Grounded

 

 

Part of a wellness package sent by my employer

In 2022 I discovered that I had a life-threatening illness.  Well, that put a crimp in our trekking.  We travelled from the Midwest to Arizona in December 2022 and became residents of that state in 2023.

Medical treatments became my primary activity.  At one point my hemoglobin was 3.7.  My primary care doctor couldn't believe that I could walk into her office.  Shortly thereafter I was in the emergency room of a hospital where I was administered two units of blood.

My life in 2023 has focused on dealing with my medical condition.  We never made it to our summer location, a Caliber travel trailer on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, but plan to do so in 2024.

Caliber at Michigan campsite

After achieving some medical stability, I underwent several surgeries, radiation treatments and then chemotherapy. I'll begin immunotherapy on October 30. How am I doing?  My radiologist told me that I'm made of "stern stuff".  However, it has been difficult, with about 17 units of blood administered since April, and numerous hospital stays and surgeries. After a recent surgery it was determined that I had sepsis with a pseudomonas infection. I've been on some serious antibiotics and am currently about 11 days into 13 days of taking cipro (Ciprofloxacin).  This necessitated removing my nephrostomy tubes and installing new ones. 

We are planning on resuming trekking in 2024.  We signed up for the FMCA's 108th International Convention & RV Expo Pima County Fairgrounds, Tucson, AZ.  This will be held March 20-23, 2024. 

We'll be selling our 5th wheel.  Our primary trekking RV will be via our Roadtrek 210P.

I found maneuvering in the Cypress to be difficult, so G and I decided to purchase a home in the resort.  This had been our long-term plan.  My sudden change in health afforded the opportunity to make this change. G had been monitoring available homes and friends in the resort alerted her to one that was about to come on the market. She compared it to several others that were on the market and decided it was the best choice.   

After we both looked it over, we decided to make a bid and voila' we are once again homeowners.  So it seems we are official Arizona residents. 

We are currently furnishing the home.  This has afforded the opportunity to do things over.  For example, we purchased a steamer-convection oven rather than a microwave.  The Roadtrek and Cypress have microwave convection ovens, but we decided the convection oven feature was more important. 

Steamer-Convection oven

I've resumed my financial writing and blogging, but I'm not sure how frequently I'll be blogging.

Note:  The resort we are at has been described as a "Mega-resort".  It has RV sites, Park Models for sale or rent, and homes.  Some RVers sell their rv's after a few years and move into a park model.  These are 400 square ft. or larger.

(c) 2023 N. Retzke