I don’t know how fiscally responsible this trip is but we needed to celebrate a win! We’ll be staying on points earned from our long stay in Houston after the transplant and we’re going to be hitting up state parks for hiking and cooking a lot of our meals so it’s not like it’s a crazy amount of money but still. We would probably be better off prioritizing our house remodel but it’s been an awfully long time since we’ve had a health win, well one that lasted this long, so I felt we needed to celebrate! It’s been at least 10 years where Amanda’s had a surgery or big procedure every year. We’re just about a year out from the transplant, next Friday to be exact but who’s counting! She did have a stent put in her leg in December but didn’t stay the night and was out by lunch so that one doesn’t even count!
Amanda is never very vocal on what she wants to do, what she doesn’t want yes, so the location of our vacation was pretty much left up to me. After repeated questions on where to go, she finally just said I just want to go with you so wherever! I’d thought a Texas coast trip then the Smoky mountains. Then I had a work conference in Arizona come up so we decided on southwestern Colorado hitting the conference in AZ after. I’d planned the whole Colorado trip out then the conference was postponed till spring so we shifted gears back to the mountains on the other side of the states! It’s also much lower altitude and should be easier on Amanda.
As it’s sits now we’ve had a little get away between every hospital trip since we’ve been home from the transplant. I’d like to keep that momentum going and maybe we can let the getaways and vacation trips outnumber the hospital ones. We’re already lining up a getaway for January. Hopefully we’ll be able to make the Colorado trip work with my work conference in the spring as well.
Just the other day I saw a FB memory from when I was packing for the transplant stay, little did we know Amanda would really be getting a heart. Well we most definitely packed more for this trip than the transplant trip! We have a couple stops along the route to see friends then dinner with more friends in Houston. Then on to the Alabama beach for a night before we hit those Smoky Mountains.