A trip to MD Anderson

Back a few weeks ago, when Carl was in the ER for his pneumonia diagnosis, they found an enlarged lymph node that they recommended that Carl follow up with his primary care doctor to get a biopsy. His primary care doctor referred him to MD Anderson for their recommendations of what to do next. MD Anderson called us on a Tuesday a couple of weeks ago and got us in for Carl's first appointment on Friday. 

MD Anderson in Arizona is affiliated with the Banner system. When we returned to Mesa this season, we set about to get doctors within the Banner system instead of independent practitioners. It has turned out to be very helpful to have all our records in one place, and since MD Anderson is also affiliated, their records are integrated in as well.

The first appointment was with a nurse practitioner. When she came in, she told us upfront that she was not an oncologist, but rather was a nurse practitioner in family medicine, but that she had worked with oncology for 20+ years. Her goal was to get the appropriate tests scheduled and to get Carl in to see the correct oncology doctor. She said that, prior to using this intake method, the schedulers would try to get patients scheduled with the right specialty area, but sometimes there was a wait to get an appointment (6+ weeks) and then it would turn out to be the wrong specialty area and the patient would again need to wait to get an appointment with the correct specialist. In addition, the first appointment with the specialist would just schedule tests so it would seem that nothing would get accomplished for many weeks. Suzanne identified the tests that she thought would be necessary and got those scheduled. Carl had bloodwork drawn, a sonogram done, and then an MRI scheduled. An appointment with a genitourinary specialist (urologist) was also scheduled.

In the meantime, Carl's primary care doctor had also scheduled bloodwork to rule out Valley Fever (it has to be tested 3+ weeks from onset of systems for the antibodies to be detectable in the bloodstream) and tuberculosis. He also had a follow-up x-ray ordered by his pulmonary care doctor to ensure that the pneumonia was gone.

Through the Banner online records, we could see the results from all of the tests -- nothing abnormal seemed to be indicated. His white blood count was normal (it had still been elevated when he was discharged from the hospital). He didn't have Valley Fever and the TB test was negative. One of the tests indicated that he was not pregnant (whew!). We couldn't see the results of the MRI but were hopeful that we would see the oncologist and he would say, "No worries, go on your way and have a great summer!"

Well, that didn't happen... as we thought, none of the tests indicated anything abnormal, but the enlarged lymph node was still there. So, the doctor referred Carl to have a biopsy via Interventional Radiology (from wikipedia: Interventional radiology is a medical specialty that performs various minimally-invasive procedures using medical imaging guidance, such as x-ray fluoroscopy, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasound.). In this case, they will use CT scanning to direct the biopsy. After the biopsy, there will be 1-1.5 week wait for biopsy results before we meet with the oncologist again.

As we were walking out of MD Anderson, Carl said, "So, in the ER they said I had an enlarged lymph node. The oncologist just said that I have an enlarged lymph node. Have we made any progress in the past 4 weeks?"

I guess another way to look at it is:

The good news is that there is no bad news.

The bad news is that there is no good news. 

We're thankful to have a nice house to stay in while we await the go-ahead that we can head out on our travels! 

Refrigerator saga - part 4

As I indicated in previous posts, after moving into the "new" park model, we weren't real pleased with the refrigerator that was already in there (a side-by-side model). We swapped it out for a new French door model and are happy with that in our home. We had partially justified this swap by knowing that the refrigerator in the casa was older and did not seal well, so we could upgrade the refrigerator in the casa by moving the side-by-side one to the casa. We waited until the tenants moved out, and then our friend, Ervin, helped us move the side-by-side refrigerator to the casa. 

Before installing the side-by-side refrigerator into the space in the casa, we wanted to run a water line so the built-in water dispenser and ice maker would work.

The refrigerator opening in the casa

Water line coming up from underneath the park model

Access to water line under the house

The kitchen sink is on the opposite side of the house (and where we want to hook into the water supply), so we need to run the water line under the casa -- this is the opening under the kitchen sink. We eventually got the water line fished across.

Getting the water line hooked up behind the refrigerator before pushing the refrigerator into place

Refrigerator in the middle of the floor while we got the water line hooked up

Closing up under the casa

Carl still needed to hook the water line up to the water under the sink.

Refrigerator pushed back into its space

The water worked well through the dispenser and the refrigerator seemed to be cooling well. It is a bigger unit than the one that was there, but I think it is probably a better refrigerator. Carl will put a water filter in under the kitchen sink before the next tenant arrives.

A new (and unwelcome) tenant

The tenants who were renting our small park model (the older one next to the RV site) decided to purchase a unit in the park and moved out a week or so before the end of their lease term. When we went over there a few days later...

... we found that a squatter had moved in...

Nest built, eggs laid, setting commenced!

I figured that, since there was no one on the patio or using the house, the dove felt comfortable putting her nest there. I sent a picture to our former tenants, and Sharlene said that the doves had tried to build there while they were still living there, but Al would get the nest taken down before they laid eggs. The tenants were out on the patio every day and had two dogs... I was shocked that a bird would think that a busy place like that would be a nice place to set up their nest -- I don't think that these "tenants" (squatters) will leave it anywhere near as clean as Sharlene and Al did!

"We've invited you here..."

A few days ago, we went for Carl to get a chest x-ray. It was a one story building with a few medical offices located off a central hall.

When we went in the automatic doors into the central hallway, we found dozens of chairs set up along the hallway.

We thought, "Well, maybe the individual offices don't have many chairs and sometimes they overflow into the hallway," or... "Maybe during COVID they didn't let many people into the office waiting areas so the chairs in the common hallway were used."

Carl asked the radiologist, and she indicated that they had been there the whole time she had been working at that location, and she had never seen anyone using any of them (for at least the last couple of years).

Maybe a good place to have a meeting if you aren't able to schedule it anywhere else!

More live music options

One of the new couples that we had met invited us to join them for Music on the Terrace...

This group of musicians gets together on most Tuesday afternoons during the season and play together. With iPads or other tablets, they can share their music. They take turns, each performer choosing a song they would like to perform, sharing the music and the key of the song with the others, and they all "jam" together. It is really neat how they all work together!

Moving Gracie

Gracie has been in the storage lot here at Venture Out while we had tenants in our RV spot. They left a couple of days before the end of March, so on the last day of March, we moved Gracie back from storage to our RV lot.

When we got to the place where Gracie was parked, the recycling bins were set out both in front and behind her in preparation for the city to pick up the recycling on that day.

We moved a few of the bins in front...

... and then Carl was ready to get her moved.

We had to plan our trip a little carefully -- there are corners within our community that can be navigated by a car or golf cart, but not by a motorhome. We had thought through our trip and got her back to our RV lot with no difficulties.

Impromptu concert

The last Friday night dance of the season had been completed on March 27, so we figured our options for live music in the park had ended. But, the son of one of our fellow residents and his wife were visiting, and they did an impromptu concert on the patio on a Saturday evening...

The patio is an open area between the fired clay / sewing / laundry / real estate building and two tennis courts. It is used for various outdoor events...

It was a little warm the evening that they performed, but after the sun went down, it was comfortable enough.

They had a tip jar out and I think they felt they were well appreciated! They usually entertain near their home in North Dakota (https://49thparallelfargo.com/). They were glad to have the opportunity to perform for friends of their parents, and we were glad to hear them!