Sunday, December 9, 2018

the Good, the Bad, No Ugly

The Good news is that we are heading out to Fort Lauderdale this morning to board the Celebrity Silhouette for our 12 day cruise to St. Thomas, St. Martin, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica, and St. Kitts and Nevis.  It's very exciting.  More good news is that on Thursday night we discovered the good friends of ours here in Solivita, Norm and Lynn, are also going on this cruise!  So they are picking us up at 7:30 this morning, and we are driving down together.  They have Anytime Dining and we have fixed seating Early Dining.  We plan to try to change to Anytime when we get on board today.

More Good News is that I have lost a little more weight.  This morning I have recorded that I weigh 245.6 before heading out.  I will try very, very hard not to gain much, or ANY, weight in the next 12 days.  Of course, that is so hard to do on a cruise, but if I gain, I know I can get lose it again quickly before the next cruise.

The Bad news is that I'm positive that the Diverticulitis has already returned.  I have felt slight twinges for several days, but yesterday it was quite bad.  This morning it's the same as yesterday, which was a relief. I feared it would be as terrible as the day I went to the ER on November 8.  It's pretty scary to have it back only one month later because I definitely did not eat anything bad and took no NSAIDs.  The Good news here is that I have a full dose of Flagyl with me that I asked my family doctor for on Thursday.  Since you can't have any alcohol while taking it because it will make you violently ill, I'm hoping to hold off on starting to take the Flagyl until tomorrow so that I can at least have a Sail-Away drink today and a glass of wine tonight at our dinner at the specialty dinner, the Tuscan Grille, which is our eighth night Hanukkah present to each other.

So, off we go.  I'm not taking my laptop, so no more blogs until we get back.

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Singing at Disney Springs!

I never EVER thought I'd have a chance to sing at Disney Springs, but it happened tonight.  My synagogue choir was invited to sing Hanukkah songs at the store, Luxury of Time by Diamonds International, in Disney Springs.  The owner of the store is a member of the our synagogue, and he actually had to get special permission from the Disney Springs board to let us sing AND light actual candles on a real menorah.  The Rabbi lit the candles and led the blessings.  Then he accompanied our choir.  There were 13 of us singing.  We sang 8 songs, and with some talking in between, it took a total of 25 minutes.  The store even served grape juice and donuts to the audience and performers!  The store personnel were so gracious to everyone, and we had a huge audience of congregants and random people who just came in to see what was going on. It was AWESOME.

When it was over, Mark and I went to dinner with our friends Jonathan and Susan. Then we took a nice long walk down through the Christmas Tree Trail.  It was a great evening.

In the morning Mark and I had our check ups with our family doctor  She was pleased at my weight loss. In fact I hit 246 this morning, so that is a FORTY pound loss since Memorial Day  I am very happy.

Last Friday I had a visit to the gastroenterologist to follow up my ER visit from the diverticulitis.  She wants me to have a colonoscopy in January once the colon has completely calmed down, so that is now scheduled for January 30.  I had blood work done for her, and it shows my white cell count is still slightly elevated.  My primary care doctor wrote me a prescription for more Flagyl, the antibiotic of choice for this sort of infection, to take on the cruise just in case.  I'll pick it up at CVS tomorrow.  That makes me feel a lot better just knowing I'll have it with me.

Mark and I both tried out for the Solivita Theater Group's spring play, Senior Follies.  We both got parts, so now we have to learn a lot of lines.  Guess that's what we will be doing on this upcoming 12 day cruise.  We leave Sunday for Fort Lauderdale to board the Celebrity Silhouette.  I plan on spending a ton of time just trying to memorize lines.

Tonight we light three candles.  Mark is putting the candles in our menorahs, so it's time to finish this blog and go light so we can have presents and settle down for the night.  It's been a long day, but a most wonderful day!  Happy Hanukkah to all.