Could you please show me the phonetic pronunciation?
Oh? May I ask why?
Share if you wish. Don't if you don't.
I won't be offended if you just ignore me.
I'm used to it. I have teens.
I have no problem sharing. Just keep in mind, you asked and it's kind of a long story.
It's been a while since I went down that whole dark path on my TR, I'm over it and we're through the rough parts. First I have to preface this with a few facts. I am a faithful, devoted, partner, spouse, and Fran and I have been together for almost 20 years. She was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 1998, and I'm not talking about the kind that you see in the Aleve commercials where someone has a bad day and their joints hurt. We're talking about debilitating arthritis, the kind that when she doesn't have an active medication in her system her joints freeze up to the point that she can't lift a beverage to her mouth or feed herself, not to mention take care of other human necessities. I know this because I was reminded of it when she had to go off her meds this past winter. We don't do things separately and haven't for over 16 years. Even when I had a day job, she traveled with me on business since the only extra expense was her plane ticket and food, it was just easier on her not to be left home alone.
So we had many trips planned this year, April, a trip to WDW with Naked Jim (you have to read my TR for that story, it's on the first page), May we had a B2B on the Wonder for 5 nights. July there was a car club meet planned in Cambria on the coast of CA and August there was the LGBA conference in Indianapolis with over 200 fellow band members from all over the US, Canada and possibly the world.
However, all these were beginning to be jeapordized because on our trip last Fall, her last arthritis med started to fail.
She had two choices, 1) an incredibly expensive pill ($1200 per month) taken twice daily 2) a new drug study which would start in April. She started the expensive pill in December and took that for a while, but to get on the drug study, she needed a shingles vaccine and needed to be off the arthritis pills for two weeks before receiving the shot, and needed to stay off the pills for two weeks after the shot. It was during the time after the shingles vaccine where she could not take the arthritis pill that she was on heavy duty pain killers which caused drowsiness. She ended up falling and breaking her leg in two places about a month before our April vacay to WDW and on the Dream.
So we canceled that trip, filed for vacation insurance and were able to rent out the DVC points and get some money back. Even though she would have been able to bear weight on the B2B Wonder Cruise in May, she said that she would not like to take a trip that soon after the leg break. So we canceled that and got the travel insurance as well.
Then the drug study came up. Fran had to quit the expensive pills a month before the study and it was an infusion in two parts. She took the first part, but she was barely convinced to do it due to the pain she was experiencing as to being off the pills for so long. Her joints had frozen up so badly she could hardly move and was absolutely miserable. She made it through the first dose, but couldn't make it to the second dose two weeks later, and decided on her own without doctor's consent to start taking the pills again.
A short lesson in RA drugs. They suppress your immune system. Each drug suppresses a different part of the immune system. When you are on one RA drug, your immune system is depressed by X%, when you are on two RA drugs your immune system is depressed by X% squared.
So it turns out that her immune system was extra compromised starting with her double dosage of arthritis drugs in May and the RA doctor told her that she was compromised through September. The Doctor advised her not to travel to our band convention in August where we would be in a room of 200 of our best friends rehearsing and blowing hot air for 10-15 hours out of a 4 day weekend. In addition we decided that going to the classic car club meet in July with a couple hundred folks would also put her at odds for catching something.
So that was the canceling all of the vacations. We did have plans in the end of March to visit my parents that we did reschedule for Sept. And we did make that visit. We already had the October Cruise booked, in fact there were supposed to be three other DISers with us, but the others all canceled. When it looked like we would be canceling the May cruise (back in the end of March), I added the 2 day in advance of the 5 day so that we could have the B2B experience.
I did also rebook the Dream Cruise and WDW vacay for December so we will get to see the Osborne lights before they go away. As far as the Naked Jim trip, he had some major expenses come up, so it was good for him to postpone the trip as well. We have rebooked that trip for next April/May. So all the trips (Disney based) are getting a redo, just a delayed redo. Sorry about the long answer and trip report hijack, but you asked.
Deal!
Wait.... cruise? I thought you said you canceled all your trips?
See above. Boy, I can't wait for this one!!!!!!!!
