Riding The Wave – Multiple Myeloma

Oasis of the Seas, Labadee, Haiti

“It’s true, sometimes, when you’ve had a difficult day, or met difficult people, or been let down, disappointed, or heartbroken, it’s easy to completely forget the most important thing of all… You’re alive.” – Notes from the Universe (Mike Dooley)

The quote doesn’t depict my mood, it came into me today and it conveys what I often feel is the attitude of those of us who have been dramatically touched by cancer. We sort of get a “reality adjustment” if you will and I often think we have discovered the secret to life. Experiences, things, people, get all shuffled up and reorganized in our life. For the most part, I would have to say for us, it’s been a good thing. So…..

WE HAD A GREAT TIME!!!!!!!

For those of you who lost height with compression fractures, this was a humorous moment for us! 🙂

I will put a slide show of photos below. But we had just a fabulous time. The ship is beautiful, though not my style. I like things a tad bit smaller and more quaint. In some of the photos you will see a ship pulling up next to us. The Celebrity Millennium. That’s the sort of cruise ship I would like to sail on. Small and well appointed. The deck is always greener on the other side of the port! 🙂 (I’m always fascinated with the docking process of these giant vessels and I watched this ship head in from way out yonder for almost an hour. Did you know the tug boat captain known as the “harbor pilot” is the one who actually commands these ships in and out of the harbor?) 

But… having said that… It was an experience worth having. The ship is absolutely beautiful. Everything you could possibly want is right there for you. It’s a small floating city, bigger than some small towns in America. It has it’s own waste water treatment facility on the ship. The Bridge is 4,000 sq ft! They recycle. There are washing your hands signs all over the ship and at each entry point where there was food there were several hand sanitizers. Even on the private beach in Haiti attached to giant posts at strategic points of entering the areas where food was served. I observed 100% voluntary compliance and was really heartened by it all. So Dave was probably safer on the cruise ship than anywhere else he might be. I saw them cleaning the public bathrooms with hot steam cleaners! The faucets, sinks, handles, toilets, floors. I was impressed. They even had buttons for you to push to open and close the entry doors if you didn’t want to touch the handle or were handicapped.

Everyday they changed beautiful brass plates in the floor of each elevator with what day of the week it was! We all thought that was pretty amazing and somewhat necessary as you did indeed lose track of time and days. It was also Halloween on the ship and most people dressed up big time and they had a Halloween Parade on the Promenade. Over the top!

Haiti’s beach was gorgeous. We loved it. They had a zip line from the mountain and then a little roller coaster cart “Dragon’s Tail”. (Not my video, but you’ll enjoy it!) We did the latter, planning to do the zip line in Jamaica (but we didn’t). Anyway, first roller coaster I have ever been on that you control the speed! It had brakes! Problem was, Dave had the brake! So there were little brake signs on the track and then being in front, and not a roller coaster person, I was yelling, “Brake! Brake! BRAKE!” every so often down the mountain thinking he might not SEE the sign! 🙂 The views of the harbor and the ship were magnificent. You weren’t allowed to take cameras on it and for good reason. You would try to stop the cart and take photos. You wouldn’t be able to help yourself.

Dave pulled a muscle doing a simple jump on the ship’s basketball court. A stark reminder to him that he needs to actually DO SOMETHING to regain his physical strength and flexibility. So you will see him with a beautiful cane from Cozumel which was the hit of the ship and the airports. Everywhere we went, “Nice Cane!” Keeping in mind that senior citizens rule the high seas. Canes, walkers, wheel chairs and motorized rascals move about the completely handicapped accessible ships.

We saw our son Hudson before we boarded which was FABULOUS. We met up with Dave’s Godfather, Eddie, who works for the cruise line in his retirement for fun and boarded us on the ship. They had not seen each other in years and it was very emotional.

Our flight was delayed leaving to come home and started a chain of events of missed flights. It took us a day and half to get home. We just kept looking at each other with big grins and said, “But we had a really nice time on the cruise!”

We both hit the ground running when we got home and it hasn’t let up.

A lot happened in the MM world as I was boarding the flight. I’m sure you are all up to date on it thanks to diligent bloggers, FB and The Beacon. But I might take up some of them later next week as I have something to say. (No surprise there!)

Maracas bought in Haiti hanging on my studio door.

Most of my photos are the Solarium on the ship. That “quiet spot” I told you I would be looking for. It was a lovely spot, two stories, on the bow of the ship that was enclosed in wind glass with windows you could open for fresh air. It had it’s own Bistro for food, shade, sun, two large Jacuzzis and a social pool.

My only purchase was a set of Maracas in Haiti on our way back to the ship. Why? Because growing up my parents had a set that my sister and I used to love to play with. It was purely a “pleasure moment memory” that caused me to buy such a needless trinket. 

Tags: Cruise return