Second Update on Mom

 Joan left the hospital this morning after Beth arrived. I got there around 10:30am and Diane came around 1:30 pm. Diane reported that mom was much more alert this morning around 2:00 am. IN fact she was doing so well they wondered if they should be taking her in. Mom is Amazing! We are only allowed 2 in the room at a time so were taking turns. Around 2:30 pm they came to get mom for the next ct scan and we just got the results.  There was not much change from this morning but her left side is weaker. The whitish gray area is the blood in the picture below:

It was a pretty major bleed but the doctor said she could recover but not have full use of her left side. She was able to answer all of the doctors orientation questions. They are just going to keep watching her at this point. Aunt Jinnie is flying in and will be here tomorrow morning. 

Update On Mom

 Mom gave us a bad scare last night. The ambulance came and Joan went down to St. Francis with her. Joan just sent this update:

Good morning family. If you thought you didn’t have anything to pray for this morning, you’ve got another thought coming.

At about midnight last night mom needed to go to the bathroom and as she tried to get out of bed, she fell out of the bed( a gentle fall) but she had her head stuck between the bed and the night stand and she was laying on her left side and couldn’t get up. She couldn’t reach her glasses to see her phone but she did the “ok google” thing to have it dial for her. She tried Matt a couple of times but it went to his voicemail. Then she tried, Judy, Ruth and me but her speech was slurred enough that the phone wasn’t recognizing who to call. Finally after more than an hour, she was able to get through to Diane.
Mike then called me and after seeing the weakness in her left side and the left side of  her face starting to droop, we called an ambulance.
The CT scan shows a hemorrhagic stroke meaning a brain bleed probably deep within the brain. They think it is stopped as in not actively bleeding now so they are monitoring her and lowering her blood pressure. they have called the neuro surgeons in to come check her out.

Well what we hoped was a small thing is actually pretty major. The neurosurgeon came in and said there is a significant amount of blood in the fluid filled cavities of the brain. They do think the bleeding has stopped but they are counteracting the Eliquis that she is on and also gave her a unit of vitamin k.  The neurosurgeon said she is very surprised at how well mom is functioning based on the cat scan and they are monitoring her almost constantly for any changes. The dr said that the irritation of the blood in those cavities can cause pressure to build in which case they would have to do a procedure to put a drain in her brain and monitor that to see if her brain could tolerate the drain being removed eventually. If not then they might be talking about a more permanent shunt but that would be down the road.

At this point we are talking about an extended hospital stay in ICU and they said the weakness and nonfunction that she has in her left arm and leg will not get better. She is still in the ED for now but as soon as they get a bed ready in the ICU she will be moved there.  I guess once she gets there we will see how it all goes.  

Getting Shorter

 We had another blessed Sunday. Mark left early for the early singing while mom and I arrived at 9:45 am. Craig Stickling had a very inspired message for the first service on why God would allow His only son to be killed. Mike Kaisner had the afternoon message. It was much too short. David and Stephanie were in Princeville today and David had the morning message there. 

 After church Phil and Anna's girls came over to work on their dragon pictures they started yesterday. All 3 were singing together as they worked.  Of course that had to be posted. 

 I started working on the dinner. Mark grilled the ribeye's finishing around 4:30 pm and the entire meal was delicious. We headed over to the playground after supper. The cotton candy made yesterday evening and placed in the apartment freezer and fridge was taken over for the kids playing there.

Mom came out to watch the volley ball players but her feet were swollen from sitting in church all day. Taunya had her put her feet up on another chair but then the chair she was sitting in started to collapse. Below Taunya is hanging on to the chair until we could get mom another one.

The volley ball games were fun to watch, lots of good volleys.

The older great grands were all down swimming but the younger great grands were playing on the playground equipment.

Berlica's cat came over to the playground so I took the golf cart full of kids and the cat back home. On the way home we stopped in the field to take the picture of the sunset.

We got back to the playground and shortly after that the cat came back. She just really wants to be with the kids. This time we left her there. The volley ball players had to turn the lights on to finish the last game. The days are getting shorter but the weather was perfect so no one wanted to quit playing. Zion got stung by a wasp and was taken to the house to get some baking powder on it which made her feel much better. On the way back to the playground the moon was peeking through the clouds.

The games finished the players left and Mark and I are listening to Princeville's morning service on AC Central. 

UPDATE around 12:30 am we think mom had a stroke. The ambulance is here and they are taking her to St. Francis. She slipped out of bed, landed on her left side was trying to get her phone to call someone. Her voice is a little slurred so the phone wasn't recognizing what she was asking. She was finally able to get hold of Diane. Her left side is not working. At first we thought it was because she was laying on her left side for too long with her arm but her left leg isn't working correct either.  The ambulances arrived  and have checked her over well. She has good vitals and seems to be ok but they are taking her to St. Francis. Joan is heading down to St. Francis to be with her.  We have 2 ambulances here and a fire truck along with the extra cars. Sure could uses prayers.

Work Day

 David was the first to arrive today for the barn work day showing up at 8:00 am even though was asked them to come at 9:00.  Mark was glad for the help.  Ben was next to arrive and shortly Phil, Lee and Nolan were here. All of them went right to work. Phil started with the excavator while the others used shovels and picks. Today we were getting the insulation board installed up against the barn but each section needed to be dug down first about 2 feet and that clay was hard as rock. Even the pick axe could hardly break through. We were very glad for the excavator.  Ben relieved Phil after a few hours and by this afternoon the machine digging was finished.  Below are a few pictures. 

While the men were working the girls and I were busy making cotton candy.

Iris loved it but Eden wouldn't even taste it. We got her to hold the cone by telling her she needed to take it to her daddy.

We drove the golf cart up to the barn and I took the short video below: 

Once we were done with cotton candy the bubbles were brought out.

It isn't easy focusing on JUST the bubble.

By afternoon we were all exhausted. I was moving a couple bales in the middle paddock when Anna sent the text that they would be pulling up at Sarah's in 35 minutes. The girls and I jumped in the car to drive down there to pick her up. They were anxious to see their mom after this week without her. When we arrived David was also there picking up Stephanie, Israel and Elisabet so we got to see them too. Zion was also happy to be home. We missed these ladies. Anna and the girls were dropped off at the barn then I went back to moving bales. The guests had checked out around 10:00 am and I started the laundry and removed the garbage then but after the bales were moved finished the laundry and made the bed just in case it would book tonight. It didn't and I was glad now Anna can clean it instead of me. After the last of the digging Mark drove the excavator back to the other barns. 

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from today click HERE. 

I left for Sam's club to pick up the food for Sunday dinner and had decided to buy ribeye steak as a thank you for all the help today BUT the ribeye's were $15.98 a pound OR I could be the entire ribroast for $13.98 a pound. That slab of meat was $215.00! Why when I bought Daisy I spent $600.00 on her and she was pregnant!  I really think we need to raise cows again but this time for meat, not for milking. I bought the roast, took it home, sliced most of it into steaks then froze the rest (about a 4 pound roast) for later. Mark is already in bed and as soon as I get my shower I'm heading to bed too. What a productive day.

A Fun Day

 Ruth sent an update and a picture on Fedi up at Mayo Clinic. He is doing GREAT. They were able to unkink the kinked and fix the hernia.

The surgeon here told Fedi he would have to live with it. So very thankful for Mayo Clinic. Spark also got good news. His aortic aneurism only grew .2 in 2 years. That meant they could leave for Colorado safely and they did that this morning. I'll be feeding their cat while they are gone.  Well the other vacationers in Gulf  Shores were able to finally  enjoy the beach.  Sarah posted the pictures below: 

I picked up Eden at 7:00 am. At 10:00 am met a couple renting the Salem FSX at Joan's house. This was the first time they have ever camped so we went over everything well. Phil ordered an excavator for the work day on the new barn tomorrow and that was delivered this afternoon.

Eden and I took Jury and the two colts over and locked them in the far paddock. Tomorrow Nolan is going to help with the weaning.  Soul's filly decided she wanted to be with them and jumped into the paddock. She went right up to Jury and tried to nurse but Jury let her know very quickly that was not acceptable so now Jury and 3 foals are in the same paddock.  The owner of Soul's 2018 colt by Evan posted the video below. They are VERY pleased with him.

Mark brought home the box of halters I had ordered a while ago. Eden helped sort them out. The gray ones are for teaching the weanlings how to tie. They are thick and strong and I bought 4 of those. Those The red ones are yearling size and also very nice halters but much too strong to leave on the yearlings unsupervised so those will be used for tying, leading, loading and maybe even sending with the new owners. I bought 10 of those. The blue ones are large horse and will fit all the Friesian mares. They are cheap and will break so are safe to leave on and I bought 12 of those.

Eden was taken home at 2:30 pm and later Phil dropped off Braelyn and Taegan so he and Kensley could have a daddy daughter date. The girls helped with some baking.

We baked one pan of apple caramel cinnamon rolls. After the rolls were taken out of the oven we headed over to mom's house to play games.  Phil arrived to pick up the girls as we are on the last hand.  Eight of the cinnamon rolls were sent home with them along with some icing which the girls can put on as soon as they get home. It was a fun day.

The Weanlings

 A full night sleep was exactly what the doctor ordered and that is what happened with us hitting the sack at 8:30 pm and not getting up until 6:00 am. Joan met us at mom's and the 3 of us walked with Diane on the speaker phone.  They are not having good weather in Gulf Shores. Lots of rain coming from hurricane Nicholas hitting Texas. We are having beautiful weather here. The first job today was to hook up the Wildwood trailer and take it to be dumped. Once that was done it was taken over to the hydrant and the black flush hooked up to the hose and the black tank flushed out. The trailer was then parked next to the barn and plugged back in. The trailer was unhooked and the 2 horse trailer hooked up to the truck.  Next the stalls were stripped and new bedding added. Tomorrow starts weaning day for Jury's colt. He will be stalled with Lola's colt, Rockaway, who happens to be his best buddy. Rockaway had been weaned for over a week now and doing well. Joan came over to borrow the truck and trailer.  She was not hauling horses, she rarely does that. Today instead of using the horse trailer to haul furniture she was hauling a boat. 

Berlica came with her to help load. The boat will be used for Co-op tomorrow. Our airbnb guests requested to stay until Saturday morning and I don't want to put off weaning another day so hopefully the two colts won't be too noisy tomorrow night. I had put it off until tomorrow as I didn't want to disturb the guests but really can't put it off much longer, his owner called today and I asked for 2 weeks to get him weaned, leading and loading. Also Lola's owner sent a message wanting to know when she will be ready to be picked up.

I need to bring her back from Middle Grove and get her coggins test done first and if I'm going to Middle Grove I really need to pick up Tatiana and her filly and Lily and her filly for weaning. Fall is a busy time here on the farm.

Above is Tatiana's filly and below is Lily's filly.

Rosalie's filly never did get picked up. She is weaned, her Coggins test is back, she is leading, loading and standing tied but the owner asked for more time to get everything arranged. This filly was supposed to leave Sept 6th. 

I had an appointment on Wednesday at 4:00 pm to show Irish's colt but the people never arrived so he is still available. 

Tomorrow I won't be walking instead will be picking up Eden at 7:00 am.