Yummy!

Yummy!
Apfelstrudel at zum Wildschutz Restaurant, Garmisch

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Hospital Stay - Not Your Standard Vacation Travel



For those who have been wondering why I haven't been posting: two main reasons.  First, I had surgery for cancer (got it all!) and have been recovering.  Secondly, I have not had much in the way of  inspiration for articles to write.  Some friends have promised guest articles but I have yet to receive them (sometimes life gets in the way). I have been depending on those articles and comments in the comments section to help in getting information out and generating ideas for articles.  I did get some off-line feedback from a friend to focus a bit more on the positives of travel vice the frugal aspect so I will try to work that in.  There's so much gee whiz, neato stuff about travel that can be focused upon.

 I'm limited to carrying no more than 4 kg (ten pounds) for the next month so I won't be using my pack for any pack vacations.  Our last kid in the house just graduated high school and my wife and I will celebrate 37 years of marriage this week so I plan to "go someplace" in celebration.  It will most likely be regional travel but I hope to generate an article about that.  I did a quick check of a state park a couple hours away and the frugal versus the medically responsible has already given me much to wrestle with.  I have accumulated great camping gear and could outfit a nice stand-alone off-grid site for weeks at a time.  The gear has some weight to it and I am limited to ten pounds lifting.  A tent camp site there costs $26/night.  A lodge room there with all the amenities costs $100/night.  I should add that my wife thinks we're too old to tent camp anymore.  I believe you can guess how this is going to end.  To make it worse, if I was camping on my own, I'd stealth hammock camp for free.  One thing this experience with cancer has taught me is to take time for vacation with family and friends.  I have been self-employed the past seventeen years and worked as an investigator for more than a quarter century.  Those work conditions can suck up all your time and at the end of the day, upon reflecting upon my life, I have concluded work accomplishments should not outweigh life accomplishments which include recreation.

 I do have a few observations from my time staying in the hospital.  Yes, it is a stretch to say my hospital stay is travel related but I did travel from my home state to another for the surgery.  We had reserved a room on the hospital campus for my wife to stay (me too when not in the hospital) and got the optional "room with kitchenette" thinking my wife would be able to cook her own ethnic food while there.  My thinking was "home food" would reduce her stress by having something familiar and cooked just the way she likes it.  We packed some food in addition to a Zojirushi Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar for her to take to the waiting area for lunch during my surgery.  The Mr. Bento is a well designed thermal lunch kit with sections for soup, rice, veggies, and dessert or other meal items.  She said it worked well for the circumstances we had envisioned for its use.  But, let's go back a little bit before the Mr. Bento mention.  When we got to the guesthouse (hotel) room, we quickly discovered there was a stove, microwave, and refrigerator, but no pots or pans and no dishes.  Fortunately, I prefer to use our own cooking and eating utensils and had packed a nice Embark mess kit I use for solar cooking and my Fozzils dinnerware.  So, lesson learned, bring your own or at least ask the reservations clerk about cooking equipment if you reserve a room with kitchenette for any travel.

Mr. Bento Stainless Lunch Jar
 
I brought my "second string" sleep mask and earplugs with me in case I got a roommate at the hospital.  My reasoning for not taking the best I had was that I was not truly in control of what was to occcur during my stay and I did not want to lose them.  The rooms at the hospital are configured for two patients per room.  I was fortunate the first night that I did not have a roommate.  I was in pain and the annoyance of a roommate would have made my night just that much more miserable.  I was assigned a roommate the second day and I quickly learned I would pay for my strategy of using standard earplugs instead of the better ones I recommended earlier in this blog.  My roommate had the ability to talk loudly on the phone one minute, and immediately fall asleep when not talking.  His particularly loud gurgling snoring while asleep could cut right through the earplugs I brought.  Fortunately for me, I was discharged late that evening.  
 
So I brought minimal travel gear with me but what I did take, other than the earplugs, served us well.  Travel gear, in my opinion, should have use for other than just vacations.  That's it for now.  Hope to have some articles in the near future. Make some comments.  Send me some guest articles.  Participate please.  OK?

1 comment:

  1. It is good to have you back. Being prepared is something we have to always be thinking of. Thanks for the reminder.

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