Oops

After going through the trouble of pointing out my source for movies I forgot to include her name. It's Melissa.

The Recovery

The left photo is me at the kitchen table futzing with the laptop, ditto the next one. The lower left is me in my shop saying hi to the gang, well most of it. The last is the picture of the flowers that I received at the hospital. The mums did not get into the first round of pictures. They are out on the deck now and have opened up to a yellow center. The bunch from Kathy ended up at Gens' because we were out of room in the Focus. Jan and I did take another trip up to New Ulm the day before yesterday for some stuff at Walgreens and then continued on the river road up past Harkins' store. Not a whole lot going on around here, we are really getting into a routine with feedings, meds, bath time and spending some time on the computer. One of Jan's' co-workers made up a list of their movies and I am picking out the good ones, so that helps pass the time. Yesterday we found out that my brother in law Steve Johnson had been rushed to the hospital in St. Cloud with heart trouble . They cleared up some blockages but they are looking at more surgery down the road. Will have to add them to the prayer list too. I ran into an older gentleman at Fort Snelling earlier this year that told me "the first 50 years are for building after that it's all repair work". It is starting to sound more apropos all the time. Stay in touch and don't be afraid to leave a comment, unless it isn't nice of course.

More Progress reports

T

To the top left is me sitting in the car before a ride to New Ulm to visit Target. It sure felt good to get out of the house for a little bit, but I am having some difficulty getting used to the idea that it takes so much out of me to do such previously small things. Yesterday afternoon while I was taking my post lunch nap something woke me up. Jan's and co-worker Mick and her two daughters Sophie and Claire were raking leaves off of the deck and lawn. I guess that you never know who will show up to help, so I just had to get their pictures into this blog, Sophie is the older of the two girls and Claire of course is the younger and Mick is Mom. My brother and sister in law, Phil and Laura also drove down from Delano to see me and Eli, Lindsey, Leah and Aaron were here about the same time so I had plenty company for awhile. I look plenty scary to me but Leah jumped right up in my lap when she was over. Maybe it is because I have never been down like this before, I've not been aware of the power of human contact on your outlook, I promise to change in the future if at all possible. Anyhow Saint Jan keeps me fed and medicated even at my 0200 round. I imagine that it is a little like feeding a baby although I don't cry as much. I am sitting here in front of our kitchen windows watching the squirrels peel and eat walnuts and the changing leaves fall off the trees. Well, stay in touch and I'll try to do the same.

Filling in the Blanks

I downloaded some pictures that Jan took of me while in Mayo this week. I hadn't seen them before and that is probably just as well. I will go from the day before I checked in to home again. I don't know about people that don't know my brothers, but I think I looked a little like my brother Paul. We also received flowers at the hospital. The big mum came from our incredible children, Rachel, Genevieve and Eli. My sister Kathy sent the basket of flowers that lent a spot of color to the room. I even had a few visitors, Gens' mom in law and Steve DeFor, Rachels' father in law.Later that evening- I'm not so sure what day it was-a co-worker of mine from Plainview stopped by. It took me a second to figure out who it was- LaVerne Irish- I was a little surprised to say the least. It seems that the company that I retired from has been pushing out e-mails on my condition, anyhow we talked for awhile and I got around to asking him what he was doing there. It seems that his wife- a Janice too- had been diagnosed with stage4 cancer in the abdomen just the day before. I wish that I could have been able to give him some encouragement but I am on the way up from my bed and his path looks mostly down hill from here. Although miracles do happen, as bad as this has been prayer has allowed us to catch, fix and recover from what could have been a devastating condition. The weather has been terrific since we got home and it has been a little tough hearing the bikes running up and down the streets, but it is late in the season and I usually wind down this time of year. I did get a couple of god rides in this year, one with Eli and I to the Black Hills for a few days and the recent " Farewell Tour" ( I'm so melodramatic). Eli was over this morning to help out some with leaves which are already piling up on the deck and get a pair of his old crutches down from the garage. OK, I'll add the pictures now, maybe I should add a warning about disgusting pictures but hey, here they are.

The Other Side of Mayo

I will probably not make this a long post as I am forced to use our laptop instead of the pc. Not being a touch typer it just seems tougher on this thing, although I can sit in the recliner while I am pecking away at the keys and backspace buttons. Jan- The Saint- and I got home from Rochester yesterday around 5pm after a mostly unexciting trip, I have got to get her to drive more in traffic. She did drive back and forth from Gen and Steve's a few times, all it takes is experience. It seems kind of redundant to recap the festivities as there seems to be information out on the net, but here goes. We walked into Methodist early last Friday like a lamb to slaughter. I think that I knew I was in for it when they rolled me into the operating room there were at least 8 to 10 people waiting for me. The next thing that I knew I was in recovery 10 hours later. I gotta tell you readers out there, the next 24 hours were the worst time I have ever spent in my life, although I have told you what a charmed life I have gotten by with so far. Saturday I thought I could easily die here in this bed. When I was still alive and kicking Sunday morning I finally realized how tough it is going to be when I really do step off this moving sidewalk of life. With a 7 day stay in the hospital that wasn't even ICU gave me a new appreciation of what some other acquaintances have gone through. Like my daughter Rachel's brother in law who was severely injured in the same accident that she broke her arm, and the GIs that we in the PGR have welcomed home from the sand box and Afghanistan with incapacitating lifelong injuries. These young people have a long row to hoe at least I am 64 and retired with a fantastic family for support. I have been able to write this note while putting lunch in my tummy, because I am taking everything in through a tube up the nose and into the stomach. I did finally get some mouthwash last night and it the first thing I have been able to taste in a week. The bone to repair the jaw was-harvested-from the small bone in the lowere lag along with associated tissue veins and arteries, this necessitated a skin graft from the thigh on the other leg. The whole shooting match was then used to patch out what jaw bone had been removed. The artery and the veins were patched in on either side of the neck, which means I will have a scar from ear to ear. To allow me to breathe a tracheotomy was done. Right now I am waiting this to heal up. The old body is starting to look more or less normal except for a lot of swelling around my neck, although Jan says "you should have seen yourself after surgery". Oh, ya, I also have not shaved yet so I getting a little bristly. I think that it is time for my nap and Jan needs to get a few things uptown. I would have to say that I am proof positive of the power of prayer. Thanks to everyone that prayed for me in locations all over the world, believe me I, or we could feel it!!

The Big Day

Tomorrow is the day I have been agonizing over all week long. We meet with the doctors to find out what all those tests last week will tell us. I am sure that Friday will still be the day of surgery but it would be nice to wake up most of my parts still intact, but time will tell. Jan and I are heading over to Rochester this afternoon after she gets off work to spend the night. Our appointment is at 0930 on Thursday so in 25 hours we should know what lies ahead. I just wish that I could make it easier on the people around me. I always feel that I have lived such a charmed life, I guess that now is the time to pay up. I don't know what I would have done if I had not had Jan to hold my hand through all of this. This is when those wedding vows " in sickness and in health" start to mean something. Does this sound like whining? I suppose so but I am not used to this sort of thing. Whatever, please keep up the prayers, we need them all.

Rochester Report

I will not have the problem of adding pictures to this blog. Our first office visits here in Rochester turned far worse than we expected. The explanation of the surgery involved does not sound pleasant. About half of my lower jaw and associated tissue has to come out , with the jaw repairs with the smaller bone from my lower leg. The doctor said it is a long procedure but you will be asleep the whole time. It is too bad I couldn't just be out until everything is healed up, which sounds as if it will be about 3 months. The recovery is the part that I am not looking forward to. Return visits will be frequent. Luckily we have Gen and Steve and the boys home with a spare bedroom to hang out at. I gotta tell you that we did not expect a treatment that would be this extreme. I felt a strange sense of peace about the whole thing yesterday it is probably all the people praying for us. Today I have a PET scan that will be a few hours long and tomorrow another scan of some sort. All through this whole thing I keep thinking " how can I feel so good while all these things are happening in my body?" Surgery is scheduled for next Friday so keep up the prayers? One drawback to waiting all week is that the tension will build all week long until check in next Thursday.