I hope this post finds you well dear readers! We landed back in the land of ice and snow in our home state of Idaho after the culmination of our time in Cozumel ended with my hubby’s eight day hospital stay. While the flying was rigorous we made it and were relieved to be back in our own territory. After a visit to our primary care provider, we traveled on to our home in the Boise National Forest in our tiny town of historic Idaho City to hunker down and sort out my honey’s back issues. (The pic below is the beautiful snowy view from the mountain perch that is our county dump 😉 When we took off at the end of December we certainly did not plan to return to the cold. That was nearly a month ago. We are extremely grateful for the good fortune that has brought us back on the road again. Today, as I write, we are headed to our fav sunny western US city of San Diego, in beautiful Southern California. It’s our test run to be certain we can manage enough activity to make a little more travel worthwhile before this season’s window of opportunity to disappear from our area is gone. We are happy little snowbirds back in flight to test our wings!
This past few weeks has set my mind wandering over some philosophical views once again. Life can certainly deal the unexpected, but the right mindset really can beat any negative. Looking back over the hospitalization and the month of rehab and doctor appointments I have truly become aware of my husband’s ability to find that silver lining I’ve written about before. This is the second time in our lives together that he has been dealt a hand that landed him in a hospital with severe pain to deal with. Both times we were away from home and familiar surroundings. Each time, I have stood back and admired the jovial attitude and positive spirit he is capable of adopting. In the face of adversity he can manage kindness and an upbeat demeanor. In both instances I never witnessed him lose his cool, snap at anyone or complain. I believe this may be part of the secret to his capability of some pretty amazing healing. I share it with you so you can consider the value of this mindset being at your reach should you need to overcome a battle. I pray that I can draw on this memory if I find myself in a negative health situation. I want to remember to will myself into a great frame of mind so that my body can react well and take care of itself. I wish this for anyone who has a challenge to rise up to.
Once again we are fortunate for the care my hubster was given in an obscure location. The neurologist at home, Dr. Little (Who came highly recommended and we are extremely impressed with.) explained at our final appointment here at home that my husband was very fortunate to have received the style of treatment he did while we were in Mexico. It set his body to work healing itself. While he still has some mending to be done to regain all sensation in his right leg and foot the doc is very optimistic for that. He advised we “go live life”. I could feel the relief emanate from us as we sat in the examination room while he reviewed the MRI images with us that had been sent from Mexico. The residual pain has reduced to a nearly non existent point in these weeks of healing. Learning to manage himself with proper stretching and exercise while finding a balance that does not exert too greatly on the lumbar will be the key to the possibility of never having to slip backwards. The doc advised that things like a landscape project needing completion or a garage needing cleaned would be best paid to get done or left undone. This type of labor will simply have to be a thing of the past in order to avoid re-aggravation of the culprit bone on bone of L-5 to S-1 which would lead to severe herniation that would pave the road to excruciating pain of the pinned sciatic nerve. Learning care and caution for his back will be up to my honey. We are equipped with a “break glass in case of emergency” steroidal pack to get us home if ever a situation should necessitate we get back fast. At that time, there might be steroid shots or a micro discectomy but my honey might get fortunate even yet again and never get to that point. We will use a level of reserve to insure we get the most out of this wonderful life we’ve been given!
I’ve written about several San Diego escapes in the life of this blog but I’ll keep you posted if I find any new morsels to share. Keep your fingers crossed we find ease in adventuring with some new limitations in place so that this next month we can stay “on the road” and share some new locales to tempt an addition to your bucket list! #cometravelwithme#comelivelifewithme
PS In case you’re new to the tales in this blog don’t forget the value of the links shared throughout each post. They add extra information to assist you with life or travel planning. Depending on your device you may have to hover over the words to have these links show up.
