Oregon Living 2026 – Blog #9 – Cleaning House, Medical for Rylee and Me, & Cathye is our Caregiver!

 

Sunday, March 1^st., 2026…… Slept in this morning.  Yep, we have rain again!  Cathye was able to walk the dogs before it came though. Meanwhile, it hit me while I was out getting us breakfast and coffee. So, no netting this morning!  We would spend the day inside. Until later, when we headed over to our beginner’s class. I am hoping to get the remainder of my procedure document edits back from my team tonight. I did get one back and will put those edits into the master document tomorrow.

After class, we went to the afterparty. We are now back at our old favorite – Pizza Hut! I guess last week someone called and they said come in. And they talked with management and they said they will have staff on hand for us for the next 6 Sundays! Yaay!  

I had some time to do some research on Rylee's upcoming surgery...

Monday, March 2^nd., 2026…… Today are labs prior to my upcoming biopsy. I went early so I could get results back quickly. They did blood and urine and I asked that they forward the results back to urology asap with a request to provide any prescriptions (antibiotics?) that might be needed asap. It was a zoo this morning!  They said Mondays always are! Meanwhile, Cathye has the housekeeper coming today. This will be a one-time deep cleaning. But we may continue to use her depending on price adjustments for weekly or monthly. So, that said. We kind of side-stepped her for most of the morning and afternoon. I worked in my office and Cathye in hers. She doesn’t mind working around the dogs. Penny came by to drop off some stuff for the yard sale and say hi to Stephanie. Later, when everyone was gone, we were able to relax and settle in for the rest of the day. Cathye got a call from Lona asking her to come help her get her new (to her) motorhome into a storage unit. Turns out they didn’t move it today, some issues with costs. So, she went to lunch and brought me back a patty melt. Later, we headed off to Cat’s Plus class. It didn’t go very well. There are a lot of ‘angels’ on the floor who really are brash and condescending with the newer dancers. Cathye does not do well with those people. She says she’s done!  So, this may have been our last class. More to follow….

When we got back home, we settled in and watched our tv programs. I did get my lab results back and – from my experience – didn’t see too much difference from last years. Guess that’s good.   

Tuesday, March 3^rd., 2026…… Stephanie was going to come back today because she didn’t have enough time to get everything done yesterday. I needed to make a run to Lowes to stock up on rock salt bags. Later, I went out to get us a couple of burritos for lunch. As a matter of fact, we had them for dinner too. I did get a response from my urology doctor on  MyChart saying there was no uti detected, so that’s good. Tv, spa and bed.  

Wednesday, March 4^th., 2026…… Today Cathye had a luncheon with Judy. I stayed home and rested. Later, we went out and worked on the netting around the blueberries. We got only into it about 5 minutes before it started raining. So that was it for the day. Tv and bed.

Thursday, March 5^th., 2026…… Big day for both Rylee and me!  We dropped her off at the vet’s office for her surgery.  She is getting her TPLO surgery. I looked up the definition: TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy) is surgery for dogs and is a common and highly effective orthopedic procedure used to stabilize the knee joint after a cranial cruciate ligament tear.  After that, we came home for a bit before I had to head over to Corvallis for my 1^st of two sessions stress test. They had me in the prep room for a radioactive dye injection and then into a machine for 20 minutes of imaging. I completed that and left for home. I actually met up with Cat at the vet to help get Ryle home. They had called earlier and said the surgery went well and she did fine. No problems.  They said we could go pick her up any time before 5:00pm. We got her in the house and on her bed. She was pretty much out of it for the rest of the evening. We took some pics before she let go and went to sleep for a bit.

For the next several days, we will have to assist her with a towel under her belly to help cradle her legs to help her so she doesn’t put too much weight on her leg. Later, when it was time for bed, we couldn’t figure out what to do to make her comfortable and make sure she didn’t move around too much. She’s never been a crate dog, plus we don’t even have one, so we decided to leash her next to the couch, where she could either sleep on her bed or on the carpet. I started out in bed but I could hear her moving around and I went in to sleep in my chair. Cat came out later and got on the couch and told me to go to bed. We would do that for the next two nights.      

Friday, March 6^th., 2026……   She had a very restless night. We were up a few times to help her out to pee. Hope tonight is better…

I was up super early to shower and leave for my 7:15am check-in for the 2^nd half of my stress test. I got checked in and they gave me the same pick line but this time they took me up to the cardio testing floor and put me on a table. They hooked up the sticky electrodes to my arms and chest. I chose the non-treadmill test this time. So, for that, they give you an injection of dobutamine to make your heart work harder. They stopped it pretty quickly because it didn’t get my heart rate up to where it needed to be to get a good reading. But they did say what they got looked really good. Later, I would get a call from my cardiac doctor’s office telling me the results looked good and we would go from there maybe for another test in the near future. This time I will choose the treadmill. After all, I use one twice a week in the gym and do at least ½ a mile each time. I was told I wouldn’t have to run so I’ll be good.

When I got back home, Rylee was still kind of out of it. She wants to walk on her leg and already has learned to work with the three good legs so we are letting her do a little but we are watching her closely. Later, we took her out to pee but she insisted in laying out in the flowerbed. We couldn't leave her there too long because we were worried her shaved area would get sunburned! But the time out there was good for her!

 

Saturday, March 7^th., 2026…… We were up early with our patient! She is looking a tiny bit better. I think she may be having some pain but we have her on meds twice a day for that. She just doesn’t have that much energy either. We will continue to help her when she moves around the house and needs to go out. She gets a bag of corn on her leg to help with swelling. Her leg is darkening but that’s what it says is expected after 1-2 days. Phew!  Time will help with everything. Later, we went out to work a bit on the netting. I had some breathing issues plus needed a protein drink, so we quit early.  Later, we decided that I would be the one to go to the dance tonight. Months ago. we had signed up for door duty and Cathye said I was better at taking money and giving change than she was. So I dressed and went. It was a smaller dance and I was able to do the money (and the 50/50 tickets) by myself with no issues. After I closed down the table, I turned over the numbers to the President and then took the money box home. As per the treasurer, I will take it back tomorrow night to give to her at the beginner’s class. I came home and we settled in to watch tv for the rest of the night. I took Rylee in to her bed in our room and opened the slider a bit and that was the key!  She stayed there with the evening breezes on her and slept through the night!  We all got a great night’s sleep!