Birthdays and New Years and Spider Bites

Two days after Christmas we went to the doctor and found out the patch on my eardrum had not come off. The hole in the eardrum had not closed. We would have to come back after New Years. With that news we decided to drive down to Las Vegas. It would be Robert's father's birthday that week and we wanted to help celebrate his 93rd with him. This a shot of him from 7 Christmases ago holding his first great-grandchildren, Bruce and Anna. Here is to the worlds best great grandfather, grandfather, father-in-law and father. Happy Birthday Dad.

We didn't actually get to stay for the birthday because of when they set up my appointment but we did get to spend some time with him. Danielle and Dave came up from Glendale and we were able to see them too. Dave looked in my ears with his scope.(He graduates this spring from medical school) He looked in the good ear first and was telling us all about eardrums. Then he looked in my other ear and pulled back saying, "That looks better?!" He kept telling us how it was an amber, dark amber. But on the day we left he looked at it again and said that some of it was returning to the normal color. I was making progress.
On New Years Eve we drove back to Salt Lake City. We rang in the New Year with Paul. We made a toast that Paul would find a wife this year and we are hoping it works.
While in Las Vegas Robert had this round red spot about the size of a nickle form on his arm. He thought nothing of it.
That week we went to the doctor about my ear and found out my ear was good enough to go back to Cape Verde. There was still a microscopic hole in my eardrum and so I had to promise I would not put my head under water for the rest of my mission or until a qualified doctor could verify it had closed. No worries.I wasn't planning on going swimming and with a plug in the ear I can shower without getting water in it.

I then suggested that Robert get his arm looked at. He wouldn't do it for fear they would make us stay even longer. We had stayed in the States five weeks already and he was going stir crazy. So off we went. This is what his arm looked like a few days after returning to Cape Verde.

 A doctor here verified it was a spider bit, a brown recluse. He had to go on steriods and antibiotics and put a cream on it. It is much better now.