Gearing Up For Possibly My Biggest Battle Yet

My whole life seems to have been one battle after another.
Since the day I was born, I have battled to have a voice....to be heard by others.
I have had a life long battle to figure out who I am as a person.
I have battled to keep many demons securely stashed away in that proverbial closet.
I feel that I have had to battle to earn and get my parents love.
These are just the tip of the "battle iceburg".
I have lost more battles in my life than I have won.
I refuse to lose this latest possible battle.
With that being said.....
As previously mentioned in one of my blog entries, I have been having some problems with my upper right leg and my right hip.
It has caused me some discomfort during my walks...been taking some medication for it, stretching and wrapping it before doing my workout.
I originally thought it was a hip flexor issue.
A couple weeks back, we returned to Virginia Beach to run some errands.
One of those errands was going to our family doctor that we still use back there.
After explaining what I was experiencing with leg and hip, my doctor gave me a script to get my right hip x-rayed. He thought that it might be a hip flexor issue or arthritis in my hip.
So I got my hip x-rayed here locally.
The results of the x-ray were to be sent to my doctor.
My doctors office and I had been playing telephone tag over the last week or so.
I decided that I would call his office again to see if they could give me the results of the x-ray.
The doctor himself called me a while later.
After some small talk, he told me that the x-ray came back as being "abnormal".
I figured that he meant that I had arthritis in my hip joint.
I then asked him what he meant by "abnormal".
I vaguely remember him saying something about spots on the bones of my hip and upper right leg.
There was also some mention about the possibility of bone cancer or something called Paget's disease.
Here is more info on Paget's disease.
The doctor told me that this Paget's disease was usually for in people 20 years older than me and not usually in someone in my age bracket.
I asked the doctor if it could be part of my Mast Cell Disease showing up on the x-ray.
He said that was a good question but did not know the answer to it.
After being given this news, I thought to myself...there is no way that this could be happening...I have been working my ass off to get into shape....lost 25 pounds...walk 7 miles a day and average 15-20 miles on my recumbent bike daily. Just the day before yesterday, I set a personal record and rode my bike for 32 miles and did my 7 mile walks to boot.
Other than a "hitch in my giddy up", I feel fine.
Probably the best shape that I have been in, in 12-15 years or so.
I have seen my x-rays before and I have never seen any spots on my bones before. The Mast Cell mainly made my bones appear to be somewhat washed out.
The Radiologist that read my x-rays strongly suggested that I get someone to check this issue out a lot closer and my doctor verbalized a sense of urgency in getting it checked out further.
I already had an appointment set up on 11/18, with my Mast Cell doctor but I called up and had the appointment scheduled for sooner...9/30.
With our travels plans, this was the earliest that I could get an appointment.
Of course I am hoping that the Radiologist made a mistake reading the x-ray or maybe  he isn't familiar with what bones look like that have Mast Cell issues.
But no matter how this plays out, I will not lose this battle.
I have too many things that I want to do, to see...many more years spent with my best friend and wife Veronica.
Like I said earlier, this is one battle that I refuse to lose...won't be happening...not on "my watch".

Hoping To Dodge A Bullet Or Should I Say A Hurricane

Veronica and I leave home on Monday afternoon, at which time we will head into Norfolk, VA and stay at a hotel.
We fly out of Norfolk early on Tuesday morning heading to Newark, NJ.
We will hang around at the airport in Newark until about 9PM Tuesday night. We will be boarding our Virgin Atlantic jet for our over night flight to London England.
Now this is how everything was and currently is planned out to occur.
There might be a slight problem with these plans.
It seems that mother nature might have some plans of her own.
It appears that what once was tropical storm Earl, is now Hurricane Earl...a category 1 hurricane.
Based on early projections, Earl should be in our general area around Thursday or Friday of this upcoming week.
The best case scenario is that this hurricane veers North and then Northeast thus taking it away from the Eastern coast.
No matter where it lands, hopefully it will be a minimal hurricane and that it will be a fast moving storm.
That way we can keep our plans intact. We should have a better idea about what is going to happen with this hurricane over the next couple of days.
Veronica and I will be keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that our vacation goes as planned.

What A Difference 2 Weeks Make

Approximately 2 weeks ago I went to our bank and obtained currency for our upcoming cruise.
I got Euros and currency for 4 other individual countries.
Last night Veronica wanted to check out the rates of the currencies that she had.
As it turns out, in the 2 weeks since the currencies were purchased using US funds, the US dollar has dropped in all of those countries.
Veronica figured out that it would cost $80 USD more to obtain the same amount of foreign currency that she currently has, compared to what it cost when originally purchased.
Probably a good thing we got the currency when we did.
The only way that we would actually lose anything is if we have money left over from our trip and we take it to the bank and convert it back into USD.
Of course by then, the USD might have rebounded a bit and our loss would be minimal.
With the way our economy is heading, I wouldn't anticipate any type of rebound.
Of course anything can happen in the 11 days leading up to our departure.
But then again...if we spend all of the foreign currency buying all kind of goodies, it won't matter what the currency conversion rate is.
Hmmmm...now that just might be the ticket!!!!