Nov 21 2019 Philippines

Fat and happy in Catalunan Grande in the Philippines.

After spending the last year recovering from the loss of my father in January 2019 and fine tuning my care plan at Stanford in Emeryville and Redwood City, I finally got the courage to take a leap of faith. After realizing I have now had a total of 70 operations and procedures to date Its time for me to try to live a better quality of life.

Recently my wife Dolly and I decided to move out of California knowing I may be required to travel far to return to Stanford if the care I required was not available wherever we decided to retire too. We looked at every state in the nation and we traveled accross several looking seriously at options. In the end we decided on Treasure Valley Idaho. We loved how clean it was and the affordable cost of living as well as the low crime. But just prior to our move we decided to return to my wife's Homeland in the Southern Philippines and look at retirement options there as well. Once we did we both fell in love with the idea and found a home that would more than meet our needs and we made the move. Now here for 3 months were starting to settle in. We both made a trip back to the States to get a few more items we felt we needed here and to visit our newly born first Grandson. 

My Wife has invested in and opened a few small businesses in hopes to create a income for herself. 

So how has this all effected my health? Well the best news is much of my pain issues were addressed before we moved even though I was hospitalized a few times over the last years. But since we moved here to the Philippines my pain has been minimal. It may be the tropical climate. Unfortunately, I have developed an infection in my lungs that I am having a hell of a time beating. It's mild now but it was very bad for a few weeks. I'm still on antibiotics and a rescue inhaler as I continue to fight this issue. I'm bloated from the steroids. I hope I can beat this and lose some serious weight soon. 

What's next? Well I'm scheduled to return to the US on Dec 12th. If I do make this trip I most likely will see my Doctor's for a few pain management procedures for my back and possibly remove a implant from my shoulders as I no longer need it. After, I will hire a crew to load our things into a uhaul that are still in our home in the bay area. I will see to it these things make it to storage in Treasure Valley Idaho so that when we do decide to find a 2nd home there everything will already be there. I will then fly back to the Philippines to relax and spend some quality time with my wife and family. At some point we will get a second home in Idaho to use as a vacation home and if I do need a higher level of medical care as time goes on I will most likely move back to the States and spend my final years in Idaho as a free man in a great country.