#2 INJECTION

Wednesday, December 16 - Still wake up early. It’s rare that I sleep past 5 a.m. I try like crazy to stay up later in the evening but it's tough. The sidewalks roll up early here, nothing on TV, so I sit down to read and the next thing I know I'm asleep at 9:30. Holy Cow! Need to find an evening activity that keeps me awake. Guess I'll have to become a computer Geek!

Decided to go ahead and get a second spinal block injection before leaving the Houston area. Appointment is scheduled for Friday at 11:30!

Nice day today......finally. Washed the motor home and did several outside jobs.....Wonderful!

Marsha and I went up and played Mexican Train tonight. That's always fun.

Thursday, December 17 - ITS OUR 2-MONTH ANNIVERSARY! Yep, we've been on the road since Oct. 17, 2009. One thing we've done, that many beginners fail to do is to take it slow and not act like you're on a vacation. I'm sure that's because of family time in Texas for the holidays and getting this “roughed-up” body of mine in shape.

Went up to the activity center for dinner tonight – pork chops. We enjoyed talking with new friends, Don and Joyce, and out doing each other with travel stories. FUN!

Friday, December 18 – Off to Houston, again. We've made a several trips to the Houston area. Mostly for Paul's doctor appointments. I'm getting a second spinal block injection today. All went well. Home by 4 p.m. and chilled the rest of the evening. Marsha caught up on some of her reading and playing with Bella.

YEA….THE GENERATOR IS FIXED

Sunday, December 13 - I think my back is on the road to recovery. I feel much better today! On a scale of 1-10, 10 being perfect, I think I'm about a 7. Now granted, I'm taking it easy and really not doing anything, but the improvement is dramatic. I took my daily walk today. A very short one, but felt exhilarated for a guy that use to walk over 5-miles a day, it felt good to get back at it! Spent the rest of the day watching football and enjoying too many of Marsha's cookies.

Monday, December 14 – Relaxation Day! Did some future long range travel planning. Trying to decide where to go after Quartszite, AZ.. Laundry day too. Marsha is teaching me how to do the laundry.....uh, oh! She thinks I need to know this when she's in Ohio. Yeah, sure!

Went up to the social hour this evening. Met a couple from NH that just hit the road….full-timing for three days. Ironically, they are parked right behind us. There were several couples introduced that just started out. At the social, any one new to the park stands-up and introduces themselves. Kind of interesting to hear about their experiences and where they are originally from.

After cleaning up, we went out to a Mexican cantina for some Margaritas. There aren't too many places in Livingston to party.

Tuesday, December 15 – Off to Houston Cummins RV Center today. Still experiencing stalling problems with the Onan generator. Onan is built by Cummins, so I'm hoping they can diagnose the problems correctly and repair it.

WOW....that was an A+ repair facility. They figured out the problem, a broken temperature sensor, in no time and had us on the road soon after lunch. A little lighter in the wallet but it's our house and has to be kept up! Hopefully, the repairs will level off once we catch-up on what the previous owner may have avoided. Well, we're ready for Quartszite! I hope!!!

 

Went out and looked at Christmas lights tonight. Boy, I'll tell you what, for a small town of just over 5,000 people, Livingston, TX, sure spends the money on lighting up down town. They have lights all over downtown, plus two parks have drive threw lighting displays. We also took a few pictures in the campground. It's surprising the number of RV's that are decorated or have light displays. Neat! Marsha loves this kind of stuff! Note from Marsha: The pictures just don’t do justice to how beautiful these lights really are. Due to our little digital camera, many pictures did not turn out:(  The County Courthouse is located downtown. On top of the building is a beautiful star….not shown in picture below, and along one side is a huge lit American flag.

 

OLD MAN MAINTENANCE

Thursday, December 10 - Nerve root Epidural steroid injections @ F4/F5. That's my treat for tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at the Spinal Care Hospital of Houston. Marsha's treat is she gets to drive me home from downtown Houston. A bigger treat will be if it's during rush hour. Actually, we should be done before the 4 p.m. rush hour if all goes off on schedule. Not permitted to lift, twist, bend for two weeks…..good luck with that. Looks like Marsha will have to do all the setting up at our site. Poor girl.

Friday, December 11 – Well, not to bad a procedure. They took me back about 11:15 a.m. They gave me an IV. I was given a med to put me in a twilight sleep but I was out! Next thing I know the nurse was asking me if I would like something to eat and drink. With very wobbly knees, they released me at 2:00. I think Marsha did a great job of driving home….not sure…..I slept the entire way home.

Later, when I was much more alert. Marsha shared with me some of the things I said while still groggy. She said I had the nurses in stitches….no pun intended…..LOL. They wanted to get me up and walking but I still wasn’t very stable. Two nurses got a walker for me to use and asked Marsha to come around the front of the walker. Marsha asked them why she was in front. One nurse told her that she was going to pull Paul’s pants up…..to which Paul responded…..”She doesn’t know how to do that, she only knows how to pull them down.” Oh brother, the entire recovery room broke out in laughter. Marsha said she apologized for me.  I then had to use the restroom. They would not let me go alone, so Marsha had to stay in with me. When we went to exit the restroom, Marsha couldn’t get the door unlocked. She was making a bunch of racket trying to open the door. When we finally got out, two different nurses were standing at the door. Marsha said I looked at them and said…..”She is a wild one.” Which broke them all up,again Marsha apologized. Guess I shouldn’t talk when I am sedated. Sorry hon…..at least the nurses had a good laugh.

Saturday, December 12 – Went to Carrie's today. Marsha and Carrie spent the day making Christmas cookies. I ate about a dozen..........yum! Marsha said she still has two more kinds she wants to make, and I will have the honor of icing the cutout cookies tomorrow…..Yea for me.

My back actually feels pretty good. I would say out of a 10, 10 being MAD, I am about a 5. Real improvement! So, I spent a couple hours scouting out RV Parks. We are considering moving down to the west side of Houston after Christmas so we will be ready to head West after Marsha returns from her trip to Ohio. I did eliminate one place, but didn’t have any luck finding a good place, need to check more on the internet. We got back home about 6:30 pm. It was a foogy drive. The days have been getting warmer, but the nights are still very cool. 70 tomorrow and 72 on Monday.

Hope to be able to give you a great report on my back in future blogs. Thanks for stopping by.