From Take Care of My Child…for a While by Joyce Sawyer
First we had to see if this was really feasible, so we decided to take the trailer out on Memorial Day for a trial run.
Ricky’s blood counts hadn’t started to drop yet from the chemotherapy, so he was healthy and feeling fine. He was even using his crutches some.
We loaded up the trailer, only this time we included a wheelchair, urinal, bedpan, thermometer, Tylenol, and the medicine (Beta-dine) for cleaning around the pins in his head.
Dale carefully lifted Ricky into the front seat of the car, with the seat tilted way back. Ricky was comfortable that way for a while, and then he needed to change and lie on his side on a sheepskin in the back seat. Of course, that way someone had to sit clear to the side and hold his feet. He thought that was a good joke.
Well, we traveled half a day in the mountains looking for a place to camp, but, of course, everything was filled up that weekend. We finally found a trailer park in Grass Valley. There was a little stream among some trees and an outdoor shuffleboard court. We set up camp and then played some shuffleboard.
Ricky did amazingly well, and we considered the whole trip a success.
