It's About the (RV) Journey....: What if and Thank you...........

This is a post I really never wanted to write, but I am writing it not only to keep our friends updated with what's happening with us, but also to give food for thought to fellow RV'ers or those considering full-timing. I will say right up front - there is a happy ending.

Before we started out on this fabulous journey of ours, we asked ourselves a lot of tough "what if" questions. You know the ones. What if we hate rv-ing? What if we get in an accident with the rig? What if something happens to one of our loved ones? What if we get sick? What if we get really sick? We sketched out of lot of possible solutions to some of these questions and proceeded confidently on our way to live each day to the fullest.

Remember that kidney stone adventure before Christmas, the one Tom went to the ER about? Well, the cat scan that day also incidently showed a mass in his abdomen, suspicious for cancer. Seeing those words in writing sent a chill down our spines. The ER follow up directions included an oncologist. Wait, what? Tom had absolutely no signs or symptoms of anything.

Admittedly, he looked and felt so terrific, there was no way there could be anything wrong. Long story short, after numerous doctor visits, and numerous tests in these past few weeks, Tom had surgery last Wed to remove a tumor that was attached to his stomach. He did very well and is recuperating nicely. He still has most of his stomach. Walking and drinking liquids, at this point. That should be the end of it. He should be fully recovered in a few more weeks. We are so thankful!!!

So, fellow campers, all those "what if?" questions that we asked ourselves before starting out on this journey- we were glad we thought about them prior to this happening, though you do what you have to do in any type of emergency that comes from left field. This was one of them. What would we do if...and we had different game plans for different scenarios. We did manage to remain calm during most of this, mainly because of our "Tom looked and felt so great how could anything be wrong" attitude.

We also did have time to think rationally. Luckily the ER sent us to an excellent doctor, who sent us to an excellent surgeon at an excellent hospital. After doing our own google searches to learn about these physicians, we were more than confident in these doctors. Again, we are so very thankful that this was caught early and we were referred to the best!

Hopefully none of our readers will ever be in this same circumstance. But hey, this is life, and something, somewhere will happen. I have to add that even though we were totally "alone" out here in Arizona, we were never totally alone. We had great support from our family and friends thanks to cell phones-calls, emails and texts. We also had great support from other RVers here in the park-who watched our rig while we were away for long days and kept an eye on me too! (Hahah!) We are forever thankful to all of you!!

Since pictures speak louder than words...........