Home!

Believe it or not I have not fallen off the face of the earth and into the brilliant sunshine of the Bahamas. Although it was tempting to simply stay behind and enjoy the warm clear waters of the Caribbean; treatment was calling and it was time to go home. I was finally setting into the relaxing attitudes of the Bahamas and by the time I left I was actually starting to feel better. The last day we walked with the stingrays (not fun) and Peyton walked with the sharks (which she loved!) I didn’t go on the shark walk with her but watched from outside the tank, and it was awesome. Neither one of us liked the stingrays, there were over 100 of them and they swarm you when you enter the water. They assure you that you won’t get stung but that’s’ hard to believe when they are swimming all around you between your legs, touching you… its totally creepy. I got out right away and within a few minutes, Peyton was out too. It just wasn’t an experience we wanted. I was paying for it, so I could walk away from it! And we did. The shark walk was very cool and Peyton wore a breathing mask that allowed her to simply walk along the bottom of the tank while the sharks swam around her. I wish they had taken more underwater pictures, but they only took a few. I got a few from outside the tank. It was an awesome experience, probably the best of her trip.

I wanted to share with you a great experience on one of the shuttle vans on the resort. There was a little girl, probably about 6 or 7, on the bus with us. When we got on the driver asked where we were going and I said “Reef” and this little girl got so excited “yea, we are going to The Reef” with all the enthusiasm only a child can muster. It cracked me up! When we got to The Reef, she cheered and got off the bus and skipped and sang “we’re at The Reef, we’re at the Reef” with a few “yeas” thrown in. It was so dang cute. It made me think that we should all be that excited for our destination. Wouldn’t the world be a better place to be if we were all exclaiming our joy over where we are going and jump up and down once we get there! Maybe try it next time you go somewhere think Yea, I’m going to the grocery store, yea yea yea!!! Maybe it will be a better trip!

Our trip home was long. Getting through US Customs in the Bahamas was chaotic and disorganized and took forever. I though 3 hours was too early to leave for the airport, thank goodness we did, except the flight left late anyway, so we would have been okay after all. Then there was a tropical depression that hit Atlanta and our flight was hours late leaving so we missed our connection in Salt Lake and ended up not getting home until Saturday afternoon. It made for a very long trip. I was pretty wiped out and continue to struggle with exhaustion, stomach upset and bad headaches. But YEA, I’m so glad to be home!

I slept most of the day on Sunday, mom made dinner for us, which I was able to eat quite a few bites and it was nice to see the family. I had chemo yesterday so its back to the grind again. This is the second half of round two. I will get round three in two weeks, and have another CT scan at the end of September.

In my absence my mom got into see the wonderful Dr. Fewel and it has FINALLY been determined she has a ruptured L5 disc in her back. So all these months of seeing an orthopedic surgeon, the whole time her disc was ruptured. Sort of makes me mad she had to struggle with pain for so long needlessly. But at least they are fixing it now. She has surgery on Wednesday, so the family will be taking care of mom for a little while. Dr. Fewel said it will be outpatient and she should recover quickly and we all know that she is a tough old broad, so I don’t anticipate any problems!

So I’m home and recovering from the long travel and trip, so if I owe you a return call or email or text, please forgive me, I’m slowly opening the mounds of mail and taking care of insurance issues and enduring another round of chemo, so I do the best I can to be in touch soon.

Yea! I’m so glad to be a home in my chair writing to all of you!!