After several quiet weekends it all happens in one!

We have been having a fairly quiet winter, enjoying the slower pace and falling into a routine. Then things started to happen.



Trevor called a week ago saying he needed surgery on his wrist. The surgery was already scheduled and he asked if I could come to Effingham for the surgery. Wednesday afternoon I drove to Charleston and spent the night in Trevor's college house. He lives with three other football players and they had to be up early the next day for a 6:30 AM run. So it worked out well as they went to bed early and I was able to get some sleep. Over the years he has asked me to do various things for him that involved me spending the night at one of his college houses. Typical of any college house there is usually so much activity and energy that sleep becomes a prized commodity. So it was nice to be able to get 6 hours of sleep before our early morning appointment.



The surgery went well but he was in a lot of pain that first night after the nerve block wore off. The surgery was to fix some tendon damage and to remove scar tissue that had formed around some nerves. He had hurt his wrist a couple of years ago causing some of his fingers to go numb. Also, if he used his hand to "hit" another football player, his whole hand would go numb and he would have no grip. He had several x-rays and other tests looking for the problem but they could not find it till now.



The weekend after his surgery was also the weekend of a local euchre tournament. The family of a girl (Sarah) that Trevor went to High School and now college with has an annual euchre tournament and invites both Sarah's and Trevor's friends to attend. Trevor had invited 3 of his football buddies to spend the weekend and play in the tournament. So Thursday after a short night we had the surgery and a 4 hour drive home and then the prescription debacle. Then Friday we ran errands, loaded up on some groceries and made a big pot of soup for the boys arrival that afternoon. Then Saturday we went to the St Louis RV show, while the guys recuperated from Friday night and prepared for the card tournament. The energy these guys have is amazing! Me, I need a slower pace!



Thursday after the surgery, I drove home while Trevor dosed. They had done a nerve block and told him it would last between 12 and 18 hours. So he was in no pain on the ride home. After starting at 5:30 AM, I was beat by the time we got home at 6:30 PM. But before I stopped for the day I had one more little thing to do, I needed to get his pain meds. K-Mart is close and easy to get in and out of so that is where I usually go. I dropped off the prescription and wandered around the store for a few minutes waiting for them to fill it. When I returned to the prescription counter they only had five pills. They said they would have more in the morning around eleven. Doing some higher level math calculations I was quickly able to determine that if the prescription read to take two pills every four hours that five pills would not quite make it till eleven the next day. So I headed to Walgreens. When I got to Walgreens there was one lady at the counter and six people in line. Her standard answer for anyone dropping off a prescription was that it would be at least a half hour. So I waited. It was amazing to watch the organized madness in that place, there was no let up, there was a constant stream of people. Finally they called me and said it was ready and asked for my insurance card. I did not have it with me because K-Mart has that all on file and I do not usually carry it with me. Luckily, one of the guys in the back heard my response and said I could pay full price then bring the card in the next day and they would give me a refund. Fantastic! I was done! I could go home get supper and relax! NOT! When I got home and opened the prescription it was Cialis! Good thing I looked at the bottle before he took any of the pills, or his arm might have stood up for four hours! Back across town to Walgreens. When I got there I got back in line again and waited for my turn. Of course there was someone else working the counter by this time so I was prepared to explain everything from start to finish. But when I started to explain what happened the girl that waited on me popped out of the back room and exclaimed "your the one!" Everyone in line turned to look at me like I had robbed the store. She grabbed the prescription and headed to the back. While she was gone I finished explaining the situation to the guy that was waiting on me and he said he would get me a full refund and get the right prescription. At that time the girl that grabbed the prescription reappeared with the right on and said there was no charge for the prescription. That was nice of them! My one more little thing took two hours and two trips across town!



Enough of the trials and trepidations of one last little chore!



Saturday we left around 8:30 driving two plus hours to the RV show in St Louis. Along the way we stopped for breakfast and after finding reasonably priced parking got to the show well before noon. This show seemed to be bigger than last year and there was a good crowd. I was hoping to see more of the new European styled RV just to see what they were like but there were only a limited number of them. After making our trip around all the displays we ended up spending a lot of our time looking at the Tiffins. While there we met and talk with our Sportscoach salesmen, Eric. He is now with Byerly RV sales. Eric is a great guy and while he does not know all the answers he is willing to find them for you. We also met and talked with the Tiffin rep as well as a nice couple that were trying to decide if they wanted to get into RVing.

His name was Rex (I'm sorry I have forgotten hers) and we greatly enjoyed talking with them. We know exactly where the are in the decision process. It took us two years of looking and debating before we took the plunge into RVing and I can see that they are right where we were during that process. He is worried about the care and feeding of an RV. The maintenance, being able to set it up, a place to park it when not in use, winter storage, winterizing, tires, etc. Then there is the issue of how much it will be used. It is a lot of money to spend when you have all those questions.

By the time we got back home on Saturday evening, the boys had all ready gone to the euchre tournament. So we went to get a pizza and were in bed by ten.

Sunday morning the boys were up earlier than we expected. We thought it would be at least noon before we saw any of them, but they began to stir around 10:30. After feeding them breakfast they packed up and were gone by one. Suddenly the house was very quiet.

Someone sent me a comment asking about using Olive Leaf Extract. Most people that take Olive Leaf have absolutely no problem with it. It boost the immune system. It helps eliminate some of the bad bugs that make us sick. If you are ill or have been sick for a long time like me then it is best to gradually increase the dose over time. I have been on immune suppressants for so long that I was (am) loaded up with various bugs causing me to suffer from the die off effect (see previous blog). In any case it is like most natural meds in that it may take a month or two for it to take effect.

Ken F.