Sorry about the time away. Linda and I have been just busy with the kind of “stuff” that we all have to catch up on from time to time. We got to see our grandson “move up” from pre-K to kindergarten and now our granddaughter is in second grade. It’s amazing to see them grow. We tell our daughter and son-in-law to enjoy these times because they fly by so quickly.
With the school year all settled down and the “stuff,” taken care of, Linda and decided to take a break and just get away. We had always talked about seeing Williamsburg and it was our 40th wedding anniversary so off we went. It wasn’t a bad drive. It took us just under 8 hours to get there. With me driving now, we were able to split up the time behind the wheel. Unfortunately, as the caregiver, Linda had to do 90% of the work loading, lugging and unloading the luggage and me. I don’t know how she does it. She is amazing.
We decided to just crash the first day. So, we headed to the pool and were delighted to find a chair lift to get me in the pool. It was extremely easy to use. We just had to enlist a third person to steady it and it took the push of a button to lift me into the pool. It was great to be able to get in and out without having to have three people lift me.
Of course, you go to the Williamsburg area to sightsee and soak up the history of this great nation. It’s a beautiful area. Our first stop was Jamestown. Great idea – but not on a day when it’s 96 degrees. Hot temperatures and MS do not mix well. We quickly found the air conditioned museum and saw all of Jamestown we wanted to see. The heat did not give us a break the next day either when we went off to see Colonial Williamsburg. This area is a restored 18th century town. Many of the buildings are original. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you have to park at the visitor’s center and take busses around the area. The busses are equipped with ramps and it was no problem getting on with my scooter, the first time. The problems started when we tried to get back on to go to the next stop. As I tried to get on, the ramp angle was too steep for my scooter to climb. The back wheels just spun. The driver suggested that I back up and try again. As the back wheels hit the bottom of the ramp, the scooter flipped backwards and well, I broke my fall with the back of my head. As I hit the cobblestones, I lost all feeling and movement in my upper body. It felt like my arms were by my side but when I looked over, they were by my head.
To say I was scared to death at this point is an understatement. After about 20 seconds, I got a sharp tingling in my hands and things started to move again. The next thing I knew, it was an ambulance, an emergency room and a bunch of people asking questions. I felt fine at this point and started worrying about Linda. That didn’t last long because the next thing I knew, she was there at my side, doing her caregiver thing. The people at Colonial Williamsburg couldn’t have been nicer. The security guard led her right to the hospital and made sure that she was safe.
CT scans of my head and neck proved conclusively that my head is harder than a brick. Fortunately, all of the tests showed no problems. After 5 hours of poking and prodding, they cleared me to leave with the smart advice that we take it easy for a couple of days. This we did, spending the rest of our days there relaxing and knowing that we will NEVER forget our 40th anniversary.
As a p.s. to this, I called my neurosurgeon while driving home. After hearing what happened, he wanted to see the CT scans and me as soon as possible. Stand by…
