In early January we purchased our plane tickets for ten days in California with my family and we were SO looking forward to being out there. We had planned to do so many fun things with Tori and added things to her bucket list.

Earlier this week, I found out from United that we needed to have a form signed by her doctor as proof that she requires continuous oxygen. So, I sent it over to Dr. Escolar’s office on Monday.

Yesterday, I still hadn’t received the form back so I contacted them. I was told that Dr. Escolar wanted to talk to me because she was very concerned about Tori flying.

Three and a half hours before we were supposed to leave for the airport I was told that it is extremely dangerous for her to fly. 

I was very surprised to hear her say this because we told them last month we would be taking her to California. Nothing was said about the dangers of flying.

She has hydrocephalus (too much fluid in the skull) and apparently the pressure from flying could have killed her. 

I told Brennan what had transpired and mentioned the idea of driving to California. It would “only” be 40 hours, afterall. He agreed and we were both excited to be spontaneous – we like to plan things thoroughly. We both enjoy traveling and adventure, and road trips are awesome.

Thankfully we had purchased the travel insurance – first time ever – so we knew we would get our money back in full.

What a perfect bucket list addition a cross-country road trip would be!

So, we hopped in the van and left Harrisburg at 5:45pm. We stopped near Cleveland to sleep – which proved to be impossible for me since I had so much caffeine running through my veins.

I laid there awake for hours and finally decided to get on Facebook to pass the time.

One of my elementary school teachers had commented  on our post about driving there that I-80 (our intended route) gets pretty high in elevation over the Rockies. I looked it up and saw that it reaches 8,900 feet – almost as high as the initial ascent when flying!

Around 5:30am I woke Brennan up and asked what he thought we should do, given the fact that I didn’t sleep more than two hours (and we were both too exhausted to drive 12-16 hours today), and the fact that Tori shouldn’t go up in elevation that much until we see a neurosurgeon.

We both agreed that we should turn around and drive back home (less than five hours). It’s not the fun decision, but it’s best for Tori. 

We are so disappointed for so many reasons, but we are going to make the best of Brennan’s time off and enjoy family time together.

The remodeling will still go as planned – we will just keep Tori in the basement away from the dust.

We are praying that we will get even one more opportunity to take Tori to California to be with my side of the family, but for now we are grateful for all the times she has already been there, and we’ll focus on that.