Today was the longest 24 hours of my life with only a donut as a prize at the end of it. Doug had been trying to get into a movement doctor for several months. We found one at the University of Florida that could see him. We were excited as most had said that it would be a year or more. The only bad part was that today was the only day that they could see him. I wanted to go to Doug's appointment with him, but was really worried about how that would work out with graduation, Meg's engagement, selling the house and more. I worked very hard to get everything done so that I could join him. It actually ended up being a nice break from our busy schedule. Today, however, left me more frustrated and exhausted than I had been beforehand.
We met with several doctors this morning. They each had a different diagnosis and no real way to test to see what was causing Doug's tremor. After talking with them about the different options, they did finally agree that Doug's movement was atypical and that stress management was the best option to start. They also wanted Doug to meet with a physical therapist.
We had that appointment scheduled for 3 p.m., so after leaving the doctor's office we had several hours to kill. That was probably the best part of my day as we ate lunch at Relish in Gainesville. The weather was beautiful and it was nice sitting outside just talking. It also gave Doug a chance to catch up on work emails and me an opportunity to call home and check on Meg and Cameron.
The therapy appointment was with an occupational therapist who really wasn't a lot of help. She kept wavering back and forth on what she thought that the problem was as well. She put Doug in some uncomfortable positions without really explaining why. In the end she agreed that Doug's movement was atypical and could only offer minimal help. I left feeling angry.
Our night didn't get much easier as we had to drive through a downpour to get to the Orlando Airport only to find out that our flight had been delayed. Waiting at the airport was probably the worst part of the night. The delay kept getting longer and the Southwest crew in the airport was becoming agitated. I heard several of them on the phone saying that if the plane didn't take off by midnight that it wouldn't get out tonight. I also heard words about a strike. That's when I started to panic. I really wanted to make it to Cameron's senior night for golf tomorrow. Missing it was my biggest fear when we decided to have both of us at Doug's appointment.
I finally calmed down after talking to Meg. She said that if I couldn't make it to senior night, she would either FaceTime me or video tape it for me. I appreciated her offering that and decided that if that was the best that I could do, then it would be ok. We finally boarded the plane at 11:45 p.m. It didn't take off for almost another hour, however, as there were issues with seatbelts and luggage. I was still sure that Southwest was going to strike, but thankfully at 12:36 a.m. we took off.
The flight was uneventful and I actually slept for a half hour. We were one of the first groups off of the plane and caught a shuttle for the car right away. Doug seriously thought about driving to Brett's, but felt that he had gotten enough sleep on the plane to make it home. I definitely was too tired to drive, but stayed up to keep Doug company. It was hard to do as I was absolutely exhausted. I thought about asking Doug to get a hotel in Kokomo, but listening to the Rewatchables really helped to keep me up. Once Doug stopped at Casey's in Peru, I knew that I could make it home, especially with a donut as my reward for the long trip. We pulled into Syracuse at 5:40 a.m. and I headed straight to bed, happy to be home after being up for twenty-four straight hours.
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