I Am Filled With Gratitude

AJ AZ.   high  80. Low 48

I am so very blessed to have people who care so much for Jim and I. I am surrounded by love even from those I've never met. It's amazing how true friendships grow through our blogs. 

Our neighbors here in the park have been so supportive. All I have to do is ask and it's done. I am so grateful I live in this community that is a family. And the church members have been amazing. They have helped me plan everything. I truly am blessed.

I am having a memorial service for Jim on February 26th at 11:00 a.m.  It will be held at the LDS Church  454 North Crismon Road in Mesa, AZ. If you are in the area, I would love to have you join us.

I know some people have asked about sending flowers but I would prefer that you make a donation to your favorite charity in Jim's name. 

And speaking of his name, most of you don't know what it is. He didn't care for his first name so he always went by Jim. 

"Harry James Dixon, Jr".  

It wasn't until we got married that I learned his first name was really Harry.

 I sure do miss him. The house seems so empty and its sooo quiet. Thank you again for all your kind, wonderful words.

 

 

Goodbyes Are So Hard

 I had to say goodbye to the love of my life, my whole world tonight. Jim, I miss you so much. Hopefully it won't be long before we are together again. You are my everything. 

Jim Update

 AJ. High in the 50s and 60s.  Low in the 30s and 40s.  Lots of wind.

Not sure where to start. Jim has been in the hospital for the last week. He seemed to do just fine with the radiation but about two weeks later he started feeling short of breath and was coughing up a lot of phelm and small amounts of blood. 

He talked to the radiologist and his pulmonologist and they weren't too concerned.  We had an appointment set up with his GP and the radiologist in a week and a half.

His appetite came back and we thought everything was good. On Sunday  he started to get short of breath and by Monday he couldn't walk from the bedroom to the living room without being totally exhausted and out of breath. I asked him if he felt like he could get in the truck to go to the ER but he couldn't. 

I called 911 and they took him to Banner Goldfield. This is an emergency hospital with very limited resources.  They had to find a bed in a hospital that could treat his lungs, heart and kidneys. Not easy to do in this time of Covid.  

At 8:30 that night they transported him to Banner Boswell ICU. Boswell is in Sun City which is on the other side of Phoenix.  60 miles from home.  I drove over to see him on Tuesday and we got conflicting information about what was wrong. They started treating him for pneumonia only to find out later he didn't have it. However, his heart and kidneys are in pretty bad shape.

The hospital moved him out of the ICU on Wednesday to the heart ward. Then on Friday he got moved to what he called "a broom closet". Two patients to a room and less hands on care.

Finally on Saturday they released him to come home with oxygen. Took several hours to get him sprung but he is now home and much happier.

Tomorrow we start making doctor appointments especially with the cardiologist and kidney doctors. We also need to see the radiologist about the cancer. That appointment with a couple of others had to be canceled. So that is what we will be doing this next week. Jim will also be working on getting his strength back.

Radiation

Apache Junction. High  63. Low  38

I'm sure you're all tired of reading about our medical issues but that is our life right now and I need to document it. 

Radiation day 1 - Tuesday, January 4th, was Jim's first radiation treatment which lasted exactly 20 minutes from the time he went back to the time he walked into the waiting room. I know because I timed it. Yes, I was nervous and scared for him. 

In fact our drive to Scottsdale takes longer than his treatment.

 

Absolutely no problem.  He didn't feel a thing and had no side effects.  He did say that laying on the hard metal table with his arms above his head is uncomfortable, but that was it. 

He has four treatments to go with the last one on Monday, January 10. 

Radiation Day 2 - Wednesday - today's session took longer and I was getting a little concerned. Jim told me that for some reason the machine did not want to line up correctly and they had to reposition him. Once again, he felt nothing and feels fine tonight. 

Radiation Day 3 - Thursday - three down. Two to go. Feeling great but worried that it isn't working because he doesn't feel anything.

Radiation Day 4 - repeat of the other three days. One more to go on Monday.

Saturday and Sunday-experiencing some upset stomach. Not bad but uncomfortable. 

Radiation Day 5 - done. Stomach still upset but hopefully that will go away in a couple of days. We go back in a month.  

 

While sitting in the waiting room I observed people coming in who were doing their best to be brave as they fought this horrible disease. The lucky ones had someone with them to support them. My heart went out to those who were fighting by themselves.  My hope is that all of them come out victorious.

Saying Goodbye to 2021

It's been pretty quiet at the Dixon house. Trying to keep Jim healthy so we can get the radiation taken care of. 

One Sunday night, a family from our Ward had their second annual donuts and hot cocoa drive thru at their home. They started it last year because of the pandemic. It was a lot of fun even though the house was hard to find down a dirt road in the dark.  They even had a snow machine going.

On one of our many trips to Scottsdale we saw this beautiful tree in bloom in December. 

We also stopped at a McDonald's for lunch in the truck and this guy or gal decided to join us. I have no idea what this bird is. A grackle maybe?

We have a resident silver fox here in our park. Our neighbor took this picture. 

One day when I couldn't stand staying at home any longer, we picked up Mickey and Ginny and headed out for a treat. I had seen a spot on TV about AZ Chimney Cakes and they looked fantastic. 

Chimney cakes are a Hungarian dessert called Kurtoskalacs. This Sweet Bread is freshly baked to order with a crispy crunchy outside and a light fluffy dough inside. They are cylinder shaped with a hollow center, resembling a hot smoking chimney when it comes fresh out of the rotisserie oven. 

Then they are filled with your choice of fabulous flavors.
 

Christmas Eve day it rained, and rained, and rained, and rained. In fact we had 1 1/2 inches of rain. It wasn't a hard rain most of the time and that soaking rain is exactly what this dessert needed. The Spring flowers ought to be gorgeous.

On Christmas Eve I cooked a ham along with fruits and veggies to go with it. We invited our friends Paul, Key, and Paula. Key called in the afternoon and said he wasn't feeling good so he didn't join us. We had a wonderful time but I only have one picture and that was of the dessert Paul brought. Delicious. 

 

Christmas day was very quiet watching football and Hallmark movies. 

Sunset picture and clouds sitting on the Superstitions.

Our friend, Jeanne, made sourdough bread today and she shared some with us. She is an excellent baker. The bread was wonderful and her cinnamon rolls are incredible.

We will be celebrating the arrival of 2022 very quietly and full of hope for a world filled with more understanding and patience.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

 Jim is scheduled to start radiation treatments on January 4. So we can relax and enjoy the holidays

Have a wonderful, safe holiday.

The Surgery That Wasn't

 On Friday Jim took his Covid test and got a negative result. 

Monday morning we drove up to the hospital in Scottsdale for a 10:00 am check in. Surgery was scheduled for 12:30. Because of Covid I could not go back with him to wait for the surgeon. 

I am sitting in the extremely cold surgery waiting room. 12:30 comes and goes. At about 1:00 I get a text from Jim that he hasn't seen the surgeon yet. Figured he was running behind in another surgery.  At 2:13 I get a text from Jim saying the the surgeon, Dr. Gillespie, just informed him that Dr. Grossman, the cardiologist, had not cleared Jim for surgery. This is after they have already hooked him up with IVs. 

I called Dr. Grossman's office to find out what was going on because when we saw him he told us Jim was high risk but surgery was not prohibitive. Was told many things that weren't true by the medical assistant (i.e. that Dr. Grossman had talked to Dr. Gillespie in the last 20 minutes). But found out that the major problem was that Dr. Gillespie's office had not requested a clearance form from Dr. Grossman.  They had requested medical records and notes but not the clearance. We also found out that in those notes Dr. Grossman had made a typo that made it sound like Jim was too high of a risk for surgery. And that is why Dr. Gillespie canceled the surgery. 

Getting this information took over an hour. But we wanted to know why Dr. Gillespie's office had not requested the clearance. Tried calling their office and got no answer. Dr. Grossman also tried calling and let us know he couldn't get through. 

Since we just happened to be in the neighborhood, we went to Dr. Gillespie's office.  Of course, the person responsible for getting the clearance had taken a long weekend. So I ranted at the front line person ( I know it's not fair to them but I was beyond upset). She took down the info and Gina is supposed to call us tomorrow. I want to know WHY this screw up happened. 

In the meantime, Dr. Gillespie had contacted Dr. Tsai, the oncologist, who called and left us a message to go see the radiologist and get set up for radiation.

So Jim is high risk for surgery but is still eligible if the surgeon thinks he can do the surgery. But the surgeon thinks it's a no go because a form is missing and there was a typo. We have an appointment with the radiologist in case surgery is out. But who knows. Certainly not us.

The other thing we want to know is why was the surgery scheduled in the first place without the clearance. Why were we all ready to go into surgery before we found out about this mess. 

Can you imagine the fight I'm going to have on my hands with the insurance!! 

Update:  I wrote this last night and I've now had time to cool down and become rational again. 

Haven't heard from the surgeon's office and I really doubt we will. Which is fine because Jim and I and the Lord have talked it over and we have decided on radiation. We both have received a calm reassurance that this is the right choice for Jim. We have an appointment scheduled for next Monday with the radiologist, Dr. Albert, to have Jim mapped for radiation. 

I also talked to the insurance company and was told by Jim's case manager that because the surgery was canceled by the surgeon we are not responsible for any charges. That is a relief.