Sunday, September 17, 2017

More Doctors, More Decisions

Our dishwasher was installed on Wednesday.  Yeah!  The plumber was very nice and accommodating in helping me clean where the old one had been and taking the cleaners and things out from under the sink.  It is still hard for me to get up and down and he sensed this, said his day was coming and was happy to help.  I took his card in case I or someone I know needs a plumber again.  

That afternoon we saw the hematologist.  The PE has dissolved and between my blood thinner meds and the filter I should be okay.  The problem here is he wants the filter out.  He is not a fan of them and said they themselves can break off and hit your heart, become clogged with clots or grow onto other things.  Great!  Nothing like taking blood thinners that can save you or kill you and now we know the filter can do the same thing.  For now he agreed I should keep it in until the GYN situation is taken care of.

Thursday was my neighborhood ladies lunch.  Dana and Jeanette picked me up and we joined seven others for our monthly get together.  We were at a rectangle table so you only get to talk to those next to you or across from you.  I try to sit in the middle but that doesn't always work.  

Back to the doctor we went on Friday.  This time the cardiologist.  I thought I was going to have another Dopplar ultrasound on my leg but it wasn't scheduled.  I told her of my possible D&C, the December scheduled Dopplar and Dr. P wanting the filter out.  She agreed to wait until after the D&C and the results of the December Dopplar to address the filter.  Then I will have to decide what I think is best.  If this was an isolated incident caused by my hip surgery, I should be okay.  But we will never know that for sure.

Ted moved the trailer to the campground on Saturday.  He came home and we loaded up the Expedition and took our things over and put them away.  We returned home, got ready for church and then went out to eat.  We had to take the car back home, do a quick walk through and then drive the truck back to be ready to hitch up in the morning.  It's a good thing the campground is just 5 miles from home.  

We were on the road by 9 am.  Our stops were spaced out and we made four in the 8 hours of driving to south of Little Rock.  The entire fronts of the truck and trailer were covered in love bugs.  They are a southern nuisance we get twice a year.  While I set up inside, Ted washed them off.  They will eat the paint right off if you don't.  Then we left to fuel up.  Instead of eating out like we normally would do on a long travel day, I warmed up the ribs left from the night before for Ted and he had a salad.  I wasn't too hungry and had a few peanut butter and crackers and two tangerines.  

We did not have cable but I was able to use my IPad, Verizon MiFi hot spot and our Xfinity Starz account to watch Season 3, Episode 2 of Outlander.  Talk about a great series.  There are 8 books and I have read them twice.  Even Ted is enjoying the TV series.

We were up and out by 9 am on Monday.  There was no traffic through Little Rock and soon we were on I-40 heading toward Memphis.  We stopped three times and only drove 5 hours.  Destination, Sikeston, MO.  We had to find new pillows since I threw our old ones away last March and forgot I needed to replace them.  JCP had nice Perfect Sleeper ones at half price so that was taken care of.  We fueled up and then hit Lambert's, home of the throwed rolls for lunch/dinner.  I ordered chicken salad on lettuce, cucumbers and applesauce.  When we left I had a container of at least 1# of chicken salad.  Ted had 4 chicken tenders left.  Of course we each caught another roll to put with tomorrow's lunch!

By 6:30 I was showered and in my PJ's.  It seemed much later and it was nice to have some downtime.

Tuesday started out normally.  We were on the road a little after 8:00.  We made it into Illinois when our message light came on.  Drain Water Separator.  A call to our Ford dealer at home told us there was a  petcock under the driver's side but it breaks off easily so don't force it.  We stopped at a rest area but were unable to turn the valve.  We limped along to Marion IL where there was a Pilot.  We backed into a spot and dropped the trailer before heading to the Ford dealer.  They thought it might just be the fuel filter.  Nope!  Our fuel tank had globs of algae in it.  However, our auxiliary tank fuel was fine.  The last time we filled just the truck tank was last weekend at home but the auxiliary tank flows to the truck tank.  Maybe it took that long for it to raise the algae level.  Who knows?  It would be really hard to choose who to blame this on.  Even harder to prove it.  I think it could've been a Harvey contamination with the 50 inches of rain.  I guess we will never know.  

We were pleased with the care at Watermark Ford.  They took us right in, kept us informed, showed Ted the contamination caught in the trap of the water separator and advised us what needed to be done.  We know the damage that can be done to diesel engines from water, bad fuel, wrong fuel but algae was a new one.  They set right to work on it, drove us to a restaurant for lunch, came back to pick us up and $600 later we were back on the road.

We didn't make it to Indianapolis, just Terre Haute, but we were settled just as it got dark.  All our leftovers became dinner instead of lunch.  It wasn't a great travel day but we were never in danger, never stuck and who but an awesome God would have this happen six miles from an exit with a Pilot Truck Stop on one side of the highway and a Ford dealer on the other?


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