It looks like it might not be a good idea to bring the dog. Sigh.
Both parks are quite adamant about restrictions. Yellowstone allows dogs on 6 foot leashes, 100 feet from the roadway but that is it. They are not allowed on the boardwalks. I have been told that I am going to want to go on the boardwalks to see the geothermal aspects of the park. Pets may not be left in vehicles, the only exception is if you are in sight of the car.
Grand Tetons is worse. Not allowed more than 6 feet from the roadway.
They both warn how dogs are bait for bears.
I am terrified of bears.
I shall have to ponder this some more.
I talked to my friend Kate and she is on board with the trip! If I cannot take my best friend (canine), I can at least go with my best friend (human). She has been to Yellowstone before and was the source of the information about the boardwalks. She also thinks it will be hard to find open campsites. She might be correct. But the parks are both surrounded by national forest. So really, if we can't stay inside the parks, we should be able to find forest service roads we can pull over on and camp.
So now back to the choice of vehicle. Renting a minivan or SUV is way too expensive. $1000 for two weeks. Nope. New plan. What about a canopy for the truck? The truck is in great shape, low miles and I just had new tires, new ball joints and a general fix it done. But it turns out canopies are expensive too. This needs more investigation. If the dog is not coming, we don't need the extra room in the cab for him, and can probably pack all we need to tent camp in the back of the truck (this much I do know). But am I brave enough to tent camp in bear country? I am not sure about that answer.
Last night I was up most of the night, it is the 4th night out of 5 that I just could not sleep. I get about an hour in and then wake ALL the way up. This time I think part of it was knowing that JR was going to call me in the middle of the night to pick him up. Totally my fault. I had the car that day, he took my truck to work. I wanted my truck. So I put the leash on the dog and we walked 1.2 miles to his office, downhill the entire way. With my wonderful dog pulling me the whole way. My calves were burning by the end, I had been having to take such small mincing steps to keep my balance and try to not get pulled to the ground by a very excited dog. I think that putting together a workout with him will be a good idea, so that I am in better shape when I get to Wyoming and can easily do some of the hiking necessary to take the Ansel shots.
I had the car because I had gone to the oncologist yesterday for my 3 month check up. The cancer center is in Seattle, and it is much easier to park the car in the garage than my huge truck.
I checked in in the lab and waited for my name to be called. The guy that drew my blood had done it before, he is a very nice guy, but has some medical problems of his own, he looks a little like Quasimodo, there are odd large lumps on his neck and back. Poor fellow. And for some reason he didn't like the look of the vein that always works. I have the crappiest veins! They roll away and then collapse if you actually hit them. I have learned that as I sit down, I apologize for my crappy veins, tell them that to best get blood out of me, they should use a pediatric needle and a butterfly, and then I point to my one good vein. He didn't like it. Kept patting it trying to get it to raise up. Now this vein is sitting right, and I mean RIGHT under the skin. You can see it clearly. It is on the outside of my right elbow in the fleshy area just below the joint. It doesn't hurt too much if you need to poke around there.
He still doesn't like it.
He looks at my other arm. The one with no visible veins. Except for one on the inside of my forearm, in that really thin skinned area, the one that hurts like a MF if you poke around in it. He decides that is the perfect spot. I take a deep sigh. I am usually pretty vocal about blood draws. I know my veins really well at this point. But for some reason, I decide to let him have his way. He doesn't know it, but I will only allow one stick per vampire. If he misses, I will ask for someone else.
He hits on the first stick.
And it HURTS.
But he got it.
I go to lunch at the cafe on the 2nd floor and have some soup (not very good soup unfortunately, sometimes their food is great, but not yesterday). And I get a glass of water and a cookie.
My appointment is an hour after the blood draw, gives them time to process the blood for the CBC (complete blood count). But the PCR (the one that detects the actual cancer cells) will not be back until next week. It just takes longer I guess.
I go up to the 4th floor and check in. I am called very quickly. Unusual. Hmmm, I think to myself, this could be good, I know that I have one of the first appointment of the day for Dr. Oehler. I deliberately make that so. I go back, they weigh me. Sigh. I lost a couple of pounds, but not much. My blood pressure is 112 over 67, my pulse is a nice 70, and my temperature is my normal, 97.7.
The nurse leaves and I sit and wait for the doctor. And I wait, and I wait. My appointment is for 1:30. Sometime after 2 Dr. Oehler arrives. And I forgive her immediately. She is the best doctor on the planet. We are about the same age, and she is so understanding and compassionate. I instantly feel safe and better. I am still having tummy problems and had almost just run to the bathroom. Glad I waited.
The results? Perfect. My WBC (white blood count) is a very normal 6.7. And even my calcium has come up. We were talking about that at the last appointment, she is concerned due to my age and the fact of the hysterectomy, we won't know when I really go through menopause without testing for it. So I think that next time she ordered a bone scan, and depending on the result of that, will determine if we do hormone testing.
We chat about her upcoming 50th birthday and where she and her girlfriend will go. I thought we were done, but then she did a physical exam, all fine. If the tummy issues don't go away after the antibiotic treatment is done, I should call her and she will prescribe something to um, help.
I am done and go out to schedule the next visit in February. Dr. Oehler will send me my PCR results in an email. She is so approachable and easy to get a hold of. We talked about my new PCP (primary care physician) and she said to be sure to give him her email address, so he could ask her questions if he needed to. I think that would be great.
Did I mention that Dr. O has told me to get a flu shot? I have resisted them every year. I am too afraid that the shot will GIVE me the flu. But she assures me that they will be giving me an inactive vaccine. Then she leaned over and said, "The chances of you getting the flu from this are minuscule, but I grant you that if anyone is going to get the flu from an inactive vaccine, it will be you."
I have to admit, having my most trusted medical expert tell me that it is not all in my head, that I really do get more sick than the average person..........well, it makes tears well up. I struggle greatly with feelings of in adequacy. For some reason I am always afraid that I am faking it, that any one else would be able to power through. Luckily, I married the most amazing man. And when I am feeling that way, he looks me directly in the eye and says "Horseshit!"
I love him.
So what did we do for Veteran's day? We took advantage of the free food offer at a local brew pub. They had some new items on the menu and we realized that if I ordered the double cheeseburger, it was only a dollar more than the regular burger that I usually get (and eat only half of, JR usually finishes it for me). So I ordered the double and asked for a piece of aluminum foil as well. The second patty was for the dog, you saw that coming right?
Very happy dog.
And a very proud army wife I am too.
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