Greetings From Texas

Junior and Gideon
Adrian, Cara, Chris and the Grandkids

at Mathew's hockey tournament.

Grandma and our princess.

Joe, Bev, and Junior (Wesley).

The Happy Couple.

Hi Ya'll,

Well here goes nothing. I thought we might try to breath some life into our family blog by making a new posting. Thanks to Jed for keeping things going.

First of all, our thoughts and prayers go out to Dad and Mom during this time of trial. The pictures look nasty!!! I'm glad he's making progress, but I'm sure it's driving him nuts to just sit and wait.

We finally joined the digital age just before thanksgiving with Joe and Beverlyn's wedding in Las Vegas in November. Sooo... I can now attempt to post a few picture for all of you to see. I wish I has some of Katie and Matt's wedding to post also, but unfortunately that was pre-digital. I'm trying to get everyone signed up so they can post also. Hopefully, Katie will post some when she has some time.

The pictures above are taken at Joe and Bev's wedding held in a little Chapel just outside Las Vegas. Would you believe, we had a bowling party reception afterwards! It was fun! Joe and Bev are both avid bowlers. They even brought their own balls with them.

I guess I need some education on how to post pictures. I can't get them to go where I want them. Jed!!!!!! What's the trick?

Anyway. The above are just a few pictures from Joe's Wedding, Mathew's hockey tournament in November, and Christmas 2006. I thought you might enjoy seeing some recent photographic evidence that we're still here. As you can see, Joe has inherited Grandpa William's hair genes!

All are well here. Matt and Katie are in the process of moving into a new condo in Miami in a couple of weeks. They finally sold their current condo after almost a year on the market. Miami real estate is crazy. She'll have to tell you about her experience. Apparently things like light fixtures, ceilings, flooring, faucets, etc. are considered add-ons in Miami, but appliances are included! Who knew! Katie is getting close to completing her courses and will get her Nurse Practioner's liscense soon.

Roger and Chris are busy with their family. The kids are very active in sports, church activities, and Gabriel is involved in community play productions and sings with the All City Choir. He has been in the Christmas production at the Meyerson Symphony center for the last 2 years. Chris and Roger spend most of their free time running the shuttle service.

Chris still teaches 4th grade in the Garland ISD and just completed her Master's degree in education. she takes after her Mom. Roger works for Paladin Consulting which is a recruitment firm for IT people. He just got a promotion and is doing well. He's also the gardener in the family and keeps us supplied with fresh veggies in the summer.

Mary and I are just keeping busy being Grandma and Grandpa. We enjoy our grandkids and love our empty nest! Mary still teaches 1st grade at St. Pius X School (22 years now.) She's ready to retire anytime. I'm working for a new concrete company in Rockwall, Texas which is a town just across the lake from where we live. I'm heading out into the country everyday when everyone else is heading into the rat race. I love it! Anyone need some concrete?

Well, I need to cut this off. Sorry for the arrangement above. Maybe next time it'll be better after Jed educates me. Come on ya'll, let's blog!

Duan

Dad's hospitalization, update #2

Hello all,
Yesterday evening I stopped in to pay a visit to the Old Man. He was already entertaining Mom and Greg and seemed to be in good spirits. I learned a bit more about his infection and how it got started. He said that one day he got an itch in the corner of his eye. He idly scratched at it gently, and it went away for a little while. Later though he felt it itching again and scratched at it some more. As this went on through the evening he felt the area around his eye swell a little. By the next day it had swollen all over the top of his eye. At that time he was receiving daily visits from a home nurse. When she saw it she declared that they needed to keep an eye on it (no pun intended I'm sure). The next day the swelling had spread all around his eye and she promptly called the doctor and arranged for him to go into the hospital that same day.

The swelling continued to worsen over the next two days. The physicians thought that the infection was cellulitus caused by an infected tooth. The following day they removed a bad tooth, but the infection did not go down. They took some samples away to perform some lab tests, but the results would not be available for a day or two. Meanwhile they were growing concerned that the swelling might affect his hearing permanently, so they were getting ready to do some more surgery on his left ear. No one was in favor of that choice, so we were all relieved when the lab finally delivered the results the same day he was scheduled for surgery.

The lab positively identified the infection as a tough resistant strain of staphyloccocus bacteria that will require a lengthy course of antibiotic treatment to eliminate. They began administering the treatment immediately and are keeping him in the hospital for observation. In order for the treatment to be effective it must be delivered consistently and aggressively, and treatments are expected to continue for as long as six months. It is a powerful antibiotic and is risky to administer to a diabetic patient. It must be given with special regard to his blood sugar level so as not to overwhelm his liver. Therefore the staff must take a blood sample before the treatment, and then take another one immediately afterward. This process will need to continue after he is released from the hospital, which may occur later this week if all goes well.

Once he is home it is likely that he will need to have a pik line inserted through his vein and into his heart to simplify the administration of the antibiotic. He is unhappy about this prospect, as he just had the last one removed not too long ago. But we are hoping that it will not prove necessary.

Here is a photo of his eye that shows the reduction in swelling. The dark scabs you see above and below his eye appeared shortly after the swelling began. They are beginning to heal and slough away, and hopeful will disappear soon.

We remain hopeful that the swelling will soon pass, but due to the complications brought on by his diabetic condition the infection will take a long time to heal.

I thought you should also see the foot that was the source of his last hospitalization. It was well on its way to healing when this setback occurred, and as you can see it has some sort of scabbing from infection.

With any luck it will resume healing with course of antibiotics.

And finally here is a picture of mother with one of the very attentive nursing staff members.

Mom seems to be handling everything ok, but I can tell that she is worrying about dad. In spite of it all she spends much of her time cracking jokes and - as usual - asking about the nurse's children and such. Dad is getting a fairly steady stream of visitors, and not just family. He greatly appreciates everyone's calls and concern, and sends everyone his love.

Regards,
Jed

Dad's latest hospital visit

Hello Family,

As you all know Dad has been in the VA hospital out on Elmendorf AFB lately. He has been receiving visitors from our family in such a steady stream that the guard at the Boniface Gate doesn't even need to ask who we are there to see; she just smiles and shakes her head. He is improving day by day. If you didn't know, he had contracted a staph infection in his left eye which somehow spread throughout his face and down his neck. At first the doctors thought is was cellulitis due to a bad tooth, and removed a rotten tooth on his upper left jaw. When the swelling didn't go down they began to talk about performing surgery on his left ear, but I don't know what they were intending to remove. Before that happened, however, the tests from the lab came back confirming that staph bacteria was causing the infection, so they began a course of antibiotics that is having a very positive effect.

These pictures were taken at his request on Friday April 19th. He just wanted to document the condition of his eye before the swelling completely went away. It was much worse even a day earlier.




I have not spoken with him today, but I heard that he was moved to a new room that is more private than the four-person room he was in before. The phone number to call is (907) 580-1997 if you want to talk with him. He is in good spirits but does get bored laying there day after day.


That's all for now. I will update you a little later on his progress.


Jed