Tomorrow is the day I’ve been planning for! At the very beginning of this nasty cancer journey one of my first surgeons told me to pick something from my bucket list and focus my mind on making it a reality. So I did. I planned a trip to Europe. Tomorrow the trip begins!
At first I struggled with who to take with us...then within about 6 weeks of Chemo I knew who to ask. I had many friends and family members who were there for me- brought us food, sent me beautiful cards and gifts, prayed for me daily...but there was one family who really sacrificed for us. (Aside from Lynn, Mariah and my parents who were BEYOND selfless. Lynn- we are doing that 2nd Bahama cruise. It’s settled. Should we take Mariah this time? 😀)
I am talking about Jeff and Julie Frater. Jeff is also a Lieutenant with CSFD who Donny has known for 20 years and Julie his wife was Hannah’s 2nd grade teacher. I remember coaching Jeff before his 1st date with Julie (Heehee) and Donny was Best Man at his wedding. These two were amazing!! They were ALWAYS there for us in some of the toughest ways. Julie visited and called me and visited in person all the time, being a patient listening ear for my anger, tears, anxiety and fear (this was priceless beyond words) She made us meals and came over and shared them with us and cleaned up afterwards and stayed as long as I needed her. Jeff would stop by day after day asking what he could do, what he could fix around the house, and he did, selflessly and with a smile! Their two kids ( ages 13 and 15) never made me feel scary, and they loved and played with my kids like their own siblings. So... one day we asked them if they’d like to all join us on our Europe adventure (Me, Donny, Hannah and Stella) and they enthusiastically said YES!
Together we looked at maps and we finally settled on an itinerary. I can’t tell you how wonderful and patient they were with planning this. It’s a big deal! Other than Donny, the rest of us really haven’t traveled Europe...and none of us have been to Italy.
So here is our plan:
We fly to London, spend 3 days there seeing the London Tower, doing a “Muggle Walking Tour” that ends near Piccadilly Square. We will check out Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Shakespeare Museum, a cruise on the river Thames and a few other sites.
Next we will take the Chunnel to Paris and stay there for 3 days...celebrating my 50th BIRTHDAY on top of the Eiffel Tower, and also our 29th wedding anniversary.
Then we head to Rome by way of a sleeper train, with our own private sleepers. We will be in Italy 4 days seeing the Vatican, the Colosseum, fountains and many old famous places. In addition, one of the days we are taking an early morning train to Venice ( my crazy idea and my treat) , where I arranged a hop on hop off cruise boat to easily enjoy many sites of the city...then we jump on a late train back to Rome.
On the evening of the 4th day we fly back to London, staying the night at a hotel in Heathrow, so we can jump on a morning flight back to Colorado.
If you are still praying for me, keep it going. As excited as I am, I am still a little worried about my energy level and keeping up with the uber fit and healthy Fraters! 😀
Between the Aromasin hormone inhibitors and the chemo med (Everolimus) I am taking as part of a clinical trial, I still get nauseas easily and my joints tend to ache quite a bit. For those who are curious, the trial drug is actually a proven med for stage 4 cancers, but they started introducing it to stage 3 folks whose cancer behaves like stage 4, with the expectation it will wipe out all micro cells and improve odds of ever reoccurring. I’ll admit it’s been an emotional and physical adjustment following my ovaries being removed and the expanders in my chest (that I’ll wear until October, when they do my reconstructive surgery). I thought I’d have some fills before Europe, but it turns out I had to completely heal from the radiation first.. so 1st fill isn’t until July. Oh well, less to drag around Europe!! 😀😀. All in all, my energy is WAY up from 6 months ago and I have hair on my head again...and to prove it, today I get my first hair cut in a year! Woohoo!
Once again, thank you everyone for all your love and support... I know I couldn’t have made it this far without you! 😀💕😀. Watch for pictures in the weeks to come, I plan to keep a FB album going and keep it updated as we go. 😀
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