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Lebanon, Oregon, United States
We are Terry & Cathye Kinkelaar. If you've followed my blog in the past, you know that Lydia, my beautiful wife of 52 years, and I made the lifestyle choice to move to Oregon in 2017. You've seen my posts about losing her in May 2020 to cancer. Although I was left alone, I am pleased to say that I have found happiness again. In April 2021, I met Cathye, who also lost her longtime husband in 2020. Well, we fell in love and were married in April 2022. So, if folks are still interested, I will continue to post here as we move forward with our lives and adventures!

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #24 – Running Errands and Another Doctor’s Visit


 

Monday, March 11th, 2019…... Nice weather again today. Storms are expected tomorrow. We’ll see. I got Rylee out and walked and then made myself some breakfast. Lydia was having some discomfort this morning so we’re staying close to home today. My sister was coming over for a few minutes. She was headed to Albany to go to Costco for new fluorescent light fixtures for her garage and then to a car stereo store to check on speakers for her car. But she wanted me to listen to it first. I found that the left door speaker is blown. I expect that they will sell and install a pair, which makes sense. Her gps speaker out of the dash is also pretty squirrely so she needs a new one there too. She called later and said that the fixtures at Costco were the same as she already has, so she just bought new led tubes. Also, she said that the stereo folks have set an appointment for the speaker install. Later in the morning, Lydia felt better so we took off to go to Walmart for a few things for dinner. We wanted something easy and decided on sloppy joes and tator tots so we got all of that stuff. They have a bakery chain up here called Franz, that most of the stores, including Walmart, carry. They have a really good potato hamburger bun that we like so we found those and we were done. Besides a few more walks for muttley, that was pretty much it for the day.   

Tuesday, March 12th, 2019……  Rain last night and in the forecast. But it barely sprinkled on us when I had Rylee out this morning.  And then the sun came out for a while! But later in the morning, it hailed on us for about 3 minutes. Then it cleared up again and the sun came out again! Weird weather. It is supposed to rain more this evening. Don’t blink! Kirk worked at my sister’s this morning and then came over, even though it was hailing! We called him in the house to talk about future projects. Lydia wants him to order her a couple of fishing rod plants. We saw these at the Oregon Gardens last season. 


They are technically called Dierama Pulcherrimum. A few months later, she inquired at the nursery and they weren’t in stock and it was coming to the end of the season. So, we waited and will now have Kirk use his discount and get us a couple. He can also talk to them about the best place to put these in the yard. The weather broke and the sun came out again so he made quick work and got all of my downed blueberry netting cut away and all of the broken boards piled up for me to dispose of. 
Lydia was feeling really good today. We hope that continues….. She received a call today from the Infectious Disease Dr’s office, asking if she wanted to come in tomorrow instead of a few weeks from now. They wanted to discuss the blood work that has been done and to retest her blood. We’ll do that tomorrow morning. She got out some halibut for dinner. I peeled and sliced some potatoes and we cooked some green beans. She asked me if I wanted to watch the series premier of Master Chef Jr. tonight on tape delay or wait. We watched Guys Grocery Games which I had taped and then MCJr on her tv. 

             
Wednesday, March 13th, 2019…... I got up and got showered and going early so Lydia could go shower after me and get ready. After my walk, my sister came over and she had Rylee out with her while I went out and got breakfast/coffee/tea. When I got back, Lydia was dressed and we left around 9:00am for her 9:45am appointment in Corvallis. Sis was leaving Quincy so she could go run some errands and then go home and bake. The oven drives Quincy nuts so it was good for her to be here.
Once we got to the Dr’s office there, she was in for over an hour. Like I said, they wanted to do more blood work. Dr. Leonard’s office had seen that she had tested for the CMV virus, which is cytomegalovirus (pronounced sy-toe-MEG-a-low-vy-rus). This is a common virus that infects over half of adults by age 40. Once it’s in your body, it stays there for life and can reactivate. Most people’s healthy immune system usually keeps the virus from causing illness. However, people – Like Lydia – with weakened immune systems can get it. The Dr. today said one of the symptoms is an intestinal issue. Bingo!  Dr. Leonard (her nephrologist) had seen this in her labs and had given her a 24-day medication, but that was back before she was on the lessor dose of anti-rejection meds. Subsequent bloodwork showed no signs, but she wanted a consult with an infectious disease doctor, and today was the first day we could get in. Today’s blood was drawn so that will check it again. They want her to do these labs weekly for one month. Not having it show up in the latest bloodwork means that the 24-day meds probably got it. Plus, the antibiotics may have helped in clearing up her symptoms. But to ask her, she still has discharge and pretty severe pain still. The colon wall usually doesn’t heal that quickly so this may take more time to sort out.  
After the Dr’s. we stopped at Roz and Ali and also at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and TJ Max where we bought a few things before heading home. We found our friend, Brian’s, food cart now in operation at the old Mega Foods parking lot in town, so we stopped and got lunch from him. His truck is called Chau's Little Vietnam. His wife owns the nail salon where we go and we've tried his food at the BeerFest. It is the best!  We took it home and my sister was back to pick up Quincy and we spent some time with her before she left to go home. We rested and then later, I took Rylee out and put her on her rope, while I sorted out the wood from the netting from the blueberry bushes that Kirk had taken down yesterday and piled up for me. The weather was just too nice to stay in. We had blue skies and nice sun beating down. We are supposed to have 2-3 days of sun before the next rain. Yaay! My neighbor even was out yesterday with his tractor, mowing his lawn. He is on higher ground so he doesn’t have my soggy grass issues. I still have to wait but we’ll see what these next days bring…
Neither of us was hungry after lunch so we left dinner open. I had the rest of the sloppy joe mix and Lydia ate some of the leftover casserole.  We watched Survivor and then a few other shows before calling it a night.       

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