Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #9 – It’s a Medical Week!

 

Sunday, February 26^th., 2023…… No snow today. So far! They say we could get a little later today. I brought out the cupola and got it staged. Corey will be coming over later in the afternoon to help me install it. Cathye went off to church and I settled in and watched my motocross race and then the last Nascar race from the old Fontana track. After Cat got back home, she said our new landscaper (Oliver) was coming over to go over his estimate and scope of work. She will use him in stages and they wanted to go over the schedule which is starting this week with some general maintenance. They have plans for new beds around the new deck as well as cleanup in the blueberry cage, and then new plantings all around with new mulch (aka bark dust). She is looking forward to getting going again once the weather warms up and the ground dries out. While he was here, it started to hail! After he left, I was watching tv and Cathye hollered “Hey look, it’s snowing outside!”  I texted Corey to tell him not to worry about driving out here in the bad weather just to help with the gazebo. We will wait on that so I spent the rest of the day in the house. 

Monday, February 27^th., 2023……  Today was busy for me. I have an early morning acupuncture appointment so I was up and showered and dressed and left for that. When I got back, Cathye had walked and fed the dogs. Nothing going until this afternoon when we head off to Corvallis. This time it’s my cardiologist appointment. It is my first time seeing a doctor for any heart issue. Actually, given my parent’s health history, I wanted to at least have a doctor examine me and come up with a plan.

Ok, it’s later now…  We are back from seeing Dr. Ashine. He has given us a plan for my afib… Lose some weight in the next year, stop baby aspirin, start a blood thinner (Eliquis), and schedule a cardioversion in 4 weeks or so. The cardioversion is actually a shock to the heart. It is done in an attempt to bring the chambers back to being in sync with each other (theoretically taking them out of afib). If that doesn’t work, the next step would be a catheter ablation. That would be down the road a bit.  Meanwhile, Dr. Ashine will send a prescription to both Optum RX (90-day mail order) and a short term one to Walgreens for today or tomorrow.  Anyway, we spent the afternoon picking up her prescription and finding that mine was not called in. Problem turned out to be insurance who only accepted the first one turned in to them and that was the one from Optum, which I will receive on Friday. So, I will start then.   

Tuesday, February 28^th., 2023…… We have more cold and rain expected this week. Maybe even some more snow. Well, when we woke up we saw that it had snowed last night!  Just a dusting for us here in town but schools were closed all around the state so they got more in the surrounding areas that we did. It was still on the ground but had already melted on the roads so the drive to town for our 10:00am haircuts was not a problem.  We left there and stopped by to pay Jamie’s rent at his assisted living residence and give him his allowance. The we had the day to ourselves. I had texted Russ that I had the money transfer complete and could pay him the next payment today so he came by at lunch to get it. While he was here, I had him help me hoist the cupola up and get it in place, so that’s done! In the long run, it was a better idea to do it this way because I was able to make the minute adjustments and get the panels exactly lined up while it was still on the ground. Way easier!

 

After that, I came back in to warm up.  With the weather so chilling, I don’t want to spend too much time out there. I will wait for a sunny day and warmer temps!  Electricians have work to complete and Russ says they are not scheduling much either due to the weather. That’s ok, no hurry. I did find out that our fire pit (shipping from Carlsbad CA) is almost to the transportation hub in Eugene. So that means it could be here later this week. Still no hurry. Later in the day, we got the call from her surgeon’s office. Her procedure would be mid- morning. We need to check in the hospital at 10:30am tomorrow. Cat confessed later that she has some anxiety about the surgery. We talked and I think she felt better and drifted off to sleep with little issues.   

Wednesday, March 1^st., 2023…… Today, Cathye is better but I can see she’s still a little nervous. I walked Rylee. Jama would not leave Cathye’s side in bed!  I even had to feed her there this morning. I made myself some breakfast (Cathye can’t have food or liquid this morning) and we rested until we had to leave. She checked in to the same-day-surgery area and was called back.

 

I was allowed to stay in her room before, during and when she got back. The dr. said everything went well but they did have to pull and tug a bit to release the gall bladder from around her liver. But she was doing well and could go home when the anesthesia wore off and she felt steady on her feet.  She was really woozy and out of it for longer than I expected!  But we finally got the ok to go home and she walked (with assistance) into the house and went right to bed. I got her juice and soup and then some went out to pick up her pain meds. I had to go get what they called in for her and she got that going later in the day. The surgery was laparoscopic so she has 4 entry points which are now super-glued back together! They look good now but she says they hurt like hell and are her major issue right now! The pain meds helped but she is still loopy and kept talking to me and coming up with weird statements that had no bearing on anything. Go figure!    

Thursday, March 2^nd., 2023…… After a long night, with all the talking and talking going on, I got up early and showered and she slept in while I walked the dogs and made us some coffee. She only wanted yogurt for breakfast so I got that and the coffee in to her then left to make a breakfast run to Jack in the Box for me. I got the tv in the bedroom set up and I think it helped after 17 hours of sleep. Only this afternoon did she get back to her old self and was more with it than last night! Soup for lunch and my squiggly noodle casserole for dinner. I can whip that up without too much effort and it’s pretty tasty. Time will tell if certain foods will bother her or not. But this casserole is pretty bland and she should do ok.  Problem is she is not hungry and didn’t want too much. But any food in her stomach right now is good for her.     

Friday, March 3^rd., 2023……  Another day of cold rainy weather. They say there is another cold front coming in and will be here for the next week or so. They also say it might snow again! I took the girls out for their walk and then fed them. Cat is up and down and says she wants to get better. But she is impatient and will try too much too fast!  So, I have to reel her in a bit (which isn’t easy!). Mostly her major complaint right now is being queasy. Her sutures – which are actually glued up – are bothering her. No pain in her stomach/gall bladder area and no more of the associated shoulder pain, but she has some pain in the surgery area, probably from the evasive laparoscopic instruments moving around tissue and muscle. Plus the upset stomach. So, we are going slowly. We decided to try some solid food. I asked what she wanted and she asked for fish. So, we headed up to the drive-thru fish hut here in town. They have clam chowder on Friday so we wanted some of that. She enjoyed the meal but only ate a little portion, saving the rest for another day. Tv until bedtime.      

Saturday, March 4^th., 2023…… We were up late today but I had been up earlier to use the bathroom and let Rylee out and saw it was beginning to snow! By the time we got up and going an hour later, the ground was covered. We would get about one inch this time. The streets don’t retain any of the snow so we could walk the girls. Cat said she was up to it so out we went into the snow.

Once they did their business, I turned them around so Cathye wouldn’t do too much. She was exhausted and rested with her coffee. I fed the dogs and we had breakfast and coffee and rested for the morning. Later, I went out and made a Walmart run. We needed a few things and the roads were ok. Later, I worked on the gazebo and got most of the framework in and bolted in place. I only stay out there for about an hour before coming back in to warm up and rest. So, it might be another few days before I get it completed. I did go out and uncrate the fire pit. Man, they packed it good!  But it was worth it!  I had Cathye come out to walk a bit and get some fresh air and check it out with me. We found only one area where there was a blemish and that was minimal. 

 

Only problem we found was that they didn’t include the cover in this shipment. I will need to send a text to my guy to ask him about it. For now we will leave it where it is and wait until the guys can clear coat the ceiling and woodwork before we set it up on the deck. She ate the leftover fish for dinner and I had my leftover squiggly noodles so we were both happy. We have been watching our taped shows and needed to get caught up before the new ones started. We finished watching Tough as Nails and are almost done with Special Forces – World’s Toughest Test.  We like that one!  Celebrities out in the desert for 10 days of grueling boot camp survival. Neither of us would make it one day! Speaking of survival, Survivor started this week! We always watch it same day – except this week – so we caught up. Gonna be a good series.