Lungs for Mandy

After a two hour wait the Docs just said surgery went fine. Should be in recovery for a few hours. Not sure Laurie will be able to stay the night with her. More later

Unbelievable that it is June already. Grandpa Bob and Carla were in town last week and since it was G’Bob (as the grt grandkids call him) 80th birthday we haeld a surprise party for him. It was great to see almost the entire family aunts, cousins, uncles, nieces. brothers and in laws. It was held in a park in St Charles and we had quite a turnout being it was Memorial Day weekend. Uncle Harvey who has been the official picture taker for 50 years bought some great photos from the early 60’s of B’Bob when he had so much hair it could of been considered an Elvis “do”.

He and Carla departed for home a day early wanting to get back and get an extra day of rest. Amazing that Dad continues to be so active and enjoys life so much. He did get to see all of his sons and managed to stay with three of us during his stay. Hope you had a Happy Birthday Pop.

Since it’s June 1st yesterday afternoon we spent opening the pool. Sophia my fav granddaughter wanted to get in so bad and finally she got her wish. Her enjoyment only lasted about 5 minutes since the water was sooo cold. But she did get in for a few minutes.

Number one g’son Alex starts football conditioning today and it goes for 4 weeks prior to the start of practice. He’s getting so big and grown up. Only 3 more years and he’ll be driving. Of course he still likes hanging out with Grams and Gramps, hopefully that’ll continue for a while.

Jacob, who loves to be creative spent the afternoon rolling quarters, I didn’t have the heart to tell him that 40 quarters made a roll not 30 but we’ll get it straightened out. He wrote us the cutest note and it will be kept and given to him when he gets married or has a child of his own.

Amanda continues to progress and get stronger everyday. actually she goes this week for a checkup getting blood work, a PFT (lung volume test) Hopefully these tests will show that she is getting better and better.

Dad

Things are going well actually. It’s been a little bit of a road but Amanda’s health seems to be returning as fast as can be expected. I just wanted to provide more of an in depth report on how things have been going.

Mohs Surgery Due to being immune suppressed the sun is not very friendly to Amanda. She gets these squamous cell skin cancer which actually have to be cut off using an instrument that kinda works like a biscuit cutter removing layers of skin then they stitch it, cauterize and staple it.  Yes it’s as bad as it sounds. Of course I have never attended one of these surgeries and doubt very much I could. They wrap her head and scalp to a point that resembles how a mummy looks and they send her home. After a few weeks she returns they remove the staples and check for additional cancer.

Her latest PFT was better as was her most recent lung X-ray. Her and her Mom are visiting the hospital at least once a week and most weeks it’s multiple times. Her Mom accomanies her into all procedures even the ones the Doctors or Nurses try to prevent her from attending, but those who know Mom know that is not going to happen.

In reading Amanda’s most recent post I see she says she almost “kicked the bucket” I’m afraid that each of us and a lot of other people had the same thought, but everyone who knows Amanda knows she is not a quitter and continues to amaze all of us.

That’s why she’s known as AA (Amazing Amanda)

Dad

Today is a week since Amanda returned home. Seems like month, but I’m happy she is returning to her regular life, if that is at all possible I haven’t seen her place since it’s been painted but Laurie has and says the colors are great.She’s gonna miss bBQ’d Pork Steaks tomorrow, yum, of course she doesn’t eat Pork anymore since HBO did that documentary of the mistreatment of hogs on the big hog farms. I think she’s leaning more and more towards a vegi lifestyle, what’s up with that? If carrots had a mouth they’d probably be screaming louder than a hog when the farmer just yanks the poor little carrot right outta the ground.

This week has been extremely busy for both Laurie and I with the Tax Credits ending today everyone has been submitting contracts and wanting to write offers. Laurie has gone to the hospital twice with Amanda and my teaching of basic computer lessons started this week. So needless to say it’s been crazy.

The groundhogs have already hit the zucchini plants in the garden even though we’ve tried a few different things to deter them. Guess we gotta go back to the old way and blast the $#@t outta em. I’d better be careful though Amanda might get me on HBO as a killer of groundhogs…oh well

Dad

After spending the entire day with Mandy yesterday, today it’s Laurie’s day with her. They left around 6AM this morning for some tests at Barnes. I’m sure they’ll be there til afternoon. My understanding is they are doing something called a PH test which I really have no idea what it is or determines. I’m sure Mandy will let us know very soon.

She is so excited to go home tomorrow and see her “new” apartment. Her landlord had it painted and carpets cleaned. Thanks to Amy B for meeting Laurie last night at the apartment so they could do an official “Mom” cleaning.

Talking about hanging out with Mandy yesterday I forgot to tell you about the large amount of food we consumed. We started at Bob Evans for breakfast at around 9, with me having a meat lover egg burrito and Mandy having eggs, turkey sausage, pancakes and 1 biscuit and gravy, wonder where she puts it all? For lunch we went to El Poco Loco where I had some kind of rice bowl and she had a tostida salad bowl, it was pretty yummy. After I picked her up at school we went to the new new 5 guys burger and fries and had a couple of their $6 cheeseburgers and a small fry. (Don’t waste your money, it’s not an In and Out) Then it was home by 10. So it turned out to be a fun day hanging out with my favorite daughter.

Dad