Monday, June 25, 2018
We walked a little over a mile this morning. We've been taking our time and today it took us 27 minutes, but we did it.
I had an appointment with my dermatologist in Joplin today, so after we had breakfast and stopped at the Post Office in Branson to pick up our mail, we headed to Springfield, then west on I-44. We arrived in time to eat lunch at Braum's, which I will probably regret later.
While waiting for our food, I sent a text to my stepdad to see if they would mind if we stopped by for a few minutes before my doctor's appointment. They recently moved and are not too far away. It makes it much easier for us to pop in and say hello when we are in Joplin. Verna said to come on by, so after finishing our sandwiches we stopped for about 20 minutes. While we were there my sister Cindy and her granddaughter Kennedy showed up. We got to visit with them too for just a little bit before we had to leave. We made it to the dermatologist just in time for my appointment. As I walked in the door, my cousin Martha Sue was sitting across the room. What a small world? Before I could get done checking in, she was called back for her appointment.
I saw Angie today, a different Physician's Assistant than I normally have. I really liked her. I had two places I wanted her to look at, a mole on my neck and a keratosis on my right side that was located just underneath my bra where the band is constantly rubbing it. She said they were both irritated and she could just take them off. I said, Please, do! They both have been bothering me for awhile and while she thought they were both okay they will test them to be sure.
As I left her office and went to check out, Martha Sue was right in front of me, so once we both took care of our business with the receptionist, we got to visit for a little bit after all. It was good to see her. Last time I saw her I was at Khol's here in Joplin. Lol!
Dean was pretty uncomfortable on the way over and he was not looking forward to the drive back. He finally decided maybe he would go ahead and take some of his pain medication and took one of the pills the doctor prescribed. About half way home, he was feeling much better.
After dinner, we went for a ride. We drove out over Table Rock Dam and made a circle coming back through Hollister. There is a neat overlook along the road and we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view over Lake Taneycomo and a beautifully landscaped golf course and condos. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV before calling it a night.
Remember that comment about regretting eating the cheeseburger? I was right! I think I've finally discovered the culprit of the gallbladder issues - fried foods. I've started paying close attention to what I've eaten prior to having pain and so far every single time I've eaten something greasy I end up having the same pain. When I think back to all of the things we ate while in Texas and how much of it was fried it makes sense that I ended up having much worse symptoms while we were still there and immediately after we returned to Kansas. They have slowed almost completely since we've back in Kansas, because I rarely fry anything. Recently I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, which I made almost every day in Texas, and that night I woke up with the same pain I've had off and on for almost 10 years but never realized it might be due to my gallbladder. Now the cheeseburger, and the same pain in the night. I will make every effort not to fry anything or eat anything fried in the future.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018
This morning we walked almost 1.5 miles in 27 minutes so we really stepped up our game since yesterday morning. Dean had a new step to his walk this morning - just thinking about seeing the doctor later today and having the catheter removed.
I knew we had a letter from Dr. Weston's office in the mail from talking to Lyn at UPS, and I assumed it was information on the recent sonogram I had. However, when we checked it yesterday it wasn't the results, but a bill for the EGD. So, this morning I called to his office to see if I could find out what the results were. Fortunately, the sonogram of my gallbaldder was just fine, but it showed some fatty infiltration into the liver. I wasn't sure what that meant and his receptionist asked if I wanted to make an appointment to visit with him. Since I only have a few days left for my annual health insurance coverage, I made an appointment for Thursday, June 28. I'm not looking forward to making another trip back to Joplin and I know Dean probably won't be either, but since I've met my max out of pocket I hate to wait and I am not sure what fatty infiltration is so I want to find out more about it.
We ate lunch and then left for Springfield about 12:15. Dean's appointment was at the Duncan-Ferrell Building where Dr. Anderson's office is located. As we started in the door, I thought the woman who walked out the door in front of us looked familiar. It was Mary Ann. We had dinner with her and her husband a week or so ago at FD's Grillhouse. We visited for a few minutes and then headed on in for Dean's appointment. First he had to have xrays - a fluoroscopy. The radiologist said he would read it and send it on up to Dr. Anderson's office. Even though Dean's appointment wasn't for almost an hour, we went on up. We didn't have to wait too long before he was called back. An LPN met with him to remove the catheter. He then took us to another room where we waited about 15 minutes before Dr. Anderson arrived. He told us the pathology report was great - no other cancer was found in any of the other tissues. He will need to have a PSA test every three months for a year, then every six months for a year, then annually thereafter. As you can imagine we were thrilled and I know I shed tears of gratitude for our prayers being answered. He wants to see Dean in six weeks. They made his follow-up appointment for July 31 - about five weeks out. Our hope is to leave within a day or two after that to head to New York.
We returned to Bentley around 4pm. After dinner we just chilled (literally, because outside it was steaming hot) for the rest of the evening
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
We walked a little over two miles this morning in just under 19 minutes per mile, a major improvement. Dean didn't miss his buddy Cat (short for catheter) at all today!
I spent most of the morning on paperwork, filing, etc. After getting the mail Monday I needed to take care of some things. I needed to deposit a check from our regular checking account to my Health Savings Account - but wouldn't you know it, of all days the HSA account would not let me do a mobile deposit - so that will have to wait for another day, which means I could not pay the bills we received in the mail on Monday. Maybe later this week!
I called to have our mail forwarded to us again. We are still waiting on a check from our warranty company for work done on Bentley while we were in Texas. I've called them several times now, the last call being Monday. I finally was able to speak to someone who really seemed to want to help me. He found a note in the files that they had re-issued a check to us on June 13, so hopefully we get that soon. I just wish they would have called me to let me know they had reissued it. I decided I was going to wait until all of Dean's surgeries and Dr. appointments were over before I would try and deal with this again. I've been so frustrated with it all I just didn't think I needed the extra stress of it right now.
After lunch, we went to Home Depot to purchase a basin wrench so we could work on our bathroom sink. It started leaking several days ago. I tried to tighten the screws/nuts up but the wrench we had was too big. Dean took a look at it this morning and he couldn't tighten them either. With the basin wrench he was able to get things tightened up, and we now have use of our bathroom sink again. It was a pain without it, but you do what you have to do in order to get by, and it was only a few days.
Thursday, June 28, 2018
We didn't walk this morning since we have to be in Galena by 10:10. We stopped at the office before we left so I could pick up a schedule of this week's activities and to let them know I was expecting a package from Amazon today. We'll pick it up when we get back.
The ride to Galena was pretty hard on Dean. He hates taking the pain medication they gave him, but he finally decided he would take it on the way home and I'm so glad he did. About half way back, he finally was comfortable.
We made it to the Dr.'s office almost right at 10:10. Traffic on I-44 was not too bad except for a travel trailer that we followed for probably 35-40 miles (at least) that kept things slowed down and backed up. He'd pass, then everyone he passed would pass him, and all over again. I finally got the chance to get around him and the rest of the drive wasn't bad. If we were not so tired it would have almost been comical. It reminded me of something you might see in a Chevy Chase movie
We met with Dr. Weston who recently did Dean's colonoscopy and my EGD. I told him I thought I had determined what the cause of the gallbladder issue was and explained about the greasy food. He said that was good and it most likely was the culprit. Based on that he did not think I needed to have another test he was considering - HEDI, I believe it was called. I asked him about the "fatty infiltration into the liver" they had noted after the recent sonogram of my gallbaldder. He said that with a sonogram it's difficult to tell exactly what this means but he had a machine that could give us more detail. Fortunately, after conducting the test in his office, there is no scarring so the amount of fatty infitration is not serious. He said we needed to limit the amount of sugar and fat we eat . We are both trying very hard to watch not only what we eat, but how much we eat. We've both lost weight in the last month and hope to continue that trend. Another wake up call for us about how important it is to take care of ourselves.
We stopped at Golden Coral for lunch. While it's sometimes hard to eat at a buffet at least they have several things we like that are good for you. We both had salads first - which sure helps limit the portions of anything else we eat. I stayed with vegetables and fish for the meal portion and had a small portion of the bread pudding. It is so good and I just can't pass it up. I'd rather pass up a lot of the other yummy foods for fish and veggies in order to have a small portion of the bread pudding. All about choices, right? I have to admit GC has some of the best vegetables of any buffet we've ever tried, and we love their fish too.
Fortunately the ride back to Branson on I-44 was much better than the drive to Joplin. It was right at 3 when we pulled into the office here at Treasure Lake to pick up my package. I finally found an exercise tracker band I thought might work for me. It's probably not quite as good as the fitbit but for $37 versus the $130 I paid for my fitbit, I'm willing to give it a try. I also ordered a mousepad and a hummingbird feeder that we can attach to the window of the RV. We love watching these little birds and have really missed them this summer. I hope we can attract some while we are here.
I started working on this blog post last night when I received a note on Facebook from my friend Kathy asking about Dean. I apologize to all of you for not posting sooner but as you can tell, this week has been pretty busy. I hope things will slow down some now and we can enjoy getting out to do something either here in the park, or somewhere around Branson. Sitting inside all day everyday gets old pretty quick.
Kathy and I had a good conversation via Messenger. We became friends while we were in the 6th grade when her family moved to Chetopa, where her father pastored the First Christian Church. Her family moved after our 8th grade year - same as me, but we've remained in touch throughout the years. I'm so thankful for that. You cannot beat long lasting friendships.
About 8:30 Treasure Lake sent someone around our section of the campground announcing the electric would be off for about an hour while they changed out a transformer. We turned a few things off and left for a ride in the air conditioning of our van. It was still 93-94 degrees outside. We ended up stopping at Dairy Queen where we had a blizzard. It's our first ice cream in almost two weeks so we didn't feel too bad about it. We've been eating a lot of fruit - canteloupe, apples, strawberries, watermelon, etc. I am hoping we can find some fresh peaches soon.
It wasn't long after returning to the campground that we were calling it a night.
I
No comments:
Post a Comment