Challenging Travel North

I am sorry for the long time between posts. Family and medical issues have consumed our time recently and blog posts were pushed to the back burner. I probably should have named this post medical problems, medical problems and more medical problems. I think things are finally settling down, so I thought I would catch you up on our lives.

During our last couple weeks in Florida, my Uncle Paul had a serious fall. He broke his femur near the hip joint which required surgery and pins to hold it together. Unfortunately, while he was in the hospital, he suffered a heart attack and needed a cardiac catheterization and a stent was put in. He was not in very good shape after all of that and we were hesitant to leave. We delayed our departure by a couple days and were relieved that he was going to be transferred to an inpatient rehab facility. So we headed north with the plan that I would fly back down after we were back in Pennsylvania.

So we started our trip and initially it went well Tim was adjusting to towing with the new truck, so we planned a slow trip with frequent stops. All was good until our second stop near Columbia, SC Tim fell getting out of the truck and hit his back and the back of his head. We were worried about a concussion so we went to an emergency room later that night. It was a long night but in the end they decided he was ok. With very little sleep, we decided to ask about staying another night. Unfortunately, our site was booked; we could have moved to another site but since we had to move anyway, Tim decided he was ok to drive further north.

We headed to Mayberry Campground in Mount Airy, NC. We visited there before and enjoyed this quaint town. With storms and strong winds expected over the next couple of days, we decided to stay for three nights that gave us time to wait out the storms and for Tim to relax and make sure he was fine. Our stay went well and we spent a little time enjoying the town.

We left on a much less windy day and headed up through the mountains In Virginia to Lexington, VA to a truck stop for the night. After a good nights sleep, we were both feeling great and ready to travel onto PA. Unfortunately, during breakfast, Tim had a nosebleed which lasted quite awhile. That isn’t common for him, so back to the emergency room we went. They cauterized the nosebleed and did another CT scan to be sure there weren’t any lingering issues from his fall. Again, they said all was fine. We decide to stay another night in Lexington just to be sure. Luckily the small campground at the truck stop had a site available so we moved there for the night.

We finally headed up to Gettysburg, PA the following day and Tim was starting to feel better. We got there the week of Easter so headed in to Pittsburgh to visit family and see our new grandson for Easter. Little did we know, more medical problems were on the way. We ate scallops on Good Friday and all of us got sick that night; we decided it was food poisoning from the scallops. By Easter Sunday, we were feeling better and planned on a low key Easter dinner. After a light lunch, Tim started not feeling well again. This time, he had sharp pain high in the abdomen.

It got so bad, I took him to an Urgent Care. They thought it could be heart related so told us to go to an emergency room. Again, we were there for many hours and many tests and monitoring before they decided he needed to be admitted for observation. They thought the pain was most likely his gall bladder which we learned can mimic a heart attack.

He wasn’t admitted until after midnight. By that time, we really hadn’t eaten in 2 days. He was feeling better but still wasn’t allowed to eat on Monday until more tests and a decision about removing his gall bladder. At this point, I was scheduled to fly back to Florida on Tuesday so I was thinking of canceling the trip. Tim insisted that I still go and had his doctor convince me to leave.

Fortunately, they decided while he needed the gallbladder removed, it could wait so I went to Florida and Tim stayed at Katie’s. The surgeon had a cancellation on 4/18 so Tim had the surgery while I was still in Florida. All went well and he is doing good now. I was very nervous not being there, but it was good that I was there to help Aunt Tish.

Uncle Paul was struggling at first with therapy but he really improved during my stay. When I left, I was feeling positive about him getting to a point of eventually being able to come home with some part time home care. I was really shocked when Aunt Tish called to say he passed away the day after I left. I am so glad that I had the time with him that I did and that I was able to be there. We will really miss him.

If that wasn’t enough, I now have some medical issues. I have had skin cancer in the past and had a couple spots that I wanted my doctor to check. He said two spots were definitely basal cell skin cancer that can be treated with a topical cream so easily treated. There were a few other spots that he didn’t know what they were so he did biopsies. The results showed no cancer which is good, but these spots are Sarcoidosis. It sounds like if it is just in the skin, he will monitor and won’t need to treat unless I am having issues. The bad news is that it could be internal and possibly be in the eyes, lungs, or heart. So I now need to see more specialists and more testing. I am hoping for good news and no serious issues from this. More to come on this in the future.

With all this bad news, I thought I would end this post with some pictures of some fun we managed to have in between the medical issues. These are from day trips we made with friends and family to Tampa, Clermont, Sanford, and Mount Dora. The last shot is one of the few I took on our ride north. Love the Mountain View’s in Virginia.