I  am amazed at all that has taken place recently for me.  My last post was made the day my mother-in-law and father-in-law arrived for Cody’s wedding.  Since that day I’ve participated in another ASL class, helped out a little with a wedding, done a lot of cleaning and meal planning for company, hosted many family dinners and gatherings while everyone was in town, participated in all of the wedding festivities, spent time with a dear friend who came especially to make the wedding cake, had 8 people stay at our house for the big day and a few of the days surrounding it, witnessed a truly romantic and beautiful wedding – two christians coming together according to God’s plan (and my son’s dreams coming  true)  celebrated my niece’s 18th birthday, caught up with all of my nieces and nephews birthday gifts, and packed and organized a vacation to Alaska…..all while trying to keep up with my workouts and keeping my health goals in mind.   Whewwww….I was ready for a vacation and it was wonderful to have some down time!  Alaska was incredibly beautiful!  I understand now why people make multiple trips there.  I loved it!  This trip was a good mix of relaxing down time and exploring a new area for me.   We had 3 at sea days on the ship and we went on 2 excursions.  There were 2 days in between the excursions, so I was able to recuperate which made a big difference.  I put a lot of thought into how I wanted to handle the trip as far as my health goals are concerned.  My decision was to commit to 2 workouts during the cruise.  The amount of walking that we do on the ship and on the excursions is far more than I am accustomed to at home, so I knew that I would be burning many more calories than normal and also that I would need to be careful about finding the right balance of activity and rest for my joints and feet.  I have found that even walking 2 days in a row at home for workouts causes a great deal of pain for me and it takes a few days to recover from that.  That’s why the pool is a great option for me right now.  I do not have pain after pool workouts.  Anyway, in the past, I really haven’t ever gained a tremendous amount of weight on cruises even though I didn’t workout at all and I have never watched calories on a trip either.  I think the extra activity goes a long ways to make up for the extra calories for me.  In addition to my workout commitment for this trip, I decided to make sure that I get in most of the healthy foods (the right portions of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and protein) and then to allow myself to have whatever else I wanted as long as I didn’t go too overboard on that. I ran my plan by several people before the trip and they all agreed it sounded like a reasonable plan.  I haven’t weighed yet, but I think that based on how my clothes are fitting I did not gain weight on the trip.  I will weigh at the gym today.  I  feel good about how I handled it.  I did exactly what I planned to do and still enjoyed myself and the food that is such a big part of cruising. I did have a lot of joint and foot pain from so much walking, but I did my workouts on a recumbent bike (thanks for the suggestion, Samantha!) and it worked great and did not add to the pain I was already dealing with.  We also did a 2 mile hike on one of our excursions and I was pleased that I was able to do that without any problem at all.  I did have to let my feet recover the next day, but I expected that.  Overall, it was a wonderful week and a much needed break from all that has been going on!  We arrived home late Wednesday night, and yesterday we got right back on our plan and I am once again logging in my calories and making sure I meet my goals.  That was an important step for me.  In the past, it didn’t take much of a deviation from my plan to completely “fall of the wagon.”  This time, I feel I managed some pretty major events in a healthy way and it didn’t sidetrack me.  I’m thankful for that.  

I am also glad that I still have my vena cava filter in place.  So much travel can make you prone to forming clots, and the last morning on the ship I woke up to my heart beating more rapidly than normal and a few twinges of pain in areas that could possibly be clots.  I don’t know for sure if there were actually more clots  or if old ones were moving or if they were just random twinges that didn’t mean anything, but it gave me some peace of mind to know that filter was in place just in case, and no clots could get to my lungs.  

I developed a pretty nasty ear infection the day of the wedding.  I ended up going to urgent care that night since I was planning to fly only a few days later.  It was on the side that I am using my hearing aid on (of course) which is also the side with the hole in the eardrum.  Since that is the side that I am using to hear with, I felt it was especially important to get it treated right away.  I was surprised that it took as long as it did to resolve.  I had a 5 day antibiotic prescription and it wasn’t until the day after I took my last dose that my ear pain was gone and I was able to wear my hearing aid again.  For me to go 4 or 5 days without a hearing aid is a significant thing.  The first night of the cruise my friends were typing on their cell phones to help me have an idea of what they were talking about.  As you know, I am functionally deaf without the hearing aid.  I really appreciated their efforts and was reminded again how blessed I am to have such wonderful and supportive friends.

The ship website offered a kit for deaf/hard of hearing people that could be installed in your stateroom.  They asked for 45 days notice if you wanted to request one.  I requested it only 2 weeks before our trip, knowing that it was short notice and might not happen, but I thought it was worth a try.  They did install it in our cabin.  In theory, it was a wonderful idea and could be a great help.  The reality was that we weren’t able to use any of it all.  The alert system was only connected to a bed shaker, so if the alarm clock went off it would shake the bed (that is great and works) but also if the phone rang, or someone knocked on the door, or an announcement was made it would shake the bed, but not flash any lights.  That is not practical unless I want to spend my entire cruise in bed!  They also said that part of the kit was an amplified phone.  It was actually a TTY.  I have only seen one once before and it was in a file cabinet in a storage room.  I was told they are considered obsolete.  I have no idea how exactly to use one.  They left an instruction book, but it looked a little complicated and more than I wanted to deal with for a week long trip – especially when I wasn’t likely to ever use one again.  The sensor on the door that alerted the system was very sensitive.  It was to the point that the shaker was going off about every 5 minutes….we just shut it all off.  I was disappointed, but did appreciate some effort on their part.  I wrote a lengthy comment and some suggestions on the post- cruise survey about the system.  Maybe they will improve their equipment and how it functions.  

Over the next week or so I will be spending most of my time getting my house clean and organized again after all of the company and after being away for a week.  The most urgent items are getting taken care of first (like paying bills and figuring out what groceries we have and need and doing laundry, washing dishes…) and the rest can be done a little bit at a time.  

I’m afraid to say that things should settle down now!  Seems like every time I think that, more stuff happens.  I guess that’s normal life.  I look back over the past year and all that has taken place and am amazed at how much we’ve dealt with.  I guess if you knew ahead of time it would be overwhelming, but like anything else in life, you just take it a day at a time and do the best you can and you get through it.  I’m thankful for God’s guidance and wisdom in these things and for the strength that comes from Him and from brothers and sisters in Christ.  I’m also thankful for those times and the perspective and insight you gain from those situations and the molding and shaping that takes place.  We all need trials and challenges.  I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had this past year.