Vegas, Baby

Thursday morning we received a call from Dr. Moini regarding Karen's upcoming brain radiation. Long story short: after an additional MRI and consultation with multiple other physicians the decision was reached to hold off for now. The MRIs are not 100% clear and since Karen is asymptomatic (unlike last December) there is no urgency to treat her right away. Instead, the plan now is to monitor her brain with monthly MRI scans and act once things are more definitive.

That was good news. Also good: Karen is tolerating the new bare bottom dosage of Zykadia pretty well. While there is intermittent stomach cramping she's not vomiting nonstop anymore.

This view can be yours with just enough whining!

I had a meeting in the city on Thursday but by the time I got home around 5PM, I had a proposal for Karen. In light of the fact that our 24th anniversary was on the upcoming Tuesday and that her week had been cleared thanks to no radiation and that I had successfully wrapped up my work for the moment, I suggested that we pack our bags and immediately fly to Las Vegas for the weekend. There was an 8:50 flight I felt confident we could make provided we moved with purpose. Karen started packing, I made flight and hotel reservations online, threw some clothes into a bag, and we were off. Karen's sister was visiting at the time and would stay behind to handle various repairmen we had coming in over the next few days.

Sometimes, things just kind of go right. We not only made our flight in plenty of time, we were early enough to jump on an earlier flight, arriving about 40 minutes earlier than planned. I had booked a literal "room with a view" at the hotel and when we checked in I told the desk clerk that I fully understood that the whole view thing could be very subjective but I asked her to please make sure that we really had a good one. The thing is this: Karen (and I) had really wanted to take one final trip together but it just didn't seem to be in the cards until, well, that day. So I really wanted this (probable) last anniversary and (likely) final Vegas trip to be special for her. When I explained this to the clerk she nodded somberly and asked me to wait a moment. After consulting with her manager, we were upgraded to a 56th floor Sky Suite with a great view.

So, if you're ever thinking of staying at the Aria I can tell you this much: they're pretty nice people there.

The next several days were pretty great. Karen's sleep-heavy schedule was more or less retained but shifted a bit to accommodate more activities. On Friday we shot machine guns at Machine Guns Vegas and went out for a lovely dinner. Saturday we stuck around the resort. I worked out, Karen lounged by the pool and then we got a massage before another nice dinner. That night we went to the Paris casino to see the dueling piano lounge act that we first saw more than 10 years ago and that Karen loves. And on Sunday we wandered around the strip some and rode on the High Roller observatory wheel.

Bang.

One of the most interesting things about this trip was the fact that while Karen is doing relatively well there's a pretty heavy emphasis on the "relatively" part of that. Any walking beyond routine, around-the-house locomotion is not an option for her. Therefore, we used a wheelchair the entire time we were there to get around--the endless expanse of a casino floor is way too much for Karen these days. We didn't mind using the chair and it was in a perverse kind of way fun for me, at least in terms of navigating crowds and obstacles. Less pleasurable, trying to find the mandated elevators hidden away at various locations and at the pedestrian walkways on the Strip. We gained a whole new appreciation for the obstacles facing people with mobility issues.

And on Monday, we flew home.

The trip was basically great and we couldn't be happier about having taken it. Even with absolutely zero planning, everything went about as well as we could have hoped. Granted, my blackjack winning streak was seriously jeopardized at one juncture, but I pulled it out on the last night and got just a little bit ahead. This trip was one more final thing off Karen's bucket list and we had a great time doing it.

Not that it was all wonderful all the time. Unfortunately, I got kinda melancholy Saturday at the piano bar. Watching Karen laugh and smile and sing along and just have the greatest time was intensely gratifying but I couldn't escape why we were there. And I couldn't help but feel pained by the happiness so evident in the way she glowed that night knowing that moments like these were all too painfully numbered. I looked at her that night and thought about how much I'd miss her.

That night--and, frankly, a few other times--we talked about this, where we were headed, and how hard goodbye was proving to be for us both. But it didn't cast a pall over the weekend. We've been sharing everything with each other for 24 years as spouses, 36 years as friends.

We were cool with it.