Someone's Knockin At The Door ...

It seems that Ken has had a visitor while he's been recuperating ...

It was a tough weekend keeping Ken on the sofa ... making sure he was fed, he had his pain medications, the television remote was always within his reach ... just brutal!  Actually, the hardest part was convincing Ken to let me do all those things for him and to keep his feet off the floor.  Keeping Ken still in the house when it was such a nice weekend wasn't easy.  I had to do a little real estate work Saturday morning then buy a few groceries, leaving Ken alone for a while.  I was happy to see that he was still on the sofa when I got back home.   

Shortly after I came home from my errands on Saturday, I heard something at our front door.  When I peeked into the foyer, I found a squirrel ... sitting ON our front door!  Evidently, Ken has been having visitors when I'm gone.  Well, if the squirrel keeps him from going nuts than I guess it's all good.

After a weekend of terrible television and too much ice cream, I think Ken's gonna survive his recent injuries.  It's been almost two weeks and his wrists and the right side of his torso are still real sore, but after doing more research I don't think he's got any internal bleeding since he doesn't have any bruising or discoloration.  Yesterday I finished a painting job that he had going on, and he just supervised me and another guy.  Today he was going to supervise a small concrete job, so he hasn't been pushing himself as much as he did last week.  I don't wanna jinx ourselves, but I think we're going to be able to avoid huge hospital bills and a lot of lost work ... whew!

Just about a month ago some salesmen from Aflac had spoken to our office, trying to sell insurance to us self-employed folks for those times when we get injured and can't make a living ... I had regretted not looking into that a little further these past two weeks.  Like the Aflac duck on television (have you seen the recent commercials?), Ken could have been getting paid while recovering from his injuries.  Our budget is really tight until our house sells, but after this little incident I'm going to look into this insurance.  Maybe we can afford it until our house sells and Ken can quit working so much.  Maybe we can't afford not to have this kind of insurance .. hmmm.

Last weekend, we had this rainbow sitting outside our front door.  Maybe it's a sign of good things in our near future!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Love With A Chance of Drowning - Worth the Read?

When I found a copy of  "Love with a Chance of Drowning" in our mailbox to read and review, it felt like Christmas!  I'd heard about this book from the author, Torre DeRoche, in a Facebook group that we're both a part of, Women Who Sail.  It's a group for women that are sailing or learning to sail, and it's a place to share our experiences, our questions, and our fears.  When Torre mentioned that she had written her true story about falling in love with a man who wanted to sail across the Pacific ocean, I was intrigued.  I've never been a fan of romance novels, but this sounded like much more.  Not only was this about cruising on a sailboat (that was good enough for me), but it was also about Torre's fear of the water and having to make a tough decision.  Torre could either face her fears and head into the ocean on a sailboat with her man (and surely die!) or watch him sail away without her.  I knew from the description of the book that Torre had chosen love over fear, but I wondered how things turned out.  Would she regret her decision, or would it be one of the best experiences of her life?

I immediately started enjoying the book, and Torre's style of writing made me feel like I knew her.  She has a great sense of humor, and her book was honest.  One of the first challenges Torre faced when taking a risk and living a lifestyle that is foreign to others happened before she ever left the dock!  Torre not only had to fend off her own negative thoughts about cruising ... but those of others.  I could totally relate to her experience.  In fact, I'm bracing myself for more of this as our departure date gets closer.  I guess it's just yet another of the challenges that we face when choosing an alternative way of life.  

Facing her fears and living on a sailboat wasn't always easy for Torre, and she wrote about the difficulties that came with her decision.  Sometimes she loved cruising, and sometimes she didn't.  She also wrote about her clumsy boyfriend, and some of their embarrassing stories that made me laugh out loud (literally).  I'm sure we'll have our own share of embarrassing stories once we start cruising, and it was refreshing to read about such things.  Life shouldn't be taken so seriously.  That's what was so great about this book.

The book didn't end quite the way I thought it would, but that's because this is real life!  Without giving away too much, let me just say that I highly recommend this book.  Whether or not you're into sailing, you're sure to enjoy it.  I think Torre's story is not only a good read, but a source of inspiration. We all have fears, and sometimes they get in the way of our dreams.  Torre wasn't going to let her dream of a future with her new love be crushed by her fears.  Facing her fears changed Torre ... and her life.  

Heck, Torre's life changed when she left her home in Australia (yep, I hear she's got one of those awesome Australian accents) to experience the United States (San Francisco).  She didn't really know anyone and didn't have a job when she first arrived.  That in itself takes guts!  It was in San Francisco that she met her new love.  That chance meeting led to sailing and this book.  I hear there's already a movie deal!  Just goes to show what's possible when we step outside of our safety net.

Need more info?  Here's the trailer for the book ...

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!

Becoming Doctor!

If only it were this easy!

Since last week's post about Ken's um ... "accident", we've had three different appointments made ... a full-body bone scan, a CT scan of Ken's wrist, and a doctor's visit with an orthopedist to read Ken's x-rays that were taken last week.  After a lot of phone calls with the doctor's office, the hospital and our insurance company ... we cancelled every appointment!  It's a shame that over $400 per month on health insurance doesn't cover the scans.  We would have been looking at almost $2000 for the bone scan and we didn't wait to find out how much the CT scan would have cost.  Of course, if we didn't own anything and blew our money every weekend we wouldn't have to worry about such things ... the government would pick up our tab.  But that's another story that I'd better not get started on!

The full-body bone scan and the CT scan were a result of Ken's doctor visit last week.  At the time, Ken's entire right side of his body was hurting ... full-body scan ordered.  The next day, Ken's body aches were improving but his left wrist was killing him.  After phone calls to the doctor's office with no advice if the constant throbbing and increased swelling of his wrist was "normal" (advice would be another $45!), we finally got a phone call from the doctor's office just minutes before they closed for the weekend ... after reviewing the x-rays again Ken may (not sure) have a small wrist fracture, but if so there doesn't seem to be any "displacement".  The quick phone conversation consisted of being told that yet another test was ordered (the CT scan) and "not to worry" about our insurance coverage ... they'd get it approved.  As I mentioned in my last post ... yeah, right!  Good thing I did "worry about it" and not take the nurse's word.  I doubt she would have been willing to pay our bill. When Ken got off the phone, I asked him what instructions he was given regarding care of his possibly fractured wrist over the weekend ... they didn't mention anything.  Another call to the doctor's office and wouldn't ya know ... closed for the weekend!  

Our weekend consisted of a lot of time on the sofa with Ken's wrist wrapped in an ace bandage and elevated on a pillow.  Without any instruction from the doctor's office we figured this was the best thing to do.  The entire weekend was stressful, wondering if Ken's wrist was fractured, how much all of this was going to cost (didn't find out till Monday), how much work Ken would miss and income he'd lose, etc.  By Saturday evening all of Ken's other body aches were about gone and his wrist wasn't feeling good, but it was feeling better.  Maybe we could cancel the two scans and just see an orthopedist.  After all, the doctor's office did mention that after the scans Ken would need to see an orthopedist.  Why not go straight there with Ken's x-rays from last week?   We'd rather pay the $65 co-pay for the orthopedist than the big bucks for the scans that may not be necessary ... the doctors sure aren't worried about wasting our money.

Long story short ... we cancelled the two scans on Monday and instead made an appointment with the orthopedist for today (Wednesday).  This morning we cancelled the orthopedist appointment because Ken is being careful with his wrist and it's improving every day ... fingers crossed!  We can always re-schedule if necessary, and hopefully we just saved ourselves $65 bucks.  

Good ending to the story right?  Well, not so fast!  On Sunday Ken's lower back started hurting really bad and it hasn't improved ... he can barely walk and it hurts when he coughs.  After trying to work on Monday (helper drove) he cancelled his jobs yesterday in hopes of feeling better today, but he didn't stay on the sofa like he should have.  He went to work today (he promised he wouldn't drive and only supervise) and he plans on doing no more than that for the rest of the week.  This weekend will once again be on the sofa.  We're really hoping that Ken just pulled a muscle.  That's what he thinks it feels like.

This whole ordeal has required a lot of involvement and thought on our part.  We've had to weigh our options, do our own research on fractured wrists (most don't require surgery if not displaced), and provide our own treatment.  If we had just gone along with the doctor's advice, we'd have thousands of dollars in bills and who knows ... maybe all for nothing.  

I'm hoping that all the rubbing on Buddha's belly is gonna pay off and Ken will be feeling a lot better by next Monday (if not sooner).  We really need to keep things going until our house sells ... send us some good vibes ya'll!

Hasta luego ... until then.  Mid-Life Cruising!