The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray

Well, as the saying goes...."The best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray"

Dottie and I, being in our late 50's have been planning the Great Circle Route cruise for 2 years now. We bought the boat, the charts, everything we would need to make this a memorable once-in- a- lifetime cruise. Dottie even retired back in February 2010.

Our 27 year old daughter, Natalie, the youngest of 3, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis back in 2007. We were able to cope with this terrible debilitating disease. She really never had any outward signs of MS and looked to be the the normal 27 year old young woman she truly is.

On February 20th, 2011...a day we will remember forever, our daughter had a ischemic stroke. Unknown to any of us, including her doctors, we all thought it was an MS "episode", she was admitted to the hospital and treated for the MS.
However after 3 days of treatment she was not really coming around, so the hospital did more tests and brought in more neurologists and neuro-surgeons. The result of the test proved it definitely was a stroke.
Natalie cannot speak, nor can she walk and right arm and leg is completely motionless. Her prognosis is good....they say because of her young age her speech will be the first to come back, then her leg and finally her arm. She goes to physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy thre times a week now and you can see the progress in her speech and leg.....but nothing in her arm or hand as of yet.

So to sum this all up, we have put our plans for cruising on hold for now....our daughter is back home living with us, and it is a full time job for Dottie and I to take care of her. All three of us are determined to make this better, but we are told it takes quite a bit of time and a lot of work.

That is where we are right now.......