The Long Road to Surgery

That photo up top is not meant to be deceptive, but the truth is I can’t get in the hot tub anymore. The heat increases my knee’s swelling (duh) and makes me miserable! So, think of that photo as a eulogy to the Tropical Trails RV Resort hot tub. Yes, poor, poor me, unable to soak when nearly everyone else has record cold and snow right now.. Play your tiny violin.

Other than mourning the hot tub, I’ve been rushing around, with as much as three medical appointments a day to prepare for surgery. It’s nuts. I’m trying not to make this a complaint-filled post, so suffice it to say every mistake that a medical staff member could make with me has been made, except I haven’t had surgery on the wrong body part. I guess there’s still time for that!

Seriously, name spelled wrong, birthdate wrong, blood test wrong, doctor’s name listed wrong, pharmacy charged for meds wrong. Can you sense my frustration here? I’ve been running around so much trying to right wrongs that I haven’t even seen Finn again.

Considering all these screw ups, the decision to have surgery in Houston is increasingly looking like the right one. That does not decrease the pain-in-the-ass factors inherent in Houston, though. Especially the drive there and back.

You might be thinking,

Hey, you live in a travel trailer! Why aren’t you taking your home with you?

Good question, and we did consider it, briefly. Our decision to leave the trailer behind boiled down to how much we simply don’t want to clean up our campsite and repack the trailer and tow it on the highway for two days and camp in a crappy campground with no cell signal, all when we could just drive the truck up to an AirBnB. Trust me, packing up when you knew you were going to leave shortly is a piece of cake compared to packing up when you thought you’d stay put all winter.

So, we’ve been prepping the truck for the big trip.

Stage 1: Make room by moving stuff from the covered bed of the truck into the trailer.

Where will this stuff go in the trailer, when we already have stuff we bought to use only in Brownsville and get rid of before we hit the road again? Well, for example, in the dark bedroom in the back there, Tracy is napping next to a giant bag of dogfood.

Stage 2: Pack food and clothes and dog things and all post-surgery implements into the truck bed. Crutches ✔️ Step stool (so I can even get in the truck with a full leg brace) ✔️ Yadda yadda ✔️

Step 3: Prepare the back cab seats for transporting the patient.

We are gonna try to drive back to Brownsville the day after surgery, all eight hours. I’ve been advised that this is smart since I’ll be groggy anyway, and I’ve been advised that this is moronic because I will have just had surgery. Whenever we end up coming back, seems like converting the cab into a bed is brilliant. (Famous last words, I know.)

We lifted the seat bottoms up against the seat backs and unfolded a platform that lays flat above the floorboard (the truck came with this fanciness). Then we grabbed the couch cushions from the Airstream, and voila! My chances of sliding off if Tracy hits the brakes are low, I can lie flat and elevate my leg as needed, and I can sit up against the closed door (with plenty of pillows behind me).

We have a cooler in the back for ice packs, and I’ll have a barf bag up with me, just in case. Yes, we are sexy travelers.

Maybe I’ll even knit the sleeves of my sweater!

The real trick is going to be getting Banjo to sit up front with Tracy instead of on top of the patient in the back where she’s used to being.

Here she is all disgruntled with her bed simply on the platform in the back.

Wish us luck driving up to Houston, having surgery, and driving back down in the patient mobile! I’ll check back in then.