FEBRUARY 2003

On February 1, Earl and I had blood tests done and I had a mammogram. The blood tests and mammogram are sponsored by Bashas' HealthStyles (Bashas is a local grocery store chain) and is done by Sonora Quest Laboratories (blood tests) and MOM (Mobile On-site Mammography) at a lot less than it would cost to have the same tests done when referred by a doctor.

We had taken Maxx in for a rabies shot at the local veterinary office in January. Since he had a large lump in one of his front "armpits" plus some smaller lumps elsewhere, we wanted to have them removed, so took him back to the vet to have the surgery done.

Before doing the surgery, they do a pre-surgery blood test and we were told that Maxx's white blood count was up so they wouldn't do the surgery that day. They recommended a complete panel of blood tests to find out what was causing the elevated white blood count, which we had done.

In the meantime, the vet prescribed some antibiotics, Amoxocillan. Maxx had a very bad reaction to the Amoxocillan...he started throwing up and then stopped eating. Finally, we took him back to the vet and found out that the second blood test had shown that there was nothing wrong with his white blood count! I was understandably upset...all this for nothing!

After we got Maxx to eating again, we did take him back and have the surgery done. Poor Maxx! He had to wear a collar for a few days and then the incision in his armpit started to fill with fluid, so we had to have a drain inserted. It still wasn't healing properly, so the vet took the stitches out and told us to put him in the shower twice a day and flush the wound for about 5 minutes. We bought him two little T-Shirts to wear so he wouldn't lick or scratch at his pit. He sure looked cute in those T-Shirts! Finally, his incision healed.

During the month, we got a call from Ken and Debbie Toth, a couple who had looked at our fifth wheel and truck when we were in Quartzsite at the Boomerang. They had thought it over and decided they wanted to buy both vehicles as a package...hooray! They paid off the truck loan for us, allowing us to put money down on a Shult manufactured house -- a small, single wide with 675 square feet. They were also willing to wait to take delivery of the rigs until we were moved into the house.

We went down to the Room Store and bought a whole houseful of furniture -- living room, bedroom, and dining room (we'd sold all our furniture when we'd started fulltiming). We also found the new fifth wheel we wanted -- a 25' Arctic Fox -- so we bought it, too.

We took a trip to Quartzsite to open a post office box and to apply for a mobile home placement permit.

Bill and Gisela came into town so Gisela could have a blood test done at Luke Air Force Base and we went to lunch at Chili's. We also had a mini-rang with other Boomers at the Wickenburg Elks Club.