Visited the doctor yesterday, yet again…..New surgeon, new and much more satisfactory outcome.
This time I actually got to see the surgeon instead of one of his male interns that was hot to impress the young female intern he was working with....ok intern II was kinda cute but intern I was supposed ot be working on my foot not his moves with the cutie.
The real surgeon poked around a bit, the only issue I had with him poking around is that he used nothing to deaden the area, hey you are digging around under my skin, as in, YOU ARE IN MY TOE, with no sign of any medicine to ease the pain, buddy this freaking hurts and if I wasnt so desperate to go on vacation I may have had some not so kind words to share with him and maybe even display for and on him the different levels of pain that accompanied his treasure hunt in my toe,but I played nice and just bit the bullet.
Then I hear DR Painful say a few words that truly made the pain not only more bearable but ease and almost totaly go away he said.... hmmmm I think I've found the issue. He dug around a bit more, hey doc, if you find any gold dabloons in there you have to split the tresure with the host, being Rob of course....his digging proceeded for what of course seemed like 5 minutes when in all actuality was I am sure less than a minute. Luck was on Rob's side, well kind of, he didn't find any dabloons but did remove a cyst from the crater that he had been working in. Once he removed the cyst the pressure and for the most part the pain had been nullified and I was able to hop down from the table and stroll out of his office with but a hint of annoying ache in my foot. Way to go doc! I'll toast you with a cold one when I am on the beach next week.
Wooo Hoo Vacation is a go again!!!!
Saturday morning comes the foot is much better. I peel back the band aide to view the dammage and immediately recognize that we will now have to pack in our luggage a small pressure washer to get beach sand and maybe small crustations...out of the crater that once was the top of one of my toes. I will be on the look out for small to medium sized hermit crabs that may be looking for a new home. But lets not sweat the small stuff....I am going on my trip!!
I decided it is time for Rob to do some last minute errands.
It is 37 degrees outside…yes I said 37! and yes this is the 12th day of April and yes we are in Kansas. No it isnt supposed to be this cold and to add insult to injury it is snowing outside, You have to be kidding me... No it isnt sticking but yes it is snowing. I may have been one of a hand full of people in Kansas City to laugh at the weather this morning....folks I have 3 days till Calgone takes me away from what has been a cruel winter in our fair city and safely deposits me on a beautiful beach. OK, it isnt Calgon, more like American Airlines, that is as long as they get the MD-80 issue solved before Tuesday otherwise it will be my big black gas guzzling Tahoe taking me to Dallas so I can make my first flight on Wednesday morning. Heck a round trip to Dallas in the Tahoe...there goes my "$600 refund check from Uncle Sam". Now that is one way to stimulate local economy. You should try filling one of those things up at the pump. Almost bad enough to make me want to trade it in for a mini-cooper. I have nce again digressed...sorry, now back to my regularly scheduled tale for today.
I threw on a sweatshirt with my shorts and off I went to the bank and then to tan… We then ran some last minute errands and I am still in my shorts, I truly don’t care how cold it is. We leave on Tuesday and I refuse to wear big boy pants….except of course to work on Monday which is my last day before vacation. I even have a special T-shirt I will be wearing on Monday under what ever I wear to work. The shirt has two pictures on it, the one on top is of a donkey that says This is my ass. The picture below it is of the same donkey lying on a hammock between two palms nursing a boat drink with the caption This is my ass on the beach….any questions!!
Well, you have any questions????? LOL
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
A day closer but may be much further from leaving.
Rob is less than a happy camper today!! Went to the doctor yesterday about a staph infection on one of my toes….I have had a couple of pretty good bouts with this already that have landed me in the hospital more than once. Doctor sent me to a surgeon…uh oh!! Surgeon said was going to lance and drain and should be all better and healed by the time I get on the plane next Tuesday!!! Wooo hooo, do your best there Mr Saw Bones sir!!! Filled my toe full of numbing agent…ouch…nothing numbing about that it freaking hurt…but as I said before I am experienced at this so I knew it was coming.
Rob got luck of the draw today and got a resident that was showing off for another pretty young first year resident. Mr I have a crush didn’t wait for the pain killer/numbing agent to work and proceeded to open up the boil and drain it……hey buddy wait for the meds to work…this hurt like hell! I had a much more intricate surgery for a similar issue in Sept and that doc let the meds work…I didn’t feel a thing then. Next the bleeding wasn’t ready to stop so they put some silver oxide stuff in it to stop the bleeding….worked like a charm. Commented to the docs hey, not so sure this is a good thing….I am limping more now than when I came in… Shut up Rob, the big man upstairs heard me and today my toe is worse than it was before the procedure.
Now for the funny part, We are tanning for our vacation so I went off to the tanning booth to catch some rays and relax a bit. The band aid came off my toe on one side. No biggie I made sure that part of my foot stayed off the tanning bed. When tanning was done I got out of the bed and looked down and then I saw it…the dreaded black spot. Seems that the silver oxide and a tanning lamp mixed to oxidize and turn into a large black spot. So I promptly yelled black spot, black spot and wiped my hands on my chest three times spun in a circle twice and made a spitting noise…no real spittle. Flash back to Pirates of the Caribbean II. I then laughed , got dressed and proceeded to tell my wife about it.
On a serious note, I have yet another doctors appointment tomorrow with a surgeon to see what they are going to do with me. This is a bit concerning as my airfare is not refundable nor is one of my hotel rooms. Oh well guess it would be better to keep the toe than to risk serious infection in the Caribbean. More on this to follow..
Rob got luck of the draw today and got a resident that was showing off for another pretty young first year resident. Mr I have a crush didn’t wait for the pain killer/numbing agent to work and proceeded to open up the boil and drain it……hey buddy wait for the meds to work…this hurt like hell! I had a much more intricate surgery for a similar issue in Sept and that doc let the meds work…I didn’t feel a thing then. Next the bleeding wasn’t ready to stop so they put some silver oxide stuff in it to stop the bleeding….worked like a charm. Commented to the docs hey, not so sure this is a good thing….I am limping more now than when I came in… Shut up Rob, the big man upstairs heard me and today my toe is worse than it was before the procedure.
Now for the funny part, We are tanning for our vacation so I went off to the tanning booth to catch some rays and relax a bit. The band aid came off my toe on one side. No biggie I made sure that part of my foot stayed off the tanning bed. When tanning was done I got out of the bed and looked down and then I saw it…the dreaded black spot. Seems that the silver oxide and a tanning lamp mixed to oxidize and turn into a large black spot. So I promptly yelled black spot, black spot and wiped my hands on my chest three times spun in a circle twice and made a spitting noise…no real spittle. Flash back to Pirates of the Caribbean II. I then laughed , got dressed and proceeded to tell my wife about it.
On a serious note, I have yet another doctors appointment tomorrow with a surgeon to see what they are going to do with me. This is a bit concerning as my airfare is not refundable nor is one of my hotel rooms. Oh well guess it would be better to keep the toe than to risk serious infection in the Caribbean. More on this to follow..
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
A week out and now there are hurdles!
We will be in the islands a week from today and now I am seeing some roadblocks and hurdles. The first is the McDonald Douglas 80 airplane. We fly on a Tuesday evening from KCI to DFW on one of those planes. Should not be an issue as they rounded them today expecting the planes to be in the air in the next couple of days Don’t get me wrong….if there is an issue..ground the darned plane. I have a 6AM flight from DFW that I will be on come hell or high water. We will either purchace a same day flight down on Southwest or I will get in my car and drive the 8 hours to Dallas. Could leave my car with a friend …. This can be overcome with some planning, frankly there is nothing I would rather do than plan travel…..LOL.
Second issue is that in the last year I have been hospitalized on more than one occasion with a staph infection. Going to the doctor today because it has yet again reared its ugly head and I am sporting a nice boil on one of my toes. The biggest infection I had was two toes over and caused me to spend a full week in the hospital followed up by a month of IV drug therapy. This could be a big problem if the infection I now have becomes larger. On my way to the doctor today to get this taken care of. At this point; dude could just lop off the toe and bandage the area and I would be fine with that …..ok kidding but for those that Jones for travel like I do…you get my point here.
One week from today is our big travel day that will culminate with my gorgeous wife and I lying on the beach watching the sun set while the sounds of the breaking waves lull all the stress from our way too stressed out bodies. I cant tell you all how forward I look to sitting my butt in a seat on a plane in Dallas next Wednesday morning for a 6AM flight….then my vacation truly starts to rock! We have put a lot of energy into this trip and I hope that it is all we are expecting. Our journey will be busy for sure and that is not like us, we usually relax a lot. I think we will have the relax time it will just be a t different beaches each day.
6 days and counting……woo hoo!
Second issue is that in the last year I have been hospitalized on more than one occasion with a staph infection. Going to the doctor today because it has yet again reared its ugly head and I am sporting a nice boil on one of my toes. The biggest infection I had was two toes over and caused me to spend a full week in the hospital followed up by a month of IV drug therapy. This could be a big problem if the infection I now have becomes larger. On my way to the doctor today to get this taken care of. At this point; dude could just lop off the toe and bandage the area and I would be fine with that …..ok kidding but for those that Jones for travel like I do…you get my point here.
One week from today is our big travel day that will culminate with my gorgeous wife and I lying on the beach watching the sun set while the sounds of the breaking waves lull all the stress from our way too stressed out bodies. I cant tell you all how forward I look to sitting my butt in a seat on a plane in Dallas next Wednesday morning for a 6AM flight….then my vacation truly starts to rock! We have put a lot of energy into this trip and I hope that it is all we are expecting. Our journey will be busy for sure and that is not like us, we usually relax a lot. I think we will have the relax time it will just be a t different beaches each day.
6 days and counting……woo hoo!
Monday, April 7, 2008
My Trip Schedule....
Day one; Head to Front street to purchase my wife some big shiny rocks.
Have her wear the rings and necklace everywhere we go. We must park along the street in front of a no parking sign I hear those are the best spots
Day two; A visit to Pic Paradise with our brand new high end digital camera and lenses.
I know I’ll get some great shots. We will leave our rental car in the lot with all of our beach stuff in the back seat.
Day three; Spend the day at Orient beach, where we will leave our beach bag full of cameras, IPod and billfold with lots of cash and credit cards on the beach as we both swim out to a floating dock and sun ourselves….maybe catch a bit of a nap while there too. Finish the day off with a long stroll down Orient while our beach bag sits safely between the rented chairs that we have spent next to no time at all day .
Day four; visit one of the ATMs on island and do some serious damage to my account at home. Later in the evening we will visit a couple of casinos and celebrate our winnings by counting the money while on the casino floor and once again just outside the doorway. We will of course count it together out loud so we make sure we have the same totals.
Day five; After spending the day in the sun, we will head to Grand Case where we will proceed to drink a couple of nice bottles of Bordeaux along with dinner and after dinner rum drinks then drive back to the Dutch side.
Day six: Hang out in Terreses basses at Baie Longue (naked of course) until late in the evening then we will go into Marigot for dinner and take the lowland route back to our hotel of course we will stop along the golf course for a midnight walk on Mullet beach, afterwards we may even assist that car full of young men that are having issues with their ride.
Day seven; Re visit with both the French and Dutch side police to once again go over our numerous crime reports before we board our plane to return home and then bash the island on TTOL as well as other helpful websites.
Have her wear the rings and necklace everywhere we go. We must park along the street in front of a no parking sign I hear those are the best spots
Day two; A visit to Pic Paradise with our brand new high end digital camera and lenses.
I know I’ll get some great shots. We will leave our rental car in the lot with all of our beach stuff in the back seat.
Day three; Spend the day at Orient beach, where we will leave our beach bag full of cameras, IPod and billfold with lots of cash and credit cards on the beach as we both swim out to a floating dock and sun ourselves….maybe catch a bit of a nap while there too. Finish the day off with a long stroll down Orient while our beach bag sits safely between the rented chairs that we have spent next to no time at all day .
Day four; visit one of the ATMs on island and do some serious damage to my account at home. Later in the evening we will visit a couple of casinos and celebrate our winnings by counting the money while on the casino floor and once again just outside the doorway. We will of course count it together out loud so we make sure we have the same totals.
Day five; After spending the day in the sun, we will head to Grand Case where we will proceed to drink a couple of nice bottles of Bordeaux along with dinner and after dinner rum drinks then drive back to the Dutch side.
Day six: Hang out in Terreses basses at Baie Longue (naked of course) until late in the evening then we will go into Marigot for dinner and take the lowland route back to our hotel of course we will stop along the golf course for a midnight walk on Mullet beach, afterwards we may even assist that car full of young men that are having issues with their ride.
Day seven; Re visit with both the French and Dutch side police to once again go over our numerous crime reports before we board our plane to return home and then bash the island on TTOL as well as other helpful websites.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
The most daunting task!!
For me, the most daunting task as a big vacation comes up is…..wanna guess?
Nope not getting everything organized!
Nope not packing!
Not even waiting for the faithful day to come.
Ok, ok…the task I am referring to is, drum roll please….staying focused at work!!
It has been two long years since we were on island!! Many things have changed there that we have missed. The airport we remember is gone and now replaced with a 21st century airport. There is good and bad to that for us. I loved getting off of the plane and being greeted by a blast of tropical air and the smell of the tarmac followed by the nice stroll to immigration station before getting out into the crazy crowd in front of the terminal to find our rental car friends. I am sure some of that will still be there but SXM has joined the modern world with an acceptable airport. The Cupecoy area I am sure is incredibly over built by now. Last time we were there we enjoyed the beach at Cupecoy with just the ugly wall of Shore Pointe behind us, now I have seen pix of the area and am completely saddened by the building that has occurred at this once pristine beach. Ok, I have digressed just a bit here.
Yes, it has been 2 years almost to the day since we have been on island. I booked our trip 14 months ago and got airline tickets when there was a fantastic sale in October. I have had a countdown on my whiteboard at work since I booked. Now I am down to just a few days and my mind wanders to comfortable beach chairs with my beautiful wife of 25 years by my side as we soak up the sun and recover from a long and very cold Kansas City winter. In fact as I write this the temp today will be a high of 45 with rain.
Every day I have a couple of friends that come by my cube and ask me how long I have left before I log off my computer, walk out the office doors and don’t look back for two weeks. Today I shot them the number 12!!!! I am so close to single digit that I am beginning to believe that if I sit still for just a few seconds, I can taste that first ice cold Carib as sweat from the bottle rolls down and kisses my hand while the smell of the sea air fills my nose with pure pleasure, causing an auditory exhale that drains bits of stress out of my body with each and every breath cycle.
Thankfully, I have a big presentation that I am preparing for that occurs the first working day back…well not back. I will be traveling to KC only to get on a plane the next day for Las Vegas and will be hosting a large group of customers….gee there is a trifle bit of reality at reentry!! The presentation is all that keeps me in any way focused on work and away from visualizing the fish we will see while scuba diving in my imagination as I sit at my computer waiting for days, hours and minutes to slowly fall from the calendar until that faithful day that we head for the airport.
Nope not getting everything organized!
Nope not packing!
Not even waiting for the faithful day to come.
Ok, ok…the task I am referring to is, drum roll please….staying focused at work!!
It has been two long years since we were on island!! Many things have changed there that we have missed. The airport we remember is gone and now replaced with a 21st century airport. There is good and bad to that for us. I loved getting off of the plane and being greeted by a blast of tropical air and the smell of the tarmac followed by the nice stroll to immigration station before getting out into the crazy crowd in front of the terminal to find our rental car friends. I am sure some of that will still be there but SXM has joined the modern world with an acceptable airport. The Cupecoy area I am sure is incredibly over built by now. Last time we were there we enjoyed the beach at Cupecoy with just the ugly wall of Shore Pointe behind us, now I have seen pix of the area and am completely saddened by the building that has occurred at this once pristine beach. Ok, I have digressed just a bit here.
Yes, it has been 2 years almost to the day since we have been on island. I booked our trip 14 months ago and got airline tickets when there was a fantastic sale in October. I have had a countdown on my whiteboard at work since I booked. Now I am down to just a few days and my mind wanders to comfortable beach chairs with my beautiful wife of 25 years by my side as we soak up the sun and recover from a long and very cold Kansas City winter. In fact as I write this the temp today will be a high of 45 with rain.
Every day I have a couple of friends that come by my cube and ask me how long I have left before I log off my computer, walk out the office doors and don’t look back for two weeks. Today I shot them the number 12!!!! I am so close to single digit that I am beginning to believe that if I sit still for just a few seconds, I can taste that first ice cold Carib as sweat from the bottle rolls down and kisses my hand while the smell of the sea air fills my nose with pure pleasure, causing an auditory exhale that drains bits of stress out of my body with each and every breath cycle.
Thankfully, I have a big presentation that I am preparing for that occurs the first working day back…well not back. I will be traveling to KC only to get on a plane the next day for Las Vegas and will be hosting a large group of customers….gee there is a trifle bit of reality at reentry!! The presentation is all that keeps me in any way focused on work and away from visualizing the fish we will see while scuba diving in my imagination as I sit at my computer waiting for days, hours and minutes to slowly fall from the calendar until that faithful day that we head for the airport.
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