These Are The Days Of Our Lives

It seems like a soap opera sometimes...life can be crazy busy and before you know it, so much has happened. I've been on "vacation" for the past 2 weeks, and am pretty darn tired. I came down to visit with my parents, mostly because of my dad's health issues, and haven't stopped much to relax! After the 4 days of travel to get here, I spent a week at my parents, and was a busy little beaver - scanning photo albums of childhood memories and burning them to disc; packing up slides and dad mailed them off to my place in the north (with the intention of me getting a slide scanner to process them all); did some maintenance on a number of local computers, including my parent's two, which took hours to clean up the messes; took a ton of photos with my new camera, burned them off; took my dad out for a walking video tour of the small community, accumulating about 50 video clips of him telling me an oral history of the area, homes, people, etc; and I did much of the cooking, wanting to BBQ for my parents and I, as they look forward to that treat when I come home.

That was the first week. Then my dad got a call to see a specialist for his then undiagnosed health issues, which was in another province. So we packed up and headed to the big city of Halifax (compared to hometown of population 24 or so) and spent the week there - and getting there isn't just jumping on a plane, or car and in a few hours you're there...it's catching the ferry early in the morning for a 3 hour run up the coast, then a 45 min drive by car to catch the car ferry across the Gulf of St. Lawrence (a 5-7 hour journey, depending), then a 5-6 hour drive to Halifax the following day. The week was busy with doctor's appointments, CT scans, and of course - shopping - my mother and I live in isolation so shopping is a MUST! Then after partial diagnosis - polymyalgia rheumatica, we headed back from Halifax to North Sydney with a couple of stops to visit with family along the way, and across the Gulf again. Got in yesterday morning, and a stop at the hospital to see family doc, and my dad was advised to turn around and head back to Halifax for the second diagnosis (he has two seperate conditions) which was vasculitis, which resulted in a blockage in the major artery of his left arm. Both are treatable conditions, but needs the supervision of the specialist and further testing to monitor the treatment plan, and watch for complications.

So I packed them up again and dropped them off at midnight to cross the Gulf to North Sydney, where they were met by relatives and spirited away to Halifax area once again. Dad will see the specialist tomorrow and begin the treatment for the second condition, which is likely a doubled dose of his steriodal treatment for the first condition as they are quite related, and will respond to the same drug.

Today I had to take a run down the coast by auto to meet the coastal ferry and put some things aboard for people in the hometown, and back up again. Now I'm all packed up and have to hit the road tomorrow morning early, catching the bus to Deer Lake where I'll fly out from on Tuesday - in the air all day, then drive home from there (9 hours north).

No wonder I'm tired. I need another vacation, this time just at home...having said that, I am glad I could be here to be of assistance to my parents at this crazy time, and get in to talk with the doctors myself and hear what was being said. With both parents partly deaf, and one blind, I never know if I am getting the proper version when filtered by phonecalls to me in the north. I am also very glad to have spent such quality time with my dad, which was what my visit back east was mostly about. I hadn't been home in 2 years, so was long overdue for a visit.

Thursday is a holiday (Aboriginal Day) so I think I shall do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.