Sunday, September 21, 2014

Phil and I made it home to Solon, Ohio, in the Cleveland area June 17. We saw family, including my daughter Katie a couple times. That’s when the curve ball came also called “life changing on a dime”. July 4th weekend Katie had a pain crises. It ended up that she took too much Tylenol when she didn’t get relief after seeing medical professionals which destroyed her liver that lead to her death on July 10. My sweet girl is now in Heaven where there is only love and she will forever more NOT be in any pain and wearing high heels that she couldn’t wear in life. She was so brave living with pain from back surgeries for more than 10 years. Thanks to my family that has rallied around me and my great husband, I’m hanging in there. It also helps that as a hospice nurse, I’m around wonderful supportive colleagues so when it gets bad, I get wonderful hugs and support. I really enjoy my job and it keeps me busy and thinking about other things. Doing good for others is always a help.

One of the reasons I mention this is that there are so many people who don’t understand how toxic Tylenol or acetaminophen is. Did you know that it takes only 1000 mg more than the 2000-4000mg recommended daily dose for Tylenol to be toxic??? So if you take Extra Strength Tylenol (500mg per tab) two at a time, only 4-1000mg doses is maximum dose IF your liver is healthy and if you are less that 65years old. , otherwise 2000mg is the maximum dose. It take just one more 1000mg dose to likely get into trouble. If you are drinking and taking Tylenol, it’s even more toxic. Enough trouble that could cause massive acute liver failure and death. Please, please be careful taking Tylenol. In fact, please don’t take Tylenol.

So if one curve ball wasn’t enough, the week before the Memorial Service, my oldest daughter Rachel, is admitted to the hospital and we postponed the memorial service. Of course I flew out to Denver and stayed with her in the hospital 24h/day until she went home and then flew home a few days after that. Thankfully, she didn’t need surgery. But she remained too sick to be able to fly out for the rescheduled Memorial Service on September 13. Thanks to wonderful technology, we had her Facetime during the service and have a video from a couple sources of the service. It’s not professional, but will do the job to fill in when the internet connection was slow. I’ll be glad to have it too! Good news!! Medication adjustments are working and she’s gained 5 pounds, a very good thing and is feeling better.

So what are our plans?? Phil is flying down to Trinidad on Oct 21 where Changes is on the hard to clean her up, make some repairs and then splash her in the water. Hopefully, Phil can find someone who will either fly down to help transport Changes to Grenada and enjoy a vacation there or find someone who wants to have a ride with him from Trinidad to Grenada.

Me, I’m working longer to pay off the extraordinary expenses. Can’t go cruising with a credit card balance. I’m very lucky that I work for a good company, that there is plenty of work available and my sister in law is letting us live with her for the summer rent free! It means that I CAN pay off the bills and leave Dec 3 to fly to Trinidad. Then fly or crew on a boat that is going to Grenada when I get there. If the Christmas Winds stay like last year, then I shouldn’t have any problems meeting up with him. I’m sure that it will work out somehow.

Another blessing is my niece had a baby boy July 21, and I’m the designated surrogate Grandmother since his grandmas are too far away. The weekend before Phil leaves, we’ll move to her house so I can help them out. Sounds great to me. The other blessing is Rachel and her finance Kate are moving down to live with her Dad in Florida. It will be good for both and she’ll be oh so much closer when we return to the States early next summer.

I really enjoy my job, so have mixed feelings believe it or not, about returning to cruising for the season. But I have promised Phil that I would return to Trinidad, and so I shall. Last season was different than I had expected, so I’m hopeful that this next time will be better than I hope for. If everything goes right, we’ll have friends going north thru the Caribbean at the same time and I look forward to making new friends.