This trip seems to have had a little bit of everything! We had no problems getting to Jacksonville for the Celebration of Life tribute. We did not go to the Friday evening ceremony, by the time it started I was wearing out. We found a new little diner for dinner and the food was fantastic and enough to feed 2 people. Bill had a huge open face roast beef sandwich and ate every bit of it, even after saying he wouldn't be able to eat it all. I think he left a couple of bites of mashed potatoes. I had some pretty good ribs and of course ate all of them.

The ceremony on Saturday was very nice and we saw some people we knew from before. But, at lunch, which was catered by a bbq place that has really good food, my esophagus decided to do it's little spasm thing 3 bites in. This time I couldn't get it stop and we ended up leaving before the closing ceremony and butterfly release. I coughed and gagged stuff up (I know TMI) for 2 hours before it finally stopped. When it does this it seems like the food doesn't make it passed the base of my throat. So when I say I gag stuff up, it's not like vomit, it's actual bits of food that have just been laying around in my throat. For that matter, it's anything that I take in, including iced tea and diet coke. Usually the carbonation will help with moving some air, but not this time. I did some research on this and it basically said to avoid what triggers it, but since I don't know what is going to trigger it that's hard to do. It also said to suck on a peppermint candy so I did that and by the time it was dissolved, the spasms had stopped. The peppermint is a natural smooth muscle relaxer. I was able to eat that evening although I took it easy with scrambled eggs and my throat was pretty sore for a few days, but all seems well now.

It took forever to get to Bill's sister's house in Clearwater. There was a traffic jam outside Orlando so we let the navigator take over and got off the highway. We ended up going through downtown Tampa, but I knew the road we were on would take us to our hotel at the beach.

When I called our oxygen supplier to get some replacement tanks, I was told we were supposed to give 2 weeks notice. We were not told that, we were told to just call our regular number and they would set it up for us. We did get some replacements and we free to sightsee, but our brother-in-law is not in good health right now and none of us really felt like doing a lot. Of course Bill still can't do a lot of walking as he does get tired easily and now so does Don. But, we enjoyed just visiting with them.

The trip back to Jacksonville was pretty uneventful. I got off the interstate at St. Augustine and we came in the coast road. We could see piles of debris from Hurricane Matthew and there were still piles of sand on both sides of the road, whether that was from beach erosion or piled there for people to fill sandbags, I don't know. We also noticed that some homes had been marked and we've wondered what that meant. They are still cutting out downed trees and foliage and the cleanup is going to take quite a while yet. We have not gone to the beach here, I don't think Bill wants to see his pier missing the last 1/3.

All of his appointments were today and he got good reports. All of his labs were good, and even though they were a little dismayed about the oxygen, they didn't try to tell him that exercise would help him get off it. Yes, exercise will strengthen the lungs, but emphysema has destroyed some lung tissue, so he will always have diminished capacity now.

So, that's been our 2 weeks. We are ready to get home and plan on leaving pretty early in the morning. But, I know I won't get to bed early since the 6th game of the World Series is tonight and it can be won tonight. I hope it isn't because that will mean that the Cubs have lost, but I have to watch it. 

I don't think I will update this again this week, but will have another update on the 11th. Happy November everyone!