This is a somewhat upbeat post. The video attached was actually taken by Terry back in mid December 2016 while we were on our 7-day Royal Caribbean “Oasis of the Seas” cruise to the East Caribbean. This cruise was given to us as a belated wedding gift from my thoughful brother Jan and sister-in-law Gail.

The idea was to give Terry and I a chance to take a little break after Terry completed his first 12-week phase of Chemotherapy at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola Florida and prior to his upcoming major radical cystectomy operation (total bladder removal) scheduled to occur in January 2017 (shortly after the holidays).

 

At the time that we went on this cruise Terry’s medical condition was not perfect. If you recall, several weeks prior to this trip and while he was already undergoing chemotherapy, a surgical procedure was performed to temporarily insert a tube thru his lower back and directly into his right kidney to help relieve some of the pressure and pain that he was experiencing. This allowed Terry’s urine to temporarily flow into an external drainage bag. Eventually, this drainage tubing was removed as it was not really giving Terry much relief and it was also  a bit cumbersome for him to comfortably maneuver around and to try to remain active.

While on the cruise we tried to participate in most of the activities  and entertainment offered and off course tried everyone one of the exotic tropical drinks. However, there were many times that we had to go back to our cabin so that Terry could rest a bit because he was experiencing pain in his lower back due to the pressure building up in his kidneys or having pain and cramps in his abdominal area. It was our hope that after Terry’s major surgery in January, eventually some of his discomfort would go away. However, even after his surgery and a few months after his recovery period, things really never improved substanially and unfortunately Terry’s pain and discomfort just continued to drag on right to the very end.

Ironically, at the conclusion of this “boogy blog video” you will not that Terry stated “standby for more boggy blogs to follow in 2017”.  However, in actuality, because of Terry’s rapidly diminishing health, this “boggy blog video” that he did while on our cruise turned out to be Terry’s very last “boggy blog”.  Sometimes in life things just don’t turn out the way you had planned

Hope you all enjoy this upbeat video and that gives you some joy and some comfort as it does me to see Terry smiling again and having some fun even for just a little while.

Have a great weekend.

Luv,

Gary