February 2008               

               

We spent the first week of the month catching up on things that needed to be done before Dick’s knee surgery.  Millie also got new curtains hemmed and hung in our living area.  She has been wanting to get rid of the ones that came with the rig for some time.  She found some on sale, but they were too long, so she had to shorten them, 12 pair!  The new ones make the interior much lighter.

Dick had his appointment with his Cardiologist and they did an EKG as requested for his pre-op.  The Dr. was ready to sign the release, when they noticed that he had to have a stress test no longer than 6 months before the surgery.  OK, bump in the road, but it can be handled.  He was given the stress test but we had to wait for the Dr. to review it before we were given the results. 

On the Friday before the surgery was scheduled, we drove to Livingston to get the release from our PCP.  On the way back to Richmond, the phone rang and it was the Cardiologist’s office.  He had failed the stress test and although the Dr. still felt he was at low risk, the Orthopedist would not go forth with the surgery without a heart cath.  We found this out at 3:45 on the Friday before the Monday surgery. The surgery was postponed until the 25th.  Bigger bump in the road. 

            The heart cath was scheduled for Monday and we were up early and at the hospital by 6:00 AM.  The cath was done at 7:30 and as happed several years ago when the same test was done, nothing showed up.  So – really he could have had the knee surgery instead of the heart cath.  The doctors have not be able to give us any reason for the failure of the stress test. 

            Late last year, a sebaceous cyst showed up on Dick’s chest.  The Dr. said they leave them alone unless a problem shows up.  The day before the heart cath, that  happened – the cyst became inflamed.  On Tuesday we tried to reach our Dr. but he was out, so we made a trip to the ER, where it was lanced and he was referred to a surgeon to have the sac removed.  Now we have a really big bump in the road!  We contacted the Orthopedist who cancelled the knee surgery until the cyst is removed and there is no trace of infection.  

            The Houston RV Show was our destination on Friday.  As you may remember, last year when we attended the show, we were charged for 2 parking spaces.  This time, we drove a car.  We spent the afternoon looking at many new RV’s, but didn’t see anything that even remotely interested us. Good floor plans and ample storage space just didn’t seem to be there in the rigs we looked at.  We will just stay with what we have

            Dick went to see the surgeon who will remove the cyst.  They will make arrangements to remove it after he finishes the round of antibiotics he is on.  So now we are just on hold.  We have cancelled our plans to attend the Freightliner Rally in Benson, AZ in April and have also cancelled our plans to work in SD.   We just don’t know how much longer we will have to stay here.  Another good thing about being full time, we can easily change our plans, nothing is written in stone. 

            Millie and her sisters, Mary and Evelyn went to LaGrange, TX to attend a Quilt show.  Evelyn’s Quilt Guild had planned a bus trip up there and we had all signed up, but the trip was cancelled at the last minute.  We decided to go anyway, having a sister’s day out. 

            We had an enjoyable drive to LaGrange, viewed all the lovely quilts in the show and had a good Mexican food lunch.  The drive to LaGrange is pretty and spring is on its way.  We saw some Indian Paintbrush beginning to bloom. 

            The end of the month the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Barbeque Cook-off took place.  The Diamonds accompanied us and we attended on Thursday night.  If you only have general admission tickets, you can’t go into the various team tents, but we were fortunate to have tickets for a team tent.  We were treated to all the free drinks we wanted and a dinner of fajitas, rice and beans.  An interesting event was drinking shots from a slab of ice.  The ice was tilted at an angle, it had a groove carved the length of it, the drinker stood at one end with his mouth under the groove and the shot was poured from the top.  There was also a band.   It was a fun evening with the Diamonds, even though the band was a little loud.  

            That’s about all that is going on around here right now.  We hope to see you next month. 

 

Next month – ???