POST JULY 4TH UPDATE

What a week it's been and what a week it will be!


Kevin, our son from Afghanistan flew in last week. We treated him, our daughter-in-law, and her mom & dad to a holiday weekend at the Palm Island Resort. For Cindy & me, this was our 5th visit to the beach there so you can see how much we love it there.


We faced two major obstacles while there...the first was that it rained throughout the weekend. It didn't just rain, it poured much of the time! It cleared up just long enough for us to go down to the beach and get some beautiful sunset pictures. Kevin captured an amazing shot which we will soon add to our collection hanging in the house. We also got to see some terrific fireworks displays on the beach. 


The second major challenge was that we had a 2nd floor 3-bedroom apartment which really meant we had to climb three flights of stairs because the first floor is actually 10 ft off the ground to avoid possible storm surge. Since Cindy cannot walk with a prosthesis yet, it meant we had to figure out a way to carry her up and down the stairs each time we wanted to go anywhere.


Our initial attempt was for four of us to try to carry her in the wheelchair. Unfortunately, the staircase was too tight for us all to do that. We then took a lounge chair off of our patio and had her sit in that. Kevin grabbed one end while I grabbed the other and we carried her up and down the steps. It turned out to be very successful...except for the fact that Cindy made it VERY difficult for us. She would start giggling each time we began and would get us laughing. We almost lost her when we were almost at the top of the 2nd flight of stairs, tired and straining, and she announces "Jesus, take the wheel!". She almost went crashing down 3 flights of stairs because we began laughing so hard.


As for Cindy's medical condition, it was mostly good news. The moment we were leaving for the beach, Cindy found her wound had opened up and had been bleeding rather badly. We almost canceled the trip. Fortunately, we were able to get in touch with our good friends at Moffitt and they instructed us that it was okay to go and how to care for the wound. For the most part, things went smoothly during the trip, with only a couple of times where the wound and the pain became a bit overwhelming for her. Otherwise, it was a great time!


The rest of this week will be planning an engagement party for our other son, Kyle and his fiancee, who some of you who work at the American Cancer Society with Cindy know very well. For those that don't know, Kyle met Kristen while visiting Cindy there last August when he was on leave from Iraq to attend his brother's wedding. Funny how things work out.


So now we are back home and Cindy continues to follow her antibiotic regimen and wound care. Kyle, arrives from his base in Germany this evening and my parents arrive later in the day. Other immediate family members and Kyle's close friends will begin trickling in as the week comes to a close. We anticipate a very full house!


It will be a busy week, but I will blog often as I am on vacation until next Monday.


Have a great (work)week!


Rob