2024 will most likely be one to remember, though, we've had better kick-offs. Even the start of 2020 with the pandemic was more agreeable in comparison.
Hello, folks! Ken here, of Tez and Ken, and I'd like to welcome you all back to our adventure.
"What's this?! Adventure, you say?"
Yes, adventure. Another Journey into the world of full-time RV living. We've made some adjustments. We've taken on some new challenges. Let's hope experience will lead the way.
To recap, life was turned upside down last December when i went into the hospital with abdominal pain and came out with an appliance attached to my small intestine. After much recovery and acclimating to life with an ostomy bag, (approximately 3 months) I was cleared for a reversal of said ostomy bag on March 22nd. The surgery went well and by the following Tuesday, the pipes seemed to be doing their duty and I was sent home. I was to continue on with life and I was expecting normalcy in another 3 months. However, a week later in the early hours of April 2nd, a storm was brewing in my gut. It felt like my belly was on the verge of exploding. Tez got me to the emergency room and, after several hours of waiting, it was determined that my small intestine had busted around the repaired areas and I had infection throughout my abdomen. A new team of doctors, different from my previous specialist, had to pull me apart and do a complete wash out. No tiny laparoscopic holes. Just open me up like a bread box and hose me out, make the repairs and pray that it holds. It was a tough moment for Tez as she had never seen me in such a state. Unconscious, tubes out of nearly every orifice and a spot reserved in the ICU was not what we were expecting. The surgical team made me comfortable and Tez was reassured that all was going well. Six days later I was discharged, again, from the hospital just in time for my birthday. With a new larger and more impressive scar to show off. I was doing my best to take it easy on my bowels. All was going well until a follow up appointment with my surgical team a week later, had me scrambling to get blood work and scans. By the time dinner came around, pictures and labs indicated another problem with abscesses on my small intestine leaking into my abdomen. They admitted me, pumped me full of antibiotics and put two small tubes into the abscesses to drain them. Then came the fun part. I was put on bowel rest. No food or drink for what turned out to be two weeks. I could have small amounts of ice chips and could occasionally suck on a piece of hard candy... sugar-free. Two weeks did the trick. The days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. What a relief it was when we realized it had been a month since I saw the inside of a hospital. My surgical team was the best, even though they did make my belly button smaller and harder to clean. It was a relief to both of us to have doctors who listened to our worries and have the compassion to put themselves in my shoes. Without a doubt, though, the nurses on Seton III were the best care givers. I had spent a lot of time on that floor and got to know all of the nurses and techs. We still can't thank them enough for taking such good care of me while we figured out what to do with my gut.
The recovery time allowed Tez and I to talk and make observations about the previous months. We made plans to attend a few concerts around New York. We decided to use the motorhome to camp near the venues we were attending and plans began to form while we drifted into summer. The road had been kind to us for four years and a future of settling down in a new state was on the drawing board. We had many changes that would make life on the road a little easier and so, with a date to depart set in the calendar, repairs and remodeling started. The rig was parked in my sister's yard for the big projects. We tore out desks and added cabinets and counter tops. The kids helped us cart our belongings from the apartment into the bus. We ditched the old oven and stove for a smaller cook top and modified, modified modified. The motor home was moved to a campground near home. Boxes upon boxes were tucked into every available slot, all the while adding concerts and travel to our portfolio. We even started the grand kid on her concert adventure. And with one final goodbye to friends and family, on a cool August morning, we rolled out of Owego, NY on the road to Gettysburg. It was bitter sweet. We loved the familiarity of home for almost a year, but the road beckoned for us to return.
Our travel plans take us in a clockwise trajectory around the United States again. We will return home by this time next year, 2025. We hope to have found a favorable spot in one of these states to settle down in a few years. It's not so much a permanent settling. It's more a space to call our own when the road makes us weary. A place to call home base where we can make plans for another adventure when the road calls to us again. For now, we explore in Eastern Tennessee. We travel the back roads looking for property and soak in the Smoky Mountains. We don't know what we'll find. We don't know what we'll blog about. What we do know is that this road loves these travelers and we know how to put the rubber to the road.
We hope you'll join us, again.
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