Traveling again!

Feb 22, 2021 Wow, 2020 was one strange year. Yeah The Rona made it crazy, and the election was nuts, but that’s not the half of it. In late June, after we returned from Hilton Head Island (a great place and a fabulous trip, I’ll blog more about it when I have time) my darling wife Carol GOT SICK!!!

We’ve always been tremendously healthy people. We rarely (almost never) go to a doctor. Well, this past spring, Carol got a toothache and went to a dentist. The dentist was just reopening after The Rona shutdown, handled the presented problem (referred her to the oral surgeon next door who pulled the tooth) and life went on.

Shortly after, Carol started running a low grade fever that just never went away. We got Rona tested, negative. She went to the local ER, they sent her home. Went again a couple week later after no relief, they ran tests and determined she had a Staph infection in her blood (Sepsis). After a 5 day visit, they sent her home with antibiotics. Fever AGAIN… This time we went to University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. Same diagnosis, more antibiotics, back home after a 4 day stay.

The fourth time Carol was fit to be tied, and let them know it. They brought in an Infectious Disease Specialist, he brought in a cardiac guy, they ran a ton of tests, and found this infection living on the mitral valve of her heart! This one needs a different antibiotic, so every time they cured it in her blood it was still active in her heart and would shortly return.

What started out as a bad tooth turned into open heart surgery! But God still smiles on us, and Carol is strong as a Polish mule. After another 18 day hospital stay and open heart surgery, everything is good. Followups and rehabilitation are done, and WE’RE GOING CAMPING!!!

In 2 days, we leave for the warmth and sunshine of Fort Myers, Florida. we’ll have a leisurely week to get there, 2 weeks at a marvelous RV resort, and however long we feel like taking to get back. We’re busy giving our Entegra a good cleaning, I’m busy taking care of some fixes that have been back burnered, she’s making a huge grocery list, the cupboards were quite bare. And Wednesday morning we’re gonna hook up the Jeep and rumble on out of here.