Jan 27-31 Unexpected Surgery

 Susan has been having problems since June. She has had heaviness in legs, fatigue, chest pain at times, dizziness .  At first we thought it could be altitude sickness as we were in Wyoming and Colorado till Aug 1.  After we got home it came and went for awhile. She started having issues walking. We started seeing doctors in September.  Our family Dr ran all kinds of blood tests and she had high iron. He also sent us to a cardiologist to get a complete heart checkup. By January her blood levels were normal and all the heart tests finished and they were fine. She continued to get worse with walking and some imbalance.  She got in to see a neurologist on Jan 13 ,  He sent us to get and MRI of her brain and spine. We got both of those done on Jan 22.  Monday evening we had a voice mail we didn't see untill about 7:30 pm from our Neurologist saying  he had just read her MRI and we needed to go to the nearest Herman Memorial ER and check in and have them contact neurosurgery to read her test results. We decided to wait till the next morning and go to Herman Memorial in the Woodlands.  We showed up the next morning at about 9:30 am. We showed our message to the ER Checkin person. They checked us right in. The ER doc came in and we showed him the message and told our story.  A neurosurgeon PA came in and read the tests. He said they would be admitting her to the hospital. She had a cervical spine compression. Basically she had a disc pressing against her spinal cord. They said if she fell or was in a wreck it could really damage the spinal cord leading to being paralyzed.   Kristi came and while she was there I headed home, got some clothes and Cooper. I took Cooper to Kristis and head back to hospital. She was ina room when I got there. They did surgery Thursday morning, She got some new hardware in her neck. Everything went well. After getting out of recovery she said the heaviness in her legs were 90% gone. Friday morning Physical Therapy got her up and walking. She is using a walker till she gets her confidence and strength back.  She has to wear a neck brace for 6 weeks. She doesn"t have to wear it sleeping. We checked out Satruday and went home.  Things are looking up now. The only downside is we are probably done going to volleyball tournaments with Sammi this season. Susan cant afford to get bit in the head with an errant volleyball. If you have ever been to a tournament you will know what I mean. Also no trips for awhile, hoping to still make a spring break trip but its still up in the air.

Jan 15-19 2026 Lake Georgetown and Austin Volleyball Tournament

Wednesday was a little chaotic. Normally I have most everything ready to travel. We just had so much going on I had to load everything in one day. We also had been without cell service for two day because Verizion was having problems. About 2:00 pm I went to put my hitch on my truck and somehow I had misplaced the sleeve I needed. My truck is a 1 ton and has a 3 inch receiver so I need the sleeve to fit the trailer receiver. I headed to town hoping Tractor Supply would have one. I got about 4 miles down the road and it was shutdown due to a wreck. I could see it would be awhile so I turned around and went back thru Raywood to Liberty. Finally at Tractor Supply I got the only sleeve left that would fit my truck. I headed back home , took a chance that the wreck would be cleared up but nope still shut down. Turned around and went back the long way. Finally got everything hooked up and loaded except our cold goods. Thursday morning we got on the road about 9:30 am. Traffic was pretty good so it was an easy drive. We stopped in Giddings at the Dairy Queen for lunch, it has trailer parking in back so its easy. Filled the truck up with gas and headed on. We got to Jim Hogg Park on Lake Georgetown about 2:30 pm. It was our first time to stay here and it was really nice. We got a great spot right on the lake. Great spot for winter camping but would be hot in summer as no shade. There were not many folks here and they were mostly snowbirds. It was a beautiful day. Friday morning was pretty cold and the wind picked up pretty good. We stayed in camp all day. Susan did some sewing and Cooper and I took several walks around the park. Sammi"s volleyball games started on Saturday but we were in the evening wave so our first game didnt start till 4:00pm. They played poorly andonly won 1 game and lost two. We got home about 10:15 pm. Luckily our first game Sunday started about 11:30 so we didn't have to get there early. We played a little better and won both our games so we finished 3-2 for the weekend. We got back to cmap about 4:30. Got up Monday morning and headed home. Lots of traffic coming home but we made it. We go back in three weeks for another tournament.

Jan 2-5 2026 San Antonio Volleyball Tournament

 Friday morning we left for San Antonio. Sammi has her first  volleyball tournament of the year. Usually we take our trailer and stay in the area for awhile.  Since we were only going to stay 3 nights we opted to do a vrbo.  It was way to expensive for us to stay on the riverwalk plus we needed a pet friendly place for Cooper. I found a little cottage about 2 miles from the convention center.  Of course on the way we stopped in Luling so Susan could go to a quilt shop. We arrived in SA about 3:00.  Our little cottage turned out to be pretty nice , we had a small fenced yard and a driveway with a gate we could lock.  Our little neighbor was a safe place but you didn't"t have to go far for things to change.  For supper we headed out to a restaurant that got good reviews. As it turned out it was closed and I wasn't"t found of the location. It's been about 20 years since we had been to San Antonio, I had forgot how crazy the streets are, even my Google maps got confused.  I finally pulled over to figure out where I was , luckily across the street was a steakhouse and there were a lot of cars so I told Susan we will just eat here.  It turned out to be really good. Our car navigaton got us back home.  I reserved an Ubber for Saturday morning to get is to the convention center. Our first game was at 8:30 am.  This year our vb team is playing in the open division which is the top division. We knew this would tough as there would only be very good teams.  We finished 1-2 the first day. We played terrible the first game. After they they got on track and the rest of the games were very competitive.  We were so tired that evening when we got home we just door dashed Mexican food for supper I also ordered tacos so we would have breakfast the next morning.  Sunday the games were running behind and our 11:30 game didn't start till 12:15.  Won that in 3 sets. Our next game started pretty quick after that. We won in three sets but they were very close. We finished 3-2 for the weekend .  It was probably 4 when we got back  to our cottage. So glad we were staying another night because I was tired. We called another order in and we just chilled. Monday morning we left about 8. It was an easy drive home, couldn't believe we got thru Houston with light traffic.  Our next tournament is in Austin Jan 17,18,