Healin' time!

We be healin'!...Terry here.

Dale had her surgery last Friday morning, the Doctor was very happy with the results and found nothing outside his expectations. He felt both places in her spine were relieved of pressure during the surgery.

The doctor released her late Sunday afternoon after her incision drain was removed and she was able to walk the hall and climb a set of stairs.

We arrived back at the campground about 7:30 with a couple Wendy's cheeseburgers and a large order of fries to split for supper. She has been in some pain and has eaten little without feeling nauseous. The pain pills knock out the pain and her at the same time. So yesterday was spent watching her dose in and out between pills. Today she called and got some nausea meds called in. After adding those she has felt much better and was able to walk twice as far outside as she did yesterday after dinner.

I dressed her incision as directed yesterday and it appears to be between 4 & 5 inches long, but looks rather good considering it's only been 3 days. We've been hanging out in the motorhome for the most part, only going out for perscriptions and groceries.

I picked up Duchess from the kennel yesterday afternoon about 4. The kennel owner said she did great and ate all he foods and gave no problems on her insulin injections. She acted happy to be back in the RV.

Until next time

Terry

Surgery time!

Good Morning all...Terry here

We have left The Rio Grande Valley as of the 12^th of March. Dale's 91 year old mother, Alice, traveled north with us at a considerably slower pace than her past trips since we made the trip in 6 days as opposed to the 3 days that she & Dale's Dad would cover the 1500 miles from northern Indiana.

This is about a month early for us to be in Indiana, since we came straight to Indianapolis to prepare for Dale's lower back surgery which is scheduled for Friday, March 24th. We opted for the early arrival rather than visiting Jocelyn's and Brandon's families in Florida and Virginia, due to a required 6 month post op follow up that would have kept us in Indiana until late October or November.

We traveled a more easterly route to Indiana due to cold weather along a more direct route north. We cut up across Louisiana to Natchez, Mississippi, and the start of the Natchez Trace Parkway. This 420+ mile long two lane road to Nashville, Tennessee, is one of Dale's favorite drives at a leisurely 50 miles an an hour. No commercial traffic is allowed and it is uninterrupted by any stop signs along the complete route. Two short segments were missed, one around Kosciusko, Mississippi, for a fuel stop and the other was near Hohenwald, Tennessee, for a parkway bridge rebuild. All of our en-route stops were one night only except, for a stop in Brandon, Mississippi, which was two nights so we could visit with my 1^st cousin Lanny and his wife Trish.

Lanny is a PHD veterinarian on staff at Mississippi State and is Executive Director of three state diagnostic centers. After a nice dinner at Georgia Blue, Lanny and Trish took us on a tour of the main center a few miles away, one of three locations that Lanny's involved in. The center is where research is done in finding the causes of animal illnesses and possible impacts on the in state livestock industry,  be it cattle, poultry, fish or any other species. Lanny has been involved with this facility for the past 16+ years since it was proposed to the state, getting the required funding and construction. He has done a great job and has much to be proud of in this 10 year old center.

We checked into the KOA Indianapolis East mid afternoon this past Saturday, with plans to be here at least a month, maybe two as she recovers. Dale had pre-op appointments and an MRI on Monday and everything is a go, barring an illness, on her part. Yesterday Dale's sister Nita visited with us and picked up Alice for the final leg of her trip to her home in Claypool, close to Warsaw in northern Indiana. Also yesterday we took Duchess to visit a vet referred kennel close by, had a tour and a meet and greet for Duchess with the staff. This boarding facility is by far the nicest we've seen in all the years we've had dogs. Duchess will be boarded there from Thursday night until Monday or Tuesday after Dale is released from the hospital.

Yesterday I purchased a 30 pound propane tank to supplement our on board propane tank, since we were expecting some cold weather during our stay and moving the RV to buy propane wasn't in my game plan. I had added a “tap” to the high pressure section of the propane line over the winter. Thirty pounds of propane will power our two furnaces for up to 20 hours of continuous use; at present it's 28 degrees and our roof mounted heat pumps stop producing heat in the high 30's.

Until next time.....

Terry

Our stay is coming to an end...

Terry here!

Our winter in south Texas is coming to an end. We leave Sunday for Indiana, with Dale's mom traveling with us. I haven't determined our route yet as we are keeping an eye on the weather north of us. If our regular route looks iffy, we'll head east along the gulf before heading north. Our destination is the Indianapolis East KOA, west of Greenfield IN. Dale has pre-surgery appointments on March 20^th before back surgery on the 24^th @ St. Vincent's Hospital on the north side of Indy. We plan to be at the KOA for at least month or possibly two, post-surgery.

This winter season has been great, we've spent much the time with Dale's mom, Alice, having her over for meals, attending street dinners, taking in the sun and shopping. The weather has been great most of the time with temps from the mid 70's to a high a couple of weeks ago of 96. We have had little rain, with most days starting cloudy and breaking into bright sun by 10AM, great for our morning 2.5 mile walks.

February saw a two week visit by good friends Jim & Luanne Cripe of Syracuse IN, Luanne was matron of honor in our wedding 45+ years ago. We try to get together several times each summer. Luanne retired from nursing in January, with Jim retiring from the parks department in July so they were getting their feet wet in the world of “slow motion” after the working life.

We saw full timing friends Dave and Sandy Gibson twice over the season. They were in the area for doctors appointments on concerns of Sandy's continued back problems. Nice to see them again after a few years.

We've started putting stuff away and getting ready to close up the two properties, since the weather forecast was rain Tuesday through Saturday. So far very little has fallen Tuesday and today, which is fine, won't be any rushing to get it all done.

Until next time?