Merry Christmas 2008

I must say that the year 2008 has definitely been an eventful one, and unfortunately one I will be glad to see come to a close.

We made it through the first six months of the year quite uneventfully, just the normal, routine things - nothing particularly exciting. You know that old saying, "Waiting for the other shoe to drop." Well, when it dropped, it hit hard.

The beginning of July Tony became quite ill, although we thought it was just a bad case of the flu. After being in bed for three days and not showing any signs of improvement I forced him to the Emergency Room. It was a case of either you let me take you in or I'm calling an ambulance. He was running a high fever, lots of aches and pains throughout his entire body and on the third day his left leg started to swell and become very hot. They ran a ton of tests on him to determine what the issue was, but all they could tell us is what it WASN'T. He spent the following week going into the ER every twelve hours receiving IV antibiotics. By the end of the week he really hadn't made any progress, but hadn't gotten any worse either, so the ER doctor sent him home with a bunch of oral antibiotics. He spent the weekend in bed and by Monday was getting worse again so back to the ER we went. This time the doc decided to admit him to the hospital ~ and that's when the horror story began.

The admitting doctor ordered an ultrasound and wanted the Infectious Disease doctors called in to consult on the case. When he was finally placed in a room, another doctor took over his case - a female of "another ethnic persuasion." This woman decided he didn't need an ultrasound nor did she think it warranted having Infectious Disease called in. She ordered another antibiotic IV on an around-the-clock basis along with morphine because by that time he was having a lot of pain. Three days later she decided that he could be sent home, although his leg was still horribly swollen, red and very hot. At this point I demanded a second opinion from the Infectious Disease doctor, who came in, took a look at Tony's leg and immediately ordered an ultra-sound and called in a surgeon that specialized in replacement limbs. Now I was really scared. Tony has been diabetic for about 15 years so I knew what can happen with infections in the extremities due to poor circulation. The ID man and the surgeon got together, ordered different antibiotics on an around-the-clock basis and within 24 hours Tony showed signs of improvement.

Then entered Lady Doctor of Other Ethnic Persuasion, and immediately changed the IVs (multiple at one time) back to what she had initially put him on and he immediately took a turn for the worse. This happened a total of three times until I was able to get a patient advocate involved and filed a major complaint. She was taken off the case and he finally improved enough that he could be sent home with oral antibiotics, which he took for another month. He was also told that once his leg healed sufficiently he would have to have surgery on it.

This was getting to be towards the end of July, and time to pack up for our annual never-to-be-missed trip to Sturgis and the Black Hills Motorcycle Rally. Tony's only missed once since 1986 and I've been there every year since 1994. So the big question was whether or not we would make it this time. We had originally planned to take off the middle of July and wander around western Montana, but gave that up so Tony could spend his "vacation" in the hospital instead. With his doctor's permission and the promise that he would take it VERY easy, he was allowed to go on this trip. I was extremely concerned because driving/sitting in one position for the length of time that it took us to get there (10 hours) was definitely a no-no. So I made him stop the RV frequently, get out and walk around it several times to improve the circulation in his leg. We spent a lot of time sitting in our lawn chairs in front of the RV this time, and kept the length of our rides down to a minimum. No more trips that would take the entire day this year. So all went well - and I must say he did keep his promise and behaved himself.

Then it was back home by mid-August with only a month to go before the day of the wedding. Kathy married Robert Pederson (good Norskie name there) on September 20th. They are still living in her mobile home on our property, but have been searching for a house that will meet their needs. They've got two large dogs and four cats that they have to take into consideration so they've been looking at both country property and city property with larger lots.

We had a wonderful time at the wedding, and I must say it turned out "perfect." We got to visit with a lot of people we hadn't seen for quite some time. My brother, Darrell, came back from New Mexico for the wedding, but unfortunately could only stay for a week due to other commitments. We hadn't seen each other for three years, so that week went by very rapidly.

Here's the beautiful bride and the handsome groom ~ ~




And a shot of Mom and Dad walking down the aisle after the rehearsal.


Two weeks later Tony had surgery on his leg. They removed a vein that went from his ankle to his groin. The valves in that vein had completely quit functioning, possibly due to a motorcycle accident that he'd had 28 years earlier. The vein was removed through a series of small incisions up and down his leg, he was sent home the same day with orders to either sit with his leg elevated or be up and moving around. His leg now looks normal and he's healed perfectly. Now he can pull his boot on without having to use a pliers, because all the swelling is gone for the first time since that motorcycle accident so many years ago.

Well ~ ~ that fills you in on what Tony's been doing this past year - and unfortunately I haven't got much to tell you about me, other than I've been busy playing nursemaid. I haven't accomplished to much and I'm not sure if it's because as I grow older I don't have the energy or if it's just because there's a lot of things that just aren't important to me anymore. Take your pick. So I won't fill you full of drivel about me - just that I'm here and healthy at this point. And I guess that means a lot.

We certainly started winter with a bang this year. A week ago we had blizzard conditions for the weekend that dropped 14 inches of snow. This past weekend we had another "snow event" as the weather guessers like to call it. That, on top of all the rain we had last fall which created flooding conditions several different times, is not boding well for the flood situation next spring. We're currently (started lat summer) dealing with the federal and county governments about getting a ring dike installed around our property because the flooding gets worse every year. To this point our house has never been wet, but Tony's shop and the pole barn have had water a number of times. So that's another stress in our life that we could do without. At this point the surveyors have been out several times and the geology people have taken all kinds of core samples to determine if the ground is stable enough to support a dike. Everything at this point is a go with the exception of the snow and frozen ground, so nothing will happen until spring - hopefully there's not another flood before we can have it built.

Our plans for the winter are a bit indefinite as of yet - the only thing definite is that we ARE gong to go south. The way the winter storms have been training across the plains states, we're going to have to watch the weather, wait for a three-day window and make a run for it. Unfortunately I've been hearing from snowbirds who are already south that it's not very warm and sunny down there either. But oh well, it has to be warmer than here, right? Hopefully the next time you hear from me I'll be sitting in the warm sun somewhere along the Mexican border.

With that, I'm going to sign off wishing each and every one of you a happy, healthy holiday season and a very Merry Christmas.

Tony and Evelyn