Almost time!
I've been meaning to write a new post for ages, but stuff just keeps happening! First and foremost, South Africa is still a go! I will drive to DC a week from today and fly out of Dulles on the 12th.
The reason I said it was still a go is that I freaked out yesterday about Jake's most recent MRI. He had the (scheduled) scan on Monday, and the neurosurgeon called yesterday to set up an appointment about it. Our next scheduled appointment had been some time out. They had some cancellations and were able to see us today. Of course, I immediately went online and read the imaging report. There's a big red flag before you can access the online reports that basically says you can read this, but wait for the doctor's interpretation. But did I do that? No, of course not. I saw the words, "two new lesions" and "concerning for metastatic disease" and immediately assumed that Jake had cancer in the brain. So, for almost 24 hours, I was worrying and mentally destroying our futures (including my travel plans). My imaginary ruination included biopsies, chemo, and every bad thing imaginable. I think I lost 2 pounds since yesterday. 😂
As it turned out, I should have paid attention to the big red flag—he has 2 tiny spots. They could be small bleeds or small masses, but there is no way to know unless they are biopsied and they are way too small for that. (On the plus side, they are not nearly so deep in the brain, so the biopsy, if it ever happens, would not be so dangerous as the one that was planned last summer.) Jake was told to just keep doing his thing, and if he has any weakness or anything like that, to follow up immediately. He'll get another MRI in 6 weeks, to see what's happening, but the neuro PA was not concerned.
It turns out that Jake wasn't nearly as concerned as I was, and I fell apart for a bit after and told him never to let me look at lab results again before our follow up appointments.
So after 24 hours of freaking out and mentally cancelling my trip, I'm back on line. And now I'll go back to the blog post that I had been planning!
I've been busy since I last wrote, but I think I've added only one new trip since then, Antarctica. Whoops, no! I've added two. So after my last post, I got a text from a friend, asking if I wanted to go to Egypt with her. Lynn said that her partner doesn't want to go, and she knows that I love traveling, so she asked. Needless to say, I said sure! She wanted to go this fall, and I told her that I had November open. I checked with Gate 1, and they were pretty much already booked, since this is relatively last minute. We did some research, and we are traveling with Trafalgar in mid-November. It's an 8 night trip, but we're going in a day early. We'll be in Cairo and further south, with 4 nights on a boat on the Nile. We've decided to do the Abu Simbel side trip too. We haven't decided what to do on our first day in Cairo yet. Both Alexandria and a trip to the Red Sea have been considered so far. It should be a fun time. I always planned to go to Egypt at some point, and I guess this is that point. I hadn't anticipated 3 trips in a row to Africa, but each trip is to a very different part of the continent. (I've got another friend who wants to plan a trip to Uganda, so that's in the early pre-planning stage. I also want to go to Kenya and Tanzania at some point, but that will probably be in a couple of years. Oh, and Tunisia!
Antarctica is scheduled for December 2024. What happened is that Gate 1 had a sale that waived the single supplement charge. Antarctica is already an expensive trip, and the single supplement was $3,500! So, who could resist that? Clearly not me! Of course, I then spent part of the $3,500 I saved by upgrading my cabin to one with a balcony. I'm not going to be sailing through polar waters looking out a porthole!
So, right now, my schedule is:
October 2023: South Africa
November 2023: Egypt
December 2023: Costa Rica
February 2024: SE Asia
September 2024: Nepal, Bhutan, northern India
December 2024: Argentina/Antarctica
If all goes well, I'm hoping to go to Australia in June 2024. I'll do that independently, with a campervan, hopefully for 4-5 weeks. And I'll likely add another trip or two, but that will wait.
Two more brief items on the home front. First, Peanut started acting like something was wrong the other day. I couldn't find anything wrong, but she wouldn't eat a treat, so something was up. Then she started to act more normally and I stopped worrying. About 2 hours later, I looked over at her and her lower face was very swollen. Of course, it was evening, so the Vet School was the only option. Off we go, with me convinced her airway would swell shut next. I drove fast.
The best bet is that she bit at a bee and got stung. No snake bite punctures, thankfully. So she had antihistimine and antinausea shots, and we found out that dogs are not like people and cats. They don't tend to have respiratory issues with allergic reactions (though they can). Dogs get digestive issues. Anyway, after a couple of days of Benadryl and Pepsid, the swelling is gone and she's back to normal. We also had our cheapest ever emergency room bill at the Vet School, only about $180.
We also got Maggie's DNA results. Just to refresh your memories, Maggie looks like this:
And here are her DNA results:
Okay, rat terrier. Yep, definitely see that, and minipin. But 20% pit bull?? There is a second company called Wisdom Panel that also does doggie DNA. I ordered a kit and just sent a sample off. In other words, I want a second opinion. I'll be very interested to see how the results compare.
I wrote most of this a week ago, and now I'm finishing and posting from my hotel room near Dulles Airport. I fly out tomorrow morning! Next post will probably be started from the flight. It will be a long long day, as I leave DC at 11 AM on Thursday and get to Cape Town on Friday at 5:15 PM. Of course, I'll lose 6 hours, but it's still a long day. The first flight is 13 hours and the second is almost 10 hours.
Till tomorrow!
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