Not the way we planned to kick off our cruise!

Hello all!

I know the posts have been far and in between but that is because we have been trying to keep busy.  We kicked off the summer with 3 weeks at the lakehouse that was filled with fun,  friends, graduation partys, Chrissy's 13th birthday, dancing at Camp Dearborn to our favorite band, wake boarding lessons for the whole family and of course, routine trips to the hospital for chemo. 

We enjoyed July 4th at the lakehouse and watched from the middle of the lake while neighbors lit off fireworks on all sides.  The last 10 days have been filled with excitement and anticipation as we prepared for our family cruise that includes 60+ relatives on Mike's side of the family.  The cruise departs from Boston and goes north to Nova Scotia. 

We (me) packed until late in the night Friday. We left early Saturday morning for Niagara Falls, CA a little side trip on our way to Boston.  Things went well except for Lisa continuous complaints about a headache which had started Friday night and persisted through our drive north.  We gave her meds hoping to take care of the pain.  The meds seem to keep the pain from getting too intense but it never seemed to leave her.  Cancer Warrior that she is, she toughed it out and even endured the long, hot, sweaty wait in line to ride Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls.  Once we were done with that site seeing excursion, we were pretty much done....well done, from the heat.  We had a little bit of ice cream and then headed back to the room.  The older kids went swimming and Lisa took a long nap.

Her headache persisted even though we continued to give her pain killers.  The drive to Boston was uneventful except for the growing stress of "what if" Lisa's headaches were a repeat of October.  Deciding to play it safe Mike dropped Lisa and I off at Boston Children's hospital and took the rest of the kids to our hotel.  The hospital was wonderful and ran scans and tests and were able to confirm that there was nothing imminent appearing on scans.  Thank God!  What a relief.  I texted Mike to come get us and finally felt a surge of excitement knowing that we are going on a cruise.  Yeah!  It was not the way I planned to kick off the cruise, but the sense of relief I now feel was well worth the 5 hours spent in the ER.

We are getting ready to head off to the ship now where we will be without Internet connection or cell phone for a week.

Hope all of you are having  good summer.  Keep us in your thoughts and pray that we have a safe and healthy trip.

Bon Voyage:)