Bermuda, family fun, Boston for John, Christmas, lovely walks and family times

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Home to Bermuda for the Christmas festivities, family time and ……

Our journey back to Bermuda took us a few days of travel, but all went smoothly and finally at just after11:00pm we excited arrivals and saw our driver Atiba awaiting our arrival.

The first week was taken up with doctor appointments and such, just boring appointments we had to keep.

We were also invited to all of the younger grandchildren’s Christmas concerts, of course they were all at the same time. We ended up attending Quest’s..

We also had several evenings of baby sitting and a morning feed of Jessie.

We were starting to catch up with all the maintenance around the property. John was painting the exterior, I was revamping the Airbnb interior. All was good at home, we were also enjoying time with the family…..

Then Everything Changed

Saturday morning John had a very bad spell, he suddenly was in excruciating pain, in his left upper chest. I thought he was having a heart attack. He was in incredible pain, I rushed him to hospital. (Mistakenly arriving at the old emergency entrance). I got him inside where he basically ended up on the floor. Luckily a security guard quickly secured a wheel chair for us and off I rushed pushing him along corridors to the new emergency department where I’d never been.

Once there they put him right on a bed straight away knew it was gall bladder issues. He was hooked up to several intravenous drips, one for fluid, one for antibiotics and then there was pain meds too. He was attached to a heart monitor, and examined by an emergency doctor.

He was cc-scaned and everything pointed to gall bladder issues, but also bile duct. He could not eat or drink as this would stimulate the bile duct and it could be life threatening. It was determined he had to be flown to Boston’s Lahey Hospital for immediate surgery.

However we found out this takes a bit of time because 1st the plane with medical staff has to be flown to Bermuda. I went home to pack and await a call. Saturday night passed, and then we were told that Sunday midday was when the plane would arrive. The ambulance, stretcher and medical staff arrived and off we headed to the airport.

The staff were lovely folks we chatted the whole way to the airport. They actually had travelled all over the world for medical emergencies.

We were loaded aboard a jet, there was room for just us the doctors and very little luggage. We only carried an overnight bag and a backpack plus winter coats we had been loaned by Chrissie and Ruben as we didn’t have any. (John didn’t even have shoes on, just a hospital gown and socks)

Boston’s Lahey hospital.

There he was found to have a blocked bile duct and a gall bladder brim full of large stones.

During the week at Lahey his bile duct was partially cleared of 2 huge stones and a stent put in. In a second operation his gall bladder removed. He received wonderful care and basically had a really good tune up.

Meanwhile I spent my time traveling between the hospital, hotel, mall and grocery store. It was as expected very cold so I spent minimum time outside. Luckily the hotel supplied transport via a free shuttle.

Homeward we were after a week in Lahey, but we have to return in the New Year for the final clearing of the bile duct.

Back in Bermuda

John was to relax and lay low for a week or so after our return, this coincided with us have May and Quest for some of the time that 1st week back.

John enjoyed taking them to the play ground while I got on with jobs around the house.

We went to dockyard another day. May and Quest wanted to go to the trampoline park. This was a 1st time experience for us. The place is quite large and full of equipment to jump on, has dim lighting and there is music on a repeat cycle. The kids had a blast!!

They showed us all their moves and then played with all the other children that arrived. An hour was more than enough time spent there, both of them were shattered from all the action.

We strolled around dockyard and headed to lunch. It was a very pricy lunch! Bermuda is just too expensive.

Next stop was a playground then Fort Scaur before we headed home.

Chrissie and I got together for our regular baking of mince pies and sausage rolls. I had previously made the pastry so on the day I just rolled it out. We made dozens of each, most of which were shared with the family.

Another day we met up with Gavin, Lilly and Evie to walk along the dunes and south shore beaches from Warwick Long Bay, which is close to our house all the way to the end of Horseshoe and back.

It was a wonderful walk, very few folks about and the sky was mainly blue with lovely clouds.

Christmas and Boxing Days

These days were family days, Christmas Day being the busy one. In the morning we went upstairs to Chrissie’s to open presents with her and Quest and Ruben and Mason.

It was fun exchanging gifts and watching the children with their surprises.

Chrissie then made us a fabulous breakfast casserole plus a wonderful fresh fruit salad.

Our next visit for all of us was at Kate and May’s home to exchange gifts.

Again the children really had a great time opening the gifts they exchanged. Kate, May and Josh headed off to Josh’s family while we came home for a few hours.

The final visit of the was to Gavin, Katie, Lilly and Evie’s’ home.

Our other grandchildren Ethan and Rhianna were there too. More gifts were exchanged,

Kate and Josh arrived with their friend Dannette and one and all enjoyed each other’s company.

Gavin and Katie had cooked marvelous Christmas dinner which also consisted of contributions from all of us, so it was a real banquet.

Everyone enjoyed sitting down together for a wonderful family Christmas dinner. Of course there are cracker with prizes inside and all the trimmings on the table.

It was a wonderful Christmas.

On Boxing Day Kate and Chrissie insisted that John and I had to play a game with all of them.

I don’t really know how to describe it other than someone very dysfunctional must have created it.

However, yes, we did have a few hours of laughter enjoying all of the outrageous answers/questions.

Gavin Katie and the girls met up with us for a lovely walk at Cooper’s Island.

As usual we explored all along the trails, beaches and tracks that led us past the magnificent beaches,

along the ruins of the old NATO base, through the remembrance park area

and to the end of the point that faces out to sea.

On yet another day we met up with Gavin and the girls, Quest was with us and we all walked the Spittal Pond trails.

The kids love going off the beaten path so we did see areas that not many feet had trod.

They also enjoy the rock climbing that you find along the shoreline, however on this day it was very rough and windy so the seas were throwing spray ashore. We all got somewhat salty.