And so it begins again!

Sending you and your family my prayers. I lost my mom in 2008 to lung cancer. Her’s was pretty aggressive and she was gone in 6 weeks. After her diagnosis, our family took her to the beach and got matching tattoos…lol…seriously, she had wanted a sunflower tattoo all her life and she had it for 4 weeks. Your genuine love and compassion for your mom is admirable. God bless you during this time.

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Geeze, I’m so sorry about your mom. :frowning:

Well there’s a bit of an update on my end. FIRST, the chemo is definitely working. She was in a lot of pain before it started and now she’s in little to none. So that’s awesome.

Second, after her evaluation yesterday, they determined not to give her chemo yesterday because she’s still doing physical therapy recovery from the last time and they didn’t want to basically have her energy zapped when she’s just about to finish. I also got her therapy “progress report” and it’s beyond what I had hoped. She’s able to walk 500+ feet without asstance or getting winded, she’s standing without issue or needing something to pull herself up, no breathing issues of note, and she still needs a constant stream of oxygen but only when moving. Still too confused for an ECV, but I’m fine with rolling her around in a wheelchair.

So with all that looking so good, they’re likey going to do chemo next week.

And that brings us to the status of the trip: and it’s back on (barring medical problems). The doctor and nurses, without making any note in her records, recalled I had off-handedly mentioned a possible Disney trip last time she was there (3 weeks ago), and really harped on it yesterday. They factored in the trip with the chemo schedule, and her needed recovery, to work around everything so she can go. They sounded more excited about the trip than mom has been this entire time. Seriously, if there’s any bright point to all this garbage, it’s the medical staff she has, they have just been stellar.

After her visit, I talked with mom to hash out if she still didn’t want to go. And, as expected, the basis of her resistance to going was she didn’t want to waste my money if she got down there and couldn’t do anything. Which is totally understandable, so I asked her various questions to determine what her goals would be if she would go. They’re actually pretty mundane (ohhhh so that’s where I get that!:wink: ) and she mainly just wants to do the Keys to the Kingdom tour so she can go underneath the castle and see Animal Kingdom.

Obviously, both of these are both pretty easy. So with a reaffirmation of my “big goal” and considering that alone being worth the money, she’s back on board with the trip. Still not excited about it though.

But today, the magic bands arrive, so I think that should help things (I hope). Now it’s just a matter to see how much this chemo takes out of her. They said she’ll need roughly 10 days to recover, so she should be feeling pretty good just about time we’re to leave.

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Thank you for the update - such great news! How is her appetite?

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Pretty good, actually. She completely devoured her dinner of lasagna (good sized serving), salad, and peach cobbler last night. I’d like to see her drink more fluids, but all in all, not bad.

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Great news!

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Wonderful news! I’m so glad for you both!

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That’s awesome, I’m so excited for you guys!

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That is great news. I hope she is feeling good at that time.

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Ok, this thread has had enough gloom for a little while… let’s do some fun stuff: evaluations of plans! woooo!!

Day 1 arrival Magic Kingdom: Day 1 MK - Enduring Hope

Why the heck can’t I force my FPPes to lock in? It works if I hit optimize (and shuffles just about everything else around), but then my mom wants to ride the carousel first and if I put that in front, I can’t get the fast passes to be used in the plan.

Day 2 Epcot / HS : Day 2 EPCOT Part 1 - Enduring Hope
Once we’re done with epcot’s FPPs, I figure I’ll grab one for star tours and tower of terror if possible (mom won’t do TOT, but Star Tours she might.) After that, I have no idea. Probably just walk around and shop.

I don’t know if these are too ambitious but much of this can be cut out should the need arise.

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Asking the obvious question, did you click the button to force the plan to use your FP?

yup. and then it tells me it’s not using it for a litnany of reasons anyway.

I thought you would have. Try emailing the url to webmaster@touringplans.com in that case, it must be a glitch.

And now I look at it, that plan is totally messed up. Seeing the 9pm HEA at 10.48?

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You’ve got a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the EP one. LwtL to Canada to SSE to China? Pushing a wheelchair I’d definitely try to minimise the walking about.

hahah i’m worried that if i move anything the stupid thing will elminate my fast passes

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Maybe start a new one, then put everything in the order you want and hit evaluate?

Afraid that doesn’t work. I’ve tried several times.

For some reason, it just doesn’t want to force use my fast passes unless it moves all the rides around to accommodate it.

In fact, it’s even more messed up now because hitting optimize now adds two rides during my breaks. I never planned on living by this plan like a bible, but sadly if this can’t get figured out, this is just going to become a list of what to do instead of an actual plan.

That is what I usually have to do with my TP in DLR. sorry it didn’t work for you.

I have no idea how I missed this the first time, but I did (sorry). I’ll give that a try once I have a more complete setup of plans. Cause it’s also doing it for other days too.

Speaking of other days, here are two more:
Day 3 - Starts off in MK, then to AK, then to EPCOT for cleanup of things missed for the evening Personalized Touring Plans

Day 4 - Starts with Keys to the Kingdom, then to AK for cleanup of things missed. Personalized Touring Plans

The plans are still being difficult, but for now, they’re more for rough ideas than anything else.

In other news, mom went in for chemo yesterday and is, so far, doing pretty well. She’s a bit drained and confused (which is kinda the new normal anymore) but otherwise doing well. The doctors decided that instead of doing 3 chemo treatments this week to only do 1 so she’ll be recovered enough for the trip. I’m expecting the next few days for her to bottom out, but she’s being monitored far better than last time (read: I’m not the one doing the monitoring) so if any issues arise they should be caught fairly quickly.

All in all, looks like the trip is going to be a 100% go. Which is good news, though I am still a bit concerned about her engergy level for the days, but as most of the activities are droppable, I think we’re ok.

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I think that’s the right attitude to approach your touring with. Glad it seems to be coming together for you.

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FINALLY! Mom is finally getting excited to go and is now asking me question after question about what we’ll be doing and other things about the trip on a regular basis. She’s lookin’ real strong, less confused, chemo seems to be working as she’s in no pain to really speak of, eating well, alert, breathing well, and is even walking around without oxygen or a walker (much to the ire of her physical therapist). This all might sound a bit trival, but this is lightyears from where she was only a month ago. Now it seems like this whole nightmare is now on her terms instead of the cancer’s, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

Unless there’s a sudden, and drastic, dip in circumstances… I think we’re gonna have no problems making the trip. :smiley::smiley::smiley:

And with that, a new “issue” dawned on me over the past few days: our luggage. This is clearly a tell that I don’t fly often, but I’m not sure how to get the bags from the curb to the check in desk. After that, it’s easy sailing and I know @eharrison1121 suggested that the carryon being a single backpack (which is definitley going to happen) but what about the larger luggage bags that will be checked? We won’t have anyone dropping us off but will be using a shuttle service, but the last time I used them they just unloaded the bags at the curb and then drove off. I can’t imagine they’ll carry the bags all the way to the desk with us, especially if there’s a line.

Even if I would grab a cart (I’m guessing there’s carts) I gotta wheel her AND guide the cart? That doesn’t seem right. So does anyone have any insight has about the procedure?

Thank you all so much for your help through this! :sparkling_heart:

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