Septembery Day 
Meadow and Colorful Hillside
Betty PhotographsThis morning we were on the road by about 6:30 - groan! Joe wanted to ride along to see the fall colors so he went with us. This is about the longest outing he has had in many months. We walked the dogs once on the way and got to the hospital right on time for my appointment. Returned the pump. They tried to get my blood drawn, this for the protime test to see how the coumadin is doing, and again had to stick me 3 times before they got a vial full, twice before the doctor appointment and once after.
We maybe spent 45 minutes for the entire time we were in hospital. The time with the doctor was not long at all. Joe met Dr. Ward, and they visited just a little, because about ten years ago Joe had gone to Dr. Ward in Salt Lake when they were checking some abnormalities in his blood for leukemia - and Dr. Ward said he didn't have it, but his blood does show a tendency to have it. So Dr. Ward was going to go back in the records ten years and look at what he had told Joe.
First off he noticed my spiky hair and said he really liked it - asked Joe if he didn't like it too and Joe just look at me and asked the doctor if it was all going to fall out. He said no. He asked how my symptoms had been so I started at the top and went down. He just said "Well you can blame me for all that" and we just laughed. We went over the CT scan and ultra sound tests, he gave me the usual exam feeling my liver - he never says much about that, discussed the symptoms I'd been having and skimmed over the clot in my neck, which he seems to be confident the coumadin will take care of that in a few weeks. I hope he's right about that. Mainly the good news from this time is that he says I seem to be holding my own very well. And then he said I could begin having the treatments every 3 weeks instead of every 2 and that would give me more space for feeling well in between. I was glad about that too. He said to have another scan in December - so sounds like I'm pretty good at least until then.
We went over to Virginia and Calvin's and visited about 30 minutes - Joe likes Calvin a lot and always wants to know how he's doing. I returned Virginia's book Remember about the Willie Hand Cart company. Then we walked the dogs at the fair ground - they met two other dogs there who where learning to retrieve.
We decided to drive down the Fall Creek Road again that Bonnie and I did a few weeks ago, so Joe and Betty could see the colors there. We stopped at Nora's Fish Creek Inn for lunch, then took the drive through the hills. It was probably about as pretty as it's going to get. There are so many beautiful spots to go painting. Walked the dogs in there again. Then on toward home.
We stopped a few minutes and got some fruit and a bit of groceries at the Hoback Market. In Pinedale we had ice cream at the little drive in for a treat - the boys got to share a baby vanilla cone. On the way by at Boulder I showed Joe that lovely log house we first looked at so he could make a comparison of the prices on what we will be showing him soon. Home by about 3:30. We're all still so full we just had an omelet for dinner. And I told Sparky he'd had so much already - tacos and prime rib sandwich leftovers and ice cream - he would only get a little dry food, he was disappointed when the can food didn't come out.
There was a message on the machine when we got back and Paige said my protime test was high so to take 1/2 a pill one day and a whole the next, and get it checked again in Pinedale next Monday.
In the morning we'll go back to meet James and look at five more houses in Pinedale and then have lunch, so we'll be out of here about 8:30.
