PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

[Pinkocto]

Only one way to fix that, you MUST have some chocolate!

 

[mvf-m11c]

Those chocolate desserts look so good Alison.

I was going to ask you of your impression of EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. I just want to hear your experience of the Food & Wine Festival and what international stands to visit and eat at?

 

[franandaj]

Thanks so much for the links, they are gorgeous! I most definitely missed the smaller one, so will go back and see what else I missed.

And oh my am I lusting after the amount of points you have I am getting so impatient about these Grand Floridian Villas. I want to know how much they're going to be so I can plan how many I want. DVC has made me a monster!

Oh, that's right, they do have the no driving rule. You can go to the beauty shop and church but otherwise must stay home. I've met quite a few patients who push it until they're caught, which seems to be rare, but I think I would always feel on edge.

How lovely you are able to squeeze in a few days of relaxation. And if course what a fabulous coincidence about the one. That mug of chocolate looks divine!

I'm done with points unless DCA decides to bring back the F&W Festival. In that case I need more but otherwise. I'm good.

It's breakfast time here....and now all I'll want is chocolate all day!

The thing is they don't slack on the chocolate, it's either Swiss of Belgian so it's always rich and tasty!

Those chocolate desserts look so good Alison.

I was going to ask you of your impression of EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. I just want to hear your experience of the Food & Wine Festival and what international stands to visit and eat at?

It all depends once they release the offerings. I have my favorites from when we went in 2009, but things change each year. I'm omnivorous so I eat almost anything, I just prefer it has meat if it's savory and nice and rich when it's sweet.

 

[mvf-m11c]

It all depends once they release the offerings. I have my favorites from when we went in 2009, but things change each year. I'm omnivorous so I eat almost anything, I just prefer it has meat if it's savory and nice and rich when it's sweet.

I try to look at all these different sites and they just have the old menus and prices from last year. The menus from last year look so good to eat.

Thanks Alison.

 

[usnuzuloose]

At least you have a few days to relax. Great now I am starving!

 

[dgbg100106]

So anyone following our points, we have (had) 203 in holding. Well I convinced Fran that we should take a couple nights of "hotel points" to go out there (DLR), and just let me chill. Even though Fran will still have to go back to Los Alamitos for her infusions, she agreed to two nights out at the GC hotel. We didn't use our points for the Conceirge level because we are hoping we will get the same upgrade that we have in the past, but all they had was a Premium Pool or Park view. So its's 130 points, we have like 73 left to either gift or whatever to folks who can use them or perhaps compensate us for them.

We booked July 25 & 26 which convenientlys conincide with the 45th anniversary nights of the club dinners. Tomorrow at 9AM is the Call in and we hope to go on the 26th, so it would work out nicely if we get that night. The scuttlebutt says that many of the members are not interested in the dinner because of the high price tag, but we know that it will be worth it. So we might not have a problem with getting in.

It will be nice to check in on Wednesday after her infusion, we'll just sort of enjoy the resort/Carsland at night and have a leisurly evening. Thursday I will have a game plan, FPs for RSRs perhaps three, two instant and one with my admission card for later in the day. She will need to go her infusion at 1PM, but I will hope to hit the 1901 lounge at some point either the night before or on Thursday before dinner.

The evening is Semi Formal, so the only option for Fran is a Tux and I will wear the outfit I planned for V&A's on our May trip. We will have plenty of good food and drink that night and end up checking out at 11AM Friday so she can make her 1PM infusion. We'll see how up to RSR FPs I feel after the 45th Anniversary dinner. I was VERY happy leaving the 40th anniversary dinner. They had the chocolate fountain and beverages were flowing liberally. I remember that I was embarrased to go get more molten chocolate, so the new friends we met went to the fountain and brought me a coffee mug of the chocolate along with marshmallows, strawberries and other fruits while I ordered more glasses of wine! Good times were had by all!

This sounds like fun and hopefully let you both relax and enjoy while still taking care of the wound.

 

[dgbg100106]

It's breakfast time here....and now all I'll want is chocolate all day!

I want the chocolate also....

 

[dgbg100106]

let me know if Fran wants to shop while she is there later this month.... haha

 

[franandaj]

Yesterday was pretty much a day from he**. We had a busy morning, and then Bill (our band conductor and one of the employees) stopped by to check and see if Arline was visiting us. It seems his partner (my laundry boy), was worried about her since she seemed out of it when he did her laundry yesterday. She didn't answer her cell phone and he actually went to her house, knocked on the door and she didn't answer.

I rushed over there to find her on the floor in a rather awkward state, completely delirious and unaware of her surroundings. I immediately called the paramedics and then put a towel over her for modesty. They arrived farily promptly (although not as fast as they did in the FIL's upscale neighborhood) and immediately went to work on her. I gave the lead guy as much information as I could, showed him her meds, and they had her out the door in 10-15 minutes.

The first hospital was full in the ER so they actually took her to our #1 choice of hospital. The next hour was just a bunch of driving back and forth phone calls and a mess. She had friends coming to town to stay with her that met me at the hospital, Fran had an infusion and wound Dr. appt on the other side of town. I left the friends to see her since I needed to meet Fran for the wound Dr. appt. By the time I got across town, they determined that she needed emergency brain surgery to relieve pressure on her brain from a hemmorhage and clot that was putting severe pressure on her brain.

So we postponed Fran's Wound Dr. appt and I hightailed it back to the hospital while Fran received her antibiotic drip. I made it with about 10 minutes to spare before our Dr found me in the ER waiting room and took me "backstage" to see her before the surgery. Dr. J informed me that Fran and I were the DPOAs for Arline (which I had completely forgotten in the chaos) and that I was to follow them to the operating floor STAT!

Once she went to surgery we all reconvened in the surgery lounge including the friends, Fran and Dr. J, she basically gave us the run down. No more driving for Arline, we need to look into Assisted Living and it will be a long road in ICU, Regular hospital, Rehab and hopefully by the time she gets out of these a place in an Assisted Living Facility will come up.

Turns out sometime about two weeks ago Arline fell and I guess hit her head again, she didn't want to tell us because she was embarrassed, but finally did. She did not tell us that she hit her head, but she told Dr. J that the lump on her head came from that fall. I thought it was the time about a month ago, but who knows because she has become more and more confused. In one of these times that she fell, she caused enough damage for this brain hemorrhage.

They did emergency surgery, drained the blood from next to her brain, and put in a drain so that the rest of the blood could drain. Once the pressure on her brain is released, they will continue to monitor her and see how she does. She is currently intubated, but there was a severe amount of blood and a rather large clot affecting her brain. She could be a week or more in ICU before they even take her off the sedatives. We have brought her cats to our place and probably just added two more to the herd. Tomorrow we need to talk to the Social Worker about getting her on a list for assisted living.

we all knew this was coming, but I thought she would last longer than four nights on her own. We have a long road ahead of us.

 

[franandaj]

After posting thus here, I got a phone call from Fran who received word from our Doctor. They are sending her back into surgery because she was still bleeding. Now they think she may have fallen more recently than two weeks.

 

[dgbg100106]

After posting thus here, I got a phone call from Fran who received word from our Doctor. They are sending her back into surgery because she was still bleeding. Now they think she may have fallen more recently than two weeks.

Oh goodness, please keep us update.. prayers for all.

 

[kmedina]

I will keep praying for Arline as well as you and Fran.

 

[Pinkocto]

What a tragic turn of events. If there's any silver lining I'm glad she was near you and not in her old house. It could have been much worse. She is so blessed to have you and Fran in her life.

 

[Angel16]

Oh Alison, wow...I am so sorry. Prayers and positive thoughts for all three of you. Make sure your getting some rest Alison. You are the glue holding everyone together, and your doing an awesome job.

I was posting to you on the AKL thread and they closed it as I hit post. Glad I could come over here and let you know how concerned I am. I hope the second surgery went well today. Is there anything we can do to help? When you feel up to it let us know how everyone is doing.

Ann

 

[mvf-m11c]

Praying for Arline and hope she gets better Alison.

Sorry for saying this, what are your days for your WDW trip in October?

 

[Hawleys]

Oh Alison...Arline is so blessed to have you as DPOA. Thinking of your whole crew and hoping for the best possible outcome.

 

[franandaj]

Oh goodness, please keep us update.. prayers for all.

I will keep praying for Arline as well as you and Fran.

Thanks! I appreciate the prayers. No update as of yet, and there is nothing any of us can do so far, except keep praying!

What a tragic turn of events. If there's any silver lining I'm glad she was near you and not in her old house. It could have been much worse. She is so blessed to have you and Fran in her life.

We keep going back and forth, did she have the fall because she was in our house, or was she just prone to falling recently? We are hoping that the previous falls were not because we had her here and that having her here made it safer once the fall happened because we checked in on her.

Oh Alison, wow...I am so sorry. Prayers and positive thoughts for all three of you. Make sure your getting some rest Alison. You are the glue holding everyone together, and your doing an awesome job.

I was posting to you on the AKL thread and they closed it as I hit post. Glad I could come over here and let you know how concerned I am. I hope the second surgery went well today. Is there anything we can do to help? When you feel up to it let us know how everyone is doing.

Ann

Thank you! Now where are we going to go? Hopefully Kimmar will come by soon and create thread number eight. I am trying to relax as much as I can. I hope to get a massage soon, we saw the wound care Dr. this afternoon and the nurses said that I was doing a good job on the wound care and that most of the wounds looked better. That was a relief because I wasn't sure if I was doing an OK job or not. Next week they will hopefully go back to the circumcised treatment. That would mean that I wouldn't have to do the dressing changes because when they put that it, they let it go for the whole week.

Praying for Arline and hope she gets better Alison.

Sorry for saying this, what are your days for your WDW trip in October?

Thanks for your prayers. Hey Bret, you are giving me a great segway into some good news for the October trip. We are in Florida from October 8-18

The plan is Fly from LAX October 8

Stay Loew's Royal Pacific October 8-10
Check into VWL October 10-12
Check into BCV October 12-17
Back to VWL October 17-18. I hope that my waitlist comes through so that we can just stay at BCV the whole time, but if not I won't worry, it will just mean that we have less packing to do the last night because we did the night before for our transfer.

Originally we were going to stay the 10-20 but changed it with the Gay Games celebration at HoB, so we come in two days earlier and are leaving two days earlier.

The good news is that the Wound Care Nurse told us that with the way her wounds are proceeding, even though she may possibly have Vasculitis involved, that because I have been able to master wound care, our vacation options have opened up. If I can do the basic wound care that I have been doing over the last week. So the nurse told us there is no reason that we can't take our vacations we have planned. The only thing is that Fran needs to take it easy and rest during the day and I need to be able to potentitally change her bandages if she needs it. We have always taken it easy, on our trips, she needs time in the room to rest, that is why I'm able to post some stuff live while we are away. Otherwise as long as we can check in every other week or so, we can take trips.







So at this point, I'm guessing we can plan on the October trip. Unless something really terrible happens in the next two months, we can plan my F&W events on this trip. I am really happy about this because there has not been a lot of happy in my life recently.

As far as Arline goes, she is in our prayers. We will see how things go one day at a time.

 

[ACDSNY]

I don't know what to say...and I don't know how you do it all. You're taking amazingly great care of Arline and Fran. My prayers go out to all three of you.

I'm glad to see you had some good news to keep your spirits up. Your Oct trip is so deserved.

 

[Pinkocto]

Wonderful news! How about her arthritis meds? Will she be back on that schedule soon enough?

 

[franandaj]

I don't know what to say...and I don't know how you do it all. You're taking amazingly great care of Arline and Fran. My prayers go out to all three of you.

I'm glad to see you had some good news to keep your spirits up. Your Oct trip is so deserved.

Thanks. Part of it is that I am still in bed today. I woke up at 9AM and have been fielding calls about Arline. I'm going to see about a massage today.

Wonderful news! How about her arthritis meds? Will she be back on that schedule soon enough?

it will be awhile before she can have those. She has to be off antibiotics and have no infection. I'm sure the MRSA infection set in because she got the RA drugs last month.