Hello Doc

Apache Junction, AZ  High 81  Low 57

Meet Doc. This is one of the neatest birds we’ve ever met. He belongs to Ginny and Mickey, our across the street neighbors. Doc is 22 and loves to preen in front of the toaster.

We got to bird sit Doc for a couple of days last spring and let me tell you, he was not impressed that it was me coming through that door and not his Mom or Dad. He let me hear about it. This bird can really make his opinion known.

They almost lost him one year when he was about 10 so they keep his wings clipped now just in case. He has a little ladder that he can climb to look out the window and a box that he can shelter in.

When they sit him outside in his cage, he cheers up the whole neighborhood with his chirping.

On Sunday, Ginny had us over for a turkey dinner to make up for our missing Thanksgiving dinner. The park did make up dinner plates for us, but Jim didn’t feel like eating when I finally got him home from the hospital.

And a fantastic dinner it was. Ginny and Mickey have been our life savers this year with all of our issues. We have been gone so much, if it hadn’t been for Ginny, our girls would have starved to death or never gotten outside. Coming home from the hospital at 10:30 at night and finding chocolate chip cookies sitting on my counter. What a treat.

We are so grateful for friends who are so willing to step in and help out with whatever we need to have done. They definitely have gone above and beyond.

They have never been to Quartzsite and they plan on  joining us this year for a new adventure.

Jim Update: He’s doing really well. His leg swelled up to about double it’s size, so we called the surgeon’s office on Monday and he wanted to see us Tuesday. So once again we headed out and Ginny fed the girls.

Dr. Patel sent us over to SMIL for an ultra sound to look for blood clots. Good news – no clots. Jim needs to keep his leg elevated whenever he’s sitting and he needs to walk as much as he can. The incision is still really sore and it’s right where your leg bends at the groin, so it bothers him but he was able to take Scootz for a walk this morning.

Now we just need to find time to get our hair cut. We both look like shaggy dogs.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 

                   From our house to yours.

Quick Post

Just a note to let you know that Jim is doing good. Surgery took 3 1/2 hours but everything went as expected. They are keeping him overnight but I get to bring him home in the morning.

He was pretty dopey (more than usual) when I said goodnight to him but he was anxiously waiting for his dinner. Do Not get between that man and his food.

I was gone almost 12 hours so I’m really exhausted and am headed for bed. Thanks to all of you for all your prayers and caring. They worked.

Have a really wonderful Thanksgiving.

YIPPEE!

Apache Junction, AZ   H 84  L 54

Okay, now where was I? Oh yes, we had dinner with Jeri and Terry.

On Saturday we went to Mesa and opened up my sister’s park model. She was to arrive on Monday and we try and have it ready for her. We also made a stop at Camping World for a screen door cross-bar. Gives me something to hang on to when I open the door and the wind grabs it.

Sunday after church we went over to Ginny and Mickey’s (just across the street) and watched the last NASCAR race of the year. Now Jim can concentrate on football. Ginny is the one who takes care of the girls for us when we are spending forever at the doctors and hospitals.

Monday we picked up my sister (Judy) at the Mesa airport. Stopped to say hi to Aunt Happy and then went to Judy’s place. We could not get her TV to turn on. No matter what we did, it defied us. We had to get home and feed the girls so we left her with no TV. Monday night we played cribbage for the first time this season. Lots of fun even if we didn’t come anywhere close to winning.

Today we met up for lunch with Dianna, Jan and Bill at the Black Bear Diner. Great food and friends.

After lunch we went back to Judy’s and took her the TV out of our bedroom. We very seldom turn it on so we won’t miss it. It sure looked tiny sitting on her TV stand. But she can kind of see it. Wants to be sure to see the game on Thursday. When her hubby gets here next week, they can figure out what they’re going to do with their own TV.

Before we met up with them we saw Dr.Gordon, the oncologist. It’s amazing how nervous you can be waiting to see a cancer doctor. But everything is great and we don’t have to see him again for three months. Yippee!!! That’s the kind of news I like.

Tomorrow is Jim’s surgery. They said he should probably be able to go home in time for dinner tomorrow night. I sure hope they’re right.

We Actually Left The House Today

Apache Junction, AZ  H 73  L 53

Of course, our first stop was at SMIL (Scottsdale Medical Imaging Lab) in Gilbert. This has also become almost like home to us. The lobby was full when we got there. They sure disappeared in a hurry.

We were here today for Jim to have x-rays taken for his six month cancer check up. We are scheduled to see his oncologist next Tuesday. Took about an hour and 15 minutes and we were out of there.

Time for lunch so we headed over to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. Love that place and salad is good for Jim’s blood sugar levels. I splurged and had a chocolate muffin along with my salad. It was sooo good.

After lunch we stopped in to check on Aunt Happy. We had to schedule our visit between her exercise class in the morning and the horse races in the afternoon. (Wooden horses and rolling dice.) She is doing pretty good but is slowing down a little bit.

Because Jim’s surgery is on the day before Thanksgiving we told her that we would have to cancel taking her out for Thanksgiving dinner. Jim and I think she was relieved that we weren’t going out. I suggested we go the following week but she said no, maybe for Christmas.

We had a fun visit and then she had to get upstairs early so she could be sure to get the horse she wanted and a good seat to see the race.

Thought that was the end of our excitement for the day and headed home to take care of the girls. Skittlez is finally doing much better. Still not 100% but actually played with Scooter a little bit and wanted to chase her toy. We took her off her pain medication a couple of days ago and she’s not near as dopey.

Got a phone call. Answered the phone and this voice said, check your text messages and let’s get this back to normal. Hung up and checked my text messages – sure enough it was Jeri. We very seldom talk on the phone. She’s much faster at texting and for some reason I hadn’t heard her text come through.

They are back in Phoenix and we headed out to meet up with her and Terry for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. So good to see them again. We originally met them in Florida in 2009 and have been friends ever since.

 Looking forward to more good times while you’re here guys.

New Surgery Date

Apache Junction, AZ  H 77  L 48

As I told Sue this morning on her blog, if I didn’t have all of Jim’s medical issues to blog about, I would have absolutely nothing to say. Since Jim still can’t walk anywhere, we spend a lot of time at home reading and doing nothing.

Jim’s next surgery date is Wednesday, November 21. The day before Thanksgiving. And they have promised me that he will be home for Thanksgiving. I’m going to be sure and hold them to that.

I’m beginning to feel like this has become my second home.

Veteran’s Day

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars. 

 

My deepest Thank You to all of you who have served or are serving our great country.

SKITTLEZ

Thanks Barbara for reminding me that I wanted to include an update on Skitz. I totally spaced it out.

We got the test results on the blood work and she does NOT have Valley Fever which is great news. They didn’t find any infection which was causing the fever so the vet wanted us to finish up the antibiotics just in case.

She is doing much better. She still is having some pain so still on pain pills which make her sleep a lot. I almost think she may have cracked a rib or bruised it somehow. We’re going to let her heal for another week and then see how she is doing. If she’s not better by then, it’ll be back to the vet for x-rays.

HOME AGAIN

Apache Junction, AZ  H  73  L 52

We left for the hospital at 12:00 noon yesterday for check in at 1:00 p.m. Jim’s angiogram was scheduled for 4:00 but the surgeon thought he would be able to get to him sooner. NOT! They finally took Jim back for the procedure about 4:45 p.m.

At 7:00 the surgeon came out to talk to me. They were able to put in a stent in one area, BUT, Jim has another area that is 100% blocked and he could not do anything with it. So guess what. We get to go back in two weeks and have this fun all over again.

This time Dr. Patel will actually cut his leg open, cut open the artery, and then clean out the calcified material in the artery.

After surgery, Jim needed to lay flat for four or five hours. In the meantime, they forgot I was sitting out there. Finally at 8:45 I went looking for somebody to tell me what was going on. Found out that they had actually admitted him for the night and someone took me down to his room.

I headed for home about 9:30. It’s almost an hour drive so by the time I got home I was really exhausted. But boy were the girls happy to see me. Ginny, my neighbor, comes over and takes care of them and feeds them for me. She also made us some chocolate chip cookies which were most welcome.

Picked Jim up this morning and got him home about 1:00 p.m. He’s asleep in his recliner. Feels great. Disappointed that he has to go back again but wants to get it over with and get on with life.

A big thanks to Dianna. She came up to the hospital and sat with me from 1:00 until after the surgeon talked to me at 7:00. And thank you to all of you for your prayers and hugs. They mean more than you will ever know.

Surgery Rescheduled

Got a call from the surgeon’s office this morning. He had to reschedule because of an emergency this morning.

Jim’s surgery is now scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 4:00. Not a time that I would prefer but we need to get this done. We have no idea if he’ll have to spend the night or not.

His eye feels better this morning but it’s still bothering him. The drops are working.

More later.

Where Do The Days Go?

Apache Junction, AZ  H 87  L 55

I really lost complete and total track of time and days and what we’ve been doing. I really don’t think we’ve been doing all that much but I sure haven’t had much time to read blogs or post one.

We got the boat back from the hospital and Jim stood it for as long as he could. But it was killing him not to be out on the water so one afternoon he and I took it for a shake down ride to make sure it truly was fixed. No fishing and I made sure he didn’t do much walking.

It was a gorgeous day out on the water. Not too many people and the boat ran well. We went to Saguaro Lake. Gorgeous place.

This fellow posed for me (I’m going out on a limb here and say I think it’s a heron.)

We were surrounded by lots of these birds.

We also moved Dianna’s new travel trailer to our park for a few days so she could do some hitching up, hooking up and just learning to live in it. She really did a great job at absorbing all the information and instructions we kept throwing at her. Her next outing will be to Quartzite in January.

Skittlez has been having a really tough time. She hurt her shoulder or front leg. So we were giving her some pain meds but she wasn’t getting any better. She would just shake and would not come out from behind the chair where she has her nest. We took her to the vet on Friday and she was running a fever of almost 104.

They took blood and are running tests for us to find out what is going on. One possibility that really scares us is Valley Fever. The vet didn’t want to wait for the results to put her on the anti-fungal medication so she is now taking four pills twice a day – a pain pill, an anti-inflammatory, an antibiotic, and the anti-fungal. Her appetite has not been affected by whatever is wrong so it’s easy to get the pills down her.

Our neighbors bought a new truck. Just cracks me up the way everybody will congregate the minute you put the hood up on a vehicle.

Tonight we ended up at Urgent Care. Jim’s eye all of a sudden started to sting and burn. He was listening to NASCAR race on the truck radio and wasn’t doing anything that might have gotten something in it. We tried some eye wash but it just got so bad we headed out for Urgent Care. The place was full of folks so it took us about three hours.

They put a die in his eye and then used a black light to see if there might be a foreign object in his eye or if there was a scratch on the eye. Nothing. The Nurse Practitioner decided it might be an infection so she prescribed a steroid, antibiotic eye drop.

My main concern was how this might affect his surgery on Tuesday and she said that since we caught it so quickly, that it shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll double check with his regular doctor tomorrow.

So you can see, we keep busy but I still don’t know what happens to all my days.