Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Amy Update

It has been two and a half months since Amy's accident with the horse that sent her to the University Hospital, where she was immobilized for five days. She was taking her morning lesson and performing an exercise to improve her balance. The instructor had her riding with her feet out of the stirrups, when the horse began to gallup. It essentially rode out from underneath Amy, causing her to hit the ground in a sitting position. She landed on her tail bone resulting in a broken coccyx and a compression fracture to the L1 vertebrae.

Amy has made an amazing recovery. After her hospital stay she came home in a brace. The first three weeks were very difficult for her. The brace was uncomfortable, awkward and limited her mobility. For a person like Amy, who is always on the move and rarely goes two days in a row without exercising, the situation was incredibly frustrating. However, after three weeks Amy was able to get back on the stationary bike. After five weeks she was on her mountain bike riding the roads around the house. Although the brace makes for an uncomfortable ride, she manages pretty well and has been out on her bike daily; sometimes for up to three hours.

Amy has had regular visits to the hospital for follow up x-rays. Although she has lost about a half centimeter in height, the vertebrae is healing according to plan. Amy will be in the brace for two more weeks, then she will need physical therapy to strengthen her back muscles. So, like Chester Amy is expected to make a full recovery and be back to her crazy athletic self in no time.

From Aug 1st 2009 Hike to Dent de Leysin

Monday, July 20, 2009

The Tour de France 2009

The Tour de France practically came through our back yard this year. The stage 15 route covered many of the roads and two of the climbs we do on a regular basis here in Switzerland. The route took the riders over the Col de Mosse, which is one of our favorite climbs and then finished atop Verbier, my favorite place to snowboard. David and Hazel, our friends from Los Angeles just happened to be staying with us and were excited to see the race too.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Spring Time in Savigny

The long winter has officially ended here in Switzerland, ok so maybe I am a bit late with my post, it ended about 3 and half weeks ago.  One thing is for sure it was a long winter for this Florida boy.  Actually, it was a long winter period.  Amy's from New York and she even commented about the length of the season.  The snow started in mid  October and covered the back yard until late March.  Here in Savigny we are at about 853 meters, (sorry to my non-metric American readers, that is 2,979 feet) the snow line is at about 800 meters.  Therefore, in the winter, when it rains on Lake Geneva we are usually getting snow up here.   

Spring comes very quickly, like I said we had snow on the ground in March and by mid April we had Tulips in bloom.
From Swiss Spring April 2009
Here are some other signs Spring has arrived here in Savigny.    

The cows come out to pasture after a long winter cooped up in the barns.
From Swiss Spring April 2009

The green houses and fields have been planted.

From Swiss Spring April 2009

Zoe gets to hang out in the trees. 

From Swiss Spring April 2009


The horses are let out in the pastures to graze, resulting in Amy resuming her manure duties.


The boys can begin swimming in the creek across from the farm again.


And we trade in the mittens and cross country skis for spandex and bicycles.

From Swiss Spring April 2009

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The Right Shoulder

A ride along with the voice inside my head as I make the 50 km commute from Savigny to Gland by bike on March 30th 2009. 

Another cold morning.  I hope I put on enough layers.   I should be fine if I can keep my hands and feet warm.  Good thing for these gloves and shoe covers.  The clouds are really low this morning.  No lake or views of the Alps.  Cresting the small hill to the village center. Better shift.  No traffic this morning on the Route de Oron...nice.  Huh, they took down the snow fences along the route into town.  That means it will probably end up snowing again this weekend.  Oh small hill...shift and peddle, pedal, pedal.  I am warm now.   I should have put my lights on,  the sun is coming up later now due to the time change.  Oh well, the reflector strip on my yellow jacket should be visible enough. These big looping "S" curves on the down hill are so fun, that guy in the Saab doesn't know what he is missing.  Stop light.  Can I balance here without putting my foot down before the light changes.  Come on, come on turn green already. Nope. Foot down.  I love that the lights turn yellow to warn you they are about to turn green.  Is this only in Switzerland?  

Pass the hospital.  Why do thy call it the CHUV.   I should know this after being here a year now.  Through the center of Lausanne.  Traffic is light this morning.  I love the bicycle lanes.  I shouldn't have had that second cup of coffee.  Gotta pee.  Shit, did that motorcycle cop see me just blow through the stop sign?   Another round about, look left.  Eye contact, eye contact, there it is.  She sees me.  Accelerate and pass these cars on the right to the front of the line at the stop light.  Ok balance, balance. Don't put your foot down. Light is yellow, now green. Go!   Finally, onto the lake road.  Thirty minutes to get to the lake road, not bad, and just in time for the sun rise.
A little tail wind this morning, makes for an enjoyable ride.  Uh Oh, road construction, bike lane ends.  I better hug the right shoulder of the road.  Lets see how long I can ride on this yellow line.    Do I have any meetings this morning?  Why the hell did I bring my lap top home last night, carrying this thing sucks!  Ok, does that dump truck see me?  Eye contact, eye contact, eye contact.  What the fuck...how can you not see me in my canary yellow jacket, sparkly yellow and orange bike and reflective booties.  I look like something out of a freakin circus, you idiot. Do you think I dress like this for the fun of it.  No, its so A-holes like you can see me. Wake up, take the cigarette out of your mouth and pay attention before you kill someone.  Nothing like a dumb ass to get your heart rate roaring in the morning.  

No, I don't think I have any meetings until 10 this morning.  I hope there is more than 30 seconds of hot water in the shower at work.  I haven't seen any other bikes this morning.  Why don't more people ride their bikes to work?  I loved riding my bike to school as a kid.  Through the center of Morge, this is such a pretty lake side town. Its Tuesday, that means street market today.  Wow that bread smells good.  Look at all the fresh fruit.  I need to tell Amy about this market.  

Another round about.  How come we don't have round abouts back in the states?  They are so practical, and far more efficient than four way stops.  Very rarely do you have to come to a complete stop.  The U.S. should also import lights that turn yellow, to warn you they are turning green.  I bet some Swiss transportation analysis did a study on the warning yellow light.  He probably found that it allowed those who drive manual cars a half a second to get into gear prior to the light turning green, which allowed for 2 additional cars to make it through the light each cycle.  Now with X number of lights around Switzerland they were able to move X thousand more cars through the intersection each traffic light cycle.  

E'toy, what an ugly place. Box stores and box apartments.  What were the developers thinking?Ok, my butt hurts and I still have to pee.  I like this area between Allaman and Rolle.  Nice rolling sections hardly any traffic.  Rolle is nice too, I should take Amy to that French restaurant on the hill she would like the views.  The road through the center of Rolle is narrow.  Move to the left, take the center of the lane, watch for car doors.  Cross walk ahead.  Slow down for the guy with the baguette leaving the bakery.  Hey, look another cyclist coming my way.  Lets see will he wave.  I gave him the handle bar wave, he gave me the head nod, we're cool.  Thank god for my iPod and DJ Steve Boy.  This mix is awesome, pretty funky, 120 or so beats per minute. The music help keeps a nice tempo. Last 10 km of slightly down hill through the vineyards.  Lets push it a little bit so I can get to the office before 8:15.  Heart rate check 154.  Shift into the big ring and lets go. 

Monday, March 23, 2009

Why Europeans don’t take long weekends.

As has become very evident since arriving in Europe, Americans need to take more long vacations (aka Holidays). As typical Americans, Amy and I usually take a few long weekends during the year and then maybe a week or two around Christmas. Most Europeans don’t take long weekends they take “holidays”. Its typical for most to take at least 3 to 4 weeks off at a time.

Our long weekend to Italy was to begin early Friday morning at 4am to catch a 7:15am flight out of Geneva. Arrive in Nice at 8:00am with our bikes and enjoy the forecasted sunny skies, riding 50 kilometers along the French Riviera (about 30 miles) to Ventimiglia, Italy. Along the way we thought we would enjoy a leisurely ride with a couple of casual stops along the way, including lunch in some beautiful seas side café in Monte Carlo. The plan was to arrive in Vetimiglia by early afternoon, in time to explore the old medieval city, check into our B&B shower and head back into town for a well deserved dinner at a traditional Italian restaurant.
From Milan-San Remo Mar-09

Our day did not exactly work out as planned. We flew “EasyJet”, now know as “Not So EasyJet” or “I am a Hard Ass Jet”, who some how lost our bikes frames between Geneva and Nice. Now this is absolutely absurd, the flight was a non-connecting 45 minute flight. Evidently, the baggage guys forgot to put them on the plane. Well at least we got our wheels, although they arrived completely flat. Lesson #1: When traveling with your bikes, deflate your tires before loading them as the air pressure change will cause them to explode.

Since we had until 2pm before our bikes arrived on the next flight, we had plenty of time to take the bus into Nice and find a bike shop to fix our flats. Upon getting off the bus in Nice, there was rain and wind and plummeting temperatures. So much for the forecasted sunny skies. The locals were friendly and helpful. We were able to get our flats fixed at Culture Velo bike shop.
From Milan-San Remo Mar-09
We arrived back at the airport around 1pm a little wet and a little chilled. Lesson #2: ?When traveling with your bike, yes pack light but at least bring something just in case it rains. Oh yeah, we arrived back at the airport just in time to see that our bikes were running late as their flight out of Geneva was delayed. After having a rather terse conversation with the Baggage Services from EasyJet that went something like this; “I should be compensated for my time. I have wasted one day of my very short 3 day holiday f…ing around with you people” Sorry President Obama, so much for change, I was the stereotypical ugly American.  I realized at that moment that had this been a 3 to 4 week holiday, I would not have given a shit, I would not have been stressed about getting to Ventimiglia before sundown. I would have booked a room in Nice and spent another day exploring.

Well the bikes finally arrived by 3:00pm. By the time we put them together and changed over to our riding clothes we set off almost 8 hours late. The sun was shining and things were looking up for our nice leisurely 50k ride. We had planned about 2 to 2 and half hours of riding along the nice flat coastline. Lesson #3: Check the elevation along the route, oh yeah, don’t forget to figure time battling a 25 mph head winds and compensate for the 20 pounds of gear your are carrying.
From Milan-San Remo Mar-09

Three and half hours after leaving the airport and in the dark, we bumbled our way through Ventimiglia to find our Bed and Breakfast perched 150 km overlooking the old city. Our hosts Jessica and her husband were patiently waiting for us and were quite surprised to see us show up on our bicycles, as they had thought we were coming by motor bike. Neither of them spoke English and they had been translating our e-mails with Google Translator. Fortunately, they spoke French. So once again we relied on Amy’s 2nd grade level language skills to get us by. Our hosts were amazing, they had our room ready and prepared a home cooked Italian meal for us. It was the beginning of what was to become one of the best “Long Weekends” ever.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Chester is Doing Great

It is hard to believe that it has been 5 weeks since Chester's accident and surgery. He is doing amazingly well. After his emergency surgery he spent 2 weeks at the University Hospital in Bern. During his stay his neurologist and two physical therapist worked with him every day. He did hydrotherapy and ultrasound therapy twice a day. He made tremendous progress and we were able to bring him home on Friday February 20th. Amy's friend Karen, who is boarding a horse here on the farm, comes by once a week to do accupressure on the little guy. As you can see from the video he has made great progress.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Chester Update: Post Op Day 5


We saw Chester for the first time since his surgery on Sunday. We left this morning around 7:30 for the hour long drive north to Bern. Both Amy and I were a bit anxious, although we have been getting daily reports from his neurologist, we still weren't sure what to expect. Would he be the same old crazy Chester man, full of attitude and energy or would he just lay there? Prior to his accident we really thought Chester was bomb proof. For a little dog he is tough as nails. He does everything with a sense of reckless abandon. He throws himself out of bed in the morning, scrambles down the stairs, plays ball for hours, eats like its his last meal. He races around the cow pastures, hurls himself down snow banks and takes on all comers at the dog park. Is he going to be that same dog?

Well, it did not take long for that question to be answered. When Dr. Alves brought us to the therapy room where he stays with 3 other dogs, Chester was at the gate monitoring the hallway and standing (ok sitting) guard over the room. When he saw Amy it was all he could do to contain himself. I was scared at first, thinking he was going to rupture another disc from all of the excitement. He practically licked our noses off our faces. We sat on the floor with him as he scooted between Amy, myself and the therapist, just as happy as can be. He is so full of life, so full of confidence, I don't think he really realizes his legs don't work.


After playing with some toys we brought him, Chester went into the pool for some hyrotherapy. The pool is a large tank with a treadmill. They placed Chester on the treadmill and lowered it into the water. They use the water to reduce the weight on his legs and try to stimulate the walking motion with the treadmill. Two therapists work his rear legs as he pulls himself forward with his front legs. He is showing a tremendous amount of determination and will power to get better. After the pool Amy worked with him on his standing balance. Then we took him outside for a walk, assisting his rear legs with a strap around his waist to lift his rear legs. All and all we spent two hours with the little guy. It was tough to leave him, but we know he is in great hands there at the University of Bern Veterinary Hospital. We can't say enough about what an amazing staff he has looking after him. His roommates and therapy buddies, Buffy and Lilly keep him company and motivated. Yes, it has been a tough week, and we have at least another week of therapy before he can come home, but we feel so very fortunate for all the loving, caring and highly trained people who have made it their goal that he walk again. Check out the video below of Chester's hydrotherapy session.



Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Chester Update: Post Op Day 2

We are so pleased with the care Chester is receiving at the University of Bern Veterinary Hospital. He has a full team looking after him that includes a surgeon, anesthesiologist, neurologist and physiotherapist. The neurologist calls us every morning to give us a report on his progress. Today she was pleased to provide the news that he was urinating and defecating without assistance. He is off all of the pain medication and along with reacting to pain stimulus, he is starting to move his left hind leg. His muscles have loosened allowing the physiotherapist to work with him in the therapy pool (I am sure he will enjoy that, he loves to water.) She also said his fear has subsided and is less anxious. Amy had planned to go visit him today, but decided against it after hearing how well he had improved. Visiting him would have made Amy feel good, but upon leaving Chester would have likely suffered from another spate of separation anxiety. We were told it is better to wait to see him when we are able to take him home with us to avoid the anxiety. Thank you all again for your support.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Chester Injury


At 10am this morning, Chester and I were playing in the snow with his favorite ball. He suddenly loss function in his left hind leg. Amy recognized the potential severity of the situation and we quickly rushed him to the emergency vet and specialty hospital in Bern. Upon arrival he had loss function in both legs. The MRI showed a ruptured disc between the thoraco lumbar 12 and 13. This is not uncommon with Dachshunds, however it is with a dog as young as Chester (1 and half years). The MRI also showed adnormalities of the disc along most of the spinal column. So the condition is likely genetic, and the continuous play and jumping combined with the cold weather resulted in the acute rupture. The ruptured disc was applying pressure and decreasing blood flow to the spinal cord. This resulted in paralysis of his hind legs. He went into surgery at around 5pm where a hemilaminectomy was performed to remove the disc material and pressure from the spinal cord. According to the surgeon everything has gone well and they will try to feed him tonight. He will remain in the ICU and be monitored by the neurologist until Friday. Because of Amy's quick response and us getting him to the surgeon in less than 12 hours the prognosis is good for a full recovery. Please keep the little guy in your thoughts and I will keep this blog updated with his progress. To learn more about the hemilaminectomy: http://www.michvet.com/library/neurology_ivds_thoracolumbar.asp