Well folks its been an interesting few days. So here are a few highlights

Saturday

John flew into Toronto today, and he and his childhood friend, Joey Kulchar, came down to Fonthill in a rental truck to pickup some of the furniture from the house.  Joey can use it - needs it, and we need to get the stuff gone so it was a win-win situation.

John arranged his travel to Maritimes so that he could take the stop over and get a lift down to see Mom for a few hours.  She complained about his long hair - as usual - and didn’t seem to appreciate the effort he made - but that is Mom. It was very helpful for us as John and Joey took a dozen or so boxes of books to donate to the library, and lugged the storage boxes of stuff I want from Mom’s house but can’t fit in the RV to take home, to Jenny and Jesse’s garage.  Saved Jack and I a lot of lugging and helped empty the house.

Sunday we took Mom out for a drive around Port Colborne and along the Niagara River/Parks then out to lunch at the Mandarin.

Monday the “Got Junk” guys came and took 1 ½ truck loads of “stuff” out of the basement.  Cost us $800+ but was better than trying to do it ourselves.

Tuesday was our last day with Mom, so spent it doing her running around, took her out to lunch etc.  She had a melt-down so there was a lot of anger and emotion going on.  Upset because we were leaving, because we had just dumped her in this place where she doesn’t want to be, she may as well not live because no one cares or wants her around and etc.  Jack and I had both sort of had it especially with the accusations so this time she heard a few realities back.  Ended up with us having a frank talk, her apologizing and promising to try and adapt and put a more positive spin on things.  We left to sleep at Jen and Jesse’s and got to hear a bit about her trip to Vancouver.

Wednesday we stopped in to say goodbye to Mom and she was so much better.  Apologized again, and said she was going to go down to coffee with the ladies.  We left on a good note, had breakfast with the Rogers and headed for home.  Stayed near Lake Oneida in New York State.  Jack was still not feeling well.  John phoned to say Chrissy had to be taken into the hospital by ambulance.  He is in St. John, New Brusswick.

Thursday We drove through Adirondack National Park - absolutely lovely drive - and into Vermont.  Jack has been experiencing nausea and just not feeling well.  At lunch time he started shivering and just could not get warmed up. He shivered violently for most of the afternoon even though the weather was hot and humid, and he had the heater on. With the nausea and chest pain he was in pretty bad shape.  He turned the driving over to me just west of Montpelier and I found a campground about half an hour later.  

About 30 minutes after that I headed for the hospital in Barre/Montpelier.  He was treated in Emergency. and admitted to Intensive Care.  Just after midnight they had him settled in and sedated a bit, so I headed out to the RV and caught a few hours rest in the parking lot.

On the west coast, Chrissy has had her surgery.  It was a little more extensive than they had anticipated, but she should be out of the hospital in a few days.  Glad that is over for her as she has been having severe pain for months and has been rushed to the hospital several times.

Friday - after all kinds of tests, cat scan, x-rays etc.  Jack is still in ICU.  Today about 4 pm his fever broke and he started to come around a bit.  Managed to eat a piece of toast and some Jello.  He isn’t out of the woods by any means, but it was a relief to see a bit of improvement today.  I felt comfortable with coming back to the campground for the night.  Its only about 7 miles from the hospital.  Supposed to be a frost tonight so I am grateful to have electricity for lights and heat.

 The doctors and nurses have been wonderful and the care excellent.  They haven’t found anything wrong with his heart, stomach, etc through the x-rays and cat scan and are leaning to a viral or bacterial infection. So right now they are culturing some tests, monitoring his blood for changes, treating the symptoms and so on. 

Thankfully we purchased travel insurance on Tuesday.  Our provincial covers emergency hospital care, and the travel should cover what they don’t so we are hoping we don’t have to mortgage the RV to pay medical bills.  Actually I’m kind of glad it happened here.  They are doing tests that he has never had at home and really attentive and supportive. Its good to have another opinion and since these guys are starting from scratch with no preconceived notions I’m hoping they come up with some answers for us.

Carol and Russ are still with us, anticipating that we will be heading home tomorrow.  Doubt it myself, even if he is released I don’t think he should start traveling right away,  but one never knows. One of the reasons Jack came this far was to get us up to highway 2 because from here it’s a straight run to Bangor in Maine, and they have traveled that route before so can do it on their own. 

The folks at the campground have also been super. Heck if you have to get sick this is a great place to do it because of the great people.

Chrissy is doing well - had an “emotional” day today which the surgeon told her to expect, but is eating and getting up today.

Well had best get to bed. It has turned cold, so I’m going to snuggle in. Will try to keep you posted. 

Julie