Leaving In The Morning For Fairbanks, A Few Pictures From Anchorage

Yep, I spent most of the time we had in Anchorage, sick in our hotel room.  This afternoon I had enough energy to get to REI, so that I could get a pair of boots that will hold up to the Alaska cold, fit my feet well, and still give me enough feedback that the lack of feeling in my right foot and ankle, won't lead to lots of falls because I don't know where my foot is.  Even when I just needed shoes to fit, I have never liked shoe shopping.  Luckily, the employees at the Anchorage REI are just as awesome as the employees at Oregon REI stores.

I won't usually use blurry pictures on the blog, but I didn't realize both pictures I took were blurry until we were back at the hotel, and it was too late to get another.  This is the least blurry, and you still get to see that REI employees everywhere bike to work, even when it is below freezing.  The wheel on these bikes are amazing, with better tread than most motorcycles.  This REI store has showers for the employees, so they can bike to work, and then take a shower, before starting their shift, awesome!


 
After dinner tonight, which was spaghetti for Scott, and ice cream for me, (my stomach is still touchy) we had the waitress take some pictures of us in the "living room" area of the hotel.  Not all of them turned out well. (I know, this is a trend with the pictures in this post.)  The waitress was wonderful, but she hadn't used an iPhone to take pictures before.  Still, as you can see, this is a pretty unique lobby/living room. for a hotel.

Yep, bears, that used to be real living bears, (before someone practiced the art of taxidermy) and made a great display piece, that is almost impossible to have a good picture take in front of, because there is literally no way to turn off all the lights that you see reflected so clearly in this second shot. 

 

 

 

 

The manager was willing to turn the lobby/living room lights off , for the 2-3 minutes it would have taken to get a shot of just the bears, and then with us in front if them, but after spending more than 10 minutes looking, and calling the General Manager to be sure, he informed us that the lights in the lobby/living room, had no on/off switch, other than the circuit breaker.  We all agreed that taking a quarter of the first floor, including the lobby, office and kitchen for the restaurant offline, just to get a decent photo, was not reasonable!

 

While I still had the energy, we headed outside to do some comparison of function that Steve, my physical therapist in Oregon, encouraged me to do as soon as possible, so I could see how my body handled walking in cold and snowy.  Since there were 3 inches of snow that had fallen during the 3 hours since our shopping trip, it was a good time to start gathering that data. No real surprised in what we found, but it was good to know that even without feeling in my right foot and ankle, I was relatively safe, walking in snowy weather. On my own, I only came close to slipping once or twice. With a walker that is appropriate for Alaskan weather, I shouldn't have any problems at all.  

 

 

Appropriate for Alaska is going to be the key issue.  It only took 15-20 steps, before it became clear that my walker is not up for the rigors of winter, never mind an Alaskan one.  I alternated between slipping  and needing to plant my feet and stop the walker, and jarring stops, as the wheels got stuck on the packed snow. I had to have Scott carry the walker back to the lobby, because it was obvious that it was not going to work.  With Scott as my "walker," we were able to do about 20 minutes of walking, in the snow, in my Dansko boots, which I have been wearing for several months in Portland, after my physical therapist told me I needed new shoes. (I didn't try the walk in my new boots, because what I was evaluating was the difference between the feedback, on the parts I *can* feel on my right leg, and see if there are differences I will need to compensate for, as I learn to get around in Fairbanks.  Without a car or truck. I will definitely need the new boots, (which are rated to -40 degrees Fahrenheit) in Fairbanks. Taking the bus back and forth to school in temps well below 0, will give me a workout, and require making sure I have the right boots and clothing to protect me! I ,miss my kids a lot, and I don't think that is likely to change, but I am blessed that I already have the right partner to help me make it through all these transitions, and to hold me close when I am homesick for my kids! I am blessed with great kids, and a great husband!

 

 

 

There is still a lot of adjusting that I know is coming, and finding a walker that will work in harsh Alaskan winters, is going to be vital.  We got a good lead on which kind of walker to look for, from another guest at the hotel, who recently has a new walker, that he said works better than any mobility walker he has ever tried.  I will be working on tracking down whether our insurance will pay for one, or if we will have to come up with a creative way to pay for it.  It is pretty obvious, that I like the bicycle wheels in the first picture, my walker is going to have to have big tires, a better center of gravity and the ability to stop when I need it to!  More on that as I learn more.....

The Best Day, and the Best Way, to be Sick as a Dog, When Moving to Alaska

View out my hotel window. Snow has been falling off and on in Anchorage all day on 12/12/2013. 
I have watched it fall, in mostly small flakes, in between bouts of nausea, vomiting, *fast poop,*
running/dashing to the bathroom, taking showers, and soaking sore parts of my body in the tub.
I kept thinking that I should take a picture,  but it wasn't until waking up a little after 1:00 am, that I followed though.

Warning: If talking about being sick makes you uncomfortable, skip this post all together. Enjoy the picture of the snow out my motel room window, and come back tomorrow. Seriously, its all about being sick. You have been warned.

If you are from Oregon City, (of almost anywhere in Oregon from some of the news articles i found when I googled this morning, then you probably already know that there is a very nasty flu bug going around. To quote one of my daughters, "It makes you throw up your guts, and then have so much *fast poop* that you can't get to the bathroom fast enough, unless you are already sitting on the toilet."  I have only heard two variations in the timeline of this, (one was *fast poop* first, and the other was completing the process once, seeming okay, and then getting it again 2 days later.)

My daughter's description is accurate to my experience; the symptoms, timeline has been the same in everyone we talked to, and over and over, we heard people say, "surviving the first 12 hours, when you aren't sure you want to, is the hardest part." At 12 hours, 16 minutes, I suddenly could contemplate toothpaste. At 11 hours and 57 minutes, the thought sent me in to dry heaves.

I am not particularly grateful that I spent the day miserable, where the pain and lethargy were only broken by mad dashes to the bathroom. I am grateful for the timing though. I know that I was exposed last weekend, although we didn't know it until the last hour of our visit with Josh, Sarah and Kat. We saw, face-to-face just how much that 12 hour clock starts, out of the blue. We got clothing changed, a quick shower to clean body and hair. Knowing the exposure had happened all weekend, we honored the request to stay, long enough to hear all the siblings receive their Christmas Blessing. The desire to hear the blessings, outweighed the greenish tint of skin, and with all the concentration of belief, it wasn't until all the blessings were given, that the bug regained control, and the need for another complete change of clothing, before going back to their dad's. by morning all the kids had it, and Tuesday night their father had his first brush with the fast moving virus.

By Tuesday night, the kids were mostly better, although exhausted. I had seen my primary care doctor, for a transfer of care appointment, and asked for advice if I did come down with the flu. Consensus was exposure had been long enough ago, that I should already have it, if it was coming. I am grateful it waited until after our flights yesterday, and struck around noon today. It has been just as bad as my daughter described, and the advice that once you survive the first 12 hours, things start getting better, was born about half an hour ago. My husband checked his email, shared some exciting news, and 13 hours after the start, the smell of toothpaste doesn't make me dry heave. My legs are shaky, but they are stable. I am really sad we didn't get to meet two friends we had hoped to have dinner with tonight, but we would have felt terrible if we had exposed their baby to this, and started throwing up tomorrow morning.

We won't get as much done, as we had hoped to, while in Anchorage, but we have a hotel room with ADA amenities, so I could take showers and baths when I needed, something that would have been hard without all the extra railings and features of this particular room. We did not both get it at the same time, in a city both of us are new to, so Scott got supplies for me, and if he wakes up throwing up, we already have everything we need. (Although Scott very rarely gets sick, so I won't be surprised if he never is sick.)

I believe in a God who loves us, and blesses us, even when it isn't the way we would "choose." I am so grateful that all I have missed is a day of shopping and dinner with friends, who I am sure we will meet in-person, at some point in the next year. We didn't expose more people than we had to. Since we were in the 6th row, with the partition between us and the 5th row of first class travelers, I had many fewer people to possibly breathe on, and potentially infect. There were no children in first class or the first 15 rows, so I am not worrying about whose baby or child I might have infected.

For me, this whole post, is filled with blessings. If I had to get sick, God chose the best way and time, in an incredibly complicated time in our lives. I hope that you also are able to look for, and see, the beauty that God's love brings into your life, even if it is only in the timing of when you and/or your children become ill. There are so many things that could have gone so badly, and they didn't. I am so grateful, even if I know that I have only gotten through the worst, not all of the physical challenges of the rest of this week.

So, what are you grateful for, that might sound strange, without putting it into the context of your life?

Last plane ride, before we arrive in Alaska

It's has taken longer than we expected, but we are finally on a plane headed to Alaska! We should be in Anchorage around 6:20 pm local time. That's 4 hours later than expected, but at least we are finally taking off, and in a much more comfortable plane from the last flight.

I am planning on posting again before we go to sleep, hopefully with us in Alaska, after we have checked into our hotel.

So, my first words of wisdom when starting an Alaskan adventure? Plan to leave the day before the day on your tickets. That way, you won't spend the entire night before packing, and be do tired that you forget to take your wallet out of your pocket. (TSA has to fully search you when that happens.) This is especially important if you don't have an extra hour, because you might miss your direct flight, and be a lot later arriving at your destination than  you expected.

I think the blog is named correctly !