Sunday April 3rd started off like a normal Sunday. I made breakfast, my own little ‘egg mcmuffin’ sandwich on my hearty healthy grain bread. Edna came and we went to the gym together and then I went to meet my friend Liz for lunch.

By the time I got to lunch, I was feeling a bit off, but really didn’t make too much of it. By the end of that day I was at Cindy’s house and had to drive with my window open (it was cold that night) so that I wouldn’t be sick. Barely made it home and in my door before I was very sick….all night long!

My mom asked me what I ate and I could only think of the egg first thing in the morning, so when I went to the fridge, and saw that the box was expired, I thought great – food poisoning.

So, I was sick for a day and a half, and then it went away. Yeah….not quite….came back about four days later with VENGENCE!!! I was so sick that I ended up at York Central ER for several hours. That was just the start….there were:

2 ER visits (one including a IV hydration hook up that took 2 hours)
4 sets of blood work
3 sets of ‘other’ samples
Gallbladder ultra sound
and 21 days, yes I said 21 DAYS of Cipro.

All of the tests came back clear – no salmonella, no e-coli, no hep A, gall bladder clear….this was just a nasty bug that refused to go away.
After the 2nd visit to the ER, they perscribed 7 days of cipro. That was great, it worked – until 36 hours later when all the symptoms came back again. Another 7 days of cipro….great, all the symptoms went away – and then came back 8 days later – TWO DAYS BEFORE MY TRIP! That freaked me out. So much so that I changed all my travel plans and went on Cipro for the 3rd and hopefully final time.

Reluctantly I went on the cipro three times. No one wants to be on antibiotics for that long, but clearly this was some sort of superbug that didn’t want to leave my body just yet.

I went on my trip to visit Brad and it was great. It wasn’t my dream trip up the PCH with my friend, but California and hwy 1 isn’t going anywhere so we will get there someday. Great sights in LA, and fun with friends and then three days in Sin City having fun….it was a brain vacation that was well needed, well deserved and well appreciated!!!

It is now 11 days off the cipro and I am afraid every morning when I wake up that I will be sick. But….it hasn’t happened so far, so I think I am hopefully in the clear.

Thank you to everyone who has messaged me and asked how I am doing. I appreciated all the calls, messages, and wishing me well. It was a really rough six weeks and I am hopefully on the other side of the mountain!

I have a pretty good memory. I remember lines and plots from movies I have seen, I can give you a full synopsis of the tv shows I watch, birthdates, phone numbers, and where I was and when. When a song comes on the radio, I can usually share a memory of who, what, where, when or why it was important at the time. I also remember anniversaries of events, some meaningful, some not.

The last few days, I was remembering some of those times. A year ago was this event that I went to, and a year ago was this concert I went to. Part of the reason that I remember the dates is because last year they fell around Martine’s birthday, which was on Friday.

Last night we went out to celebrate Martine’s birthday. We went to the Keg in Aurora. I had volunteered to get there a few minutes early, as the line for that location is always quite long (as with most Keg restaurants). I left my house a bit late and didn’t really want to go up Bathurst all the way to Wellington. I started to head across highway 7 to the 404, knowing it would be much faster to go up the 404 to Wellington then Bathurst, Young or Bayview.

Got on the 404 and was listening to my music and everything was great. It was like I had done it 1000 times before. The funny thing is that since my car accident, I really haven’t done it a 1000 times. It is a road that I don’t have to use on a daily basis and therefore don’t have to be on there unless I choose to be.

This did not occur to me until I drove past the sign that said Stoufville side road, and then I realized where I was. I was travelling northbound, not southbound, but at that exact moment my heart started to beat faster and I had to take a few deep breaths.

But I worked through it and moved forward…..so much so that I got off at the next exit which wasn’t Wellington which I realized after I got off the ramp, but Bloomington. DAMN, I was so in my own head that I didn’t watch the signs.

Anyways, I turned up Leslie which is really ‘country’ roads and had no idea where the hell I was. I followed it around, and then there was a fork in the road, so I figured I had to go north, so I followed. I was just about to phone my dad (ear buds in, phone out and ready to dial), and there was a MAIN road – Wellington! One quick right turn and I was there, and early!

I had planned to go home on the 404, but I ended up going on Bathurst, which was fine.

It takes me a long time to put things behind me and really start to move forward. I don’t know why it takes me such a long time, but it does. Even though I will never forget my accident, thankfully it is moving far enough away from my memory that it allows me to live my life on my terms.

In October 2003, on my last night in Las Vegas, we were in search of $1 Blackjack, and we found it at the Sahara hotel and casino. Little did I know that night, that I would meet one of my best friends.

As the story goes, our table was having so much fun, that a really nice guy was watching from across the pit. As soon as a seat was available at our table, I called him over to sit down…and the rest they say…is history!

That is the very abbreviated version of our intial meeting. Who really knew on that night, that almost eight years later, we would be sitting playing blackjack at the Saraha on the last night that the hotel was going to be open.

Several months ago Brad emailed me that the hotel was going to be closing their doors due to the hard economic times hitting Las Vegas. At the time we had our west coast road trip planned, and Vegas wasn’t on the list of stops….but things changed, and there we were.

It was rumoured that the doors were already closed, but I said that we should drive by and see what was going on. We were happy to see that the lights were on, and they were open. So, we parked and went inside. It was quiet and the people that were there playing, were just like us, taking in the last night of a historical hotel.

We played some blackjack, and shared a shot – a sour apple shooter – the first one we had together back in 2003, so we had to have one for old times sake!

 Somewhere late in the evening we walked around and just took pictures of everything that said Sahara on it. I even went behind a table in the pit, and was ‘scolded’ by security. That even though it was the last night, itwas still against Nevada Gambling Laws. What would they do – ban me from the Casino? Bring it!