April 2022 (4/0): Last MCI, Last Good-Bye, and Welcome, Coco!

In this Update:

• Last MCI
• Last Good-Bye
• Welcome, Coco!
• New Hope for Ralf

Last MCI
I’ll be honest: when I was asked by the (new) Orlando VA Emergency Management (D50) person in charge to not just help plan, coordinate, and participate in the Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) community disaster drill, but to be a Nurse Lead for the event, I was not sure what to say. After what happened to me in my previous position, which prompted my transfer to SimLEARN, my first impulse was,” yeah, no, thank you, I'll pass”. However, I also knew he needed help from a D50 nurse, who has had experience with those MCIs and the common pitfalls and challenges associated with it. That, and being supportive of my friend Bonnie, who also was filling the role of Nurse Lead but couldn’t possibly tackle that beast alone, led me to accept. And since the Orlando VA is in VISN 8, which belongs to my Engagement Group responsibility in my mentorship-role at SimLEARN, it was still technically associated to my new position.

To make a long story short: I have done these MCI events with the Orlando VA since 2014, so I know what I was getting myself into. Historically, it was always the same limited group of D50 team members, who would actually show up. Supply carts we painfully put together (mostly Bonnie and I over the years) would be a hot mess when they reappear from some forgotten storage area, and now that a couple years had passed without taking out the tents and supplies, it was even more frustrating. Between COVID and the long stretch of no team-training activities, we lost some key-members. That left us with mostly untrained members, who were not familiar with MCI guidelines, decon, and/or disaster triage protocols. I strongly suggested a dry-run to leadership (as in, take out the tents, set up the equipment, etc.), but that didn’t happen… Oh well, I tried. 

I am not going into details, but Bonnie and I ended up running around, filling in a variety of roles to get us through… at one point, I heard my name being yelled from five different directions, but I just can’t split myself in half. Somehow, we made it through, but it wasn’t pretty. 

I was just glad that nobody got actually injured, and at the end of the day, we had all teenage victim volunteers accounted for… 

Last Good-Bye
When Mikey passed away last year in August, it was one of those “it can’t be” moments. I am so grateful that Ralf was able to make that trip to Tampa a couple days prior, to say good-bye, but given the fact that Mikey was taken so quickly after his cancer diagnosis, this still hits very close to home. Cancer is an asshole. And Fay? She got cheated out of many years of spending her retirement with her mate. So unfair. Mikey was special and left a huge void. April 2022, the Wallaby Ranch hosted the “Mikey Barber Memorial Boogie”, celebrating his life and the legacy he left behind in the hangliding community. I do believe he would have been so pleased, bringing together hundreds of friends and family, some of whom flew in from around the world, to spend time together and remember the many stories surrounding him. There was an amazing live band playing, great food and drinks, dogs and kids running around, people laughing and sharing stories. A special day for a special person. Bitter-sweet for sure. But I am glad Ralf was well enough to go and not just honor his longtime friend but also reconnect to the Wallaby Ranch community. Time is precious. 

It was already getting dark outside when we had to leave, and just at that moment an enormous tree was lit up (I am still puzzled how they wrapped it in lights like this). A magical moment where the real world doesn’t seem to exist. We love you, Mikey!

Welcome, Coco!
As I said before: time is precious, so what are you waiting for? Ralf has been debating on getting this new Curve bicycle, which is made in Australia. He has been flip-flopping between “I really, really want this bike” and “how can I justify spending so much money on a bike when I may not be around for much longer”. To me, those moments were the most heartbreaking ones. True, due to the nature of his cancer, nobody has been able to give us a prognosis. Could be 6 months, 5 years, 20 years? But you know what? That is EXACTLY why he should buy this bike NOW. Tomorrow is not guaranteed for nobody, so if that brings you joy, go for it!!! After a year of back and forth, along with supply issues, the Curve bike finally arrived.

Ralf still had to drop off the frame to JC’s Bike Shop in Deland, where Ryan was on standby to get to work and assemble the final product. Then the day had come: we got the call that we could come over for Ralf to test ride and pick up his brand-new Curve bike!

So, I have the habit of naming things. I really don’t want to, it just kind of happens by default. However, since this was Ralf’s baby, I wanted him to name his new ride (yup, my habits may have rubbed off). Unfortunately, I already named her (in my head) the first time I laid eyes on the frame, which sports a beautiful Cockatoo on the stem… Coco!!! While I told Ralf that he should name his new ride asap, I started to refer to her as “Coco”. Ralf would usually reply with “her name is NOT Coco!”. A couple weeks later, Ralf said to me, “I need to bring Coco back to the bike shop before the Forgotten Florida ride…”, it was settled I suppose. Welcome home, Coco!

New Hope for Ralf

Ralf’s GI issues, abdominal pain, and inability to even consider international travel because of the unpredictability of his symptoms, among other considerations, has left such a negative impact on our quality of life. He has been to multiple GI specialists, but nobody was a good fit or offered different approaches. Then I saw an ad from Orlando Health, advertising a new GI section at their facility, promising the best of the best. Ironically, it was around that time the Ralf’s friend Brian also complained of ongoing, debilitating GI issues, so I mentioned that place to him. He actually made an appointment for the following week and really liked the specialist he ended up seeing. We decided to give Dr. Gosalia a try – but to be honest, I wasn’t really getting my hopes up. We had been disappointed too many times… But as it turned out, this GI specialist was refreshingly different! And he was even familiar with Ralf’s rare diagnosis and brutal CRS/HIPEC surgery. It appears that he understood the physical and mental toll all of this had on Ralf. And, he offered different solutions: an new drug, Motegrity, that is still very new on the market (no generic) but has shown great results by affecting the “gut nerves”. Ralf has been on this med for a while, and it really seems to make a difference… new hope at last!