A Cold and An Injury

My dear readers, I’m so sorry for the long silence. I was almost done writing a post about how much we love our van upgrades (our Whynter fridge is amazing!) when I got sick with a bad cold. 

It was my first time getting a normal sickness in years! I’ve heard that getting sick can be a good sign that the immune system is coming back online. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it helped me to have a better attitude about the sore throat, coughing, vomiting, sinus pain, chills and weakness.

Just as I was starting to feel better, Brett caught the same cold. Thankfully, his cold wasn’t as severe and it only lasted about four days. Mine lingered, which probably means my immune system isn’t all that spectacular yet (but I was still proud of it for making such a valiant effort!).

Then, on Thanksgiving day, I fell and injured my knee. I wish I could say I was climbing a mountain heroically, but no, I was just walking back from the campground bathroom in a pair of clunky rubber sandals. I looked up to greet a fellow camper, tripped over a large rock, fell downhill and landed directly on my kneecap. I wish I could say I got right back up and kept walking, but no, I screamed. I screamed so loud that Brett came running. It hurt dreadfully enough that I wondered if the edge of my kneecap might have chipped off! For several minutes, I couldn’t move. 

The first thing I told Brett was, “I don’t want to go to the ER!” As you all know, I hate the hospital. Thankfully, we had a wilderness first responder and a doctor at our campground. They were able to examine my knee and tell me that it wasn’t broken or dislocated. I was so relieved! 

With a lot of help, I was able to stand and get into the van. Brett drove me down to Stovepipe Wells to get ice for the injury. I couldn’t bend my knee at all that day, but by the evening I was able to hobble around on my own. It was really swollen and stiff for several days! Now, two weeks later, it’s almost 100% better. It’s still bruised but I can do laundry. I can swim and exercise again. The only thing I can’t do yet is squats. 

We’ve had some really amazing days since then. On most of those days, I preferred to experience my health gains instead of writing about them. After getting my work done, I’d rather challenge myself to swim more laps than I ever have before or take a walk with Brett and Ramona. I hope you don’t blame me.😉 We’ve also had some pretty awful days. The last several days have been of the awful variety. They were spent moving campgrounds three times, showering over and over and trying to figure out what in the world I was reacting to. We’re currently thinking the likeliest culprit was a rickety RV that parked a couple spots away from us. Things have been significantly better since they left. 

Today, I’m finally feeling better! Unfortunately, it’s been raining all day. I guess even in Death Valley it has to rain sometimes. That means we can’t harvest any solar power or dry any laundry today. It wouldn’t normally be such a big deal but all that decontaminating has put us severely behind on laundry. I guess we’re going to have to wear the same pajamas for a third night in a row. I can’t wait for the sun tomorrow!