Another Milestone and a New Cap

Don reached another milestone in his recovery on Monday (Dec. 21). Now that he’s receiving dialysis through his fistula, the catheter used for dialysis was no longer needed, so it was removed. It had been inserted during his stay in St. Mary’s Cardiovascular ICU, and I think it was around June 20, so it was there for 6 months! Hard to believe so much time has passed. Because of the length of time, there was some internal attachment – his body must have been trying to make the tube a permanent part of its system – and the doc had to work to get it released and removed. There’s still some soreness, but Don’s really glad not to have that appendage under his shirt, and I’m really glad not to have to put a waterproof glove and bandage on it every day before he takes a shower!

In fact, Don’s now driving himself to dialysis and has asked for an early slot (7 am) whenever the center has one available, as he likes to get the 4-hour session done before noon and have the rest of the day free.

It’s great to have two cars to give us both the freedom to come and go as we wish. And we’re both enjoying the new truck. Today we got the new Leer cap put on. It looks really nice!

The local dealer also installed the mud flaps Don had ordered. The cap seems to make the truck look bigger, but maybe that’s just my imagination. It will be so nice to store stuff safely inside and have room for the dialysate fluid in the motorhome basement.

Since Don lost so much weight, he can now wear a belt he had stored in our shed in Benson. And he found a nifty Navy submarine buckle to use with it.

As Christmas approaches, Santa has left more gifts near our tiny tree on the dash.

We send our warmest greetings for happy holidays to one and all. May your days be merry and bright… And if you’re traveling, please stay safe and away from Christmases that are white!

 

P.S. Note to Bloggers: I encountered a new problem when trying to publish this post. Open Live Writer gave this message: "The remote server returned an error: (403) Forbidden". I found the solution at this link. Be sure to follow the instructions while you’re in Open Live Writer, not Blogger.