#34 He's Baaaaaaaaack!

Made me laugh...

So, on to the update.....



LARRY:  I finally have my husband back.  LJ is once again his old self, albeit a much thinner old self.  It has been a long hard year, but finally he is the guy I married.  It was hard watching him go through all he had to endure.  He still doesn't have a clean bill of health.  He has another PET scheduled for November so hopefully it will be good news.

In the meantime, we have a kidney update.  Apparently the spots on his remaining kidney are growing.  All his doctors are baffled by it.  All of them say that should not be happening.  Apparently, once again, LJ is "special".  So the course of action is first sending the removed kidney out for a second pathology opinion.  While they initially found no cancer, his Urologist wants it thoroughly checked to be sure they didn't miss anything.  Once they determine for certain there is or is not cancer in the removed kidney, they will address the remaining one.  For now, it appears the choice is to freeze the existing spots.  Stop them from growing.  The risk is damage to the remaining kidney.  Should that happen, LJ could be facing dialysis.  I know each doctor has said their goal is to do as little harm as possible.  They will do everything in their power to avoid dialysis.  Fingers crossed, once a decision is made on treatment, they are able to accomplish their goal.

On the good news front, the recent test on LJ's thyroid showed nothing...no cancer...It appears the radiation did, in fact, take care of what was there.  So that's one less thing to worry about.

Meatloaf with lottttttts of gravy

So, for now we just continue the doctor appointments and move forward.  Today, other than the terrible dry mouth and screwed up taste buds, it's like none of this ever happened.  He did have three esophagus stretches which has helped with the eating.  He will, for the rest of his life per the docs, have some difficulty swallowing certain foods, especially dry foods, and will have to drink lots of liquid to be able to eat.  Small price to pay to be alive.  He's adapting very well to it.  Heck, even my food is ok now.  Everything is bland to him so ..... hahaha

House:
What fun this has been.  On the one hand I LOVE OUR NEW HOME!  It will just be better once Meritage gets all the little things fixed.  Some things they have addressed.  Others... well, lets just say we have developed a sense of humor.  Had to or we would be in jail lol.  Let's see...where to begin.

1. The never used dishwasher doesn't work.  It's a model home and it was never hooked up.  But it's five years old and out of warranty so the builder is trying to figure out what to do (Hint: new one).
2. The microwave door doesn't open until the sixth time you push the button.  Took a month, but they finally got in the replacement microwave...wrong color.  They brought black and we have stainless appliances...sigh..And we continue to wait.
3. The sheetrock guys did some minor repairs...the painters used the wrong paint on a couple walls.  Ummm, what..you couldn't see it doesn't match?
4. Pool was not kept up so minor repairs needed there.
5. Front courtyard is always wet.  Appears to be from the excessive watering of decorative plants in pots.  Since day one we have asked that the drip line to the courtyard be disconnected...if only they knew where to do it..sigh

and the list goes on.  On the plus side, we have changed out some lights, added our own decor so its starting to look like our place.

Scooter and I go swimming a lot.  He has to wear his life vest and he knows it.  He doesn't stay in long...unless the skimmer net is being used.  Then his goal is to kill it.  He growls, bites it and generally tries to destroy it.  Funny as all get out.

He now has his very own room.  It has a king size people bed and a window where he can watch the world go by.  He actually spends a lot of time in there.  He sleeps in there most of the night, too.  I think he really likes the pillows on the bed.  He's not spoiled at alllllllllll.  Can't wait till we get our stuff from storage.  All of his dog decor is there.  Looking forward to doing his room properly.

Life in General:
We have adapted fairly well to Arizona.  I really like it here and so does LJ.  Even the "Hot" summer wasn't bad.  Yes the temp got high but it wasn't as bad as an over 100 day in Sacramento.  You adapt. getup early.  Stay inside.

Larry actually was able to go to Utah for a week.  I moved around a couple of appointments so he could just go enjoy life a little.  He's there now and is having fun.  He's doing very well physically and I know mentally it's what he needed.  I stayed behind to deal with warranty work on the house.  Next year...Next year we will go for the full three weeks and live it up.

That's really kind of it.  Nothing overly exciting, but life is moving forward...finally.  The hard part is behind us.  I have no doubt it is because of all the prayers and good thoughts sent our way.  And to that, we say THANK YOU!

new recliners for us old people

new lights over the bar

New Bedspread, Bed and lights