2011

We had two great events this year - our 46th anniversary, spent with Jerry and Bev.    This has become a ritual now ever since we moved to Arizona.     We take them out to dinner for their birthdays and anniversary, and then they do the same for us.     We've eaten in some great places doing this.

And of course the big event, was the birthday party put on for us by Louise in Fresno.    It was Dick's 80th and there were 80 people.    Among the highlights was Louise taking a photo of everyone who came, so we have a wonderful album of the event, and the book put together by Marie and Mindy depicting Dick's life.    Seeing all our friends, relatives and what Dick terms his 'downline' was a great event for us.     The 'downline' got together after the party and had a group photo taken:

Unfortunately though the 'bad stuff' continued this year.     Dick's health did improve with the two new medicines and the treatment we received from his cardiologist, Suzanne Sorof, who specialized in PAH, but we did have some scary moments during the year with drops in the oxygen level for one reason or another, and in the early winter, Dick became very ill with his breathing and ended up with ambulance and paramedics coming and taking him to the hospital for a couple of day.

Then I decided to 'get in the act', and through a routine check on my heart stents, the doctor noticed a spot on my lung.     A number of tests later revealed that it was cancer and in the October I had the upper right lobe removed.     On the day I was supposed to come home, I 'flat lined' twice, which resulted in yet another surgery to install a pacemaker.     The recovery was slow but steady and by catching it so early (thanks to God and Dr. Bell), I did not have to have any follow up treatment.

Our declining health did make us realize that it was getting increasingly difficult for us to keep up a three bedroom house and the garden, which by this point Dick had really turned into a show place:

So we made up our mind to put the house up for sale.     We had really enjoyed this house and were very proud of the garden, but we really felt we had to move on.     We knew that Scruffy would be disappointed too, as it was the first time he had had a doggy door and completely free access to his own yard.    He had a bad habit though of taking anything that was important to him and burying it in the yard - so we were always finding little toys buried out there.     We always knew when he been doing it, because he would come in with dirt all over his nose - looking innocent of course: