A Couple of Busy Days

 

Jim was discharged from the hospital yesterday after spending a mostly sleepless night, although they did finally get him into a private room at 10:30 Thursday evening. The doctor saw him early yesterday morning but it took several hours before he was discharged. We were hungry and stopped for lunch on the way home, then had to pick up his prescription for Xarelto, one of those newer anticoagulants that is better than warfarin since you don’t have any dietary restrictions and don’t have to get monthly blood tests. It has one drawback, though, no reversal if you have serious bleeding. But not going to worry about that right now.

When we got back to Government Wash Debbie had just pulled in, stopping for a night on her way to Prescott. And another Airstream with new fulltimers Jim and Denise had just set up camp. Debbie and I took her dogs for a walk while Jim took a nap, and shortly after we got a phone call from Kelly, our former Pensacola neighbor who we visited last year while they were living in Vegas. He’s a Southwest pilot, had an unplanned overnight layover in Vegas, and just happened to see the blog about Jim being in the hospital. So he drove his rental car to Lake Mead and joined us for happy hour, along with Brian and Leigh (and Curtis), Debbie, and Jim and Denise. We laughed a lot, which was definitely the best medicine after a couple of very stressful days.

Almost forgot,  just before happy hour Sophie escaped out the door, ran down an embankment into a wash, and chased a coyote. I went running and screaming after her, throwing rocks to try to scare her back or scare the coyote off. She finally quit running and I coaxed her to me. Oh, how I hate that little girl sometimes.

After a good nights sleep, this morning we decided to just drive the 300 miles to McDowell Mountain Park in Fountain Hills, a week earlier than planned. The ER doctor wants Jim to see his primary care doctor or hematologist next week. He put a call in to the Mayo Clinic yesterday but didn’t hear back so hopefully someone can see him in spite of the Thanksgiving holiday. We shared the driving and stopped often for Jim to walk around and stretch his legs. Got here around four and got a great site until Thanksgiving Day, when we will have to move to overflow unless there are cancellations.

  

 Jim out walking Sophie in our new backyard.

 

Thanks so much to all our friends and blog readers who have commented or sent emails. We really appreciate everyone’s support and concern.