10 Jul Checking In
A week ago, we left on Saturday to check Josh in at his Sea Cadets Boot Camp on Sunday at Camp Roberts, 200 miles north of here. You can see my last post for details on that. In the meantime, while we haven’t heard anything from Josh (and don’t expect to), there’s a website where they are posting pictures of the experience. Josh has shown up in a couple of them, so I thought I’d post them here:
These recruits are waiting for their check-in processing. Josh is the one without his "cover". He forgot it, and paid for it with the DI's almost immediately! I don't think he'll be forgetting much stuff after this experience!
Here the recruits are waiting in line at chow hall. If you count heads in the picture, Josh in the 9th one back.
It was tough to leave him there, and we miss him around the house! Needless to say, we are really looking forward to the trip next Friday and Saturday to attend his graduation and bring him home! He graduates on Saturday, July 17 at 11 am.
After leaving him there, Colleen drove us (I wasn’t feeling all that well after Saturday’s drive) leisurely down the 101 with a couple stops in Paso Robles and Pismo Beach. Being the 4th of July, Pismo was PACKED!
We arrived at our next stop at the Motel 6 in Goleta about 6:30 pm. We had planned to meet some friends who have a family tradition of Santa Barbara fireworks for the 4th of July. However, Jonathan really didn’t want to do the fireworks show.
So, the modified plan was for me and Jonathan to hang together at the motel and Colleen to go meet the friends. Well, that plan got modified by our exhaustion.
We were so tired by the time we got to Goleta that we just napped while Jonathan enjoyed the cool and retro styled Motel 6 (never seen one like that before) and the flat screen TV. Even Colleen decided to forego the fireworks!
On Monday morning, we drove to Solvang, where our friends were staying. Colleen and the wife of the couple took off for a pre-planned night in Avila Beach. Jonathan and I hung with the rest of their family at their timeshare in Solvang.
He and I were going to drive home that evening, depending on whether or not I felt up to the drive. Jonathan initially really wanted to go home for some reason. However, by the time I felt up to trying the drive around 9 pm, he decided he wanted to stay the night, so we did.
On Tuesday, Colleen arrived back around 3:00, and we made our way back home.
Health-wise, the weekend travel wasn’t real easy, but I wasn’t going to miss the trip to take Josh up no matter what. It was worth it. I want him to always know that I am willing to do whatever it takes to help him make his dreams a reality whenever I can.
Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly good days. They weren’t without nausea and stomach pain. There were ups and downs, but they were relatively mild.
With my parents in town and currently staying at my sister’s place, we’ve been spending as many evenings over there as we can, which we did Wednesday night. Around 9:30, Mom came down with some severe pain in her left jaw that wouldn’t go away.
My sister took her to the ER and stayed with her until about 12:30 am. I took over from there, driving her home when she was released about 4 am. They checked out her heart and all was OK. They sent her home with some antibiotics in case of infection and some Vicodin for pain, recommending she see a dentist of the pain returns.
Thursday and Friday were rougher days for me physically. I saw my regular doctor Friday morning for a follow-up to surgery and other things. He is moving forward on testing for additional issues over the next 2 weeks. We’ll see if that turns up anything.
The gall bladder surgery was four weeks ago now. The incisions have healed pretty slowly. They’re all still fairly tender, especially later in the day. The doctor thinks that may point further to a possible auto-immune condition, as those tend to cause slower overall healing to any wounds or injuries.
The nausea and stomach pain when I eat is still present, seeming to indicate that the gall bladder going bad was a byproduct of whatever has been going on the last 6 months, rather than the cause.
I still have the appointment at Cedars-Sinai on July 27th, so I’m holding out hope that it may start a process of further revelation and help.
That’s about it for now. Hope your Summer is progressing well for you, and that it’s filled with some good down time, rest, refreshing and family time!
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