It Wasnt What I Expected

The past two days have been a whirl wind of doctor appointments.  Yesterday was my annual oncology appointment where I totally expected him to tell me that I was doing swell and see ya next year.  Not
Last month during my regular physical the doc found my liver enzymes elevated and wanted me to redo the test in a month's time, as well as be checked for hepatitis.  So me thinks yesterday's draw will get sent to her and all will be covered.  Not
OK, back to my oncology appointment.  Sitting in the lounge waiting and Doc C's nurse comes to get me.  I notice  a thoughtful expression on her face.  We go through the regular stuff-medications, any pain etc etc, she leaves and in comes Doc C who himself has a thoughtful expression on his face.  Seems they both have a reason for the look and it is not another patient it is me.  The liver enzymes are elevated (I let him know that they were a month ago as well) and he is concerned about it (cancer of the liver) especially since I have had cancer.  He says we can just re-check in a month or we can do a CT scan to be sure-his preference is the CT and mine too....hello.
Doc leaves- nurse re-enters and we talk.  They both review the day's patients the night before so they had chatted about me right away that morning.  She is able to get me in for the CT scan a few hours later and said Doc C would call me either that night or the next day with the results.
Well hell I hate needles yes I do and little did I realize that I would have to have an IV catheter put in my arm so that dye could run through the veins.  I have had these before and I think I may have been avoiding the damned needle part of it.  The poor X-ray fella could not get the cath in and I begged him to call someone else.  Thankfully he did after the first failed attempt.  Wallah the needle went in no problem-thank you procedure nurse.
It is not over yet.  Over the next hour I need to drink more dye that is nicely mixed up in two bottles with water and Tang.  I got er down I did.
On to the scan, which is absolutely painless and quick.  However if you ever have one beware of the feeling that you are peeing your pants.  Yes Bugsy just the feeling of.  The contrast dye has this side affect and it is the weirdest feeling.
OK-tests are complete and as we are getting ready to go the nurse gives me a huge hug and tells me not to worry...ummm hummmm
David and I are both nervous but chat away about anything and everything  except that stupid ass C word.  And then a thought runs through my head, 'Nah it is not cancer you've got too much to look forward to'.  That would be my good angel sitting on my shoulder :)
Eventually the call comes-Doc C's nurse- and this time there is absolute joy in her voice.  No evidence of cancer however I do have a fatty liver (which in itself can cause various problems-that damned liver is a pretty important piece of equipment).  She shares that when the results came through she ran back to Doc C hollering at him...'Did you see this did you see this?"  Ya know, where else do you get treated so well, seriously.
So because of this chubby liver (as a friend called it) I have an appointment to see an endocrinologist and back to Doc C in two months just to check it all out.
So for now my annual check shows what it has shown for the last 6 years-I am cancer free.  You know though as I think on it, last year they found this goofy nodule on my thyroid and this year it's the chubby liver problem.  Something is telling me that I best start taking a little better care of myself.

Kentucky Kids

Ryan and family were able to make a quick trip to Minnesota last week and found some time to spend with the Woelpern clan.  Time gets short when you have so many to see.

This is the second time we have seen Aiden since he was born and has he ever grown up-looks like his Daddy.

 Abigail Rose continues to be a charmer.  She and Julia are a few weeks apart in age and it would had been fun to get them together.

Aiden is the one and only grandson of the family..watch out Ry and Jen when he wants to begin 'carrying on' the Woelpern name :)  This guy is gonna have no problem finding himself a date or two.

There was not a problem fitting four adults and two grands in our motorhome

 

 Aiden even found places to climb on

 And enough area to practice his newly acquired walking skills

Gramps splitting his time between coloring with Abigail and playing catch with Aiden

 Oh yes, as hot as it was we had to go outside

 And go for a ride.  This is our friend's four wheeler with Daddy and Abigail on it.  David cautioned Ryan to drive a little more safely than he did when he was a kid.  He and Lenny used to jump over the road in Kasota on these crazy things-or was it motorcycles-or perhaps both!

 Aiden's turn and yes Daddy took it easy.  Funny how things change when you become a parent :)

And because Abigail has recently become afraid of dogs Peeko and Roscoe spent the time behind closed doors in the bedroom.  They were just fine but certainly wanted to join in the fun as you can see.

It was too soon time for the kids to say goodbye and head back to Jen's mom and dad's.  I regret not having gotten a picture of great grandma Loi with her great grands from Kentucky...next time.

Can-a-da

Because Windsor is a border city lots of trips are made to detroit to shop and sight see.  Our hosts took us over a few times, once to Mexican town (no camera no pictures), which is a really....really run down area with a block of very popular authentic Mexican resturaunts.  The food was delish.

And another day we were off to Greek town with a stop at the Renaissance Center which is the corporate head office for General Motors

 And is right on the boardwalk on the water.  The kids enjoy the spray of water that shoots up on and off

 Especially when it is as hot as it has been here.  This place is a huge hit as you can imagine.

 Then off to Greek Town.  The buildings here are fabulous

 And the sky was perfect

Pagasus is an authentic Greek restaurant that serves authentic Opa.  One is a cheese opa and the other is a sausage opa.  What looks like a piece of deep fried bread is actually the cheese, you scoop a piece up and eat it on bread.  The sausage was different and I liked it.

 

When they bring the cheese opa to you it is lit and flames up quick nicely.  As the wait person does this it is customary for them to say 'Opa' in a loud strong voice.

 One must not eat at a Greet place and not have a Gyro.  They were quite tasty.

Cold Stone may not have anything to do with the Greek but who can walk by one and not imbibe?

 This bakery was authentic.  Baklava and other yummy treats to be had.

These two border towns celebrate Independence day together.  Canada celebrates their Independence Day on July 1 and of course the US on July 4th.  Along the boardwalk of both Windsor and Detroit there is celebration for two weeks over the 1st and 4th of July.  There are street fairs, food tents, street entertainers that come from all around and much much more.  The creme de la creme is the combined fireworks set of from three barges sitting in the water.  This is the 2nd largest fireworks display in North America, New York City is the largest. 

A million people gather on both sides to show their patriotism.

 And amongst those million sat David and Mark

 A pre- fireworks shot of the Renaissance Center

The architecture across the water is quite impressive especially with the American Flag proudly waving

 To begin the show a helicopter flies the Canadian flag across the skyline.  I was happy to get the shot of it near the US flag.  Patriotism at its best.

 And then the US flag is coptered across.  Unfortunately they flew much lower you are able to see the flag here but not the helicopter flying it.  There was applause all around when both flags flew.  Patriotism at its best.

 And the display begins

 This was a bit eerie I thought

 Not only was the view fabulous but the sounds, oh the sounds booming over the water and through the skyline

 Colors that lit up the sky

 And the good ole red white and blue.  It was quite the feeling sitting there amongst all of the Canadian citizens with the US across the way enjoying the very same show applauding each others country.  Patriatisim at it's best.

It has been said that this may be the very last combined fireworks due to Detroit's financial difficulties.  It would be a huge huge lose and missed by millions. David and I are happy to have been a part of this combined Independence Day celebration.

I am not sure what the deal is with these Canadians (I say with a smile on my face) but they celebrate Thanksgiving in October not November....egh?  So we thought what the hell, let's celebrate ours in June.  Turkey, dressing, gravey and corn on the cob with wonderful friends and great hosts.

 

It has been a fabulous almost three weeks, time we will never forget, spent with friends who now feel like family.  They welcomed us into their home and their lives.  Thanks guys-love ya. 

Canada-By Way Of Detroit

It is unfortunate when you meet great people and do not keep in touch with them.  We were not going to let this happen with Mark and Colleen, folks we met and floated down the river with while in AZ.

Prior to heading south (yes south) to Canada we were able to attend Julia's first gymnastics meet.  Several stations were set up and the kids were split into groups of three each group taking a turn at every station.  Although Julia is a darned good gymnast she was rather shy of 'performing' in front of such a large crowd.

Shelby however would had been raring to go-yup just look at that face-she's ready.

 Kelly helped Julia feel more secure in this station

 And once she felt comfortable she took off on her own

 The happiness on her face brought tears to Grandma's eyes

 Of course every participant received a trophy but this is the most cherished one in my humble opinion.

 After a celebratory lunch at Old McDonalds, we headed out for Canada.  And yes we traveled south.  Our friends live in Windsor which is south of where we live in Minnesota.  Crazy it was when I realized this fact.  Going through Chicago and Detroit, well not absolutely through but crazy enough, was a nail biter but we made it.  And then there's crossing the border.  There are two places to cross here, one is the tunnel the other is the bridge.  We wanted the bridge but went the tunnel way by accident and again quite by accident found our way back to the bridge only to find ourselves wondering which lanes do we go in-the truckers lane or the car lane.  We had been told to use the car lanes and we did.  The car lanes, due to construction, were damned narrow.  Rounding a corner found us riding a curb for a bit (no big surprise hey Mikey?), thank goodness we did no damage to the motorhome.

Finally there she is the bridge to Windsor.  Note the weight on that bridge as David so kindly pointed out!

 It was a great view of the Detroit/Windsor waters

 And our first Canadian flag-yep we made it

 In Windsor they still have roadside vegetable stands put out by normal people who either raise their goods or get them from the huge greenhouses in this area.  David was pretty darned excited to get a few of these great tomatoes and peppers

 And new potatoes

 At $5.00 for three of the containers.  The tomatoes were a dollar a piece.  They were huge and tasted great.

 Point Pelee was on the agenda for a day trip.  First up was a board walk through the marsh

 We spied turtles basking in the sun

 And water lilies

 And this, our friend Mark tells me, is a gator trap.  They bait the gators into the trap, close the lid and wallah you got yourself a gator.  He sucked me in hook line and sinker....there are no gators here for goodness sake.  It was a good story told by a great bullshitter and I believed him.

 This is a map of the county where Windsor is in.  It shows Point Pelee bottom right.  If you click on the map you will see that we are now south of Detroit.  Point Pelee is the southern most tip of Canada from where you  can see Cleveland

 Below is the legend for the park.  A great place

 A very interesting fact

 Here we are, the four of us, standing farther south than any other Canadian was at the time.  By the way the water was darned cold.

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When we aren't sight seeing we do a lot of this...until the boys started playing Face Book Texas Hold em and then they got Colleen involved.  Now you see these three each with a laptop in hand playing like it is real money.  Me, I am content to watch thank you very much.

 

Another day found us in downtown Windsor at this restaurant enjoying Dim Sum which is authentic Chinese Tea which means a sharing of food.  We were joined by Mark and Colleen's daughter and family and had 9 of us at a table.  Colleen has been forever dubbed by her family as the one who says yay or nay to the food as it comes by.  Wait people carrying trays of authentic Chinese food stop constantly offering a new good each time.  We had never had any of these foods and found many that we both enjoyed and a few not so much.  It was yet another great experience.

 And then one can't miss the boardwalk on the Canadian side that looks over into Detroit.  This is not smog but is mist.  It was a hot, humid misty day (most of the days have been in the 90's with 400 percent humidity I am sure).

 There are many gardens in this area

 One night we dicided a corn dog from the local fair would be just the ticket for supper.  As with most fairs there was a tractor pull.  They look like no tractor that I have ever seen but...
They rev up their engines

 And go like hell pulling a boat load of weight

 Stirring up a shit load of awful smelling dust and fumes. 

Colleen and Mark are great hosts and there is more to share, stay tuned.  Did I mention that it has been sweltering here?  Seriously who comes to Canada thinking you are going to melt in June!