Andrew Acomb

Yesterday, Jennifer and I went to the Lavender Festival in Sequim, Washington with her cousin Mellisa and our niece Adele. It’s the largest Lavender Festival in North America lasting for three days. “Sequim is located in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains and the world famous Olympic National Park. The Sequim-Dungeness Valley has an ideal microclimate for growing lavender. With less than 20 inches of rain per year, the area is similar to the Provence region of France where this amazing herb is native. Because of the unique conditions and dedicated farmers, Sequim lavender has received national recognition for its superior quality.”

We found some great parking just a block away from the street fair. We parked in the parking lot of an old church that was bought by a non-profit community theatre organization called Olympic Theatre Arts. The group is renovating the church and building an addition turning it into a wonderful theatre. The entire project is being funded through donations. Our money we paid for parking went towards their building fund.

We walked down to the street fair. I really didn’t expect to see so many vendors. I would say there were close to 100 booths and stands lining either side of the street. I saw a wide variety of products all containing lavender. I stopped off at the Sequim Valley Products booth and tried some of their raspberry lavender syrup. It was really tasty. Just the right amount of lavender to compliment the raspberry flavor. I ended up buying a bottle. There were may other types of vendors selling nearly every type of craft. I also stopped at the Aldrich Farms stand and tried some of their raspberry lavender sauce. Very delicious. I bet it would be great on some toast. I bought a couple of bottles one for myself and the others as gifts.

When you first arrive, you pay $15 and receive a button. This gets you into any of the eight farms participating in the festival. This also paid for bus rides. There were multiple buses leaving from the street fair headed for the different farms. Pretty cool service, especially since there was alcohol available at the festival. Although the buses were very convenient, we ended up driving.

We decided to go to the Purple Haze Lavender Farm on a recommendation from one of the girls working at a coffee stand. It is a 10 acre certified organic farm. Their fields contain over 15,000 plants of more than 50 varieties. It was no more than a five minute drive from the street fair. When I got out of the car I could hear music. As I got closer to the main area of the farm, I could see a musician on a stage playing a violin. The music echoed through the beautiful fields of lavender. It created a wonderful atmosphere as we explored the farm. I later found out that the musician was Geoffery Castle. I enjoyed the music so much I ended up buying his CD titled Mist on the Mountain before we left. Click on the title to visit his website and listen to excerpts of some of the tracks from the CD.

I read in a newspaper flyer that the Purple Haze Farm sold a variety of lavender flavored ice cream so I was on the look out. With a nose for ice cream that could rival that of Chunk from the Goonies, I located the ice cream stand. I found out that the white chocolate lavender ice cream was most their popular. So I got a dish with one scoop of that and one scoop of the lavender lemon custard. You might think it would taste really weird, but each flavor had just the right amount of lavender. Really delicious!

We wandered around the farm a bit more. There were so many different types of lavender I have never seen before. One of my favorites was the white lavender. It actually has just a bit of pink in the flowers. This particular variety was called Mellisa. Strange coincidence since Jennifer’s cousin who came with us is named Melissa. Before leaving the farm, I also bought one of these plants for only $6.

We continued exploring the farm. There were stands set up in one area of the farm. Here some people were painting faces for a donation to their charity. Since Adele was being so good, she got her face painted.

We only made it to one of the many farms in the area, so Jennifer and I plan to go back soon to explore another one.

I saw The Dark Knight earlier today. Jennifer and I saw the film at the Cinema 10 Theater in Poulsbo, Washington. I prefer this theater over others in the area because they have stadium seating and you can order tickets online from Fandango. I really like ordering movie tickets this way. I can avoid all the long lines at the ticket counter. This particular theater has a Fandango machine where I just insert the card I used to order the tickets online and it prints them out. It literally takes just a few seconds. So much easier!

In the most recent episode of The Totally Rad Show, Dan Trachtenburg, Alex Albrecht, and Jeff Cannata reviewed The Dark Knight. I agree with pretty much everything they said about the film. Jeff said that “it’s really not a super hero movie“. He’s right. It has such a complex plot. It’s such a great good guy versus the bad guy movie but it just so happens that the main characters are from a comic book. Jeff also describes the film as “the best James Bond movie you’ve ever seen mixed with the tension and craziness of Seven“. I agree with him again. There were so many seriously suspenseful moments. Dan mentioned Alfred Hitchcock’s explanation of the difference between surprise and suspense. Hitchcock describes a scene of men playing cards at a table. Suddenly a bomb under the table goes off, this is surprise. Now, the same scene except this time we know the bomb is under the table, but not when it will go off. This is suspense. Dan said that in this movie “there are so many literal and figurative ticking time bombs“. Yes there were!

Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is unforgettable. I can’t praise him enough. It’s so sad that Heath passed away. I really would love to see more of this Joker. Heath creates a character with a perfect balance of craziness and genius. Unbelievable. Jeff said that “the Joker in this movie is a criminal mastermind and you really see him out think people“. Alex couldn’t even find the words to describe Heath’s performance.

I think I’m going to go see this movie again.

I’m not sure if was all the medication I was on or what, but I really wanted to have some Fruity Pebbles. I have no idea what made me think of the cereal, but I was starving and Fruity Pebbles sounded so good.

Maybe I was just hungry because I wasn’t allowed to eat any food eight hours prior to my surgery. I couldn’t even have anything to drink. Only small sips of water or coffee not to exceed eight ounces. After surgery, I ordered some chicken fingers from the hospital cafeteria, but they didn’t do much for my appetite.

Luckily, Jennifer figured I deserved to be spoiled a little and stopped at Safeway on the way home from the hospital last night.

Yesterday was a big day for me. I had my discectomy. We had to get up really early to make it down to the hospital by 6:30am since it is over an hour away. After checking in, I changed into a hospital gown and was on a bed in the Operating Room waiting area.

It was like a movie. Doctors and nurses running back and forth. I could only catch small portions of conversations as they flew by. I talked to a couple of nurses, my neurosurgeon and the anesthesiologist while waiting here. Everyone was so very friendly. I know I wasn’t their only patient, but the way they talked to me and gave me their undivided attention, I sure felt like it. I was hooked me up to an IV and given something to relax. Within seconds, the room tilted a little and most of my anxiety about the surgery disappeared.

Shortly after receiving the medication, I said goodbye to Jennifer and I was off to the operating room. Everything is kind of blurry after that. I do remember the doctor putting an oxygen mask on me and asking me some questions I can’t remember. The very last thing I remember was thinking about Jennifer and I being on one of our road trips driving through the desert in our little red convertible. The next thing I know, I’m waking up in the recovery room.

I was in some serious pain. The pain in my left leg that was caused by the herniated disc was completely gone. The excruciating pain was now from the area where they entered my lower back. They kept giving me more and more morphine through my IV until I was finally feeling better.

Once my pain was under control, they let Jennifer come in. Then I was moved to an actual hospital room. Here I had my own TV, my iPhone, and best of all, Jennifer by my side.

I sipped on some water and noticed that my throat was really sore. I found out from the nurse that the anesthesia that made me fall asleep for surgery was given to me through the mask I wore. Then after I was asleep, they inserted a breathing tube to continue giving me the anesthesia. They had to flip me over so a mask just wouldn’t work. Luckily, they took it out before I woke up.

I also realized that I had these weird stocking like things wrapped around my legs. They were hooked up to a machine that pumped water into them. It massaged my legs. It felt great. My doctor explained to me that they were to help keep the blood circulating in my legs.

I ended up taking a nap for a few hours. I got up around 3:30pm. This is when I decided to try and walk. I was able to do a lap around the hospital floor I was on. Really slow of course. Jennifer kept me company along the way.

Once I could walk, eat, use the bathroom, and my pain was manageable I could go home. The whole getting discharged process seemed like it took forever, but eventually I was allowed to leave. They gave me a shot of morphine for the road, and with Jennifer’s help I got dressed. I was rolled out to the car in a wheelchair and we headed for home.

Tomorrow is my big day. I’m having a discectomy. My neurosurgeon is going to enter my lower back and remove the piece of my herniated disc that is sticking out too far. This piece has been causing me great pain down the left leg into the foot, ankle, and toes. You can see the piece in the above MRI. It’s the black piece that is protruding from L5-S1. It’s the one that looks different from all the others.

I’ve had back pain for a number of years, but on April 24th of this year it was taken to a whole new level. It happened when I was on my journey back to Washington from Guam. I immediately new something wasn’t right. The pain progressively got worse until I was barely able to walk.

I tried all the conservative methods of treatment like traction and even a epidural steroidal injection. With traction, I was hooked up to a machine and it literally pulled my back apart. It is supposed to stretch the back and allow the disc room to go back into place.

An epidural steroidal injection places anti-inflammatory medicine into the epidural space to decrease inflammation of the nerve roots, hopefully reducing pain. It may provide permanent relief or provide a period of temporary relief for a few months.

Unfortunately neither of these treatments gave me lasting relief from my symptoms. So the next step is a discectomy. I am looking forward to having it done, but I am still very nervous about the whole procedure. This is my first surgery and with any surgery there are all kinds of risks. Luckily I will be asleep for the whole thing!