Monday to Saturday, June 11 to 16, 2012 (Fort Camping, Brae Island Regional Park, Fort Langley, BC)

Steve woke with an awful cold this morning.  He said his throat started feeling funny last night...well, he has a full blown head cold today!  Consequently, he wasn’t up to doing much this morning.  I had planned to go into Langley for groceries so it was about 10:30 when I headed out in the truck.

I took my time, returning home just after 12:30.  It ended up be a fairly nice day so Steve was outside reading a magazine.  After lunch he seemed to have a little more energy so he did some work on the trailer windows...trimming the caulking that had expanded from the window frames and re-caulking where necessary.

I started to sit inside and work on our blog but since it was actually nice out, decided to sit in the sunshine and read my book.  The forecast is for rain so I might just as well take advantage of the sunshine while we have it.  Sitting inside on the laptop is a good thing to do when it is miserable outside!

It was close to 9:00 p.m. when I received a text from Angie...Rob was back in the hospital.  What?  She said he had been doing better but all of sudden had taken a turn for the worse.  He had had a CT scan on Sunday and it had come back normal...thank goodness!  But now his headache had gotten worse and he was vomiting again.   This had both Steve and I very worried...we were just home for 6 weeks...why is this happening as soon as we leave?!!

I immediately called our good friend Nancy and she and Rob (her husband) went to the hospital to provide support for Angie.  Being an ER nurse herself, Nancy knows the “in’s and out’s” of the ER and will be able to help Angie understand what’s going on...and provide emotional support for her and Steve and I since we can't be there.  It was around 12:30 a.m. when Nancy called...Rob was stable and was under the care of a top-notch ER doctor.  Thanks so very much, Nancy and Rob for being there!

Tuesday morning Rob was still in the hospital undergoing numerous tests...and playing the waiting game waiting for results.  His doctor was getting in touch with neurologists...it looks like they may transfer him to the much bigger, Victoria General Hospital for an MRI.  By this point, I had decided that I really wanted to go hop onto the ferry and get back there.  Steve was in no condition with such a bad cold...besides he would not be welcomed into the hospital.   I decided to call our son, Chris, to let him know what was going on and to see if by chance he would be able to take some time off work.  As it turned out, his company was very understanding and Chris took off around noon.  He had to head home, pack a bag, arrange for someone to check in on his cat and then he would be out to pick me up.

It was shortly after 2:00 when Chris arrived...we would not make the 3:00 ferry and of course, there wasn’t a 4:00 so it would be the 5:00 ferry.  During this time, we learned that Rob had been transferred by ambulance to Victoria General.  It would be after 7:00 by the time we got there.

As it turned out, Rob was just being released as we arrived at the hospital.  He had been thoroughly checked out (with in-depth testing) by a neurologist and it was determined that an MRI was not warranted.  I must say that I was very disappointed by this.  Oh well, I sure hope they are right!   The diagnosis is viral meningitis.  It will just have to run its course.  Thank goodness it wasn't bacterial meningitis!!

We said our goodbyes to Nadine and Mike (Steve’s sister and husband) who had been with Angie and Rob since early afternoon.  Again, thank you so much for being there to support Angie.  Angie was exhausted so I drove her home (in her car) and Chris drove his brother home.

Tuesday night and Wednesday was spent just being there to help keep an eye on Rob...he had gone up and down a number of times over the past few days.  We were just keeping our fingers crossed that he wouldn’t take another turn for the worse.  Wednesday actually ended up being a pretty laid back day for Chris as well...he was coming down with a cold.  The rest probably did him a lot of good.

Thursday morning Rob was about the same...still has a headache but it is not as severe as it has been and he hasn’t taken a turn for the worse, so Chris and I decided to head back to the mainland.  We will catch the 1:00 ferry.

With heavy traffic, hitting all the lights red and stopping at Shoppers Drug Mart to pick up some cold meds for Chris, it was close to 4:00 by the time we finally made it out to Fort Langley.  Steve was pooped...he had spent the day washing the roof and awnings on the trailer.  He is still suffering from his cold and figures working outside in the on again/off again rain didn’t help either.

Rather than battle the traffic on Highway 1 where there is a lot of construction going on as they replace the Port Mann Bridge, Chris decided to stay for dinner.  So it was nice that Steve was able to spend some time with him too.

Chris headed off at about 7:00 and after seeing him off, we went for a stroll through the campground before settling back inside for the evening.

Friday morning we woke to blue sky and sunshine...one nice day before the rain sets in again.  So we were going to take this opportunity to wash the trailer.  It hadn’t been washed since January 1 when we were at Fort McDowell, Arizona...mind you, all you really need to do when in Arizona is dust it with the California Duster.  But after our trip back home with all the rain and then sitting for 6 weeks in storage, it was pretty dirty...time to give it a good wash.  That is also why we are back here at Fort Camping for the week...few campgrounds allow RV washing but they do here, so we wanted to take advantage of it...get all cleaned up before we hit the road again.

That was pretty much an all-day job and Steve was tired by the time it was done.  That cold of his is still hanging on and zapping his energy.  My job was to provide assistance...mainly holding the water hose and rinsing off the soap.

As predicted, we woke to rain Saturday morning...and it just poured all day.  So we had an “inside day”...I was mainly working on our blog while Steve watched TV.  Hopefully, a good day of rest will help him get rid of this cold!

We were supposed to leave tomorrow but with the weather forecast of rain, we decided to extend our stay.  As a rule, we prefer to not travel in rain where possible (especially after just spending hours washing the rig) so as it stands right now, we will leave Tuesday. 

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