VACATION

We flew to Florida and spent the weekend at his sisters house on the gulf side. We then headed for Orlando. We were supposed to be there for five days.

We went to Disney's Magic Kingdom on Tuesday. To make the day easier we got a wheel chair for Chris. It still ended up being a very long day for him. The children enjoyed the perk that the wheelchair moved us ahead in many lines, but his pain was still so intense and he had difficulty breathing, especially when he tried to lay down at night.

Wednesday morning we checked out of the hotel, figuring he would be more comfortable at his sisters. After our check-out we let the kids play in the pool at the hotel as we sat there. I think for our benefit, Chris decided to try and give it one more day. So we checked back in and spent Thursday at Disney's Animal Kingdom. That evening Chris was not feeling well at all so we decided about 8:30pm to leave and go back to his sisters. We packed up, checked out and headed back. We arrived around 11:00pm. By the time we got there Chris' breathing was very labored. My brother-in-law gave him a priesthood blessing then took him to the emergency room. They were able to give him morphine for the pain but they couldn't drain his lungs until the radiologist came in the morning. My brother-in-law came home around 4:30am. I went over around 8:30am. They didn't drain his lungs until noon. It was Christmas Eve. I was concerned due to the holiday and how slow things were going, that we may not 'get out' that day. Finally, around 5:00pm they discharged him. We had a nice Christmas but Chris was very uncomfortable - more each day.

On Tuesday we bought plane tickets to go home early. We were supposed to leave at 8:00 Wednesday evening. But, Wednesday morning we were back in the emergency room. We ended up having to cancel the tickets for us all to return on Wednesday, as they strongly advised against Chris flying the day he had his lungs drained. Another blessing as the airline gave us a full refund with no penalties, despite it being longer than 24hrs from booking to cancellation.

Thursday morning he felt better than he had all vacation. It seemed to make the most sense for him to travel that day knowing his 'feeling well' would most likely not last. The ticket prices were high - so we just purchased two. One for him and one for his sister to take him home. One of his brothers also bought a ticket to meet them at our home the next day.