HUATULCO AND HOME…..

Posted on March 27, 2012 
Back in Huatulco we had a few days to watch for weather windows and prepare for the next step, crossing the Tehuantepec to Chiapas on our way to El Salvador.  We looked after Boat Dog Rosie for Jean-Guy and Fran(Gosling) while they did a bit of traveling with Ken and Carol(Nauti Moments).  During this period, Janet was experiencing some difficulty with digestion and swallowing. After a particularly bad bout, Marguerita phoned her friend Miquel, a general surgeon and he suggested an appointment that same day at 5:30.  After checking me out, he thought an endoscopy was in order and got an appointment for Friday morning. It became pretty obvious to all, including Bill who was watching the screen that there was a problem.  I had a good sized growth. 
It was full speed ahead to get Optical Illusion “put to bed” and get flight tickets home for Monday morning. Steve and Linda helped as much as they could along with  Marguerita and Goya.  J.G. and Fran and Carol and Ken pitched in as well upon their return.
We had a major issue at the airport and Marguerita and Goyo were getting nowhere with the agents.  We needed a soft carrier for Alaska Airlines and Interjet would not let Amber travel without a hard carrier because she had to go cargo! We did not have one, noone had mentioned it to us and in our haste we never gave it a thought. Amber would have to stay since we had no time to get another carrier. Bill would not let me go home alone so we were at a stale-mate and running out of time.  Out of nowhere a man appeared and asked us if we were the people with the “cat problem”  He had a carrier in the back of his pick up and had been forgetting to take it into the house for 3 months.  We could have it!  He would not take any money for it and insisted that it was ours to take.
We want to thank this guardian angel for helping us out because we had completely run out of options! Marguerita and Goyo would have kept Amber because they love her, but it would have made their travels considerably more complicated. We gave him our card but got no information from him.
Eighteen hours later with a 5 hour stop over in Mexico City we arrived at YVR.  We had a few problems along the way getting Amber through all the security but we did manage.  At YVR we were sent to Agriculture and delayed there for quite a while just going through the procedures. They charged us $33.60 to process her. At 1:30 a.m. there were a lot of agents hanging around doing nothing but making jokes. “Don’t let the cat out of the bag, John”   was the most common. We were not impressed and Fran was about to give up on us and head home thinking we had missed the plane!
However, we made it home and Amber was as good as a cat can be. She got to ride with us in the cabin on the last 2 legs and was very good!
Thanks to our “on ground crew” in Vancouver including friends Ann and Dick,Dr. John Todd and Dr. Dave Revitt we had an appointment with Dr.Lim our GP, had blood work and saw Dr Ashrafi the Thoracic specialist all on our first day home.  Since then we had had many tests and are now awaiting results. It is malignant but we need the CT and PET scan results to decide on the plan of action.  A week or so from now we will know what the future has in store. So, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. That’s it folks!