So... good news bad news situation.
Bad news first I guess. Let me get the bitching out of the way.
Having just dropped literally all my ready cash on Christmas, legal fees, and medical bills; I had to pawn a bunch of guns just to get the money together to get out to Boston for my brothers memorial service, and the scattering of his ashes.
I'll be fine in a few weeks, it's just the timing of it.
To compound that, I haven't slept more than two hours uninterrupted since a couple days after Christmas; and not more than six hours in any 24 hour period. There are a number of reasons for this of course, including traveling to Canada and back, getting used to the CPAP machine, the edema (and the diuretics to deal with the edema which make me pee constantly) and of course for the last 8 days, my brother dying.
I'm actually trying to utterly exhaust myself right now. I didn't manage to sleep at all last night, so I decided to stay up straight through, and try to get to bed early tonight, so I can get some good sleep, wake up early, and then get some sleep tomorrow night, before we have to get up and go to the airport.
This has apparently weakened my immune system somewhat; and I'm feeling quite ill, with bad head and chest congestion, nausea, swelling and soreness of the joints, and a fever.
...And we need to get on a plane at 6:30 Thursday morning, which means leaving here around 3:30am; to connect to Denver with a four hour layover, so we can fly into Boston by Thursday night (at least we'll be getting in at a reasonable time... about 12 hours after we leave our house).
Oh, and somehow in the last week or so I managed to put a hairline fracture in my right middle finger. It's swollen and quite painful, and will be for a while.... and I don't remember doing it at all, just waking up one morning with it in screaming pain.
I'm really hoping that a little sleep will cure the feeling ill bit... otherwise this is going to be a much more unpleasant week than it already has been.
Oh and of course, I won't be able to take my furosemide all day Thursday, or my evening dose on Wednesday night, since I'm going to be sealed in a tiny aluminum tube for 8 hours, and I can't really stomach getting up to use the toilet every 20 minutes.
Of course that means by the end of the day Thursday, my edema is going to be out of control; and combined with the pressurization changes I'm going to be swollen up like an overfilled hot water bottle.
Oh and of course, to do all that, I'm going to have the privilege and joy of willfully disarming myself, then subjecting myself to the tender mercies of the TSA.
Joy.
Alright, bitching done...
So, the good news.
My brothers memorial is in my home town of Milton Massachusetts; which means we will be going back to my home town, which is where he wanted to go.
Mel has never seen my home town, nor met most of my family. The circumstances are horrible, but she'll finally get to meet most of the family, including my father.
For that matter, I'LL be seeing family I haven't seen in years; and I'll get to see a lot of old friends, who will be coming out to pay their respects.
Other than my mother, my brother, my grandmother for a couple days in 2004 (when she came to AZ to help my mother), and my father and my uncle David for a few hours in 2005 (when I flew in for my HS reunion); I haven't seen any of my family since early 2000. Other than my HS reunion, I haven't seen any of my Boston friends in that same time.
10 years... man it goes by quick.
Also good, we got an amazing deal on tickets, a hotel, and the rental car.
Funny thing... the lowest quoted far for the day was $738 per seat, including fees taxes etc. The hotel was going to be $96 a night for four nights. the total was going to be just about $1900.
Frankly, I didn't have it, and there was no way I was going to be able to get it in time. We were actually looking at not being able to go; however, we looked at the combo package flight and hotel fares, in the hopes that we might save a couple hundred bucks, and be able to swing it.
The difference was incredible. When we booked the ticket with a four night hotel stay through Travelocity, we got both the $400 hotel room, and the exact same flight they were going to charge us $738 for... for $493 per person.
I honestly don't know how that works exactly, but from now on I'm going to be checking the combo fares whether I need a hotel or not.
So... anybody feel like giving me a few thousand United air miles so I can try to wangle an upgrade... economy seats are 18" wide, and my pelvis (just the bone, never mind the muscle and fat)... isn't?
Just kidding folks, we're alright with the way things are going to be. It's going to be uncomfortable no matter what we do, and I'm not going to inconvenience anyone else with this.
