Seeing the Surgeon

Today I made the trip to Santa Fe to see the surgeon. He says the suture line looks wonderful. He took out the tiny stitches (he used very find stitching material) and covered it with steri-strips. NO CANCER everything was benign (praise God). Now I have labs to get in about 3 weeks & then an ultrasound & labs in 6 months. He feels everything should settle down well and that the left thyroid should take over just fine.

I have been remiss getting anything posted. So much going on.

First a "me" update. The GYN Dr. referred me to a surgeon. I managed to get a copy of my thyroid ultrasound to discover I had 4 nodules. 3 on my right thyroid & 1 on my left thyroid. I was given some names of surgeons in Santa Fe for a consult. I had my consult early in July and was given 3 options. One was a needle biopsy of one nodule.................. surgery to remove the right side, do a biopsy of the left nodule at that time & if cancer found remove all.........or to see an endocrinologist. I picked surgery.

In the meantime we had plans to get together as a family to go through the rest of my parent's items at their house & prepare for an auction. Plus I still had my Dad's Ford dealership with parts to find a new home for.

So things got quite hectic. We got rid of parts & cleaned up that area of the dealership. My siblings & I got together portions of the week of July 5th & went through Mom & Dad's house. We worked on dividing things up & packing things into boxes. We met with the auctioneers. Then on July 14th I had my right thyroid removed in Santa Fe. My sister who is a nurse was with me as was my brother & son. We spent the night after the surgery in Santa Fe (not allowed to leave in case there were complications). The surgery went well & so far there was no cancer found. I have a follow up appointment this coming week & hopefully all the pathology will be back.

In the meantime again we are still working on my parent's house & the garage for the auction. The date is set for August 16th for both auctions. What an absolute relief it will be to have this finished. There will still be a lot to do but nothing like before.

I am feeling well. My suture line is a little sore, but not bad. The first night was the worst due to the anti nausea medication not working. But when I got the correct medication I did quite well. So I am on my way to recovery.

I must add that I am pleased that my siblings and I have been able to do such a good job of working together at my parent's home. I have a wonderful group of siblings (& their spouses), I am proud to say that they are all great.

In the meantime there are other things to do "around the farm".

Getting Old

Yesterday I had an ultrasound of my thyroid because my Dr. found a nodule there. All the labs are good. I'll hear about the ultrasound either today or tomorrow.........then onward. I've done a fair amount of reading & suspect that a fine needle aspiration/biopsy is next. My friend Margaret says they just keep removing parts of my body & sooner or later it will all be gone!! : )

I said that was ok & gives me less to worry about further down the road.

So I'm hoping & praying that it will be benign & I will not have to worry about surgery this time!!

Old Friends

Tonight I received a call from an old friend, Cliff. Cliff & Virgie moved to Santa Fe in about 1974 & lived close to where John & I lived on the north edge of town. They were members of our church & we had a close relationship with them. Virgie died in about 1985 or so. I've kept in touch with Cliff over the years. We had such a good visit tonight. It has been ages since we have talked on the phone. Cliff turned 93 years old in November (we celebrate our birthday's the same month too). He is doing fairly well physically & excellent mentally. He is now living in what sounds like almost assisted living, he calls it a retirement home. He talked about his faith & his new found sanctification that he had never understood before. It was a really good visit. Now I need to keep in touch with him.

Shearing

Well, all my alpaca are sheared and we are working on friend's alpacas. It feels so good to have mine done. We have a new shearer who usually shears sheep. He will probably be our shearer from here on out. It is times like these when I miss Dennis even more....................

I've had work done on the barn so it will not get near as much snow in it and also will a little more weather tight............had to make it weather tight when there are at least 1/2 inch cracks between boards..............then again it was built before 1887, so a few cracks here & there are not surprising. I had a porch built off my back door on the North side. I'm not going to break up ice off the north porch in the winter any more with a pick. I was really tired of that last year.

In the meantime I cannot remember if I posted about my loafing shed being pretty much destroyed by the wind. I need to have it torn down & replaced. More to do more to do more to do.....all in time.

Otherwise things are going fairly well.......just busy.

Wind & more wind

Well, we have finally had some beautiful days..........still cool at night. Then along came today. Once again the winds have gotten up around 50 mph. Willie & I were gone this afternoon & when we returned I have quite a few problems to deal with.

The smallest one is, the top off the well house that Dennis made has blown off. It is quite heavy, so it didn't blow far........but it will take both of us to get it back on the well house & tied down.

The next one is the tin roof on the barn. I'm having some people to come work on it sometime within the next week or two. I had planned on them working on it to repair the holes, but now part of it seems to be trying to fly off...........not good. I hope it stays up there until I can have it fixed.

The last & worst problem is about 1/3 of the male alpaca loafing shed has fallen in. Not good. Luckily no alpaca were in that part of the area (praise God), but they are in the area tonight. I know it is really old & now I know how much work it needs............a lot. That was totally unexpected.

I hope the winds die down tomorrow, but I think it is suppose to blow all weekend. The only positive thing is that it is warm. I think we got up to 75 this afternoon!!!

lots of things to do though, the garden, the flowers, the lawn...........the field........on and on.

Spring headed to Summer

Well, perhaps the snake situation is better. I took 4 of them & drove them about 10 miles away about 3 weeks ago. Then Jamie decided that she needed to deal with them the same way she deals with mice. So she actually killed two of them. Now I just need to hope & pray that we never see a rattler as I'm sure she would go after it also.............which would not be good. No more snakes in the house that I have found. I'm extremely happy about that!!

Today I actually got the lawn mower out & mowed the back yard. Due to the snow & how it melts slower in the back yard, the north area gets green & long. So today I mowed. The front yard needs water, so Willie got the hoses out for me & tomorrow I need to get some water going.

We've had some wild wind lately, but at least it has finally warmed up & is running between 65 & 70 during the day. Summer is coming!!