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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!

Friday, February 14, 2020

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #13 – A Dentist Appt., a Bone Scan, & a Tax Appt.


 

Tuesday, Feb 11th, 2020……  Great night’s sleep last night. Not so much for Lydia. This is day 3 of her treatment. They have upped her prednisone from 5 mg to 50 mg, so she’s pretty wired and can’t sleep. And she is hungry!  As anyone who has ever taken prednisone knows, it will cause your blood sugars to rise, so she’s “all jacked up on Mountain Dew” – a serious sugar rush! They monitor her blood sugars and have her on a diabetic and renal diet until they can lower the prednisone dosage. But she’s managed to find enough food on the menu to change it up a bit each meal and find something she likes. Today’s lunch was a stuffed mushroom, which looked pretty good even to me. All in all, she’s doing just great and looks good!
The oncologist says that based on the pet scan results, she will need 6 total rounds of chemo. The plan for now is to finish up round one of the chemo by late Thursday night, which means if everything is where they want it, she can come home on Friday morning. Then it will be 21 days at home and then they will repeat the process - she will check back into the hospital, get a room, and do another 5 days of chem through the port and be monitored like just like round 1. She will also go for a spinal tap on rounds 2 and 6 to make sure the brain is clear of any issues (none so far). No talks yet about the radiation, but that is most likely to be way out in phase 2.
As is the routine, I left her to rest and watch her tv, and I came home and ate dinner and fed and walked Rylee again and settled in for the night.   

Wednesday, Feb 12th, 2020…… Today was busy for me. I had an early dental appointment this morning (at 8:30am) so I walked and fed Rylee and ate breakfast. Sis had brought Quincy over and left her here for the day. I made it to the dental appointment and got that done. Just a cleaning. I told them we now have dental insurance and may be moving on for the future. They wanted to keep us as patients and even called our insurance and checked and found that no, they couldn’t get authorized by my plan even though I was an existing patient here. We would both have to go through the approved network dentists. I have decided to keep going there until I have something other than a cleaning or simple procedure. Lydia has only been once but she’s had an experience in California with a ‘plan’ dentist who she did not like so she will stay with Dr. Tolman/Amanda as well. I told them about Lydia and said she may have to cancel her 2/26 appointment with them but for now she plans on coming in as scheduled.
I called Lydia after I was done at the dentist and asked if she needed me to bring her anything and got her list and gathered up everything and headed out.  This was day 4 of 5. I spent as much time there as I could before I had to leave for my next scheduled appointment (@2:20pm) - for my annual bone scan. With my osteoporosis, I am on one infusion a year, which is prefaced by this scan. I timed it so I could leave the hospital in Corvallis and drop in at the eyecare place in Albany to pick up the remake on my new sunglasses. Looks like they got it right this time. I left there and made it to the Imaging Center at the Lebanon hospital and checked in and got my wristband. The whole process there took less than ½ hour and I was on my way home. Sis was at bingo and had a rider (Lois) with her today. She got her back home ok and then came over later and picked up Quincy and they left for home. I fixed dinner and Rylee and I played a bit and I settled in and watched tv until bedtime.        
 
Thursday, Feb 13th, 2020…… Today I had another appointment. This one was for our taxes. I had already gathered everything up and was ready for today. Sis had called and asked if I wanted to go to Kevin’s to have breakfast. Duuh!  I called and checked in to ask how Lydia was doing and then headed up to visit her for the morning and until I had to go for my appointment. They still have her on her high-dose prednisone so she’s still on a restricted diet. But other than having to have her blood sugars tested and getting a shot as necessary, she is doing remarkably well for day 5. She’s been going to the bathroom unassisted now but they don’t want her doing that. ‘Hey, if they don’t get here right after I buzz, I have to get in there somehow!”  Penny drove herself and we met at the hospital and she visited with her and then left to run her errands today. I left for my 2:00pm tax appointment. Turns out the appointment was for 10:00am!  I’m not sure how I came to write down 2:00pm but I did!  Claudine was just finishing up her last appointment and I got in. I have an easy return and, because we didn’t have enough for medical last year, I didn’t do any of those totals. She said she still needs it for state credits so I will have to get those numbers together and back to her. Since I didn’t have lunch, I stopped and got subway for linner and had that and then fed butthead. We settled in for the evening and I watched tv in my office. I have gotten so used to hearing Lydia’s tv on in the living room that I started turning it on each evening. But only one more day before she comes home!   

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