Vacation

It was so good to just get away: away from normal routine and to sort of "reset" everything mentally and emotionally.  It was a long overdue trip!

Francine's bridal shower Sunday was beautiful!  She deserves this whole experience so much.  It was great to see a lot of people I hadn't in a long time as well.  One big thing we did before leaving the area was visit the farm we both learned to ride at starting at ages 11.  It was so lovely to see Apryl, give all the horses mints, and pamper the old school mare, TT.  She didn't want to graze but we piled her feed bin with grass we hand picked and she was eating that as we left her all groomed and loved on.  She deserves to be spoiled!  I hadn't been out there since last July.  and the trip home including unpacking all my heavy and bulky medical supplies, plus our normal things, went fairly well.  Especially since it was just the two of us getting everything inside at 10p at night after a 5 hour drive!  I was amazed at how much I go through in a week, and actually I'd only packed 4 days worth of some things, and I still had my large duffel bag, a big tote, formula, and our our largest cooler.

Time giving me kisses!  He loves licking everything.

Once at her home, we visited her horses a few times, she boards them close by.  Saturday, we went riding double on her Thoroughbred Star!  He always knows when he needs to be extra careful.  I hadn't been on a horse since Apryl 10 months ago, and I could have shouted I was so happy.  Francine was fairly holding me on by the end of our 15-20 minute ride and it took me awhile before I could stand up once I slid off, but all in all I was very pleased with how I held up.

I was tearing up as we drove away-sometimes it does upset me because I miss riding so much.  Really riding.  You know, feeling their hind end engage as you ask for them to come underneath you and collect as you're taking a tight turn at a hand gallop, doing lessons and learning new things (while being scared to death), and tackling cross country fences and feeling that adrenaline.  Not being able to REALLY ride is one thing that will always hurt a lot, but so long as I can still be around horses, I find a way to be okay.

Beautiful Francine

Francine "driving" :) thank you Star, what a good boy!

Sweet Time

picturesque, peace, friendship

We also did some sightseeing, saw the Avengers in their towns neat old theater, watched horse movies, and just enjoyed each other's company.  Her wedding invitations arrived at her home soon after we did and I helped address her thank you notes from the shower.  Was so blessed to be able to help her with some wedding things.  Saturday night my blood sugar went up, like it often does due to one of my meds, and I had to stop my TPN because it was high for me, in the 230s.  I usually sit up with the lights on to stay awake when this happens at night, but I was so tired from riding we both fell asleep.  All night her service dog Rocket was so upset, running around on my side of the bed, lying next to me instead of with her, even whined once or twice.  Whining and acting up are NOT usual for her at all.  Francine scolded her and told her to lie down, so she got right next to me again.  I didn't really wake up til morning, and as soon as I did I felt completely terrible and realized right away what I had done.  But it's no wonder Rocket was having a heart attack all night, if I don't restart my TPN in 30-90 minutes I become hypoglycemic because TPN is supposed to be tapered down, I just can't obviously in this situation as it continues to climb if I don't stop it.  (I may need more insulin in my TPN it's just a hard balance as I tend to too low as well.)  Thankfully my body seems to regulate things given a matter of hours, I just feel awful for awhile.

Anyway, it was such a good diversion!  I held up so well and felt just fine all week, aside from that one blunder.  I'm amazed at how well I've been doing with the IV nutrition, and my worst is basically what my best used to be.  Big crashes just aren't coming even when I have done too much, without enough gas in the tank.  I just feel like I can keep going and going, within reason.
I have another trip hopefully being planned for this summer too, that I'm really looking forward too, as I haven't seen the family in probably 2 years now.  They're really special friends and I miss them so much!

I've been slowly working on packing for Milwaukee, and hopefully Tuesday is a very productive appointment with Dr Gisela.  I haven't had a bad one yet.  I have friends graduating this week as well!  It's fun to go and be an alumni after the challenge of earning it.

Have a blessed weekend!
Milly