We really do not like discussing our day to day problems. When we do that it tends to keep us in the problem rather than the solution. Besides, who wants to read about our problems when they have enough of their own? However we believe it is important to share what we encountered last winter. Our problem was appearing to keep us planted in Yuma for the summer seeking medical help, but the solution was much simpler.
We will rewind just a little bit to October of 2019. When we started to leave New England, we were really getting wore down. We had quite an active travel year. There were few places that we stayed for longer than a week all year. Our last destination spot was Savannah. Colleen had been looking forward to visit Tybee Island since the beginning of the trip. We did not have a lot of motivation to see many sights on our way to Savannah, however we did have one goal. We wanted to hit every state on the eastern seaboard. We were able to accomplish this. At times travel was kind of interesting. We found some states on the east coast are not really built for RV travel.
We made it to Savannah and had a very nice visit thanks to our friend Tony from Madison, WI. Tony had been living in Savannah for a few years by this time. After our visit there, we had 2200 miles to travel to get back to Yuma. We knew that setting a reasonable schedule and recharging our batteries along the way was going to be important. Our plan was to travel 200 – 300 miles then stop for a minimum of 2 nights until the next travel day. This plan worked pretty well. We were able to make it back to Arizona by early December. After getting work done on our rig in Mesa we landed back in Yuma by the beginning of January.
After we had been stationary for quite sometime, we were still really drained of energy. We did not quite know why. We battled this for a majority of the winter and early spring. We tried trouble shooting this from different angles, but nothing seemed to help. This was really a concern in Colleen’s case. When Colleen is drained of energy, she has a difficult time swallowing. Of course when she cannot swallow food, she does not have the necessary nutrition to maintain energy. And so this cycle continues. We have faced this a few times over the years and quite often the spell passes. However this was hanging around this time. We know at some point we will need medical care beyond my capabilities. Were we at this point now? Did we have to start looking at different options in order for her to get her nutrition? So on the days and weeks passed and we were just taking each day as it came.
It seemed I had just enough energy each day to care for Colleen and run the necessary errands. We were scheduled to be in St. George, Utah by April 1, but this was canceled due to the Covid situation. This ended up being a blessing for us in light of our energy issues. Since we were not coming up with any solutions, we were debating on what we should do for the summer. Do we stay in Yuma or do we go? If we stay, how are we going to stay cool in our rig? Since overthinking is my superpower, Colleen had to listen to me think out loud on these issues day after day. Then one day God decided to save Colleen from listening to me drone on about air conditioners vs. swamp coolers.
In early April I had run out of my multivitamin and had to head to the store to get it. The store I normally go to is across town. I was not really feeling up to the trip on this particular day so I went into an herbal medicine store near our house. The name of the store is called Herbs2Oils. I was very fortunate to have met Toni who is the owner of the store. I gave her a rundown of the challenges we were facing. She suggested that I try this vitamin supplement pack from a company by the name of doTerra (As I have come to understand, they are well known for their essential oils). At this point I was willing to try anything. It was pretty astonishing. Within 2 days I noticed that I was sleeping much better and my energy was much improved. After raving to Colleen about it, she wanted to meet Toni so we could get some direction on her energy issues as well. Toni suggested this same vitamin pack. For the first week there was not much of a change for Colleen. However shortly after that, her energy was starting to improve and she was starting to eat better. Soon after this, Colleen was eating like a horse. We were so grateful the solution was just this simple. If you happen to be in the Yuma area and herbal supplements are your thing, I strongly suggest you visit Toni. She is extremely knowledgeable about herbs and the effect on your body.
Within a few weeks we were back on track finalizing our plans for the summer. We ended up staying in Yuma until the beginning of May. By the time we made our exit, the temperature hit 107 degrees. Our neighbors told us “It was starting to warm up”. We bid our farewell and told them we would see them when eggs stopped cooking on the sidewalk.
