Tuesday, March 5th, 2019…... I
woke up about 5:30am this morning and got up and ready. While I walked Rylee,
Lydia got up and got dressed and ready for our day. We left the house and drove
the 100 miles up to Portland for her meeting with the digestive health team.
The drive was uneventful and we got through the usual bogged-down areas with
little problems. We only missed the turn to the medical center once so we
thought that wasn’t too bad! We found the underground parking and made our way
to the sixth-floor offices and checked in. We met with a nurse, then a
physician’s assistant, and then with Dr. Herzig. He had already consulted with
the transplant center in the area (not sure exactly where they are located) and
was ready for Lydia. He did a great job, first listening to her complete
synopsis of her history and past and her present condition and then, after an
examination, explaining about next steps. He recommends that we wait until the
antibiotics have worked their magic and then, once off those, see if she can
sustain with no symptoms. If she can, he wants to see her (or do a telecon) and
close the case. If not, we will look into scheduling surgery. He explained the
complications of colon re-section surgery and the lengthy recovery time. He
said he’s pretty sure it’s diverticulosis and wants to see how she does after
the antibiotics are done (which is sometime this week). He’s glad to hear that
the pain has lessened since her anti-rejection drugs have been adjusted and agrees
that the antibiotics are likely now starting to work. He’s almost ruled out
Crohn’s Disease and any forms of cancer because all of her lab reports show no
changes in her numbers. She still needs to do regular blood and urine lab
testing to make sure the kidney functions maintain the same numbers. All in
all, it was pretty good news. Time will now tell what the next steps are…
After we left there, we drove back
toward home and stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin for lunch. We haven’t
been for a long time so it was a nice treat, especially after such good news.
We also stopped by the nice sized Cabela’s right next door. I didn’t buy
anything (this time!). We got back home a few minutes after Penny got there
from her appointments in Salem. She’s doing well and everything is on schedule.
She had fed Rylee. Kirk was just leaving so I caught up to him to give him his
check for last month. He also has borrowed my trailer for a while as the one he
was using is needed by the owner. I have plans on rebuilding my trailer but not
until later this year, so I am glad to see it being used. We settled in and
relaxed from our morning adventure.
Later, we had leftovers for dinner
then settled in and watched tv until we were too tired to stay awake after our
early morning outing.
Wednesday, March 6th, 2019…… I
didn’t sleep well last night. Guess going to bed early wasn’t the right choice.
Anyway, I was up at 3:30am and got settled into my chair in my room and turned
on the tv. We keep the heater set at night to come on only if it gets below
65º, so I needed to turn it up a bit and then I was ok with a light blanket in
my chair. Of course, Rylee left our warm bed and came in with me and slept on
her blanket in my room. But, she was ready when I got up at 7:00am to feed her.
Then I was up for the day. Nothing planned today. After I got showered and
dressed, I walked Rylee. It was barely sprinkling when we left and I got back
without getting too wet. Rylee doesn’t care!
We have some weather predicted but they don’t know if the light rain in
the forecast will turn to freezing rain or what they call a “mix”. It is
supposed to snow at the higher elevations. Our neighbors say that, in our area,
the snow we got in February in itself, was unusual, but in March it would be extremely
unlikely. We’ll see. Either way, we didn’t do too much. I went to Starbucks and
got us coffee/tea while Lydia made bacon and eggs. After that, we stayed in and
relaxed and did nothing.
Later in
the day, it did snow. But the temperature was 36º, and even though it came down
pretty heavy at times, nothing stuck to the ground. We’re watching to see if it
snows later this evening and then it might stick. As we’re told, this is
strange for March…
Tomorrow
is trash day so we cleaned out the leftovers and stuff from the fridge and I
took out the container amid the snow flurries. It wasn’t too bad. I learned my
lesson last week, having to lug the containers over the snow. While I did that,
Lydia started dinner. Tonight was Survivor, then we watched our own taped shows
until bedtime.
Thursday, March 7th, 2019…... No snow (or rain) at all during
the night. I slept way better than the night before. But turns out, Lydia didn’t.
She said she got up to pee about 1:30am and was restless and awake so she went
in to her room and watched tv. I guess Rylee took her place on the bed. I didn’t
wake up until about 3:00am and saw the light coming down the hall and I could
see she was up. I got up and checked on her, then went back to bed. She woke me
briefly when she came back to bed about 4:00am. Later, neither of us wanted to
get up but butthead made sure one of us did! I let her out and waited and then wiped
her paws at the door and then went back to bed. She stayed off our bed and
slept on her blanket in the corner until 6:59am when she jumped up on the bed to
get me up to feed her. Now I was up for good. I got showered and dressed and
let Lydia sleep. But Rylee bugged her to play so now she was up too. She went
in and made herself an egg sandwich and I went out for my morning breakfast
run. I stopped and got my Jack in the Box breakfast burrito and coffee/tea from
Starbucks. After breakfast, I was planning on heading over to Albany to Petco
to buy a new dog leash, but I wanted to check online first. I found a couple of
sellers on eBay and Amazon that had what I wanted and they were cheaper than
Petco or PetSmart. So, I didn’t go anywhere. Later, I took Rylee and went out
to the shop and finished dismantling the recliner. I got everything sorted and scraps
in the trash and/or recycling, and got the work table cleaned and the floor
vacuumed and then we came in for the day. I was relaxing and ate a light lunch and
Lydia came in and asked about dinner. Did I have any preference? If not, she
said she could cook spaghetti or we could go out. We opted for The Spaghetti
Factory in Corvallis and fed muttley and headed out around 3:45pm. We like to
go early. We got seated by the window overlooking the river (Willamette River).
The Oregon State rowing teams were out practicing going up and down the river. That
was cool! We had a nice meal and then
headed back home. The weather today had been off and on drizzles but hardly
enough to wet the ground. It started to clear up in the afternoon, and when we
left the house, it was nice and sunny. So, our dinner date out was very pleasant.
We got back home and got the dog walked again and then we settled in and
watched tv until calling it a night.
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