Phew.  Where to start.  I guess I will start by thanking everyone for
helping me get there to see my sister who really did need my support and
I guess for me who really did need to see my sister just because I
needed to see her.  The trip was good for both of us and we got things
emotionally that I don't think I could begin to describe.

And then there were the things I could have done without.  I found out
halfway through my trip that my youngest neice has pin worms.  Yippee.
Guess who's bed I was sleeping in for the duration of the trip.  I
immediately planned a doctor visit for medication for that one for when
I got back.  Then the Friday night after Thankgiving I came down with a
severe stomach something.  I was so sick.  The walls were moving on my
trips to the bathroom.  I could only drink three sips of water at a time
and all I could think of was that I take Lithium and if I got dehydrated
I was in serious trouble.  But I was too sick to think about that I
might want to tell my sister that if I was found unconcious that was
probably why and she needed to tell the paramedics.  I also considered
going to the hospital (I was THAT sick) but it is Houston and I knew
that it would be 6 hours before they would look at me in the ER waiting
room and another 6 before a doctor might look at me and then they would
look at me stupid because I wasn't actually dehydrated yet.  Here where
I live in Lafayette, IN, they would have put me at the top of the list
to be seen, I'd have been on IV's and they would have been pushing meds
to make me feel better within an hour and I might have spent the night
in the hospital.  Been there and done that and even when I wasn't on
Lithium.  I didn't feel good needless to say and I was scared.

Then came a good thing.  I felt better on Sunday and I got to meet
Bonnie and her husband again (they generously picked me up at the
airport - there is a story there for another post) and we went to
Catnipped's place for a light meal and a movie.  I was still a bit
spacey from being sick, but I felt so much better and the company was
wonderful.  And Sammy is really a HUGE kitten.  I feel honored to have
met her. (Catnipped is really nice too - and her house is quite
beautiful.)  I was glad I didn't miss this event due to being sick.

Then came Monday morning.  I woke up with the bronchitis my oldest neice
had been trampsing back and forth to the apartment with.  Man did I feel
miserable.  No wonder I was so spacey Sunday night at Catnipped's house!
 Luckily my doctor gives me a Z-pack (special antibiotic where you only
have to take five once a day doses to get 10 days of coverage) so I
started taking that and once again fell back into sleeping a lot and
coughing and feeling sick.  On the other hand, I could be my oldest
neice who now has pneumonia because she didn't go to the doctor and when
she finally did didn't get effective antibiotics, so now she is off work
for several days while she waits for new antibiotics to work.

It is now Saturday morning.  I have been home since Wednesday night.  I
saw a doctor (not mine - he was too booked up) on Friday to get my chest
checked out to make sure it was clear and I was healing okay, to get
medication for pinworms, and finally, to get a lice check since the kid
downstairs came up with lice the day after I left - and they pass the
lice around that apartment complex like crazy so I got paranoid.  The
doctor thought I was nuts.

As for me, I think it will be a while before I go back to Texas again.
It was just a bit too much excitement for me and my immune system wasn't
up those Texas GERMS.

It was worth every bit of it though just to see my sister and connect
with her in ways we couldn't on the phone.  I will be forever grateful
to those of you who helped me get to see her.  She even told me that her
first instinct was to tell me that I didn't need to come and she didn't
want me to come but that she was so glad I came she didn't know what to
do.  We learned a lot about each other that we needed to know.  I
learned that she really will make it through all of this, one way or
another.  She learned that I really am there for her and have ways of
getting to her even when she doesn't think it possible.  We both learned
that we have each other in ways that we will never have anyone else.  I
think we kind of always knew that, but this trip drove it home.  It was
really special.

So, that was, in a very small nutshell, my trip to Texas.

Bridget