More about Mom
Good morning.
Today I spoke with ICU nurse, Susan.
Seems that mom is doing well. No real changes,
just doing well. They actually think that
she will be moved to a normal room sometime
later today…barring any complications
like fever or infection.
I stopped in there late last night after
G’s graduation party and brought her an
11×14 mounted image of G to spruce up her room.
I sat and held her hand, gave her ice chips
and pressed her pain med button for her every
6 minutes. She’s a little goofy from all the
meds (morphine and dilaudid) but she has her
lucid moments as well and she was glad I was
there~me too.
I dug up a couple more images from Jennifer &
Chris’s wedding that I needed to share with y’all.
That’s all for today.
Enjoy your short week…the 4th is coming!
Jennifer & Chris
Perhaps I am now, officially, the Queen of Weather!
Altho’ the skies opened up while I was at Jennifer’s
home shooting the “getting ready” shots with her family,
once we arrived at the Arboretum and they emerged from
the black stretch limo, it cleared. It was perfect.
Wow! A lucky break? Or my infamous prayer chain request
for no rain…I’ll leave that up to the man upstairs! 
Here’s just a few for now….
Jennifer & Chris…have a relaxing time in Hawaii!
Mom update.
My mom remains in ICU where she spent the
night last night. A general surgeon came in
around 6 and determined that she, more than
likely, had a perforated ulcer in the bowel.
YUCK, right?! Yep, YUCK.
This is totally unrelated to her back surgery.
Altho’ it seems suspicious, we were quickly
educated on the probability of this happening
to our mom and the timing was just that. Timing.
She was admitted on Wednesday for a simple
Laminectomy. My mom, being the comic relief
expert that she is, said upon admission..”Oh, I
didn’t know I was getting new counter tops!
“WHOA! Stop Mom! You’re killin’ me!
By Friday morning, my mom was developing pain
in her abdomen. This later got much, much worse
and so they took her down for not 1 but 2
separate CT scans and discovered that she had
a huge air pocket behind her diaphragm causing
horrific pain…I mean, forGET about the back
surgery recovery and morphine for a minute..
my mom is in full on, screaming,”don’t touch me!”
pain. This is just awful! To sit idly by and
listen to my mom writhe in pain…unrelated to
her back. they sent for Dr. Osee (sp?) and he
took one, tender touch to her belly and said,
“we need to do surgery, now.”
We (Cindy, my mom’s sister was with me) started
the phone call brigade and quickly ran out of battery.
4 siblings and friends and my uncle.
Cindy and I went to dinner when they took mom
down for surgery. We needed a break and a little
comic relief of our own. So we had a little
giggle fest and wine with our dinner and returned
to the hospital. Soon after, Mike, my younger
bother popped his head in the door of the
family room on mom’s floor. We sat at the computer
there and watched some of my slide shows and
I introduced them to “Twitter”.
Around 9 o’clock, Dr. Osee came in the family
room and I was shocked to see him so soon.
Successful surgery but not out of the woods.
It was indeed, perforated ulcer and he patched
that up. She will need to stay in the hospital
for the next 5 to 7 days. Think I’ll bring her
own pillow down there
This morning, I just learned that they are taking
her off of the ventilator (she was having a tough
time breathing last night) which, of course, is
awesome! Mike is there now and the others will
be there soon. I will be shooting a wedding all
day so I will return to the hospital tomorrow.
Feel free to check my twitter as I will be updating
today remotely!
Thank you for all your prayers and support and to
Marty Noll, you are such a champion of medical
liaison-ness! Yes, I think that should be a word! 
So tell Zach
and Ava
that 9 is doing Grrrrreat!
Much needed break @ Applebees.
Mom's going into surgery
Working with idiots.
I ran across this story this morning.
I thought I’d share it…cuz it’s funny.
Do you work with IDIOTS?
Oh, and here’s another tid-bit that was
passed on to me by my sister-in-law, Kiki.
It appears that our beloved state fair is
taking on yet more stupid fair foods.
Food officials are introducing:
~Pig Lickers
~Pickle Pops and
~Big Fat Bacon.
There was some hesitation about allowing something
called Pig Lickers to be sold at the fair.
But Charlie Torgerson, who co-owns several Famous
Dave’s Franchises, says the chocolate-covered bacon
decorated with some sea salt is the best meat out there.
Next, if you want the bacon but not the chocolate,
you might try the Big Fat Bacon. It’s one-third pound
of bacon, fried and caramelized with maple syrup.
It’s, of course, served on…you guessed it…
a stick.
And lastly, a Pickle Pop? It’s simply pickle juice
frozen in a push-up sleeve. Fair vendor Preferred
Pickle came up with the idea after years of serving
deep-fried pickles, again…..on a stick.
One of my favorites at the fair…”weather on a stick”
at the WCCO booth. I’m going to miss Paul Douglas
at the fair this year!
The Minnesota State Fair runs August 21 to September 1.
Might I suggest that if you want to avoid a lot of
hassle at the fair, don’t go while the RNC is taking
place. I’m told that candidates will be showing up
and the security will be crazy!
Gary and I sat outside last night and chatted it up
with our neighbors Ron & Cindy. I must say that
had we not sprayed the lawn and shrubs with this stuff
we’d have been carried away by the mosquitoes!
This stuff works AWESOME!! Don’t go another summer
day or night without it!
Boo is still not so sure about the grass. It’s pokey.
Here’s Ron & Cindy’s baby, Reggie..
Mom Update.
She stayed one more night at the hospital
and will come home today. Her leg pain is
completely gone and she has been up and walking.
All great news! Thank you so much, everyone, for
all of your prayers!
Later today, I will go with my sister Anne up
to Wyoming (the city) and pick up Emily. She
has been there for two whole weeks at camp
Ajawah.
I can’t wait to see her!!
Getting some much needed rain today.
Pray that my Arboretum wedding doesn’t get
rained out tomorrow afternoon!
Cube Jumping.
Mike, Ben, my aunt Cindy and I left my mom’s
room for a bit so the nurses to do some
routine stuff for my mom.
We hit one of the waiting areas that had all
this fun “kid” stuff. My nephew, Ben, decided
to take his life into his own hands (at my
prompting…don’t tell his mom!) and do some
handy “cube jumping”.
I mean, hey, we are in a hospital, right?
So, what if he falls and breaks a bone…
the ER is like~~right there!
Ben is an avid skateboarder and I challenged
him to flip the cube like a skateboard.
My brother, Mike, caught it on his phone.
Gotta love a collaborative
Here’s the Olympic trials for “padded cube jump”!
I still laugh my ass off when I see this!
Thanks Mike for sending it on to me so I
could share with my loyal readers!!
Sorry, I thought the sound would come through.
Let’s review…..
My mom has just come out of surgery where
Dr. Michael Wengler performed a “disc-ectomy”
and we, loving family members, converge in
a family waiting room (no one is there but us
by the way) and begin to egg on my nephew.
He is always up for a challenge…he’s our
resident “Johnny Knoxville”..Love you Ben!
Ahhhhh…good times.
Cube jump
Ben is trying to entertain us.
Mom’s Surgery.
Today, my mom has her long awaited back surgery.
I pray that all goes well and her pain is gone.
My younger brother, Michael, lives near the hospital
so he went there early when mom was getting admitted.
He sat there with my aunt Cindy during the 2 hour
procedure and called as soon as she was done.
I’ll head down soon and meet up with her in her room.
Not sure how long she will be there but if all goes
well, a couple of days…maybe 3. (St.Francis # 2237)
Got my call from Kim Martin out in DC with Epiphany
regarding the gig with the RNC. Looks like I will be
joining Andy Richter and his clan to cover the upcoming
events. I’m so psyched about all of this!
I’ve worked along side Andy most recently with Starkey
and I’m thrilled to be working with him again.
There is still some event/time line details to work
out but I’m in and thrilled to be chosen to cover this
monumental event!
More to come.
It’s getting steamy outside…HATE humidity!
Jet
Playing catch with Jet.
Almost done.
