Monday the 7th, John headed to Dr. Marquez’s office first thing to pick up the signed Permission to Travel.

Unfortunately, while we were waiting for Dr. Marquez or his assistant to come in, John’s oxygen concentrator died. It just quit. (I have a feeling it hadn’t been working the way it should Sunday. We’d gone to the Conklin’s for dinner, and John could hardly get out to the golf cart to go home.) In the doctor’s office, his oxygen numbers plummeted. The level was so low that there was a concern for his survival. When they got him an oxygen tank, his numbers went back up to acceptable levels, but it was obvious that he couldn’t sustain his breathing without the generator. Apparently, after talking to the insurance company, they decided he couldn’t fly back. If for any reason he didn’t have a reliable source of oxygen, he couldn’t make it.

We were given two options: charter an air ambulance (cost over $20,000) or take a train (and the insurance company would pay for it). Amtrak sounded doable. We’d need to use the insurance company’s oxygen generator and an RN will travel with us.

Plans were firmed up for the nurse (Frank) to come to our house Tuesday evening, the 8th. He checked John out and found that the generator he brought didn’t work well with John’s mode of breathing. It was decided that John would take his floor model and plug it in most of the time.

We left the condo at 8:00 the next morning, Wednesday, the 9th. A limo picked us up. Unfortunately, the generator supplied by Frank continued to give John problems. If he concentrated and worked at it, he could get air from it, but he had to really concentrate.

We got to Orlando.