Now the 'fun' begins

We reached our RV Park in the afternoon of June 6th after a beautiful drive watching Mt. McKinley unveil herself before us.

Somehow as we setup the RV for the night, I had brain fade...or a really senior moment but somehow I got my foot caught in the connection between the trailer and the truck and yeah you got it, down I went.  My right arm and shoulder took the brunt of it, but I heard it 'snap' when I not so gracefully landed.

The RV park folks were great.   They directed us to a regional health clinic about 9 miles away.  X-rays were taken and the doctor suggested that we proceed to Anchorage for further treatment.

A 90 mile trip took us to the emergency room at Providence Hospital in Anchorage.  More x-rays and a decision by the on-call ortho doctor was a referral to the ortho practice at the hospital for the next day.  The emergency room staff worked very hard to find us a place to stay that night - now 2AM- for the appointment the next day.

The ortho doctor - Dr. Spencer - indicated that I had broken my shoulder so badly that it needed to be replaced.  They could do it there but then I would need to stay in the area for rehab.  They suggested that I go home to have the repair done.  Since there was no potential of a negative impact on the shoulder break but only weather I could handle the discomfort of the trip home.  So we made the decision to make a streamline return to Dayton so that the trailer and truck would not need to be left in Alaska or that I would fly home alone while Steve drove by himself.

We drove home in 12 days....7 to get from Alaska to Washington State ...and 5 days from Washington State to Dayton arriving home on Sunday June 19th..all 4700 miles and several bottles of Tylenol and Percocet (a wasted drug on me).

I saw our family Doctor -who we had spoken with on our way home- on Monday.

Ortho appointment on 23th with a shoulder specialist who said that I needed a Reverse Total Shoulder Replacement.  So as of Saturday the  25th I now have a new Shoulder that is now backwards of the old one.  The socket is now on my arm and the ball is now implanted into my shoulder.

It has been a very big bummer.  Not only did it mess up our trip but...The pain has gone from OK to I can't believe it will ever get better levels.  The next three weeks are pretty much do nothing while the muscles and the repair start to heal and try to remain comfortable and gain control of the pain.  The days are generally bearable but the nights are something else.  If it wasn't for Steve's ability to break the pain cycle with massage of the arm, I am not sure what I would do.  He has been My Knight in Shinning Armor and  literally my right hand.

After the arm heals, it will be at least 12 weeks of physical therapy---so what was I going to do with the rest of my summer anyway?

I look forward to things being 'normal' again and my arm being out of this sling and feeling OK.  The block that was used during surgery has left my forearm and thumb and index finger basically feeling like it has gone to sleep.  They tell me this should disappear with time as the nerves repair themselves.

So, I apologize for any typing errors since I am really a one-handed
 typist.

Keep in touch and keep me in your prayers.

On to Anchorage

We continued our journey south toward Anchorage.  On the way south, we were able to capture Mt. McKinley at various locations.

The mountain is something else on a beautiful sunny day.

Denali

Denali is a huge place to visit.  The park is restricted to where you can go on your own and where you have to go by bus tour.

The day we were there it was over cast and cloudy.  We saw the park through a continuing thickening cloud.  As we traveled on the bus and the altitude increased we became engulfed in a cloud; so much so that Mt McKinley was no where to be found.

The glaciers that worked their way through Denali left what are called 'braided rivers'. 

We also saw a fox  having a merry time.

Caribou grazing in the river land

The Alaska state bird watching over it all

and lots of Dall Sheep.
Denali was first established to protect the Dall Sheep.


BUT  the best part was the' thrilling' bus ride.  The road through the park is gravel, narrow and snakes it way along the edge of everything.  When a bus approaches from the opposite direction, one bus must stop while the other passes.

The picture above shows the thrill  our bus driver loved to take I think to scare us to death.  He would drive right out to the edge and them make sharp left or right turns so you had the feeling you were going right off the edge.

 
You know, Denali is a beautiful park but one that is difficult to feel you are a part of and not just a spectator passing through.

Next

We continued on to Fairbanks  AK were we spent several days.  We visited the Alaska Pipeline

We also visited several museums about native culture. 

It has been a while

A lot has happened since my last post...so I will try to bring you up to date.

We took a detour at Whitehorse YT and spent a few days in Skagway Alaska.  While there we took the best little boat trip ever.  The all day trip went from Skagway to Juneau.  On the trip we saw all kinds of aminals from sea lions, orcas, otters, bald eagles and whales.  It was wonderful.

While in the Juneau we also saw the Mendenhall Glacier

IT WAS A GREAT DAY.