Oregon Living 2026 – Blog #2 – Another Week of Health Care

 

 

Sunday, January 11^th., 2026…… Today was more tending to Penny. Mostly for Cathye though. I went over and visited for a bit and took a few items over to Cat. Penny is doing ok. But still in bed most of the time. She has Directv like us, so Cat is able to go in and tape shows she likes so she can pass the time there. They go once a day for infusions. Turns out Penny has mrsa. Skin to skin contact or touching contaminated items is how it’s contagious. So, most of her friends who have signed on to come over to either visit or help – now aren’t coming. Cathye (and Maraglee) have to be really careful and wear gloves and wash constantly. I was there working on her tv signal in the bedroom and washed after touching her remote. But hopefully it is being curtailed with all of the daily rounds of antibiotic infusions. Only time will tell.

I have included some pics from the slight snowfall we had here a few days ago. For some areas with higher elevation, they got some snow to stick as you can see.

But for us, we got nothing that stayed on the ground.

 

Meanwhile, I hung around the house and watched football and motocross. I also have my binder together for 2026 races. I have F1, Supercross, Indycar, all three Nascar levels, as well as all of the auction scheduled for Mecum and Barrett Jackson. Since I chart all of the players on both The Masked Singer and America’s Got Talent, I made spreadsheet for them as well. This took some time but I’m ready!  I also have separate books each for the seasons of Dancing With the Stars, Survivor and the Amazing Race. Don’t know what to say!   

Monday, January 12^th., 2026…… A quiet day for me. After I walked and fed the dogs, I went to the gym and then stopped and got breakfast on the way home. Later, Cat came home for a bit to take a shower. Afterwards, we visited for a bit and I left with her to go back to Penny’s to pick up some papers she needed copied and to get her grocery list. Then it was back there for another day or so. I worked some on getting the yard sale stuff organized in the rv garage. I wanted to try out both of the vacuum cleaners to see if I liked them better than mine. I hated one (it will go back for sale) and liked one (it stays for now). I still want to go get a brand new one for the house and will get to that soon. I did finally get another replacement debit card for the one that got hacked, so I’m good to order things again! The rest of the day was spent catching up on my blog, working on paying bills, and then watching MNF.    

Tuesday, January 13^th., 2025…… Today is haircut day. I left to go met Cathye there. She was coming from Penny’s house after taking care of her this morning. We left there and Cathye came back home for the day. Penny has a slew of volunteers that will be taking her to her infusions for the next couple of weeks. But because of mrsa, not all of them will be doing it. So, the schedule got changed up a bit. The weather is still pretty cold. Today it was a low of 32°, so I was glad we have the doghouse installed over the wellhead now! But I will still be keeping a close eye on it, especially since we don’t have any warming trends coming up soon.  I was out in the shop and had a fire going in the stove and then went to work on the alcove lights. I had made a backboard earlier to help hold up all of the stuffed decorations we line up on the alcove edging. Well, after the removal, I decided to improve on the style a bit and add the lights directly to it. That will make it easier to  install next time. I tested it and then stored it back up in the alcove out of sight for next time. Then I could also put the ladder away for the year!     

Wednesday, January 14^th., 2026…… My mri is scheduled for Jan. 27^th. That said, they wanted a pre-meeting to ascertain my health and to see if there were any red flags. That meeting was today. Since the procedure will be at OHSU in Portland, and I am over 75 miles away, I qualified for a telecon meeting, so I didn’t have to drive up there. The video call took about 30 minutes and she said she saw no red flags for the procedure. Of course I wouldn’t have had to go through this process if I consented to just do the normal version of the mri. But, I can’t get into that machine and have fought for this total sedation version. That means anesthesia so they have to screen me before that. I guess I answered correctly because it’s a go for the 27^th. The only thing I need to do beforehand is that cleansing procedure. Yuuck! Once the call was done, the only thing we had on the agenda for today was our massages. Cathye took the first appointment so she would have time to take sis to her infusion. Problem was Emily was not there!  Turns out she had the wrong day on our calendars. It was tomorrow! So, I relaxed at home and caught up on my taped programs.  

Thursday, January 15^th., 2026…… Still freezing at night!  But no rain. We actually had sunshine today!  I just wish the grass would dry out enough to mow. I just need it dry enough so the mowers won’t bog down in the muck!  So far, no go! I walked and fed the girls then took off to go to the gym and pick up breakfast for me. Cathye and Penny have worked out the schedule today so we can go to our massages. She goes first and then I will go and then take her to infusion while I’m out. About 1:30pm I got a call from Emily asking where I was. I told her Cathye was taking the first one today. I was wrong!  I called her and she said she would call Emily and go in. She ended up taking both appointments and got 90 minutes and I got zero! I picked up Penny and took her to her dr’s appointment on time so at least I got that right! We picked up her prescription and had enough time to make it to her infusion. It’s only a needle push and usually only takes 10-15 minutes total.  After we were done, I took her home and Cathye came and took over.

Friday, January 16^th., 2026……  Today, Cathye would be staying home for the night. She did get all her chores done over there before coming back here. Then she left to go off to her luncheon. This one was with her old coworkers in the healthcare world. She had a nice visit

and came back with a Philly cheesesteak sandwich for me for later.  

Saturday, January 17^th., 2026…… Tonight was our normal Club dance. Penny needed Cathye to run some errands and do a few chores this morning but she got all of that done and was back in time for us to dress and go. I got to stay around the house and watched my Broncos game. Yaay we won!  But I would find out later that my QB, Bo Nix, broke his leg and is now out for the rest of the playoffs. That’s a bummer because he is the catalyst for this team!  I don’t expect them to go any farther in the playoffs now.  

 The dance was nice. We danced a bit and rested a bit. I danced a few plus tips and Cathye got in some mainstream with me and Frank as well. Since we are going back there tomorrow night, we didn’t have to do anything to the hall so we were able to leave a bit early. We got back home and I watched the second NFL game (Seattle vs San Fran.) I had taped before calling it a night. We are not using the spa much these days. It is just sooo cold going out and coming in!