We woke up this morning at 4:00 a.m. to get organized so we could head to the airport by 4:40. Most of the packing was already done – the tricky part was closing the suitcase. I normally take two suitcases, but we are usually here for a few months. I am thinking this will be a shorter trip, but there are so many unknowns. I’m not even sure which hospital we will be at. Which also affected my packing. I hate walking around with tonnes of luggage. Usually I just pop in and throw my stuff over at Shriners, but with COVID, i won’t be able to easily pop in and out. I still do not know how invasive this surgery will be or what they will actually be doing. (Often these decisions need to be made on the spot). I do know they were initially hoping to do a quick revision, but they have also ordered a whole new set of spinal rods (just in case). So we’ll see. When I look at the xrays and his back, I have no idea what they will do. We seem to have stopped the progress of the little red dot becoming too scabby. How did we do that? On Wednesday night we realized the aggravation of his skin was progressing despite our doughnut wrapping. We advanced to the ‘not bending phase’ and the area seems less irritated. It’s not ideal, but it got us here without further progression.

We woke Hannah up with a puppet to say our goodbyes. It was a particularly effective wake-up method as she had recently watched a scary show with a creepy puppet.

I told Ben that we had to keep our masks on all day and to do our best to hand sanitizer regularly and not touch anything. I have to give a huge and amazing to all the people, especially healthcare workers, who have to wear a mask all day. It is exhausting and leaves you feeling somewhat muted – personality-wise.

The airport was not busy at all – neither was the flight. Everyone seemed particularly friendly. We were greeted on the plane with our own hygiene packs, which I thought was nice. I upgraded our flight because I wanted to be the last one on and the first ones off. Jesse and I thought this was a good idea. There was no food service on board, but they gave us (because we were sitting up front) a little yogurt tray. They gave us water, but no coffee. I guess Covid doesn’t like coffee, which was unfortunate because my body seems quite used to coffee – especially when I get up at 4:00 a.m. I’ve lost all my favourite coping strategies. By the time we got to Montreal. Ben and I were starving (and I had a lack of coffee headache).

It’s so weird walking around in a world I used to know so well and see the dramatic change that’s taken place in only four months. it’s a bit depressing!

We kept our masks on until we checked in. Then we settled in for a few hours. We had to venture out to the drug store go grab a special wash that Ben will need for his surgery prep. I was surprised at how many people weren’t wearing masks in the (extremely busy) drug store. I was expecting it to be different!

Well…we are off to bed now… we have a crazy busy day tomorrow!