see as a back up plan. We went to Demel, a high class sweets shop/bakery in Austria, to sample some Sacher torte. It is dry chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam in in covered in a hard chocolate coating. Not our thing, but a good cultural experience.

Finally from about 6:30 to 9pm we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum that the Hapsburgs built as a museum for their art in 1888! It was huge, and "no expense was spared" according to the audioguide. Wow. Our favorite part? The audioguide had a button to push that would remember all your favorite art, and at the end they would print out a small book with the art and the discription/history. Nice! We did it, and now have a great collection of art we were not allowed to take pictures of! :)

Arrival in Wien (Jan 31)

The conductor woke us about an hour before arrival in Vienna. We were served tea and hard rolls with butter for BREAKFAST, in caps because it meant we were no longer in Italy. A general rule is that the farther north you go in Europe, the bigger the breakfast gets! We arrived at Westbahnhof and walked about 10 blocks to our room. We stayed with a lady who rents out rooms in her home, Budai Ildiko. She spoke English, and our room was spacious, clean, and she gave us a key so we could come and go as we pleased. Highly recommend her!

We walked 10-15 min to get downtown, visited the tourist info office and bought tickets for tonight's concert, and took a tram around "The Ring". It used to be a wall until 1860 when Emperor Franz Joseph had it knocked down and turned into a 190ft wide road! The tram took us by a whirlwind of sights, all built after 1860. We saw neo-renaissance, neo-gothic, neo-baroque. All kinds of neo's! (See photo neo-gothic city hall by night.) We also saw the Opera House and the Sacher Cafe, home of the famous Austrian Sacher Torte!

We walked down Karntner Strasse, a pedestrian only major shopping street where 12th century crusaiders walked toward the Holy Land. That lead us to St. Stephan's Cathedral, the National Church of Austria in the center of Vienna. The pulpit is on of the most intricate carvings we've ever seen.

As we walked through the old city center, we came upon the Hofburg Palace, the winter home of the Hapsburg rulers. The Hapsburg's were in power right up until WWI. We toured the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Museum. Sisi was the nickname for Empress Elizabeth, who has been compared to Princess Diana. From ordinary to extrodinary, full of trajedy along the way. She is worth looking up!

We finished the night with a concert at the Kursalon, where Johann Strauss conducted his orchestra & waltzes. It turns out the concert was primarily for tourists, and there was more English than German being spoken, but it was still a great cultural experience as well as a history lesson! Some music was familiar and some was new, and we went to bed that night with new melodies dancing through our thoughts.

Our Favorites: Venice

1. Majorly uneven ground and sidewalks! Our theory is that it is because Venice is sinking, and it is doing so unevenly! Watch your step!

2. Pigeons. The city has added bird birth control to the bird feed it sells to tourists in order to control the population. We think they may want to increase the potency a tad!


3. To navigate, there are signs to many locations. There really aren't street signs because there really aren't really that many streets.

4. Expensive! 1 Euro is about $1.30. One cup of tea was E3, which is about $3.90! To keep our luggage at the baggage check for 11 hours was E15! To use the internet, E8/hr!! I'm glad we didn't pay to stay here overnight! :)

Venezia: Venice (Jan 30)

We awoke after our first night train and got oriented to the Venice train station. We checked our big bags at the luggage check for the day. Expensive, but convenient. We walked outside, were shocked by the cold weather that day, and bought a ticket for the #1 Vaporetto. A Vaporetto is a bus-boat, much like a long pontoon boat that seats many passengers. Instead of sitting in an enclosed space in the back, we chose to sit in the front seats, with the wind in our faces to get the best possible view of the Grand Canal! Our first impressions of Venice: COLD & EXPENSIVE!

We took the Vaporetto from the train station at one end of the Grand Canal to St. Mark's Square at the other end. On the way we got a view of the old Jewish Ghetto! In 1516 it was where all the Jews of the city lived, and they worked at the foundry. In Venetian, "geto" means foundry. This is where we get our work "ghetto" today. We also saw the Turkish Fondaco, the oldest house in Venice, and the Casino. In the 1700's, "Venice was Europe's Vegas" according to Rick Steves. "Casino" means little house, and this was the worlds first in 1638. Not part of any organized tour but also worth mentioning, we saw a UPS boat, an ambulance boat, and a boat with 5 new windows and 2 men that were going to install them!


We got tea to warm up, and went to the Doge's Palace. The Doge was the Duke of Venice, which we learned was it's own country/empire for much of history because of it's rich trade routes with places like Turkey. Inside the palace we saw the largest oil painting in the world by Tintoretto: Jesus and Mary surrounded by 500 saints! There was a lot of art of a lion with large wings. This is the symbol of St. Mark, whose bones now rest here after being stolen out of Egypt. The Venetians actually seem proud of this! The armory here was excellent with over 2000 pieces! We saw things like horse and child armor, fuse burning rifles, swards that also fired bullets, 1.5m long 2 hand champion swards, a chastity belt, and the predecessor to the machine gun!

At lunch we sat by an old man that liked to talk (and may have been emboldened by a moderate amount of alcohol). He got 3 tables of us all engaged in conversation: us, a Japanese girl, and his friend from England. It was enjoyable to chit chat, and at the end he bought a round of Grappoling drinks for us (like a Limoncello smoothie). By the time we all left, the waiters were all standing by the door in their coats waiting for us to leave so they could close until dinner!

After lunch we went to St. Mark's Basilica. It had a strong Byzantium influence, so it was unique among the ones we had seen. The entire walls and ceiling were mosaic gold...breathtaking! Scenes in the mosaics told the story of Jesus' life and death...and life. From creation, through Noah, through the birth and death of Jesus. Pretty amazing!


We spent the rest of our time walking through the sinking city, enjoying our last gelato on the way to the train station. We wondered if there was any land on this "island", but even if there is no grass, it was very beautiful. Our last Italian interaction was with the police when they approached us waiting for our train and ran our passports. Once we were cleared, we boarded the train for Austria and heard German being spoken by the conductor. This was our second night train in as many nights.

A Couple of Rough Nights (Jan 29)

We had both been exhausted from the hike the day before, and were sleeping in a room in which we could see our breath, AND were both not feeling totally healthy. So, we didn't sleep too well.

We woke up and had some time to spend in Riomaggiore. We walked all through the town, and down to the water for the last time. Another beautiful day!

Then we cought the train to La Spezia and found a laundromat! This was the first time our clothes had seen a drier since the US! Our undies fit again!! It's amazing how differently clothes fit after being line dried!! We found a corner store and bought some snacks for the night train we were about to take...Focaccia bread, fresh raisins still on the vine (huge! See photo), bananas & apples, yogurt, and fruit cookies. Yum!

We could not take a night train from the Cinque Terre area to Venice because the distance was not long enough. So, instead we went to Savona, which is the opposite direction (west) of Venice. There we waited for 3 hours until midnight to get on our night train. Savona was deserted! There were literally no other people there. It was really cold, and we wandered a while before we found a waiting room where we had to turn on the heat. There were only dirty squatty potties, which is really hard for a gal to do when she's wearing jeans, a long scarf, a long wool coat, and a money belt! But we settled in for the wait. We boarded the train at midnight, found our room, caused a small commotion getting into our top bunks, then finally fell asleep. We arrived in Venice at 7:30 the next morning.

One of Italy's best secrets... (Jan 28)

We boarded our train at 6:30am and arrived in the Cinque Terre at about 10am. It is a series of 5 small towns that thrived here shielded from the rest of Italy by the mountains. It has remained mostly the same for hundreds of years! We stayed in town #1, Riomaggiore, and LOVED it there. There is one main "street" that sees only pedestrians and emergency vehicles. The rest of the town is navigated by a series of "secret" stairways and passageways. Andrew and I couldn't even walk side by side they were so small!

That afternoon we took the Dolce de Vita stroll, a path the connects the 5 towns. We started out wearing coats and scarves and Jen ended up in a tanktop! It turned out to be a great day and a harder hike than anticipated. I think our photos say it all here...

Terraced Vineyards:


Manarola on the cliff:


The Mediterranean:


View of Riomaggiore from our balcony:



Our only downer of this place was the room we stayed in. It looked huge and nicer than we expected... it was actually a 2 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and bathroom. The temperature at night was... well, we could see our breath. Only one heater in the whole place worked, and it didn't work well. Our toilet leaked. Freezing, in many layers, and exhausted, we snuggled into a twin bed together to stay warm. We were in bed with lights out by 8pm!

Florence (Jan 27)

Florence is a big city (400,000), but it feels like a small town. It's a lovely day trip from Siena. The train ride from Siena to Firenze (Florence) is beautiful...more of the Tuscan hillside. Have you ever seen the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun"? It looks just like that, and I found myself having an inner dialogs just like the main character.

This was a day of walking and museums. Some of the streets still had Christmas decorations up, and that was fun to see. The first museum was the Museo del Bargello. It was a nice layout and easy to follow. There were descriptions of the art in English, so you definitely do NOT need to purchase the guidebook here. Also, you only need about 1.5 hours to see everything. There was a Michaelangelo room and a Donatello room. The bronze statue by Donatello was from around 1450, and was the first male nude statue in over 1000 years! That must have caused some commotion!

The next stop was the Galleria Dell'Accademia. This one is famous for Michaelangelo's David, which we estimated was about 5 meters tall! That's 2.5 Andrews!! He's known for a part which is disproportionately small, but he, as a whole, is huge!! :) Michaelangelo worked on this piece of marble that 2 other artists had started on and rejected! There were other things here worth seeing, so this is a must see when in Florence!

Then we followed Rick Steve's "Renaissance Ramble" which took us past the famous Firenze Duomo (photo) ended near the Uffizi Gallery and the Ponte Vecchil (Bridge-see photo). The bridge was pedestrian only and had shops lining both sides. It was like an outdoor mall, with mostly jewelry shops! Hope that bridge never collapses or it will be quite expensive!





Outside the Uffizi are statues of some of the famous Florentines. Among them were Donatello, Leonardo DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Dante, Macciavelli, Amerigo Vespucci, and Galileo.

Our final stop was the Uffizi. It was home to more work by Caravaggio, which is dark and sometimes troubling. This museum also had a great layout and is worth about 1.5 hours. Then, back to Siena for the night.

Our Favorites: Siena

1: Siena has 0.50 cent hot drink machines all over the place so if you need some quick hot cocoa or coffee, it's there! It's slightly larger than a dixie cup, and you adjust the level of sweetness from 1 to 5!

2: In Rome & Naples, NO ONE wanted to make change for you, which was a huge hastle. If you buy something for 8 Euros and pay with a 10, they give you a dirty look and ask if you have 8 (and there is a 2 Euro coin...how easy can it get??). Siena is a refreshingly easy place to make purchases.

3: There is as much English spoken as Italian, even in the off season.

4: Every single store has one word in the window... SALDI! So we've learned the word for sale!

5: Crowds of people are out walking at 7pm, but the streets are totally deserted by 9!

Sleepy in Siena (Jan 26)

We awoke in our Siena hotel room with the alarm at 6:30am. We were both exhausted, so although we had planned a day trip to Florence today, we decided to wake up when we were good and ready and spend today in Siena and tomorrow in Florence. It turns out that we weren't ready until 9am. We slept for 12 hours!!! Jen was still sick, so to allow her to rest Andrew had given her his pillow so she could breathe, and he used her HUGE scarf as a pillow. It's the first time we slept through the night in over a week.

After our showers, we strolled the streets of Siena looking for breakfast and creating a new plan for the day. There are only a few streets in Siena that are wide enough for cars. There are only narrow stone streets with buildings sticking out of them, no sidewalks, no pavement. It felt like we were in a movie. Here is a photo of the huge square, Piaza Il Campo.


We made our way to the Duomo, the cathedral in Siena. It was impressive outside, but even more so inside. There was a marble Michelangelo statue of Paul, a Donatello bronze statue of St. John the Baptist, Bernini's St. Gerome, and the Piccolomini Library (see photo) which tells the life of Pope Pius II who was from Siena. The floor of the Duomo is marble with scenes from the bible, the most impressive of which was "The Slaughter of the Innocents" when King Herod had the male Hebrew babies murdered.

When we left, it was raining again, so we found an internet cafe then went back to our room to plan more of our travels. At dinner we were seated with an Australian woman who was living in Italy for a year after her divorce. We are guessing she was in her 50's, and she had some great stories to tell. She was not loud or trying to show off, and only told us about things when we asked questions. Her next stop after Siena was to work on farms/vineyards. You work, and your room and board are free. She had also volunteered to record data for a dolphin research project for a while! Great dinner conversation.