Category Archives: Caregiving

The streak being the sheer number of times that my husband has taken a tumble and NOT broken a bone is broken.  On May 4th while I left him alone for a few hours, he oh so wisely (sarcasm of course) decided to climb a ladder to look at some boxes in the rafters of the garage.  He fell, while standing on the 4th rung of the ladder he fell.  He landed on his hip and he broke it at the head of the femur.  The next day he had a total hip replacement surgery and started his very long and slow recovery.  That was 5 weeks ago today.  He moved from the hospital to a rehab center and has spent 4 weeks there doing PT and OT and getting better.  He comes home this Friday.

And once again life changes, no more leaving him home alone.

This was my husband’s 5th year attending the Winter Sports Clinic for Disabled Veterans and my 2nd year.  He loves it, held in Snowmass, CO each year it is truly an amazing event.  He gets to ski, curl, scuba in the pool, hang with other veterans and socialize.  It’s wonderful for him.  The first 3 times he went it was wonderful for me because I got to stay home alone.  But he can no longer travel without a caregiver so I have to go.  I know complaining about a trip to beautiful Colorado seems silly but it cost me about $2000 to go with him for 8 days and my body HATES high altitudes so I can’t breathe the whole time we are there.

Chip is my constant companion in CO, his love helps.

Pete enjoying the winter sports.

I hope once we get settled in Florida he can continue to participate in this clinic each year it’s sooo good for him.

So we did it – we were snowbirds from Dec 15 through March 15th.  We lived in approx 300 square feet of space, with two adults, 3 large dogs and one small cat.  Talk about Tiny House Living!!!!  But we had a good time, we moved around a bit.  During our travels we spent 2 weeks in Georgia, 2 months in two different places in Florida and about a week in the Carolina’s on the way home.

On the way down we spent two nights in Morristown, TN where I got to see my cousin that I hadn’t seen in at least 25 years. She loved my dogs and helped me walk them while we got the camper set up and then we all went to dinner!  🙂

We had a great campsite there in TN but it was raining the whole time so we didn’t spend much time outside.

We moved on after just two days to Georgia where we spent 11 days and had Christmas in the park with my mom and dad who were working and living there in their RV.  It was a bit strange having Christmas in the camper but I still had my decorations – this was my tree.  It reminds me of my grandmother and I painted it myself.  🙂

On January 1st we moved into a campsite that was a bit more crowded but was at a resort and had lots of amenities!

We spent all of January and February at two different resorts in Florida.  We found the town/city where we’d like to live once our house in NY sells.  We visited the VA in Tampa and got to check out their emergency room (not fun) and emergency dental as well!  We visited with family and friends.  We saw manatees, we went to Busch Gardens twice (flamingo encounter), we went to a spring training game, the dogs played in the dog park, we enjoyed sunsets over the bay, I swam, I played bingo, I LOVED it!  🙂

And after three long months I was very ready to leave the crowded camper behind:

And while I really miss the cheap gas in the south I am enjoying the space I have in my spacious home in NY.  Can’t wait to have a spacious home in FL instead.

And my husband?  He is ready to be a true Floridian.  This is him wearing long underwear and jeans, a shirt, sweatshirt and winter coat at Busch Gardens.  The outside temperature that day was 65.  Yep if it’s below 70 he’s freezing – he will fit right in with the natives.  🙂

So this was my winter in a nutshell!  Of course since we left NY it was the mildest winter in decades and they never had a single snowstorm that required plowing or shoveling the entire time we were gone.

I’m sorry my posts seem to come in spurts, it is how my life seems to work these days.

While I was missing many positive things happened for us.  I took the bull by the horns and MADE the VA get his fiduciary claim set up ASAP in September.  When our NSO from the DAV told me I just had to wait and that the VA does things at their own time and there was nothing to do about it, I was not willing to accept that so I sent an email to the undersecretary for benefits in Washington DC, yep went straight to the top. I had heard she was very responsive and lo and behold I emailed her on a Friday, I received a reply on a Wednesday that something would be done.  The following Friday we had a call from the Fiduciary Officer to set up an appt and two weeks later on a Monday he was at our house we were filling out paperwork and it was done!  And thankfully as a spouse being named fiduciary is super easy and I did not have to make any changes at all to anything.  It’s life as normal here for us.  🙂

With that being settled we are now free to get going with our plans for the winter!  WooHoo so we are leaving mid Dec and heading south.  We will be arriving back in NY mid March.  3 months in our camper, 2 months in Florida and a month of traveling to and from.  I’m sure there will be challenges BUT we will avoid the coldest two months of the year in NY and that will be a true blessing!   While we are there, a lot of work has to get done meetings with VA peeps, housing office, realtors, and contractors.  Our house is listed here in NY and hopefully will sell before the end of 2016 so we can get back to Florida permanently before next winter.

When we get back home in March we will have  just a few weeks to get ready for Pete’s Winter Sports Clinic trip.  And like I assumed, no one else is willing to step up to the challenge of watching Pete for a eight days and being totally responsible for him and his dog so I will be going to Aspen once again.  Our fundraising is going really well and I am socking away every penny I earn at my 8 hour a week job towards this trip as well.  Also working on funds for the Wheelchair Games in Salt Lake City in June.  Pete really enjoys these trips so much!!!!

http://gofundme.com/TravelWithPete