Bob's wedding

Our brother Bob got married on Sept 3. I'll post a couple of pictures from the wedding.

Martha and baseball

This is from a friend of Martha's:
I was at Frontier Field on July 4th for the baseball game and ran into Martha. She looks great. When she saw me, she knew who I was right away – she answered questions briefly on how she was doing and about attending the baseball games. It was so nice to see her and she was obviously enjoying herself and the game hadn’t even started yet. I felt really good seeing her like that – it made my day!

Out to breakfast

Last Saturday, Martha and Bronte joined Linda, me and friends Mark and Gary for breakfast at our favorite hole-in-the-wall Fairport restaurant -- Durf's. It was so good to see her out like this that we'll probably try it again.

Phone skills, and other stuff

Hello all,

To add to Dave's report on Martha's speech, yesterday we were at the house when Bronte called. I was very surprised to hear Martha responding with two- and three-word answers. She knows the words -- the issue has been saying them quick enough and without thinking. And at dinner she got a case of the giggles, which is wonderful to see. But regarding the baseball games, I'm 0 for 2. Yucky weather the first time, and when I showed up Saturday, she didn't want to go (with me). At this point, she only wants to go to the ball game with Dave. Not exactly sure how this will work out, but I'll keep trying.

"semi retired"

Hey all,

Last October Chloe was hired on at Sutherland.( she is doing very,very well,thank you) She had been staying home to take care of her mom. She needed to start a career so I decided to retire fully. It's been a long winter.
I've found that retirement is a great enabler of my procrastination tendencies. Before I had to get something done, because I needed to get to work tomorrow. Now that I am retired I can wait to do that chore on Monday. I find yourself saying "naw" I can do it on Tuesday. Hell, I can do it on Wednesday. The result is that sometimes (OK, a lot of times) it doesn't get done at all. It's a hughe adjustment. I'm still wondering if I like it or not. Luckily for me there is a halfway solution. Chloe has agreed to be available on weekends to watch over her mom and the nursery has agreed to me working on weekends. In addition they have assigned me to making house calls to diagnose plant problems and some design consultations. These I can do in the evenings after Chloe gets home. That's good because it is also when the client is home and I can talk to them.
Since most of these calls last no longer than 15 minutes Martha has been riding along with me. She doesn't mind waiting in the car or truck and it is an excuse to get out of the house. We have figured out a way of getting her up in the truck(it's a lot higher off the ground). So far no comments from the customers about their nurseryman arriving in a Mercedes.
Martha continues a slow but steady improvement in her speech. She seems to be able to recall more words and put them together in a logical manor. She enjoys looking through the catalogs that we get in the mail and I am surprised at how much of the writing she is able to pick out and understand. I always read the paper in the morning and she looks on and will sometimes ask me to read an article that looks interesting to her. We always go over the baseball scores and the weather. She can't wait to get back outside. Summer seems to be taking forever this year. We haven't attended many Redwings games this year so far. The cold, wet days do not make for enjoyable viewing. More next week Dave

"Failed"

Hey all,

The title is Bronte's favorite word when something does not go as planned. In this case the valve removal. At the end the valve could not be removed because a clot was present in the valve and the doctors were afraid that in going forward they might squeeze the valve and thus allow the clot to escape and go on to do damage. Which seems to me to verify the wisdom of leaving it in place. However I am assured that it is best to remove it and in the long term Martha will benefit. The window for removing it "easily" is closing. An object left for long in your body will be eventually encased by the body as a "foreign object" and thereafter removal will mean major surgery. Or it could be left there permanently,but they always frown when they say this and the sentance trails off without further explanation.
That being said this procedure has caused a disruption in our routine. Because of Martha's clotting history, anytime she goes in for a procedure that breaks the skin and requires healing, "clotting", we have to change the regime of anticoagulants. We stop the Warfarin 3 days before and I substitute injections of Arixtra. Then 1 day before procedure we go to the lab to draw a blood sample to see how we have done. Then the day of the procedure we go in 1 hour early to draw yet another sample because they forgot to include something the day before. Then we are in the hospital for 5 hours where they insert a,I'll call it a hook, to go fishing for the valve through a vein in her neck. When we get home we have to change over Warfarin again and that means more blood samples and a lot of jockying of dosages to return to normal. And the last thing the doctor said is that we will try again in 3 months.
On another note spring is coming and we are attending baseball games, weather permitting. We saw the first game of a double header yesterday where we won with a walk-off home run. There's no way to win that is quite so satisfying. Stay tuned Dave

Filter valves

Hey,

Dr Frances is one of the doctors that Martha has continued to see on a 3 monthly basis since she came home. He is a hematologist. Some time ago the question of removing the filter valve that was placed in the artery in Martha's leg was brought up. The valve was initially placed there to block any clot that might form in her leg and move up and do more damage. At this time Martha was clotting like crazy due to her allergic reaction to Heprin that was administered to her because of her heart attack. She has since been on Warfarin (another blood thinner).
There is a "Catch 22" here. She is on Warfarin because the valve itself may cause a clot. If the valve is removed the danger of clotting is removed and she may be able to discontinue blood thinners entirely. There is a sizable clot on the wall of the artery at present but it has been there a long time and is "unlikely" to move. I'm not sure I like the word unlikely. Maybe if they put a very in front of it, 2 verys would be better. This a simple outpatient procedure. In at 11:00, out in the afternoon, but for some reason I'm a little nervous about it. We are removing a safety net. However if the danger of clotting is past..........
Anyway, baseball season is about to start and Martha is excited. The weather looks like it is going to cooperate. I'm going to take off work early on Saturday and Melody is taking Martha to the game on Sunday. Other dates mentioned above are still open. If you are unable to make any of the dates above and would like to take Martha to a game on another day please ask. She would love it.
P.S. The hospital just called and the valve procedure may take place as early next week.
Dave