After a long hard winter Jamie finished up the job we were on in Fraser Lake, we headed back to Alberta. With no hope of bringing our trailer as it was buried under 7 feet of snow. We arrived back in Edmonton at 11:30 pm on February 24 th. Much later than we expected but that’s just how we roll. I brought a “shit load” of stuff home because we don’t know where we are going next. I spent the next two days trying to find places to put all my “shit” ummm valuable unneeded stuff. Lol lol Finally felt settled in and at home for the first time since we bought our condo. We were HOME 🏠

Mac turned “40” on the 26th and Jolee was having a party we had no idea we would be able to attend. But attend we did. It was a really nice “40th” party. For a guy turning “40”. See that Mac I used 40 three times already. Love you so much my Son and “40” looks so good on you. 4 times 🎂❤️

Jamie then decided we needed a little holiday and after talking to our Auntie June and Uncle Jeff ( so weird as we do not call them that ) we made plans to head off to Costa Rica. Again a last minute plan with last minute flights, off to the airport for an early evening flight leaving at 4pm on the 5th of March. We will sleep on the plane he said (Jamie my husband) with the great idea for a last minute holiday. The flight was delayed two hours right off the bat. Now we were leaving at 6 pm. We flew into Los Angelos airport and got in about midnight. We had to change terminals of course ……. I found someone to ask for help as to where to go? First really bad idea, he worked at the airport or so we thought looking back I think he had a fake uniform. Lol he told us no need to take the airport train it was just one terminal over faster to walk. Off we go with a ton of luggage ( I always pac light ) second bad decision. We finally get to terminal about a mile away, now tired and grouchie. We drop off luggage and head to our gate. It is almost 1am now we are both hungry. I get Jamie settled with the small about of luggage we used as carry on. Off I go to find food. This is a very important part of our trip. Very little open at 1am. I walked for another mile finding someplace open to get food. I find Starbucks a good reputable place. I get Jamie a chicken Cesar salad and I get a macaroni salad. Off to find my Jamie proud I found food, we both eat and wait for our flight at 3:30am. We are waiting at a gate but the sign never says Cost Rica, it says Guatemala. Again I find someone working at airport ( another fake ) they said no worries it will change when your flight is up. 3:15 no change 3:20 no change 3:25 no change finally 3:30 no change. Then finally an airline stewardess arrives flight delayed another hour but we are going to make a quick stop in Guatemala we won’t need to get off the place then on to Costa Rica. Whew !!!!! Finally someone who knows something. Third mistake. We finally board the plane. Off to Guatemala. We are now on a flight where we can find no one who speaks English (AT ALL) even all the info about seatbelts airbags etc all Spanish. We are so exhausted by now we finally sleep. We arrive a couple hours later in Guatemala Spanish announcement everyone starts to de-board we sit comfortable. Only to be told by flight attendant off plane 🤨🧐🤬 WHAT ? Off we get nobody speaking English to us. We have no idea what is happening. We get put into a very small room with everyone from our flight. We are sent to baggage pick up we get all our luggage and go through customs. Then we are herded to another room with luggage and about 1000 people ( really only about 200) but the room is packed it’s hot and Jamie is now not feeling well. Finally we are at a new gate we board a plane and an airline stewardess Says we are off to Costa Rica. We have no idea how we did it but we did. Thank GOD We arrive to Costa Rica and June and Jeff’s beautiful place. We decide to go for a swim to cool down and relax God knows we needed it. Jamie is not feeling well.

We head to bed for an early sleep as we are in need of a bed after about 18 hours sitting up. Jamie is not feeling well. Do you see the pattern? By morning Jamie is really sick. Throwing up cold sweats hot sweats. We give him Tylenol, I think he needs to rest after a horrible trip. Buy noon he is really sick. We give him more meds and I keep an eye on fever and sweats. Next morning June goes to store to get thermometer and more meds. Jamie is not taking diabetes meds and is spiking up and down. The thermometer shows a fever of 40.9 we decide to go to medi centre. He can’t keep anything down, and he is having rigger Dr Google told us that. The dr gives him intravenous and we do blood work etc. we go home after about 3 hours. He seems better. Another day in bed and he gets worse fever is so high he is so sick off to medi centre again. Dr seems him and start meds and intravenous again we spend most of the day there she gets results from test the day before. He has salmonella poisoning. Yup remember the chicken Cesar salad I got him ? Not sure if it was the chicken or lettuce. But he is very sick. Jamie spent 6 days of our 9 days in bed on meds, sicker than I have ever seen him. We spent the last 3 days touring around with our fantastic hosts and sightseeing. Jamie was just not up to any walking so luckily we were in a vehicle. June and Jeff were so good to us, we felt so bad that we were not up to doing much. Thanks so much you guys. We will never forget that trip that’s for sure. Love you both so much ❤️❤️

Then off to Tijuana we go for cancer treatment for Jamie at the clinic down there. We arrived on the 15th after about 7 hours of delays. Nope I am not kidding we were to arrive at 2 pm got to Tijuana at 11:30 pm exhausted again. We get up the next morning a d head to clinic. We have never stayed at this hotel so we catch the clinic provided transportation. Only to find we are less than a block from the clinic. The driver must have thought these two are so lazy he dove us a block away. Lol lol We did our blood work in the morning and started treatment the same day. Then headed back to hotel for some much needed sleep in a BED. Off to clinic again the next day staying only a block away and we’re able to walk everyday after our first day transportation debacle. We finally had our appointment with Dr Castillo on the Friday morning to get our test results for Jamie. I also did the tests just to do a good check up. He started with Jamie told him that he was in pretty good health except for the cancer. Which he called a benign cancer. It will not spread and he can live a long life with it. He liked what the doctors in Edmonton were doing and we were to stay on that protocol. Yippie 😊 we were so glad. Jamie was going to do the cancer treatment and get a good week of treatment. Our hearts were so happy ❤️ short lived ……

Then things turned for the worse. Dr Castillo went on to me. He said my cancer markers were high, higher than they had been in the last 5 years of treatments. He wanted to do a Pet Scan and just check everything out. But he said he wanted me to prepare for the worst. I just started to cry we were not here for me I was feeling great we were here for Jamie. Within a day we’re on our way to another province for a Pet Scan, we had to wait through the weekend for results. Finally Monday he told us. I had cancer again !!! Our hearts were broken I was so emotional I couldn’t stop crying. We both cried and then we got our shit together ….AGAIN…..We got this. I have thyroid cancer. They want to remove my thyroid. We told the dr we needed a couple days to talk this through. I was so scared I didn’t know if I wanted to do surgery in Tijuana. But Jamie said how long will it take for us to get all this done at home then book for surgery and all the tests they will need to do? After a long stressful weekend we decided to do the surgery in Tijuana. I did all the pre-op and we both continued to do the treatments at the clinic. Finally it was surgery day Monday April 3rd. The clinic set up for someone to pick us up at the hotel and take us to the hospital. BUT as things often go for us nobody came to get us. I had all my paper work with us, it is so simple in Mexico I just carry all my own paperwork. It is all in Spanish I read as best I can. We called a cab and off to the hospital we went. We checked in and sat and waited. then the receptionist came and got me to say I was wanted on the phone it was my surgeon. I was WHAT ?? My surgeon ? I say hello …..It’s my surgeon he is laughing we are at the wrong hospital. I told him no one came to get us so I made the call to come to this hospital where I did the pre-op. He says no problem I will send someone to pick you up. It is now 5am. The next thing I know a BIG fancy SUV Cadillac pulls up and puts the window down. WAIT for it ?? You won’t believe it ?? It is my surgeon there to pick us up. I tell Jamie it is my surgeon he is WHAT ? I know hard to believe but my surgeon is there to pick us up to take me to the right hospital. Can you ever imagine this happening in Canada? He drives us to the hospital introduces me to the nurses. I get my room the next time I see him is in the operating room. We both have a chuckle at our morning. Surgery is done. I go back to the hotel that night and sleep pretty much for two days. We go back to clinic on Wednesday and I see the surgeon again he tells us the best news. He got all the cancer it was contained I am cancer free. The best news ever. More tears but this time happy tears. We do our final dr visit Thursday morning I get to go off the hoxsey diet finally after 6 1/2 years. We did get some supplements and off we go. We flew home Friday. I mean I had surgery in Tijuana Monday and Friday I am travelling back home to Canada.

We got the best news ever ready to live our best lives. We had a really big scare and a reality check yet again. I am not sure how many more times we can go through this. Hopefully this is the last scare. But regardless we need to slow down and smell the flowers. We plan to do just that. ❤️❤️❤️❤️ So we are back home now no travelling in the near future. Except to go get our trailer in Fraser Lake BC sometime soon. For now we are going to spend some much needed time with our kids and grandkids. Reconnecting with them all. Life is short and so precious. We have had enough tough lessons in life to last a lifetime. For now we have yet another chance at life. We better take this chance seriously as who knows how many chances we all get. Life is like a helicopter, but I don’t know how to fly a helicopter.

Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy your family’s. I know we will. 🐣❤️

Todays sayings : Be gentle when she shows you her scars ….. it takes more courage to remove one’s armour than to assemble it.

# 2 : Strongwomen aren’t simply born. They are made by the storms they walk through.

# 3 : Every woman comes with a quote from deep inside her soul. I am a strong woman, because a strong woman raised me. ❤️

Beth 😇