Since Last Post

I've been on a very difficult journey since October. We arrived back in La Paz on October 19th, I went back to work on the 20th but that was the last time I could work until this past Tuesday.

What started as a sore back in late September sharply worsened by the 20th and then by early November was unbearable. Initially I thought it was a displaced rib, something I had had in the past. When the local physical therapist was able to relocate the two ribs, the pain only got worse but higher in my shoulder and down my arm.

In the first week of November I was sleeping a few hours each night and counting the minutes before I could take more pain pills. On November 8th, I flew to Miami as a medevac (medical evacuation) patient. Luckily I was able to be seen at the Cleveland Clinic in Weston, FL, just north of Miami. My mom drove down from Orlando to help plus John's parents were there to offer a home and some TLC.

An MRI showed three herniated discs in the cervical area of my neck. One or two of the discs were irritating a nerve root which was causing all of my pain. As a nurse, I've always known that back pain can be really bad, let me tell you, it can be horrific. On a pain scale of 0-10, I was regularly at an 8.

John flew up for the first of three epidural steroid shots, the first one took away about a third of the pain. We flew the kids up for Thanksgiving, which we spent in Georgia with Lisette and much of John's family. Thanks to Vicodin, it was a great holiday. The week after Thanksgiving, I had my second shot which took away another quarter to a third of the pain but it also gave me an epidural headache. Nothing like compounding one's misery.

I flew back to La Paz for Christmas which was wonderful but still pretty uncomfortable. We managed to throw two parties in the space of the three weeks I was home. Quickly found out that I was best to do absolutely nothing of the prep work for the parties if I wanted to have any enjoyment of the actual party as well as the day after. In January 5th, John and I flew back for my third shot. On January 6th, I slept in a bed for the first time in a month (I'd been sleeping in a recliner beside our bed in La Paz or in John's parents' living room). On the 7th of January, we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary with a trip to the clinic for my third shot. I figured it was a lucky day!

The third shot helped immediately as opposed to the first two. While I'm not yet painfree, I was able to return to work on over-the-counter anti-inflammatories. I can have another epidural shot in July so I'm hoping this pain goes away or atleast doesn't worsen between now and then. If the pain does continue or worsens or the shot in July doesn't take it away completely, surgery is the only other option. And it's a nasty surgery. For now, I'm so grateful that I'm as comfortable as I am.

Our Week Stateside

It's always so nice coming back to the States. John and I arrived Sunday night, the 4th. We spent the night at a hotel by the airport then drove to Georgia on Monday morning. It was hard to turn off of I-10 and head north instead of carrying on until we hit Tallahassee! Lisette (and we) had to wait another 24 hours.

Our house is adorable and I spent the first day nesting myself into a frenzy. I found it hard to keep focused that this is likely going to be a second home and therefore doesn't need to be settled into as quickly. Still, we already had a couch and an entertainment center so we obviously needed a TV! So we hit Best Buy and found one on clearance.

Parents Weekend was great! Seeing Lisette was even better!! She's blossoming. I keep saying that because it's incredible how true it is. I knew she was ready but it still is a little shocking how grown up she's become in just two months. She's making some really good choices and other than needing to give her car a bath, she's got it pretty much together. It's fun and heartbreaking to watch her independence. :-)

We're back in our house, ordered a bedroom set, a dining set and an extra bed/couch for the den. I've got the kitchen off to a decent start, our old pots and pans will go a long way to getting it functional though. Perhaps I'll send them up from La Paz sometime soon.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to talk Lisette into coming back with us! :-(

Odds and Ends

Last night I bought my ticket to go see my baby girl for Parents Weekend!

Strange sight - saw a pizza delivery guy get a ride from a police officer on his motorcycle.

John's on his way to Dayton, Ohio to run the 13th Air Force Marathon. It happens to land on the 13th anniversary of the accident that took his leg!

John opened a "cause" site on Facebook for his run. Just asking for thoughts and prayers, not money. It's already hit 239 members, many of whom we don't even know!

I'm homesick for both the States and Canada!

Eight Years Later

We had a moment of silence in the Embassy this morning. Hard to believe it's been eight years but then again, so much has changed since then...good and bad.

On a much lighter note - dropped John off at a function this evening (a guy thing) and the house number was 7. We found the street, it was a short one and noticed the first number was 70 which concerned us...the next one was 100...beside it was number 7. Go figure. Weird place we live in.

Have a fabulous weekend!! Love to you all!!

Well, All WAS Quiet...

This has been a quiet Saturday but our friend took Buddy for a walk with her Golden Retriever only to find her SUV vandalized when she returned to our house. John and Joanne are outside dealing with it - I had just opened up my blog to write when Joanne rang our doorbell. Living in a big city... :-(

Thankfully it looks like the buttheads got nothing. Probably they were interrupted. We live on the crossroads of two pretty busy streets. They ended up cutting her battery cable, most likely so they might be able to come back later and finish the job but good ole duct tape repaired the cable enough so that she could start the car and drive it home. I followed her, just in case and found out she lives in the prettiest house I have seen!!! It looks like a doll house or a playhouse that's been blown up to adult size!

So now the four of us (John, Nicole, Jake and I - missing Lisette!) are chilling out, watching TV and enjoying our long weekend. Hope yours is as eventful/uneventful as you'd like it to be!!

Time Flies

Before much too much time goes by, it behooves me to update my blog!

The return trip from Italy included a quick stop in Hamilton. The main reason being that I had become the great aunt to a perfect little baby boy! Nolan is the most precious and beloved son of my darling Nicholas and his beautiful wife Natasha. Am I gushing? Heck ya!

The remainder of July and into August was back to work and prepping for the kids to return to school. On August 15th, John and I flew back to Miami with Lisette. Spending the next week setting Lisette up at Florida State University was one of the most depressing time of my life. As with any other dark period, one just plugs on through and tries to look at the bright side. I was happy to at least have the chance to build her her "nest" in her dorm room. It was thrilling to see her bond with her new car - a 2003 VW Beetle (adorable!) although she tried to kill us in it a few times. I'm thinking that was about it as far as a silver lining. Thank goodness for Vonage and Facebook. We're keeping in touch daily. :-)

The other thing we did while back in the States in August was settle things on a house in Georgia. On August 31st, via Power of Attorney, we closed on a lovely lakehouse in Lake Park. The property is right beside John's brother so it makes a perfect getaway place or even a permanent address depending on what happens in our future!

The kids left here in La Paz are both home sick with the flu. John of course thinks it's swine flu but that's John. LOL It doesn't really matter because we don't have access to the blood test to identify it anyway. Supposedly Evo Morales is suffering from the flu and his doc put him on Tamiflu (what we have available for our H1N1 flu patients). Interestingly, Tamiflu can cause some psychotic reactions...no, I won't go anywhere with that. Ha!

So now I'm working full-time and still loving it. Technically, I'm supposed to be working four days a week but until we have the new nurse onboard, I'm filling in the days. School started for me again this past Monday. I'm taking 9 credit hours again but they're split 3/6 over the semester...three credit hours the first half makes life much more reasonable!

John will be running the Air Force Marathon in a few weeks. It falls on the anniversary of his accident which makes it impossible to pass up. I'm excited for him but he has recently relieved my mind by promising that this is his last full marathon. He's not getting any younger and his knee gives him problems to begin with. Still, make sure you're cheering him on this September 19th! Oh, that's "Talk Like a Pirate" day too!

Back Home

Well, the original idea was to keep a running diary of our trip to Italy. The largest obstacle to that goal was lack of Internet access at many of the places we stayed.

Our trip was fabulous. Definitely what we all needed. John grew a beard (sort of) which I loved, surprising because I'm not a big fan of facial hair. He looked so relaxed in it though! I got a really good tan for the first time in probably 20 years! The kids got along great considering they were squished in the back seat of a medium sized station wagon for too many hours at a time. Thankfully, they often had the opportunity to get away from each when it was absolutely necessary.

Our favourite stay was outside of Assisi. It was incredibly beautiful, peaceful and we went and saw so much!

Here's the Italy vacation in a nutshell ~

June 16th - arrive in Rome, drive to Naples
June 17th - visited the Cuma ruins
June 18th - Pompei!
June 19th - chill day, saw "Up" at Naval base
June 20th - moved down to Amalfi coast house
June 21st - chilled at Amalfi house
June 22nd - drove down the Amalfi coast, sightseeing day
June 23rd - chilled and sunbathed
June 24th - harrowing scooter ride to Vietri!
June 25th - kidnapped Lisette and John to Sorrento
June 26th - crazy day on the Meditteranean in a rented motorboat
June 27th - drove all the way up to Umbria house
June 28th - medieval fair in medieval village
June 29th - Assisi
June 30th - Lisette and I hit Deruta for ceramics
July 1st - Sienna and the "Il Palio" time trial
July 2nd - Pisa and Florence (warning - don't try to do both in one day!)
July 3rd - chilling, sunbathing, laundry and repacking
July 4th - return to Naples, fireworks at Carney Park, John loses work cell (Yeah!)
July 5th - chill, chill, chill
July 6th - drive to Taormina, Sicily
July 7th - Greek ruins, Taormina
July 8th - return to Rome, dealt with gas strike and our pseudo 21st anniversary!
July 9th - Rome, beautiful Rome
July 10th - flight from Rome to Buffalo

It was awesome.