Back To Work

Today I was determined to make it up to the barn and at least take a few pictures after the walk. The walkers again took it easy on me staying on the flat and as soon as I quit, I'm sure there was some power walking going on. I sat down in the rocker recliner and promptly rested for almost an hour before getting up to make myself some breakfast.  Karin walked in as I was enjoying the vine ripened tomato from our garden and a couple eggs. She went out to work horses but I did not follow her up to get pictures. Rhoda arrived at 10:30 with 9 dogs, Ruby, her 3 puppies and Arrieta with her 4 puppies. She went up to the barn to help move in bales. Sarah arrived with her dog Rizzy who is actually due tomorrow and of course baby Zion. She and I took Arrieta and her puppies to Malabar Vet Clinic in Elmwood to have the puppies checked and the dew claws removed. I stayed in the car with Zion while Sarah hauled in the dogs. That only took about 10 minutes. When we got back we drove right up to the barn where Karin and Rhoda had Sangria and her filly in a stall and were giving the filly a haltering and tying lesson. Sangria was happy to see me, the filly was mad about being tied.

Next we took them into the outdoor arena for a few action shots for her owner. Of course the first thing Sangria does is roll.

 The filly was funny, she had to jump that pile of manure and got way off the ground. 

She is a nice mover. From there we hiked back down to the house for lunch. Below is Darla taking a nap in the hay as we walked by.

 Karin prepared lunch for everyone then we all sat and played with puppies. A bit later Joan dropped Faith off to help so back up to the barn they all went while I took another nap. Oksana and her month old filly Darla were taken to the outdoor arena by Faith. Rhoda got some awesome shots. 

I'm thrilled to have her and Karin's help. Sarah and Rhoda left around 3:00 pm. I think Karin and Faith played with the pug puppies up at the apartment.

By the way ALL of the Pug Puppies are now SOLD!  Later they worked with Valiant. It was a cold damp day with rain sprinkles off and on and I was glad to stay in the house on a recliner with a blanket and dozed most of the afternoon.

David and Stephanie brought out dinner tonight along with their two munchkins Israel and Elisabet. The kids were busy playing with Emma. 

Not only did they serve us a delicious dinner they started a load of laundry, cleaned up the kitchen and removed the garbage. These kids of mine are totally spoiling me. Gerty and Dennis stopped in for a visit this evening. I will confess today was exhausting and to think I did almost no real work. Sure hope this tired feeling goes away soon. Joan called to ask if I wanted to come over for games at mom's but I had to decline. It's already past my bedtime. 

Ruined Character

I had such a good night sleep, there really is nothing like being home. I awoke at 4:50 am to the sound of the gurgle of the coffee maker and tried to make myself stay in bed for those 10 more minutes needed to finish brewing my first cup of the day but just couldn't do it. I have this rule in my head about not stealing a cup (so the next few are not weak) but just had to break the rule. Mark must have been up during the night and was still sound asleep but just before 7:00 am I heard him stirring and asked if he would like breakfast. His delicious looking breakfast was cooked, on the plate and just as I was carrying it into the dining room Ruth walked in. She was shocked to see me up and more shocked that I cooked breakfast for Mark. Yesterday on the way home Karin and I decided to surprise the walkers with how good I was doing this morning so she led Ruth to believe I was very weak. Needless to say ALL the walkers were pretty surprised. Joan came bringing a plate of those amazing tasting vegetable pizzas that were left over from choir. These things are some of my favorites and I was pretty thrilled. Thank you to whoever was serving at Choir.  The walkers took it easy on me, we just did flat ground then went in to join mom for breakfast. Diane, Ruth and Joan cooked while mom, Karin and I sat at the table waiting to be served. That being in the hospital really does ruin one's character. Now we just sit around expecting to be served. Mom was so funny. She has her eye patch on and must sit with her head down after surgery yesterday to repair a detached retina. She carries around her mirror so she can see us but I don't think she had it at the table. Before we were even served I was announcing how good the food looked, when mom exclaims, "MY plate is still empty!" Oh how we laughed.
Sarah came this morning bringing her daughter Zion Victoria. Both mom and I were so thrilled to meet this newest baby in the family.

I mentioned that we have 4 generations here and should probably get a picture of great grandma with Zion when Sarah says, "but grandma is so ugly right now!" yep  we laughed. Ruth decided that if she would brush our hair maybe we could get a decent picture so finished brushing mom's then mines and only when mom saw her putting the brush away exclaimed, "that's the DOG'S brush!" That set us off laughing again. Did I ever mention that it hurts to laugh right now. We will wait for a real picture of these two once mom's eye patch comes off but isn't that eye patch impressive!

Ruth took mom to the eye doctor, Karin fed all the horses and I just laid on the couch getting waited on. Anna arrived with Taegan and Kensley bringing with her a bag of honeycrisp apples. We had a good visit ate some of those delicious vegetable pizzas when John arrived with a gift for Zion. It was such a cute outfit that we couldn't imagine John would give that so knew it really must be from Beth. Sarah and Anna left but John had time to kill waiting for mom to get home from the doctors appointment we had plenty of time for a good visit. He came bringing soup bones for mom from his Saturday butchering. He promised to get me bones soon.
This afternoon I worked on the puppy pictures from yesterday. Ruby's puppies eyes had just opened a few days ago. Who would have ever thought PugaPoo Puppies could be cute.

Rhoda reported that ALL of Ruby's puppies are now sold. Actually they have been for a while. I think who ever got one is going to be THRILLED! To see the rest of the pictures of Ruby's PugaPoo Puppies click HERE. 

IF you are still looking for a small non shedding puppy Sarah still has 4 available. Her dog Arrieta gave birth to 4 darling Maltipoo puppies, 2 female, 2 males. The red male and female are priced at a very reasonable $1300.00 and the cream colored male and female are only $950.00. 

 The red male is pictured below, To see the rest of his pictures click HERE. 

The cream male is pictured below, to see the rest of his pictures click HERE. 

The red female puppy is pictured below. To see the rest of her pictures click HERE. 

The cream female puppy is pictured below. To see the rest of her pictures click HERE.  

These puppies will be ready to go to their new home in December. If interested in purchasing a puppy just send Sarah a text (309) 208-1589 or send an email to sarahscegg@gmail.com

I'm starting to drag and believe I'll just lay down on the couch for a nap.  I slept so hard for 3 hours that when Mark walked in right before 6:00 pm it was all I could do to open my eyes. Diane and Mike stopped in bringing food and fellowship. When they left I walked into the kitchen and found an entire meal of delicious spaghetti, meat sauce, salad and bread waiting on the counter. No idea when Ruth brought it but it sure was delicious. Who knows if I'll ever feel like working when everyone around here is doing all the work around here without me. Yes, this surgery really is ruining my character. 
Mom and I listened on line tonight since neither of us can travel.  Greg Rumbled had the service.  It would have been good to be there but listening is the next best thing.  Sure can feel the love of our church family pouring through the internet lines. 

HOME

Karin drove all the way home. Of course she is the only driver, I'm not allowed to drive. She even went slow and stopped for us to walk around. We arrived home just before 9:00 pm. Mark helped me out of the car. The checkout procedure is pretty time and labor intensive. We thought we would be leaving in the morning but it was just not to happen. More tomorrow, I really really want to lay down in my own bed.

Puppies and MORE Puppies

Rebekah set up a puppy chat for her Golden Doodle Reagan and I'm on it. The phone started dinging in the middle of the night as Reagan went into labor and started delivering her puppies. BUT that wasn't all, Sarah and Nolan's Multipoo dog Arrie also went into labor at the very same time. Reagan the Golden Doodle ended up with 10 puppies, 8 females and 2 females. The picture below was posted after the first 4 were born.

Rebekah will hopefully post more pictures soon. This was very carefully planned litter. The sire is called a Moyen Poodle. The Moyen Poodle is an intelligent, joyful, companion dog. The Moyen Poodle has a large amount of energy and has a very playful attitude. Poodles love to be around its owner. This dog gets along with other dog breeds and likes other animals.  The Moyen Poodle is easy to train as it loves to learn and catches on quickly. This breed can make an excellent watchdog, but doesn’t do well as a guard dog. Chewy, the sire weighs in about 17 pounds. Moyen's ARE purebred Poodles and has the typical Poodle attitude.  Poodles are not meant to spend long periods of time alone. Poodles want to be in the home with their families. These are true companion dogs.
Now for the other litter born. Arrieta is a Maltipoo. She is a non shedding small dog around 12 pounds. She was bred to a purebred Miniature Poodle so these puppies will for sure be non shedding and stay small.

Arrie ended up with 4 healthy puppies 2 girls and 2 boys.
I had quite a day here at St Mary's Hospital in Rochester MN. My nurses have really been great. Pictured below is my night nurse Dot. She let me sleep but asked me to turn the nurses light on if I was up around 2:00 pm.

I woke up at 2:30 pm and right in she came. She reminded both Karin and I of my cousin MaryEllen. We had a great time together.  Next came the vampire people just trying to find a blood vessel for another blood draw. Around 7:00 am in came Christina the nurse on the right in the picture below. She was stuck with me for the day.

Another great helper today was Aylisha. Aylisha actually saved the day a bit later.

We were visited by at least 4 people asking to give us more patient instructions, all of which pretty much gave us the same set of instructions for when I am home. Finally the surgeon's PA Glenn came to take out the remaining chest tube.

While Glenn was removing the chest tube nurses kept running into the room. The nurse light kept flashing on even though none of us were pushing the light. Finally Aylisha came in and discovered the bed had moved up enough that it was setting the light off. The chest tube is impressive. One can't believe how long of hard plastic foreign object could stay in the chest for 6 days.

I have to pass 2 tests to be able to get out of the hospital and one was an echocardiogram. That was ordered in the morning but no one came to take me there until almost 1:00 pm. I passed that test with flying colors. The valves are all working great. I didn't get back into the room until almost 3:00 pm. Karin and I took lots of walks around the hospital easily making the exercise goal for the day. The sound of a helicopter landing or taking off was heard almost continually today.

We were pretty disappointed when the last test could not be done today. That is a CT angiogram. Later Christina came in to introduce our nurse for the night. The nurse to the left is Hailey and she has the hard job keeping both Karin and me inline.

She has power though, she sent in Chinda to remove my remaining IV and put in a new IV. I had Chinda convinced it wasn't necessary as I'm leaving tomorrow until Hailey informed us they need the new IV to do the test tomorrow. She really does know best.

Chinda pronounced Ginda took a look at my arms and asked, "Are you a farmer?" Now that was a proud moment, to think someone can tell what you do by looking at your arms. Only then
did she say, "your arms are hard and your veins don't bounce."That isn't a good thing but actually Chinda was very experienced and made such a small sting the sting was worth all the conversation.
Karin has now left for the night. I wrote that, got ready for bed the nurse walked in and told me they wanted to take me down to xray for a chest xray.

Removal

The big news for me today was the removal of one of the chest tubes and the removal of the wound vac.

Below is the nurse practitioner of our floor pulling it out while Kylee works on bandages.

As soon as both of those jobs were done the PTA showed up to make sure I was ready to do stairs. Of course Karin and Anna went along to document everything and make sure their pupil (me) was the star of the day. Yes I did the stairs great.

When I passed the stair climbing I was ready to dance. Actually it looked like I was dancing but really was doing another exercise in the hall of standing on one leg.

This afternoon my visitors arrived. Anna's aunt and uncle brought Braelyn, Taegan and Kensley here to meet up with Phil and Anna for their long road trip home. The girls were pretty fascinated with the wiring and tubes.

Mark left with them and will be back to work on Monday. Karin is staying here to bring me home but it doesn't look like it will be tomorrow. The good thing though is now I have been cleared to walk by myself and don't need to be babysat. There are a bunch of tests that will have to be done before discharge so it looks more like we will be leaving on Tuesday for home.
I have no horse news to report except Emily and Rhoda gave Evan a new bale. All the horses are doing well. Karin has just now left for the apartment and I am on my own for the night.

Hurricane Nate

When us sisters were all new married and had young children Diane and I had somewhat difficult kids while Beth had 2 perfectly behaved young children and would give us two older sisters all kinds of parenting advice. AND then came Nate! Both Diane and I were so happy to see Beth really wasn't the perfect parent. Nate just got into everything, he was like a miniature hurricane coming through leaving havoc where ever he showed up. When all the family that was down in Gulf Shores heard that Hurricane Nate was arriving, most left for home. Only Beth and Greg (who lived through the real Nate) and Spark and Rhonda decided to ride it out in Gulf Shores. This morning we hear they are alive and doing well. Below are a couple pictures sent by Rhonda. The picture below was taken right in front of their complex and were already up to the sea oats.

The waves were massive and obviously looking at the picture below of Spark hanging on to the railing the winds must have been tremendous.

Beth said there was some flooding and they are busy cleaning up the area but all are safe.
I had quite an evening with my new nurse Alex. No pictures of Alex, we didn't think to take any, but the first thing he comes in to teach us heart patient education. Of course I need to interrupt to tell him, "Technically, I'm not a heart patient." He looked over at my incision and thought maybe I needed to be on the psych ward. I'm trying to explain I have no heart problems, all my arteries are open, my heart is strong and no high blood pressure and he is trying to tell me I can have no salt on my food and eat egg whites and margarine. Well that started the room in an uproar, Karin starts talking about the salt packets hid in the Kleenex boxes, we are laughing so hard that tears are escaping and poor Alex is telling us we are acting like squirrels storing up food for the winter. After Alex left the room Karin and Anna took the salt packets and started putting them all over the room where Alex works. Just 1 picture was taken.

This backfired on us. The next time Alex came in he turned on the bed alarm and when I woke up in the middle of the night to grab a tissue I just shifted enough and it seemed the entire hospital was alerted with a high pitched siren. When my night nurse Tarah came running in, she was a little stunned that Alex had turned on the bed alarm. I just said quietly, "he probably doesn't trust me." I've had a busy morning and just found out one of the chest tubes will be coming out today, the other on Monday with possible release on Monday. I can't wait to get home!

Esther Sold

Rhoda sent some good news from home, she sold Esther and the man picking her up can come next week.

I know they are going to be happy with her, she really is a nice filly. Anna, Phil, their three daughters, and Karin arrived last night. Anna's aunt Jolene came all the way down from Winthrip to here to pick up the girls so Phil and Anna and Karin could easily spend time in the hospital here torturing me.

I felt great and am really anxious to get out of here. Actually we found out, only because Anna arrived that I was putting the oxygen nasal cannulas upside down and once we put them in correctly my oxygen level shot up enough that I am no longer on oxygen. The best thing that happened today was getting my first shower. Sandy one of my great nurses here at the step down unit was really good at giving  showers even washing my hair twice.

My other nurse is Kylee. She is kind and helpful,  below she is helping split the chest tubes so we can find out if both or just one is draining.

Anna's Aunt Jolene sent a few pictures of the girls activities today.

They were having a ball until Taegan got sick from eating too much fried food. Karin really helped out today sneaking in a couple packets of salt for my lunch today. I have to say that hospital food has not been at all overrated, they expect one to eat with no salt. We hid one of the salt packets in the Kleenex tissue box for later. Then Phil and Anna arrived with a bunch more salt packets. Do I have good help or what!
One not so good update is that the chest tubes are leaking oxygen level dropped and I am back on oxygen. Oh well 3 steps forward and only 1 back isn't too bad.

Surgery Day

Written by Rhoda, oldest daughter of Mark and Judy:
This morning started at 3:30 am , and poor mom couldn't even have coffee. She had to take a shower with Mayo's surgical scrub to prevent any infection. She and my father arrived at Mayo at 5:15 am to check in for surgery. Check in at 5:30 went smoothly, surprisingly, everyone was there early they had to wait in line. There was lots of prep work to do, putting in IV catheters, starting on fluids, etc.

The first incision was made around 9 AM. The doctor worked on fixing her aneurysm and noticed her tricuspid valve was actually only a bicuspid valve, but the valve itself was functioning normally, so she did not have to have animal tissue or a mechanical valve placed. Dr. Pochettino was able to finish up surgery around 12:30. She recovered in the surgery room until 3:00 pm.  I was thankful for the puzzles to keep my mind from thinking the worst. My Dad made a Friend that talked with him a good few hours while we waited.

Below is the very talented surgeon Dr. Pochettino.

Around 4:30 PM they allowed us to go into their room in the ICU. They kept her sedated as her body temperature was only 93 degrees. The male nurse worked on her graduated from Bradley University. The physicians assistant (or nurse practitioner) told them to go ahead and wake her up, but the nurse kindly reminded her that her body temp was too low to wake her up.

Around 7:30 PM, she had started to wake up and insisted to be extubated, however, she wasn't breathing on her own well enough to remove the tube. She kept using sign language as she couldn't speak with a tube down her throat. Too bad none of us know sign language, but we know how to use Google! She kept signing "I can't breathe" over and over again. She started panicking and flailing her arms, which made the alarms go off. This was enough to send Lee and Ben on a beeline to the waiting room again. I believe they gave her some sedation to ease the pain and the anxiety. The nurse said this is a normal response. Around 10:00 PM, they finally removed the tube and she was so happy. The nurse said that he was going to stay with her until 7:00 AM the next morning. We left shortly after 10:00 to let mom get some much needed rest from her big day.

Thank you all for your prayers. Keep them coming as I'm afraid the recovery will be a long road ahead. A big thanks to Dr. Pochettino! Mayo has been wonderful, I know I can rest easy knowing she is well taken care of tonight. Good night All !

Zion Victoria

As I was locked up, arms tied down in a sterile room at St. Mary's hospital in Rochester Minnesota getting the angiogram, and my mom was in a hospital in Gulf Shores Alabama with vision gone in one eye,  my daughter Sarah was busy delivering her first child in Peoria at Methodist hospital a baby girl. Sarah and Nolan named her Zion Victoria. She is our 10th grandchild. We were waiting anxiously for pictures and finally they are posted. Below is Zion Victoria Smith born 10/2/2017 @ 9:59am 8lbs 9oz. 20 1/2 inches long. Full head of dark hair like her daddy!

Sarah had a tough time delivering this beautiful well filled out BIG girl but just look at what this hard labor produced. We are thankful both mom and baby are doing well. Congratulations Sarah and Nolan. Pretty shocking that three people in our family were in 3 different hospitals 3 different states about 1500 miles apart.

Good News All Around

The best news came this afternoon about mom. After hearing first that hearing she had a stroke, then it was not a stroke but her pituitary gland then the getting a message from Diane saying: "ok everything changed, the ophthalmologist is here and she says it is absolutely not the pituitary gland. It was a stroke in the eye and she will probably not get this vision back. Mom thinks she will be able to adjust just fine." Then came another doctor. Diane sent this: BREAKING NEWS "I think the final report is a torn retina which will require surgery but should restore her vision and never happen again. This is actually the best case scenario." Mom was able to go back to the condo. She has an appointment on Monday with Dr. Hans at the IL Eye Center and surgery will then be scheduled.
I also had good news. On Friday I had a brain MRA to see if I had an aneurysm in any of the blood vessels of the brain. Well the report came back that there was no aneurysm but the MRA showed a tumor and I would need to go to the neurology department at 2:00 pm on Monday to discuss this. Surgery for the aortic aneurysm may be delayed until after I was cleared by the neurology department but first I had the angiogram scheduled at 9:15 am. This was done so that if there were any blockages the surgeon would know and fix that as long as he was working on the heart.  The angiogram went as expected, my arteries are all nice and open. There were no blockages at all. They had to go in through the femoral artery in the groin so after the procedure I had to wait quite a long time to make sure that artery wouldn't start bleeding. That took so long we missed our 2:00 pm appointment at the Gonda building. We were finally able to get there around 3:00 pm and again heard really good news. Below are a few images of my brain taken during the MRA:  SEE I really do have a brain.

 Why the neurologist said I have a very GOOD brain.

 Yes I have a brain tumor, see that round item on the top of my head? That is a tumor of the lining of the brain. It has probably been there for a while and is so small it is not causing any trouble.

The neurologist told us she was 90% certain I would never have a problem with it. She wants me to have it checked out next year to see if it grew but then can wait a couple years the next time. After a few times checking if it hasn't grown it never will.
Sarah and Nolan also had good news today but that news will have to wait until tomorrow.
Rhoda, Lee and Ben made it up here to Rochester. They are out eating at Olive Garden for supper tonight. Mark and I stayed back at the apartment. I'm not suppose to do stairs yet with my leg and all. They are bringing back food for us.
Karin sent a text that Titiana is now out. Sure hope she settled, can you imagine how beautiful her foal will be. She is such a perfect example of a fantasy Friesian with that mega hair.

A foal out of her by Valiant will not just be beautiful but will also be tall and have amazing movement. If she settled she will be due Sept 10th, 2018.
I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 am tomorrow morning to check in for surgery so will head to bed soon.

Helpless Feeling

Word came that my mom was taken to the hospital down in Alabama and they are keeping her overnight. The vision in one of her eyes went all shadowy. The doctors are worried about the carotid artery. They wanted to do an MRI of her brain but because she has clips in her brain from the aneurysm in 2002 that cannot be done. All I have heard is she is on blood thinners and they will try to do an ultrasound. It is a helpless feeling to be so far away from where I am needed.  We had a rainy Sunday. Listened on line to the Peoria church and got to hear Craig speak in the morning and a visitor from Fairbury in the afternoon. We went to Red Lobster for a late lunch around 2:30 pm. It looks like they had another beautiful day in Illinois. Rachel posted a picture of the usual volley ball games.

 

Just by looking at the picture I could tell that at least 4 or 5 of my grandchildren were probably there playing as hard as their parents. It is 2:38 am and the sky here is rumbling with thunder and lighting up with flashes of lightning.

I have to report for the angiogram at 9:15 am then meet with the neurologist at 2:00 pm about the finding during the MRA of my brain. Rachel sang this song a couple years ago at a night of worship and it really fits here today.