The Past Month has been Very Busy with Vacations and MD visits

I have been away from the blog too long.
The last week of March Lisa and my grandchildren and I headed N to Hilton Head where Lisa had found a time-share week open. We thought we should go because I had the real possibility of having surgery on my lower back this summer. I went to the specialists at USF Spine Institute in Tampa on St. Patrick's day.

The MD,after I waited for 3 hours, said, "The risks of surgery are high and you are doing well now." So I will not have surgery until "the pain is uncontrollable" I didn't want to wait THAT long but here I am ready to go for acupuncture and a visit with the MD of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation this coming week. I am trusting the rehab MD to prescribe necessary PT AND most importantly to set up a program of exercise. I have not exercised aerobically since September 2010. And it is driving me crazy. I know I can do something but I am afraid without MD input that I would exacerbate my lower back condition, not improve it. So hopefully I will have feedback this week.

So on to vacations:
1. Hilton Head was a "make lemonade from lemons" as the weather was just awful the full week of our stay. Rainy almost everyday and cool, very cool. We swam in the heated, thank goodness, outdoor pool only one day. We attended workshops on the wildlife as HH has a wonderful program of such lessons. We made a memory plate with a bingo prize of $10 gift certificate. The bingo was a lot of fun. Stand up and sit down, wear funny costumes "if you acted up" and of course the adults wore the dunce caps. It was fun but much different than what we planned for.

On the way home we ran into wind and rain almost the whole way. Lisa said, "I have a headache!" as she was trying to get the kids to the practices. However on arrival into Brandon we found that we had just missed all kinds of tornadoes! One down the main street of Bloomingdale about 2 miles from Lisa's. The boys' practices were canceled one because the school lights were out from the storm. We were glad to be home and the weather has been great ever since! Warmer and very sunny.

2. Last week, our niece Cierra, age 15 stayed with Lisa and kids and my sister Connie stayed with me. Trying out my trundle day bed in the living room. Connie had a great time and was reluctant to return to MI as they had snow the Tuesday before she left to come here and it would be in the 40's when she returned.

Connie arrived on Thursday and we spent Friday settling in to Sun City Center and my showing her the "town." On Sat morning the family walked 1 mile against CA at Lisa's employers University of Tampa located downtown by the river. An absolutely beautiful campus in the heart of the city. I made the hour walk however my femur head did "give out" one time. I just go weak and feel like I am going to stumble. I corrected and finished the walk which took about 45 minutes in grueling sun!

Saturday evening Connie and I attended a talk by Bishop Patrica Fresen from Germany who told her harrowing story of standing up against apartheid when she was a Dominican nun and principal of a school. The Dominicans integrated their schools while Mandela was in prison, the 70's. The State defunded the teacher's salaries. The Dominicans sold property and paid the salaries until 1994 when apartheid ended. Those feisty nuns are everywhere, God bless them! If you get an opportunity, do hear her tell her story.

After Lisa and family attended Sunday Mass, we met at a nearby resort where we had rented 3 kayaks. Again Connie and Cierra enjoyed the one hour in a quiet inlet. However Jon (13) and JC (14) were together. Jon put his paddle in the water and Whoosh! a huge round tail broke the surface. Jon had "paddled a manatee" he was scared as he thought he had hit a shark! Cierra later said that she had seen a large shape under the water also. Connie, Lisa, Ellie and I did not. Lots of osprey nests were seen everywhere.

The highlight of the week for me was Monday. I had promised Jon "a special outing" for his 13th birthday as I had done the same for JC last year (he went para-sailing) Jon didn't seem able to decide so I proposed we go on a Nature Safari with MOTE, the Gulf research institute located on Sarasota Bay. It was an absolutely gorgeous day blue sky, very warm and the water as warm as the air.

We were boated to sandbar, given a net and for the next hour trolled the bottom of the grass beds for creatures large and small and we did find them. JC found a dwarf sea horse, I didn't know they existed, at one inch and perfectly formed.

Lisa found the catch of the day. If you know hermit crabs, usually you see them in small shells about a dollar piece size. Lisa found a humongous hermit crab brilliant red in color. She said he was "on the grass" I guess moving from one spot to another so she had no trouble in scooping him into her net. On the ride back, as the biologist was holding the crab he crawled out of the shell and fell onto the deck. Holy cow was he big, I am not exaggerating to say that he weighed in at a pound or more. The biologist said, as he very delicately tried to lift him up to a bucket, "I do not want to be pinched" and I said, "Right On!" For me he was a hermit crab on steroids! The biologist said that they will keep growing as long as they can find a shell larger to migrate too. I can't imagine a conch shell much larger so I think the crab is maxed out!

Connie caught a baby flounder-really cute and about 2 inches long. I netted a pipe fish, I think I have heard them called pencil fishes. They just float along in the grass like a leaf, really neat and very strong as I had to pick him up and put him back into the water, we had already caught one.

As we netted pelicans dove for the fish very near us. I loved the experience and hoped that Jon did also. It was so good to be out with my family and to spend time with them in the sun and water. A very special blessing for me.