The Ongoing Recovery And Life Returns To Normal

This year's trip south has been a rollercoaster of sorts with all kind of unexpected things happening.

The more I think about it, the more I also can enjoy "normality" again. Our days are now following a routine which was built years ago when we first arrived here in 2005.

Back in 2005 I was just 53yrs., and we were both the youngest around here. Everybody around us was much older. Now the tables have turned. A new generation of campers is coming here. Recently, we have seen very young people with small children here. I guess they have remote work, so they don't need to live in a permanent brick and stick home.

Now, we are up with first daylight (or some times earlier) having a nice European breakfast with rolls, jam, eggs and coffee. Next is our morning walk half around the campground and up the irrigation canal. 

Back home again we usually clear up the trailer for the day, or run a few errands to town, which we did today. 

Afternoons are lazy time, with napping or puttering around outside. Between 2:30pm and 3pm it's coffee time. Some times neighbours show up for a chat. After coffee it's time for a Dixie-walk again and from 4:30pm the sun will be gone behind the western horizon, 30 minutes later it's pitch dark.

Now it's time to think of preparing supper. Bea made a delicious pasta with meat sauce today. What a delight!

While these days are flowing one after the other, my personal recovery is taking place. I have become a pill eater which sort of manifests that I am officially old now. Never thought of that and it still seems foreign to me.

I still feel just a tad of the pain, early in the morning, but it's only in a finger or two. A little tingling...barely.

When the drama is over - peace is soo much more valuable!

Our every-day morning walk, Bea finds a lot of birds around here, while Dixie is looking for sticks she can carry home and I am just enjoying being here.

Hello, Life Is Good Again And We Celebrated With Donuts!

 Coming back from Yuma yesterday, we were in a better mood. My swelling had started to go down, the pain was gone and I got a prescription for meds to help me negotiate this problem to its end.

I ran over to the pharmacy in Holtville to fill the prescriptions so I could start treatment right away in the morning.

The big question in my mind was, would I be able to sleep through the night? 

With the pain gone and feeling reasonably tired after a long day, I was in bed at 9pm. Within minutes I had entered into a deep sleep. The pain did not return, my hand healed over night and at 6am the next morning I was back to normal. Got up, made myself a coffee and a warm porridge breakfast and relaxed on the couch awaiting full daylight. At 7:30 I drove down to the Hot Spring and put myself into one of the hot pools. Could heaven be sooo wonderful? I felt just great. Beside of me was a gentleman from Minnesota. It turned out his name was Peter. Haha....Over the next 30 minutes Peter and I had a great conversation. Coming down from Minnesota, Peter was of Norwegian heritage. Minnesota is full of them Scandinavians. So why not meet one of them here in the pool?

The day turned out to be wonderful with lots of sun, and feeling so invigorated, I decided to drive to El Centro to pay a visit to my favorite grocer in town. Of course, it's the German ALDI market.  Not only do they have the best prices on most groceries but they also import the WINTERNACHT Christmas collection of goodies from Germany, whiteout which we cannot celebrate Christmas.

          ALDI'S display of German Christmas Goodies

And my very own selection of it. BTW. the little Stollen in the front came in a package directly from Germany

So I went a little overboard with this today, telling myself that after all, Christmas is only once a year.

But I also went to Walmart, which is only a block away from ALDI. I steered right into the bakery section where I grabbed a box of 12 wonderful looking donuts and another bag of 24 of our morning rolls. Walmart is the only one having these treasures. 

All set for the party

And here are they, except two who already had another invitation

We had invited all of our friends for a get-together at 2:30pm for a Donut Party. Needless to say we had a great time together. 

And high above, I had hung the sign of last winter's unfortunate Cherry Pie production. 

Now off to vacation time, cause it's about time

Congratulations Sir, You Got Osteo-Arthritis

 When a nurse or doctor had asked me, I always gave them the same answer: "No, I don't take any medications". And they all had seemed so surprised. A guy of my age not taking any meds on a regular basis seemed unheard of.

But that has now changed for ever. After another "night from hell", we both had gotten enough and decided to drive to Yuma for paying a visit to the ER at the Yuma Regional Health.

And we made sure we got there early in the day. Entering into the ER-unit itself was impressive. It was a huge waiting hall with maybe 7-8 people waiting in a space where there could have been room for hundreds.

Positive surprise right away!

After 30 minutes of waiting I was called in. I will spare you all the details, but this facility is the best hospital I have ever seen. Modern, well-equipped and stocked with friendly and competent people. I just wish my province of New Brunswick would sport something like this.

When the tests had ended, I saw my doc again and he had no really bad news (all the tests seemed fine) BUT the diagnosis confirmed what I had been expecting all along:

Sir, you got Osteo-Arthritis,

And there you have it. Cold and clear. Better adjust to it, boy or else...

Maybe This Is The Year We Should've Stayed At Home

 Of course, you have been wondering why blog posts were interrupted. 

There is a very reason to it: I am sick!

I think it all began on the 3rd. day of our trip. I had body aches when getting out from behind the wheel and my fingers had been tingling after hours of driving.

From there it went all downhill. 

Excruciating pain in my right hand, especially at night, depriving me of sleep for 4 nights, as of now. The hand is all swollen up and feels "on fire". and I still have body aches all over. Words like ARTHRITIS, GOUT and other scary scenarios are spooking around in my brain. This goes along with unreasonable chills, having me looking for my jacket even when inside the trailer. Monday will find me in an ER and hopefully, we will know more by the evening. Meanwhile, I got a numbing cream to put on my hand to douse the pain, which I hope will allow for some sleep again.

Bea is taking this very heavy and has thrown around ideas of going home. It even affected her nightmare scenarios. But that doesn't look too attractive, especially in my current condition. I'd rather fly home and get it checked out, but Bea and Dixie would have to stay behind. So for now, we have landed on the ER-visit on Monday.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with our friends and enjoy the company of all those people, many of which we have known for years.

Using this key board hurts my swollen fingers, so I'll call is quits for today.