Aussie Update #2

G'day mates from down under. Our friends the Montoyas finally arrived and we've been hanging out with them for a few days. The weather has been spotty; mostly rainy and cold. We've been walking a ton, and I have been feeling strong and healthy.

It's been a while since I talked about my GI issues. So... here goes... for the past month, the issue has mostly been figuring out how to keep things from getting stopped up. I've got a routine involving softeners, x-lax, and Miralax that seems to work, but yesterday everything came undone and the pendulum swung so far the other way that I had to, how shall we say it, wrap up a bit to keep from exploding. I won't paint a more detailed picture than that, but it was humbling and disgusting. So, needless to say, I figured you'd all want to know about it. Today, however, things were better and I've been able to run about diaper-free. Another of the little things in life that I'll bet goes under-appreciated by most.

As a testament to how free I really was, here's a picture of me trying out Gabriel's (Montoyas' 16-year old son) Powerisers. For those who don't know, these are big springs you attach to your legs that let you hop around like a kangaroo... I'm pretty sure they were invented here. It was fun. Perhaps you can see the Fentanyl bag bouncing around in the picture -- I'm telling you, the narcotics REALLY do come in handy...

After the bouncing around like this for all of 5 minutes, I was ready for something a bit calmer, so we all walked down to the Swan River (which runs through Perth) and over to "Kangaroo" Island. The island has "wild" Kangaroo's running around that are like the deer at Loft Mtn.
One of the prayers someone prayed for me before leaving was that I would return feeling stronger and healthier than I left (unlike the Prague trip where I was vomiting in the airplane bathroom on the way home... not fun...). I know it's still early, but thank you for your prayers; so far, they're being answered and it feels great. I'm having fun here, but I really do miss you all and look forward to seeing you shortly.