TRAIL DAY 129

Tue, June 28, 2016 Doctors.  It seemed to me that my ears were clogged much as they had seemed in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania.  And I should have a stool sample examined for the diarrhea issue.  My internist was able to squeeze me in while a physician’s assistant checked my ears.  As at Waynesboro, she saw no wax.  It had always seemed as if my earplugs were jamming wax into my ears.  She did, however, note some dried blood in my right ear – the one that began gurgling in the south at mid elevations.  The gurgling had stopped and there had never been any pain.  Since I was on Cipro for the diarrhea, she did not want to prescribe another antibiotic; however, she wanted me to call for a ‘script when I was through with the Cipro.

I submitted a stool sample for the diarrhea and my internist would call with the results.  He also cautioned me strongly about returning to the trail because he was concerned I could get dangerously dehydrated and, worst case, it could be fatal.

Again, as would happen later, I listened attentively to the advice but it would take more than I was hearing to squelch that inner knowing.  I was grateful but would plan to carry on in a couple of days.

During one of the days in Lancaster, the lovely young lady from Zimbabwe whom we happily housed for a little over 2 years while she was getting her MBA came by.  I remember her friendly hug and can still hear her vigorous and infectious laugh as she took in the length of my beard.

The pre-trail routines into which my wife and I settled had dissipated.  I could not recall my usual moves in the kitchen, managing my breakfast, coffee and pills.  I was clumsy and awkward.

My dear wife was very solicitous for my well-being and for my nutrition on the trail.  She went to a discount drug mart and purchased products that they highly recommended for my condition.  She returned with many high-protein bars, some green powder, whey powder, probiotics and a multivitamin.  She divided them into ziplock packets and wrote instructions on masking tape which she fixed to each.  She wanted her husband well and she wanted him to finish in good health and she would do all she could to assure that goal was met.

She was all I could ask for in a wife.  Fully supportive.  If my funds ran dry for lack of a case fee coming in, she would see that I had what I needed from the modest amount left from her inheritance.  What I was doing was not her thing but she adopted my goal as her own – for me – and she was as determined as I was to see me through to Katahdin.  She devoted herself to my getting the job done in good health for the satisfaction of completing a goal that just never went away.  She was the captain of the team of family members seeing me through this long, and sometimes painful, ordeal.  A treasure!

Day #129  Port Clinton (home) 0 miles