About Us

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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!

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #36 – Good News – Bad News…


 

Wednesday, May 6th, 2020…… I decided to try it again this morning. Cabela’s, I mean. I got everyone taken care of at home, then took off and headed south this time. The Cabela’s in Tualatin is a pretty good size store and I prefer going there over the smaller store in Springfield, but it is only about 40 miles down there, so I said, “What the heck!”  I didn’t expect to find anything there either but was surprised that they had a good boat seat selection. But these guys didn’t have four of my style in stock either, so I decided to just order them online. I got free delivery and a military discount to boot. They say they will ship tomorrow. Today was Lydia’s off day for dialysis and no one was coming from home health so she took it easy (not much else to do anyway!). So, she relaxed and settled in and watched tv most of the morning. Sis had come over this morning with Quincy and then went off to Costco so we gave her one or two items to get for us.  When I got back, I went over to help her hang some flower baskets outside and check out some trim boards on her house that she wants to replace. Once that was done, I came back home and rested. 
One of the things Penny got for us was more stuffed salmon, which we decided to have for dinner tonight. They come four in a pack so I took out two and put the other two in the freezer along with the ones we had from our last trip. Once that was done, we settled in and watched The Masked Singer and Survivor before calling it a night.  I had heard that folks on the internet had figured out that Kitty was Jackie Evancho from the clues. They were right but none of the panel got it right. Us either. She’s sure come a long way from America’s Got Talent ten years ago!  All grown up!       

Thursday, May 7th, 2020……  It was great sleeping weather for me last night except that it was really bright in our room – even with the shades down! That was because of the Super Moon, aka Flower Moon. Because our skies are really clear up here and there is absolutely no city lights anywhere, we got the full effect!  It looked so close!


As I said, I slept ok. Lydia has experienced some sleeplessness at night due to the Revlimid medication and last night she had trouble falling asleep. She only has Dominique coming today so she will be able to rest for the most part and catch up. I did some window washing on the back porch. I wanted to do the inside of the slider which Rylee slobbers on, plus we had some bird poop on one of the windows even under the back porch cover. We have these swallows here that fly everywhere. I guess their high speed turns allow enough velocity to reach the windows! I also got out the back porch furniture, which had been stowed away for the season.  We are getting some nicer weather these days and Lydia wants to be able to go sit outside when weather permits. I also decided to have a go at sanding the trailer.  I ran out the necessary power from the rv garage and started in. I think I made some good progress and got about 1/3 of it completed. I have already ordered the bedliner paint that I will use to paint/coat the trailer. I have seen others done and I think it’s a good look and will help protect it better. It will be a grey color and I think I will paint the fenders a navy blue, which will match the boat seats.
Lydia asked about dinner and I said I would go pick up something. We chose pizza from James Gang and, after calling it in, I went and did the pickup. I ordered salad but the girl there said she didn’t feel right about the lettuce, and we were glad she was conscientious about that and did that. After dinner, I worked on some online orders from Walmart. Our insurance gives us each a $50.00 credit per quarter and mails us a catalog from Walmart allowing us to order necessary health-related items (i.e. pain meds, first aid, vitamins, tooth care products, etc.), up to the $50.00 limit. That includes free shipping. I had placed my order yesterday and needed to help Lydia choose things, totaling $50.00, to put on her order.  We got that done and sent off and then each of us watched our own taped shows until bedtime.           

Friday, May 8th, 2020……  Today was Lydia’s day two of the now twice-weekly dialysis. The doctor wanted her in to come in a little early to meet with him today. I got her dropped off in time and headed back home.  About fifteen minutes later I got a text to come back and get her. They had told her that her creatinine number was now down below 2 and, for now, she doesn’t need dialysis. That was thrilling news! She will need to test in two weeks and see if it stays down and if so, she’s good to go.
We got back home and settled in for the day and relaxed and watched tv. Lydia said she was super thirsty but not too hungry. Later, I went out and got us pizza and she ate three slices!   
    
Saturday, May 9th, 2020……  Lydia had a tough night last night. She said she feels bloated and has some muscle weakness. These are both side effects from the Revlimid pill. When she got up to go to the bathroom, she was struggling and was out of breath. So, this morning, I called her oncologist hot line and a doctor on call called right back and said for us to go to the er asap. I asked him to call ahead to Good Samaritan in Corvallis we wouldn’t have any covid issues. We chose Corvallis because it is a bigger hospital and drove there. Of course, they wouldn’t let me in past the check-in desk. I left and stopped at Peoria Farms and bought a couple of hanging flower baskets for her for Mother’s Day for the front porch and then went home and hung them up.  I called back in a few hours. They said she has pneumonia and they would be admitting her. Again, I can’t go be with her at this time, but they did say they were expecting the restrictions for visitors to be changing on Monday if she is still there. So, I mowed the grass, made a light dinner and then watched tv for the rest of the night.  Tough day….     

1 comment:

  1. So sorry to hear that Lydia has Pneumonia, hope she is better soon. Give her my love.

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