Surgery for Barb

Big goings on here on the J-B! The biggest is Barb having surgery this week. She is fine and quietly recovering but it will take a few weeks before she is back doing projects around the house. I know I have written about it before but for those of you who may be new...... Barb has what we call the "cancer gene". If fact, it can be traced back on her lineage with multiple family members including her brother, mother, aunts and cousins passing away in their 30's and 40's. A horrible, horrible thing for a family having to live with. 

This was pre-surgery readings.
Her blood pressure was much lower after. 

Barb got tested and found out she had the gene in 2006. I am going from memory, but at the time they said she had a 96% chance of getting cancer if she did not take proactive action. Several surgeries later that number reversed, and she had less than a 10% chance of getting it. But some of these surgeries are not once in a lifetime procedure and can have complications over time. This was the case in this instance, so she had to have another procedure. 

We left the house at 4am, arrived at the hospital at 5:15 for check in. They then brought us into a private curtained area where they had her change and put her I.V. in. There were two nurses. One working on Barb, one asking Barb questions. The one had to tie off Barb's arm and tap on her vein to make it stand out. That nurse then looks over at me and says "You've got real nice veins; you'd be easy to poke." Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I have heard that, I'd have....a nickel! The other nurse then asked me if I would like to come back for the med students to practice on. No thanks!

They wheeled her off at 7:00 for what was supposed to be a 1-1/2 hour to 3-hour surgery. The hospital staff was great, calling me when they started, when they were 1/2 way done, the surgeon called when they were done and two more calls later, I was sitting by her side in recovery. The procedure did not go quite as smoothly as they liked but everything turned out well. 

She also has a sore throat which she found out is from the intubation. She overheard the nurses talking about the med student who tried to intubate her and couldn't, eventually having to have someone else do it.  It must have been bad if it was the gossip in the recovery room!

So, for the next couple of weeks I am playing nurse, changing dressings, taking care of Barb and all the other household duties. I will fully admit, I take what Barb does around here for granted and am having a hard time keeping on top of everything. The first day home she was nauseous, and I could only get her to eat a bite or two of toast. Not a diet plan I would recommend. Slowly but surely, she is becoming more active and feeling better. 4 days later, she is still only eating a bite or two here and there, but I am sure it will only be a matter of time before I am holding her back from over doing it. 

One of our fears going in was how to keep Zoey off of her during recovery. Zoey is forever climbing on Barb like her own personal play toy. When we got home from the hospital an amazing thing happened. The dogs were excited as usual to see us: prancing around, tails wagging and basically going crazy. When Barb walked through the door their demeaner totally changed. No more tail wagging, they just slowly approached her and started sniffing her. Dakota lifted her head into Barb's hand, as she walked to the couch. They somehow knew enough to keep their distance, then Zoey slowly approached her and tested the waters by approaching from the other couch. 

Barb has been on the couch for basically 4 days and Zoey has not once tried to climb on her. Instead, she just snuggles up next to her and sleeps. It is truly amazing how dogs can sense something is amiss.

 

A special thank you to Kevin and Cheryl who sent over a meal and Jim and Carmen who came over and let the dogs out on the day of her surgery. 

In other exciting news, our son Forrest and Somer bought a new 5th wheel and plan on going back on the road! I say "back" as they were on the road for a couple of years several years ago before settling in Klamath Falls for the past 4-5 years. 

What did they get? A 2020 Grand Design Momentum 395. It is a beautiful rig and as soon as they sell their house, they plan on hitting the road again!

This thing has all the bells and whistles; 1200 watts of solar, lithium batteries. generator and bluetooth everything. He called the day they picked it up with a tale that any fulltime or even casual RV'er can relate with. Apparently, the black tank was full when he bought it so he found a dump station, hooked up the hose. It was not long enough so he hooked up another hose and pulled the valve. Woosh! Then nothing.... Nothing was coming out the other end. It was then he realized that when he put the two hoses together, he forgot to take the end cap off one of the connections in the middle, so all the "stuff" went down the hose to that connection and stopped. Unfortunately, the hose was so full he could not shut the valve either. So, there he was with a hose full of "stuff" and nothing he could do but disconnect the center, remove the cap and try to get it back together as quick as possible with a Geisher O"Sh#t spewing everywhere. It went about as well as you would expect and any visual you may have is probably accurate. 

He said there was an RV waiting in line behind him and when they saw the sh#tshow going on, they just backed up and left for destinations unknown. After cleaning up the area, Forrest left that truck stop wearing a new pair of sweatpants that he bought inside said truck stop and no shoes. Apparently the truck stop did not sell shoes. I bet that is the last time he does that!

Our daughter Jessica in Pennsylvania sent is these two pictures of the kids first day at school. Dylan is entering 7th grade and Kendall 3rd. 

Speaking of Jessica, she was tested for "the gene" a few years ago and does not have it.

No pictures of Lily's first day as she is homeschooled. She did get the summer off, but her schooling will start for in the next week or so. 

Meanwhile, I am working on a couple of projects around the house. Barb has a walkie talkie so she can summons me at any time. I changed the oil in the truck, tractor and both 4 wheelers. I also swept the chimney in anticipation for many fires this winter and started putting rock on the house! No pictures yet, I am hoping to get more done in the next few days and will show pictures next week. With over 110' of rock to put up this is a daunting task. 

I'll leave you with this turkey parade. They come by twice a day to check out the area below the birdfeeder before moving on.