Home from a great vacation and time for an update…
It was a good decision to sneak away on a trip in between convalescing and the next round of 'healthcare social life' and all that this will entail. Great to feel well, be completely pampered and removed from all reminders of my day to day situation. It'll be a while before I'm able to travel again. We picked up the grandson and was he ever excited! The questions, the questions on the way to the airport. A quick check in and he got to break in that brand new passport - the US border agent even let him stamp his own page. We were separated for the flight and so his grandfather was in the rear (apparently surrounded with badly behaved children) and I was the entertainment manager for the five year old "Wow, the houses look like dollhouses, we're in the air, when are the snacks coming?" etc. Just a short flight but….passing through clouds is "pretty awesome" I was told. Seeing the world through the eyes of a child is a good plan.
A rush hour cab ride from JFK airport to Manhattan gave us lots of time to see the sights. Settled in to the hotel and out to source supper - the concierge recommended an Italian restaurant a few blocks away and we enjoyed a wonderful meal of homemade pasta with great service. We spent the next morning and early afternoon on a tour bus in Manhattan, grid locked at times, high heat and humidity and frequent stalling of the bus until…it wouldn't restart and we wandered a few blocks to be picked up by another tour bus. Sourced food at a deli and decompressed for a while in the air conditioned room before taking the subway to Yankee Stadium to watch the Boston Red Sox whoop the Yankees. Back just before midnight and were all instantly asleep. Breakfast at Applebees in the morning, a walk to Central Park and bicycle cart tour with a very nice Turkish student and a cab to the cruise pier.
 |
| Atlantis, Kennedy Space Centre |
 |
| Great Stirrup Cay |
 |
| On the reef off Nassau |
Back into NYC and disembarkation was another chaotic and very slow moving event. Grabbed a cab, stored the luggage and over to the American Museum of Natural History which was an amazing way to beat the heat and humidity. Cab, luggage, airport check in and a bite to eat. As we were preparing for boarding…Delta made an announcement of flight delay (a passenger heard there was no pilot available) and then the story was 'weather' in Halifax and cancellation with flight in the am. So….after waiting in a long disgruntled line of passengers the Delta staff finally gave us a new flight (I vetoed the NY to Montreal to Toronto to Halifax first offer) from La Guardia (not JFK) later the following afternoon, voucher for shuttles and a night at Parc Hotel in Flushing, NY near La Guardia (which turned out to be a nice suites lodging for Asian visitors with a fusion breakfast (dim sum meat buns, strange fried crullers which were dipped in soy sauce, croissants, cereal etc. There was a bit of confusion at check in when the Asian night clerk kept asking for a credit card for the name on the vouchers. We had to convince him that five year olds don't have visas and he'd have to accept the shore captain's. Before departing we spent a few hours shopping in the discount mall next to the hotel and I managed to score new jeans and sneakers at a reasonable price, even after the currency exchange. With all the pounds dropped I now fit into a size 10 which is something I haven't done in years.
Over to La Guardia, attempt to check in…oh we're flying WestJet from another area of the terminal. Where are the bags? The promise was that they'd been shipped directly to Halifax in the morning and would be awaiting us. Oh, so there was no room for us on that flight but…you shipped unaccompanied luggage? I've been on a Delta flight where we all had to deplane and claim our luggage before being cleared for take off as there was an extra bag for goodness sake. Through security and time for supper before the delayed flight departed. The grandson was tickled as "we got to ride on the big plane" ahh to have that magical thinking of that age. Off to Toronto and cleared customs (easier without bags and no one asked) and then a short wait for our flight home. A desperate search for our luggage at 1 am with the West Jet agent telling us that it was nothing to do with them (oh really? you just flew us here as a code share with Delta but are dropping us) so a group of us were finally rescued by an Air Canada agent who went into the luggage area and found them for us. It really had nothing to do with him actually, but he was very kind. An uneventful drive home and arrival at 4 am. Returned the grandson in the afternoon after doing our laundry and it was an early night for all of us on Monday.
Tuesday I got my bloodwork done as a baseline for chemotherapy and had a short visit with my former co-workers. Found the son of one of our GPs doing a locum in the ER - very strange to find a classmate of the oldest daughter in charge of a busy emergency department. Off to Frenchy's to supplement my wardrobe as I'm tired of grabbing my clothes at the waist to keep them up. Scored big time with capris, shorts, t-shirts and tops…even found a cute pair of baby socks for my grand baby to be. Checked the mail to find some lovely cards from various friends and a gorgeous quilt made with love for my chemo journey. Good thing we live in the country so there was no one to see me sniffing at the super mailbox. Overwhelming the support and how much it means. Not always easy to accept all the help if you've been an independent sort.
Today I got the safety inspection for the car done and discovered the brakes need to be redone (warranty at least) visited with former coworkers and ran errands in town. Got a haircut as I won't want my scalp touched I'm sure after treatments and had some strawberry shortcake delivered by a buddy before rushing off for an appointment for chemo teaching. Lots of information and reading materials which ensure you are well educated. Different side of the healthcare system for me and having to ask the questions and look into how the next five months will go is a new experience. Tomorrow we head down to the city to overnight with the daughter and son-in-law before the early Friday am appointment and chemotherapy scheduled following so will head home after treatment.
Expect to post a positive report after my treatment so stay tuned. I'm pasting this link for some positive thinking here:
