#28 Things are looking up

Little Munchkin is 3 1/2 months old!

Wow time flies.  First a Great Grandson, Noah, update, just because he's cute, lol.  I can't wait to pinch those little cheeks.  Got to figure out a way to do that.  He's starting to respond when I talk to him over FaceTime.  Probably wondering who that old lady is, lol.









And now, the LJ update: (I apologize for the pics, but they speak a 1000 words..)

4/28/19

4/16/19

he looks like LJ again!

Been three weeks since I last posted.  It's amazing how much he has changed..on the outside.  His skin is clear and looking fantastic.  If you didn't know he had radiation, you wouldn't.  He looks that good.  His new skin is baby soft with no wrinkles, lol.  But his goatee is gone, gone, gone.  Not even any stubble.  He's afraid it will never come back.  I think it will just take time.  He's getting around much better.  He takes the garbage out and even dumped the tanks the other day.  Just those little acts tire him out, but it's an improvement.  He still struggles with eating and drinking, but each day is a little better.  He has no issues eating smooth baby food.  Anything he puts down his throat breaks up whatever is stuck on the inside and that causes him to cough up stuff.  We have come to the conclusion that what was on the outside is also on the inside.  The more we worked to get rid of the outside damaged skin, the quicker it healed.  So I believe we need to do that on the inside.  So, he's been drinking more warmish water, trying to loosen it up.  I know he hates every minute of it and I'm trying to convince him to power through it so he gets beyond it.  Sometimes we butt heads over it, but I know, deep down, he knows I only have his well being at heart.

Saw his kidney surgeon again last week.  He was taken aback by how much better LJ looks compared to just two weeks ago.  We are keeping the surgery date that was rescheduled to June.  The doc really doesn't want to do the surgery with the feeding tube in and is hoping to give LJ enough time to get eating again so it can be removed prior.  He won't go beyond the June 20th date, though, for fear it will allow the cancer to spread.  We are still taking that chance, but LJ is just not ready yet.  It's definitely a catch 22 but necessary.  We just pray for the best.
He still has a bit of "chemo brain" for lack of better term.  Although, as someone pointed out, it could just be man brain.  And in his case...old man brain.  It's kind of like Groundhog Day.  If nothing else, the second time we have the conversation I can just change the answers to make it interesting lol.

We won't know if the treatments were successful for another couple months and the waiting is excruciating.  But all the signs are good so....


Now, on to other things.  Shoutouts to Royal Caribbean, Best Western and Southwest Airlines.



As some of you know, we had a cruise scheduled for last January 5th.  We found out on December 28th that LJ had cancer.  Fortunately we had purchased travel insurance.  I had been advised several cruises ago to always buy it, because you never know.  It's interesting, because when making the reservations I considered NOT buying it.  After all, ten cruises and we had never needed it.  Glad we did.  We were a week from sailing.  Royal Caribbean was fantastic.  They immediately refunded our drink packages and pre paid tips, etc.  They sent me a letter to send to the insurance company advising them to refund 100% the cost of the cruise.  I filled out the necessary paperwork, submitted it and got a full refund (took a month, but it came!).  In the meantime, I received an email from Royal Caribbean just checking up to see how LJ was doing.  Nothing more.  Not a sales pitch, nothing but seeing if he was doing ok.  I appreciated the gesture.

We also had to cancel flights and pre paid shuttles to and from the airport and the hotel for the night before.  The Best Western refunded during the phone call.  The shuttle refunded within a day.  I was surprised, but Southwest immediately refunded both NON-refundable airline tickets without any question.  I figured they would have us use them later or at minimum charge a fee.  Nope...full refund.

Now for the continuing saga of Larry and Donna.

When it rains it pours.  What I had not mentioned in previous posts is if it's not one thing it's another.  Timeline is important, lol.  Remember, at the end of December after learning LJ had cancer we were rather numb, but moving forward.  So Lj had those tests and then we find out he has the three cancers.  Shock, fear, etc.  What else can go wrong.

So it's January and LJ has what seems like a bazillion doctor appointments and tests scheduled, plus his treatments need to get started.  He had taken Scooter for a walk over to the dog park and I was blowdrying my hair.  All of a sudden I hear this loud BANGBOOM!  and the trailer shakes.  WTF was that?????????

I step outside and OMFG...some guy just ran his trailer into our truck and wiped out the rear dual fender, etc.  The vehicles were still connected because I couldn't move the truck forward or backward.  Backward runs into our trailer..forward into the lamppost at the rv site.  I'm crying now...out of sheer frustration as to what else...what the F else can happen.  I apologized for crying and blurted out about LJ's cancer and the stress we were under.  And now, we have no vehicle.  I know he felt like crap, plus his trailer was hurt worse.  I called LJ to come back and left it to the men to handle.  Trailer wasn't hit, so I have no idea why it shook like it did...scary.  Anyway....Very long story short, a tow company had to come out and pull our truck to the side, off his trailer.  Yep.  Our one year old truck has a big ol owie on it.  The guy was apologetic.. his wife was crying.  Now I felt like an ass.  So I gathered myself, walked over,  gave her a hug and said "It's okay.  Accidents happen.  It's just stuff".  She felt horrible after hearing from her hubby about LJ and again, we just hugged.  I told her again it's just stuff and we can fix it.  We became friendly after that and even joked about the accident the four months they were here.  They just left a couple weeks ago to go home to .... Canada.  Now, why is this important?  He claimed full responsibility, but, because their insurance is nationalized (like a single payer for cars), American insurance companies treat the accident like you were at fault.  We had to pay a deductible upfront.  LJ was not happy.  We weren't charged with the accident, but what a mess.  Our insurance paid for all the repairs, less the deductible, which they would return when the Canadian company reimbursed them.  Yesterday........five months later.......we got our deductible back.  Our insurance did not pay for the rental car we had to have (the perils of having one vehicle) so we are seeking reimbursement from the Canadian company (through our insurance)..still waiting.  What a freakin' mess.  If he had been an American, we could have just dealt with their company and been done with it.   Lesson here....DON'T get in an accident with a Canadian lol. You'll make a new friend, but it'll be expensive lol.

Now, the one good thing that came out of the accident was realizing we need another car, which is why I was able to get my Acadia.  Funny thing is, when we embarked on this journey I sold my 2015 Acadia SLE with 25000 miles on it.  So now I have replaced it with a 2015 Acadia Denali with 12,000 miles on it.. the same only better hahahahaha.

looking forward to this kitchen💖

We've been doing a lot of talking.  Once we get in the house and he is done with his medical stuff, we have places to go and people to see.  We intend on traveling in the summer, June-August.  Just like we had planned from the beginning.  We had planned a lot for this summer, but that will wait.  It's hard to explain why we didn't do a tremendous amount of moving around from the get go, but a lot of it was timing, adjusting to a new life and figuring out when and where to go.  I truly believe it will be different being in the house.  I will once again look forward to going in the trailer.  Right now it's just moving my house from one place to another.  Not really a vacation lol.  I have learned a lot about me and choices I make.  I never thought I'd say I am tired of eating out.  I can't really cook now (like I ever did) because his meds and food, etc pretty much take up the entire RV kitchen.  I will appreciate having a regular stove top, ovens and refrigerator.  And pots and pans and plates and silverware, lol.  I'm looking forward to cooking.  No, really I am.  I did have to put that in writing though.  Don't know why, but he insisted on it, lol.

I'm looking forward to getting my craft room back..the pool..the yard.  All those things I have had for years but never truly appreciated until I didn't have them.  I know Scooter will be happier.  I think he gets bored, too.  I see how he lights up at the house.  Imagine how he'll be when he lives there.  It'll be interesting to see how he reacts when we go RVing after we move in.  Will he be happy like he always was before?  Or will he think in his little dog brain "OMG..not the rv again." lol. I think once we come and go a couple of times he will figure it out and once again be happy about it.  Especially since we will be doing things he enjoys like seeing his buddy Niko and Atv riding.


You know what else I miss?  FAST internet.  I mean, we have internet, but it reminds me of dial up days lol.  Again... you definitely appreciate things when you don't have them!

In the meantime Scooter and I just go shopping, lol

Till next time, my friends.  Hopefully LJ will be eating normal food, although I'm not holding my breath.  I know he's resorted to watching cooking shows on tv...to live vicariously I guess 😂

Keep him in your thoughts!