Week Full of Adventure

This week I had a series of fun, but adventuresome things.

Monday I went in for my weekly check up with Dr. N.  The rash was getting better, but not completely gone.  When he asked if I wanted to get on a steroid pack and get rid of the rash, I jumped at the chance.  He did make the referral to the radiologist, but said that we would wait another two weeks to be sure the rash is really gone before we start radiation.

Tuesday morning the first real adventure began when I was flying from Austin to Dallas (headed to Kansas City).  It was an early flight and all of us were sleeping.  When we landed the flight attendant was quick to point out that we had landed back in Austin.  We all confirmed that by looking out the windows.

She let us know that there was a problem on the flight, including a smell in the back of the aircraft, and as a precautionary measure they had turned around half-way to Dallas and come back.  Next we heard from the captain that the fire trucks would be looking the plane over and using thermal cameras.  When they found a 'hot spot' on the left wing, the decision was made for us to evacuate the plane, via the emergency slides.  It was a quick trip down the slide, and a fireman was down there to 'catch' each of us.  We even made the news.

It was not scary, but it was an inconvenience.  After standing on the tarmac for 20 minutes the airport brought some buses out and we were taken back to the terminal.  Another 20 minutes or so and we went upstairs to wait in a line to be let back on 10 at a time to get our stuff that had now been towed back to the terminal.  Oh but the fire department was still doing some investigating so we waited some more.  Everyone was in pretty good spirits as we waited, joking along about it all.

We were told to re-book our flights and since I was at the end of the waiting-to-get-your-stuff line I was suddenly in the front of the line to get over to gate 7 and re-book.  I got one of the few remaining seats on the 10:30 flight and still make it to KC without too much delay.

Another team member had been delayed too (though not for as exciting of a reason) and so I didn't have to ride over to our event alone when I got to KC.  We had a great team building time, and several of us, including me, got to climb to the top of this 50' tower.

The climbing up wasn't too difficult, but getting on to the top platform proved to be a little more of a challenge.  I did eventually figure it out, but only after reminding myself that I'm beating cancer, surely I could finish getting up on a silly platform.

Getting down from the platform required some serious self talk too.  You have a safety rope on, but you must go against everything your momma taught ya and push yourself off the platform so the team below can use the belay and let you down slowly.

The three days in KC were great and the trip home was uneventful, which was just fine.  One trip down the slide in a lifetime is plenty.

Praise God, the rash is gone and I'm on the next to the last day of the steroids (one of those tapering packs) and that there was no serious emergency with the plane and that the pilot was cautious enough to keep us all safe.

Next week Wednesday, I have my radiation consultation so I probably won't be back in touch until that gets underway the following week.  Hopefully there is nothing too exciting to report between now and then.