The neck of a 90 year old...

All my plans to write something every other day or so have been trashed by the fact that I had to take Randy to the ER on Tuesday morning (This is Sunday, so five days ago). He’s fine now, but his doctor (who told me to take him to the ER rather than wait to see the NP at his office) was concerned he might have had as stroke or a cardiac issue. The ER doc also was worried about a “concerning artifact” on the EKG they took as soon as he arrived. The ER went into full possible-heart-attack mode: we were told he might have a dissecting aneurism or a heart attack. He had a nurse with him at all times for about two hours. Then they determined he didn’t have either a dissecting aneurism OR a heart attack so they then ignored him for about three hours. He was finally admitted, had more test, and was sent home. Without, I might add, any real help for the issue HE cared most about, severe pain in his shoulders.

Oh well, he had an MRI Friday afternoon (couldn’t have that in the hospital because his diagnosis was “Possible Heart attack” and the insurance wouldn’t pay for an MRI of his neck and shoulders with that diagnosis. He has the neck of a 90-year-old!

So we lost three days of prep for our SBT. I’m not complaining, mind you, just noting that. Really, we lost four days because of a doctor (nurse practitioner, really—and they’re much better in many ways than doctors are! How many docs would spend an hour and a half going over medications and diagnoses and questions?) visit and the MRI.

So in spite of checklists and questioning each other (Did you put the ____ in the motorhome we have still forgotten stuff. Of course I forget right now what we’ve forgotten! It’ll come to me. Probably in the middle of the night.

We’re on our way—finally!—for our first night in Van Horn, TX. About 120 miles east of El Paso and 180 west of Midland, TX, where we will meet Don Beaver and his wife Lorraine for lunch and a tour of the club he manages there. He used to be the manager of our local club, Tucson Country Club. We miss him!

Driving across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas is an experience! Miles and miles of pretty much nothing. A lot like our train ride across Australia from Sydney to Perth. There actually is a lot to see, if you know what to look for. In Australia it was kangaroos, eagles, and camels and here it’s raptors, cactus, flowering yucca, some beautiful white wildflowers (at 60mph it’s hard to classify the genus and species! At least that’s my excuse for not knowing what they are) and mountains.

No photos today, just drive, drive, drive. Tomorrow we spend the night in Big Spring, Texas. This will be a drive back in time for us. In 1962, Randy and I went to Big Spring right after we got married for his 55 weeks of pilot training. Some of the most fun and exciting time of our new married life.

More on Big Spring in my next post!