*OFFICIAL* CC Group Cruise 02/15/2014 Cupid's IV Southern Caribbean - Carnival Breeze

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi, that was very nice of Eric to pay for your dinner tonight. You have a great bunch of kids.

We went through the same problem with our cable and internet last summer. They were upgrading the system. Sure wish they did it during the week and not on a weekend.

We finally received some much needed rain. No bad stuff here but some people did get some small hail.

Dave

[HeidiHo]

We were without internet again for more than 24 hours. Comcast kept telling us that it was an area problem and that they were working on it. It went out again yesterday morning. We were told yesterday afternoon that it had been fixed at noon but it was still out at our house so they finally sent a technician out this morning. It turned out to be a bad filter which they replaced. Apparently they really are doing some work in our area and "may" experience more short outages but it was just a coincidence that we also had a problem at our house. The travel agency also happens to have Comcast and is only about a quarter of a mile from my house. This morning we did experience an outage there but it only lasted about 5 minutes.

 

I am starting physical therapy for my shoulder this afternoon. I sure hope it helps. My doctor said if it doesn't help then they will do an MRI to see if something else is going on with it. I really wish they would just do ALL the tests before ordering physical therapy. I really don't want to spend weeks going to therapy if that is not what I need. I guess we will just have to see.

[momofzeke]

Heidi, good luck with the therapy. That does seem a little weird to start you on therapy before doing all the tests, but hope it helps and you won't need any more tests. How often will you go to therapy?

[HeidiHo]

Please say a prayer for my little great niece. She is having surgery as I type this. They think it"might be her appendix but aren't sure. For the past couple of days she had had tummy pain and a very high fever. The pain though is not really in the normal place that it would be if it was the appendix. She is only 4 years old and was born while we were on the Spirit for Cupid's II.

[Cruisin Dave]

Please say a prayer for my little great niece. She is having surgery as I type this. They think it"might be her appendix but aren't sure. For the past couple of days she had had tummy pain and a very high fever. The pain though is not really in the normal place that it would be if it was the appendix. She is only 4 years old and was born while we were on the Spirit for Cupid's II.

Your niece is in our thoughts and prayers. Hope they find the problem. It's tough to be sick when you are that young.

[HeidiHo]

They removed her appendix but it was fine. The surgery was inconclusive. That's all I know. I just got a very brief text from my sister.

[momofzeke]

Prayers going up, Heidi. Hope your little niece will be ok.

[HeidiHo]

Sophia is finally improving. They determined that she had a staph infection and even though they didn't get the diagnosis until late yesterday or early today, they had already started her on antibiotics. They just weren't 100% sure she was on the "right" antibiotics until they got the test results back and it turned out she was on the right ones. She is still in the hospital though. Now her dad though has a stomach bug and can't visit her. My sister and BIL were already there to help out though iso now she is taking care of her son and not just the grandsons. It looks like everyone is going to be fine though.

Edited March 22, 2014 by HeidiHo

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi, glad to hear that your niece is doing better and that the doctors finally found what was causing the problem.

 

Hope all is having a good weekend. Bettie is at a crafting retreat this weekend. I'm watching action movies. WWZ is on now. Fun! :D

 

Dave

[HeidiHo]

My great niece is doing very well. She should be going home today. My nephew's wife posted a video of her on Facebook that was taken yesterday and she was hopping around her hospital room playing with a balloon. She looked totally normal to me. From what I hear she was a very, VERY sick little girl. Thank God she is OK.

 

It has gotten cold again here. Winter just will not go away. it was cold enough last night that I used my remote start to warm up my car again before I left work. I really thought I was done doing that for the season. I think it was supposed to get down into the teens. At least today the sun is shining.

 

Have a great week. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

It has cooled off here but not freezing but below normal. I've been keeping an eye on the drama in Galveston. Not much the cruise lines can do. Heard that RCL is giving everyone their money back but they can stay on board for the week. Carnival is going day by day. Will know more mañana. Guess we are still waiting for 2016 schedules to be released. Hopefully soon. We still have our Quantum cruise booked.

Hope all have a great week.

Dave

 

 

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[HeidiHo]

Woke up to snow on the ground again this morning. :mad: It was just a light dusting though but of course, that means it's still cold. I wish winter would just go away. I am so sick of it.

[Gojirart]

Heidi,

We're right with you with the cold and snow. It was so depressing listening to the snow plows out on the roads last night. We got about an inch. Luckily, our wonderful neighbors had it shoveled away by the time we got up this morning. The only positive is that it is covering up the ugly dirty remaining melted heaps of snow. We're at 18° and only supposed to get up to 23° with blustery winds and tomorrow is supposed to be the same. :(

 

So glad your niece is recovering. It is sometimes amazing at how quickly young children spring back.

 

I hope your shoulder is doing better. Have you started PT yet?

 

We are spending almost every weekend driving three hours one way to clean out my BIL's house. Not only was he a hoarder, but the whole house is mouse infested. We've gone through many rubber gloves and face masks and have started to use disposable coveralls so we don't bring any of the nasty stuff home with us. We're still looking for some important documents like the title to his car. My eye surgery has been moved to April 15, and I can't work there to prevent possible infection for a couple of weeks after that, so I feel driven to get as much done as I can before then.

 

I hope the rest of you are staying warm and healthy. At least we aren't waiting on a cruise ship in Texas to be able to leave on a cruise. Even if they get some reimbursement and a future credit, it must be really frustrating to be sitting there without knowing if you'll be able to leave and having your expected itinerary changed!

 

Hang in there!

 

Gwenda

[AKB10]

Heidi, glad your niece is doing better. I agree, kids bounce back so fast most of the time.

 

Dave, We are cool and rainy here today, but will be in the 70's tomorrow. :D

 

I have also been looking for the 2016 cruises to be released. I love having a cruise to look forward to and plan for. No cruise for us in 2015.

 

We just bought a new 2015 Suburban. Our cars are 10 years old and decided it was time to upgrade. We did not plan for a new car, but knew we wanted a Suburban after driving one in Miami as our rental car. We found out at a car show here in OKC about the upgrades Chevy put in on the 2015's and decided to go for it. They tried to get us to sign for an 8 year loan. 8 YEARS!!! However, we got a 5 year loan and hope to double up on some payments and pay it off early. Before retirement in 4 to 5 years.

 

 

We are spending almost every weekend driving three hours one way to clean out my BIL's house. Not only was he a hoarder, but the whole house is mouse infested. We've gone through many rubber gloves and face masks and have started to use disposable coveralls so we don't bring any of the nasty stuff home with us. We're still looking for some important documents like the title to his car. My eye surgery has been moved to April 15, and I can't work there to prevent possible infection for a couple of weeks after that, so I feel driven to get as much done as I can before then.

 

Gwenda

 

Gwenda, I feel for you!!! Franks dad died in 2010. We found out after he died he was a hoarder. Not only did he have the house he lived in, but 2 other houses that he used for storage. We just finished this last fall going through most of it. The last house that was used for storage we just gave up on. We never did find the "treasure or gold". The treasure we got out of it was getting closer to Frank's step sister as we went through the clean up process.

 

 

[HeidiHo]

Good afternoon.

 

My shoulder is about the same. I have started PT but I've only had 2 sessions.

 

Eric made a huge decision this week. I know I probably told some of you on the cruise that he was planning to go live in Colombia and teach English. Well, about a week ago he suddenly started talking about Spain instead. Bilbao, to be exact. Apparently a guy that took the certification course with him in January is going there and started talking to Eric about it so he changed his mind and is going there instead. He bought his plane ticket today so I guess he's really doing it. He's leaving June 9th. Of course, he already taught English in Vietnam so this is not a really big deal for him. We are definitely planning to visit him there so it looks like a trip to Spain is in our future. I'm hoping to go in August or September, October at the latest. I don't want to wait long because we did that when he was in Vietnam and then he cut his trip short so we never got the chance to go. I want to go before it gets cold anyway. If he had gone to Colombia as originally planned we could have gone in the winter since it would be warm there. Bilbao Spain is in Northern Spain though and while not as cold as Chicago in winter it's not warm either. Fall might be perfect.

 

Have great night. :)

[HeidiHo]

Good Afternoon!

 

i hope everyone is having a good week.

 

We finally got a couple of spring like days (temps in the mid 60's) but now it's back down in the 40's/ it's really windy too.

 

I got chased by a Canada goose today. There is a pair that is nesting near the front doors of the agency and today when I went in, one of them (I assume the male) was standing about 6-8 feet from the sidewalk and when I walked by it hissed at me and chased me. I heard he attacked one of the other agents last week.

 

My shoulder is not getting any better. In fact, it's worse. The pain is going up my neck now and I am having trouble lifting with my right arm (I am right handed) and I'm having trouble blow drying my hair. I don't really think PT is going to help. My doctor said they'd do and MRI if PT doesn't work.

 

Have a great week. :)

[Cruisin Dave]

Heidi, sorry to hear you are still suffering. Have you started the treatments? You should call you doctor and tell him what's happening. You should not have this much trouble. You are too young. Take care of yourself.

Dave

 

 

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[HeidiHo]

Heidi, sorry to hear you are still suffering. Have you started the treatments? You should call you doctor and tell him what's happening. You should not have this much trouble. You are too young. Take care of yourself.

Dave

 

 

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Thanks Dave. I am in my 2nd week of physical therapy. It's not helping yet and the therapist I worked with yesterday suggested that I shouldn't necessarily wait until after finishing PT to let the doctor know it's not working. I am only supposed to do 4 weeks (8 sessions) of PT anyway.

[Cruisin Dave]

Good afternoon Cupids,

We had storms in the area last night. Don't you love spring. Nothing close to home but there some just north of Fort Worth.

Wishing everyone a great weekend.

Dave

[Nazarushka]

Thanks Dave. I am in my 2nd week of physical therapy. It's not helping yet and the therapist I worked with yesterday suggested that I shouldn't necessarily wait until after finishing PT to let the doctor know it's not working. I am only supposed to do 4 weeks (8 sessions) of PT anyway.

 

Heidi - definitely let your doctor know that you're having more pain now, he really should go ahead and do an MRI. I had problems with my shoulder a few years ago, thankfully my left, but I couldn't raise my arm without major pain. The original doctor thought it might be a rotator cuff, but the xray was fine, so we started with a full dosage of anti-inflammatories since I can't take prednisone. Once they finally did the MRI, they diagnosed tendonitis with arthritis and sent me to physical therapy, but the doctor flat out told me that it would basically take 8 to 12 weeks of "rest" for the tendonitis to settle down and the pain to stop. He was right. Since its a shoulder, they can't cast it or even put you in a sling, because your shoulder will freeze, so you have to keep moving it. But the "rest" part was not doing anything to re-aggravate it, it ended up take me 4 months because the first month I kept trying to do normal stuff and would mess it up again.

 

The moral of the story is, I hope you have tendonitis instead of something really wrong, because it doesn't require surgery. On the other hand, it takes frickin' forever to heal, so I really hope that's not what you have. :p I did go to physical therapy a few times, it was pricey, so I had her show me what to do so that I could do it at home. I didn't really seem to do anything for me, it just came down to time and being careful to keep moving it, but not doing much and certainly not lifting anything. Sorry, but you might have to figure out some other way to do your hair for a few months. :mad: Good luck!

 

In other news ... Hi to everyone! :D

 

That's it, things here are pretty much the same as always. Of course, in our case, same means that the orange trees are in bloom and lemon trees already have fruit on them. My kumquat tree has a whole bunch of fruit and we've been picking strawberries off the plant on the patio. We keep getting funky weather swings, dropping from 90 to 70 and back up again, which is painful, but at least I'm not so cold anymore, which helps.

 

I've been kind of keeping up on what's been posted on Facebook. We're willing to try someone besides Carnival, but have no interest in the really big ships like Oasis and Allure. So, it will be interesting to see what gets decided once all of the itineraries come out. We'll play it by ear and see what we want to do.

 

Bye! Stay warm! Be well! All that jazz! :D

[Ducman]

I have added a link to some cruise photos in my signature. (if you wanna look)

[Cruisin Dave]

I have added a link to some cruise photos in my signature. (if you wanna look)

 

Chris, great pictures and loved the shots of the port from your balcony. Thanks for sharing them.

Dave

[AKB10]

Chris, I enjoyed looking at your pictures. Brought back good memories. Thanks!

[HeidiHo]

Good Evening!

 

It is FINALLY beginning to feel a bit like spring here. Today it got up to 62 degrees and it was sunny so it felt pretty warm. The grass is finally beginning to turn just a bit green and some trees are starting to bud but it's later than usual this year.

 

Staci and I had a nice afternoon today. We went to the mall and I got a pedicure and she did a mani / pedi. While she was finishing up i went over to a massage palace that was just a fews stores down and got a 10 minute neck and shoulder massage. I thought it would help because my shoulder pain goes up the neck too. I don't know how much it really helped but it sure felt good at the time.

 

I hope everyone is doing well. Have a good night.

[Nazarushka]

For anyone lurking about wondering what the Cupid's are doing next, this is the answer:

 

The Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, 8 night cruise on Feb. 6, 2016:

 

Saturday: Sail from FLL

Sunday: Sea day

Monday: Labadee 7-3

Tuesday: San Juan 2-9

Wednesday: Basseterre, St, Kitts 10-6

Thursday: St. Maarten 8-5

Friday: Sea Day

Saturday: Sea Day

Sunday: FLL

 

Our roll call is here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2034418

 

See you there!