Haunt Jaunts is Celebrating Good Health!

I know I have been very neglectful of the site lately. I have so many posts I want to write from jaunts we’ve taken even over a year ago, but Life has been busy. Last year was rife with hiccup after hiccup. Here’s just a few of the highlights:

• Murphy got attacked by a neighbor dog early in the year and needed surgery, which required extra TLC and nursing on my part.
• Tennis, the other “Survived, Now I’d Like To Try” passion of mine (haunt jaunting also being on that list I made when I got cancer) took precedence when I was diagnosed with diabetes. (Needed to exercise to keep my blood numbers low! Couldn’t procrastinate it.)
• Oh yeah. I got diagnosed with diabetes and spent 2 months fighting with my primary care doctor before I got smart and got a second opinion…which confirmed I was managing my blood sugar just fine via diet and didn’t need the pills they were trying to prescribe. (This whole thing took a toll and, as I’ve said before, affected me almost worse than being diagnosed with cancer. However, I’m healthier, happier, and skinnier so…blessing in disguise!)
• I threw a big party for Wayne, which ate up copious amounts of time planning and getting the house ready.
• We took two big trips. (Which, as I alluded to in the first paragraph, I still need to write about.)
• I got back to my fiction writing –which is where my writing time I used to spend on Haunt Jaunts really went.
• Murph started having seizures and Mr. Meow stopped eating. Again. (For the 5th time in his life.) But to have both Murph and Mr. Meow basically dying on me at the same time and both needing meds at specific times, multiple vets visits each week, etc, etc…I was spent. Half the time I just wanted to veg on the couch because I’d be so tired both mentally and physically. (This lasted for 3 months and was a very rough go.)
• Then Murph died, with what appeared to be Mr. Meow right on his heels at Christmastime. December 2013 joined the ranks of December 2008 and December 1979 as the worst Decembers I’ve ever had. (Mr. Meow somehow recovered, after losing the use of his back legs and the vet giving him hours at worst, days at best to live if we didn’t put him down. I wasn’t ready just yet, so I waited until he could absolutely not walk or function anymore at all, and what do you know? That crazy cat of mine made a complete 180 turn and is now better than ever!)

Mentally and emotionally I just haven’t been in the HJ/blogging game.

Doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it. Every day I do. Today I decided to write something really quick because I felt I needed a record of why I’ve been so neglectful.

Also, I am finally able to celebrate some wonderful news I received on January 21, 2014: I made it to the 5 years in remission mark!

My oncologist made it even sweeter by saying no more yearly CT scans for me. (I thought I’d licked my aversion to needles, which I sort of have. I can tolerate certain ones, but IVs, which I have to get for the CT because they do contrast, and anything in my hand…forget it! My body revolts.)

HOWEVER…

Even though my CT scan was clear for cancer, it showed a potential problem with my heart.

Which didn’t come as all that much of a surprise. I had a heart attack thing happen in December. I refused to go to the hospital though. I was playing tennis with my husband and decided there were only two other places I’d be as content to drop dead at than there so if it was my time, so be it.

Anyway, they scheduled me to see a cardiologist. Scary!

After getting an EKG and an echo-cardiogram, I learned I have a perfectly healthy looking heart. Whatever the heart attack pain thing I had happen in December didn’t register on their tests. As the cardiologist put it, “You don’t need me! You have a strong heart. Young looking in fact.”

So now, after delaying the celebration for a bit –and it finally sinking in that all is well– I can breathe a sigh of relief (I always get worked up before my cancer check ups) and I can celebrate not only good health, but great health! No cancer and a strong heart! Halleluiah!

But I won’t be back to writing regularly just yet. I’m finishing polishing my book, The Ghost of Laurie Floyd, and getting ready for another big trip. (The first, and smaller, of two we have planned this year.)

But I’ll try to sneak in another post or two in the next few weeks.

Hope your 2014 is off to a good start too!

Courtney Mroch

Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.

Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.