November 22, 2018

One last post before we break away to focus on the road to recovery and see where our path takes us from here. I’m nestled in at our Bandon gift home watching a storm rage outside. The fireplace is warming JP as he snoozes and I’m thinking about what it is to be truly grateful. 

We are 2 weeks out from surgery with a ways to go for recovery. Our friends and family have reached out, stepped up, offered support and anything else we might need. We’ve heard from our friends and family at the coast, in the Valley, California, Washington, Arizona and BC. We’ve heard from old friends we had been out of touch with for way too long and new friends just made this fall. We hear from you by text, email and phone everyday. Its new to be grateful for things you never thought you’d need and sometimes hard to “let your friends – be your friends”  Yet, there you are – waiting and willing to do just that.

We are so blessed to have family. We’ve been in touch with both sides of our families who have been following us along this unexpected event. We’ve appreciated all the care and concern. It is reassuring to hear “I’m there in a heartbeat if you need me” and to have bases covered for you that you hadn’t even considered while you were figuring out how to navigate surgery.

Ben and Amanda are where we hang our hearts. We were so glad we were able to be together during JP’s surgery week. Even though the kids are in LA we will all be thankful together today (though we won’t be having our traditional TACO Thanksgiving Dinner).We’ve made a habit of moving holidays to whenever we are all together as a family, so if all goes well our family Holidays will be in Palm Springs in late January . 

Thanks for following along with us on our blog. We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving with much to be thankful for too. 

I’ll  post on FB to let you know once we are back to blogging on luckyontheloose.blog  . Until then . . . 

Wishing you Holiday Season full of things to be truly grateful for! 

November 21, 2018

Hello again! I haven’t posted since we signed out for JP to recover from his illness, so let’s catch up!

We headed from Lebanon to Bandon in mid-September. JP was still a bit under the weather but anxious to get back on the water. He was happy to get in some bass fishing with Ben (which is his newest fish fascination) and looking forward to that being a yearly seasonal event all on its own.

Salmon fishing was not so good this year but there was good ocean fishing! JP went out with his buddies and they got ling cod, black bass, quillback, crab and halibut. That’s a lot of fish packin’! Even though JP only had a short window of time to fish this go round he did have some fun, some luck and a great time with his friends. Above is his new fishing buddy Randy Lackey who loves to fish as much as JP

We got incredibly Lucky.  JP started having the occasional little chest tightness and burning. It seemed to only be when he was pulling up a fish or carrying his gear to the boat. We had been writing off his occasional fatigue to having been ill in the not too distant past, but he decided to check it out. A doctor’s appointment led to a stress test, then onto a cardiologist, quick trip for a cardiac catheterization (which we hoped would solve the problem – but alas didn’t) then onto the the cardiac surgeon. Our friends Rick and Debbie offered us their place while they were away while we nervously waited for the surgery date. A couple worrisome weeks and JP was at Peace Health Sacred Heart having open heart surgery. As scary as it was –  it’s not lost on us how truly lucky we were.

The kids and JP’s brother came into town before the surgery and the kids were able to stay until JP was stable afterward. JP had excellent care in a kind and compassionate hospital and after 2 days in ICU and 4 days in the cardiac unit he was discharged. This is us goofing around a few days before surgery.

We are now 2 weeks out from surgery and settled into our friend’s Ann and Mike’s home in Bandon. JP’s boat is tucked into their garage and Lucky is safely parked in their driveway. They are away for the winter season and made their home – our home while we need it. Our other friends Robert (“the fish whisperer”) and Sue live across the street. They’ve had our back, shared their home-cooking and  Sue’s nursing skills and helped so much. We are amazingly lucky aren’t we?Our travel plans are on a indefinite hold until JP is back his to his old self and we decide what the future holds for us. Our plan right now is not to have a plan! We are just traveling through the “one day at a  time” zone for time being!