This is just a quick update on what happened today.  John's surgery went well and the surgeon was very pleased with how it went.  A biopsy will be performed and we should get the results in three to five days.  However, the surgeon said that from what he could see, he feels the tumor is not cancerous and once John recovers, he will be done with this.  Right now he is in a lot of pain, so we ask for prayer that that might get under control.  Also pray that there will be no leakage, although the surgeon said there is a 30% of that (that figure is the national average for pancreatic surgery.  John will be in the hospital 3-5 days.  That's all for now, I am tired and need to unwind a little before bedtime.  Thanks again to all who have held us up in prayer.





























5

It's been awhile since I posted, so I have a little bit of catching up to do.  As I mentioned in my last post, we took a whirlwind trip to southern Wisconsin--I forgot how close to the Illinois state line John B. lived.  It was a 12 hour drive down there. After our arrival, we packed our stuff up in the car, ate dinner and visited with John for several hours before heading off to bed.  It was then 12 hours back home.  We hit rain about halfway up through Wisconsin, so decided to go home via Superior and Duluth rather than drive through the Twin Cities in the rain.  It was fun seeing Lake Superior again, even though it was through the rain.

Two of our grand kids graduated from high school Memorial weekend, so we were kept busy helping to prepare for graduation parties, as well as attending the graduation ceremony and splitting our time between two homes and eating too much food.  The weather has finally warmed up the last several days with plenty of sunshine.  There was a while there when I thought the sun was never going to shine again.  We had day after day of gloomy dark weather and rain.  It's safe to say summer is here.

John has kept busy mowing our lawn and the cemetery.  Sam has been here over the last several days restoring our porch.  The guys jacked it up, put a new roof on, and today, put up all new screening.  John and I laid down new carpet and added some new lights.  It is now safe to sit out there and enjoy the peace and quiet along with cool breezes.  With the warmer weather, my flowers are starting to grow and bloom--they were rather stunted by the cold and so much rain.

Now for the good news--John is going to have his surgery tomorrow.  He is to be admitted at 9 a.m. and will be in the hospital for 2-3days.  We would appreciate you prayers that all goes well and we both will have peace throughout this time.

Since we didn't know when exactly John's surgery was going to be rescheduled, we decided to take a chance and plant the garden and flower pots.  After church on Sunday, we headed to Bemidji for lunch and then took a spin up to Northome for a quick visit with John's sister and her husband.  They had just purchased a new mattress and we wanted ask them about it and look it over.  We found it was exactly what we were looking for and placed an order on line.  The mattress should arrive in a week to ten days.  On our way back to Bagley we stopped at the local green house and bought all the plants for the pots and garden.

Monday morning John played golf and then we spent the remainder of the day getting everything in the garden and pots.  We no sooner got everything done when we were notified that John's surgery will be June 4th.  Guess we didn't have to rush to get everything planted, but now it's finished.  Just have to hope there is no frost.  At least now know for sure John can attend the graduation ceremony and open houses for our grand kids. 

New bed by back door replaces large shrub that was

blown over two years ago 

 

Bird bath just got a new paint job

 

Flower bed we call "Emily's Garden" in

remembrance of our grand daughter

 

Green pots on left replacing all the shrubs

that were crushed this last winter.  Need to put more

stones in there, but that is a project for next summer.

Right now we are planning to head to southern Wisconsin on Friday morning to pick up my golf clubs and other stuff that our friend John B. hauled to his place for us when we sold our home in
Texas.  We thought this might be the best time to go since graduation is the next weekend and there are several track meets and a few appointments scattered about over the next two weeks. 

This week our weather was on the upswing and best of all, the golf course opened.  When I don't play, John plays with several retired teachers, business owner, and mail carrier.  Sunday evening he got a text from one of the guys saying they were golfing the next morning, so bright and early Monday John headed into town to golf.  He said he played fairly well considering having a long layoff.  He made up for it by playing Monday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings.  Thursday the course was closed to the public due to a high school tournament and Wednesday was the appointment for his stress test.

In addition to golfing, John cut more wood.  His pile had gotten pretty big, so this morning he had our grandson, Josh, come over and help with the splitting and stacking in the shed.

This week he also got the garden tilled and today planted the onions.

Last week we purchased a new stove and decided to replace the hardware on all the kitchen cabinets and drawers.  After looking in Home Depot and Menards, we finally found what we both liked on Amazon.  We spent Thursday morning removing the old knobs from the cabinet doors and replacing them with the new--that was the easy part.  We replaced the knobs on the drawers with drawer pulls
and that entailed removing the front panel of each drawer and drilling new holes.  Thank goodness there were on seven to do.  I took advantage of the drawers being apart to clean them out and get rid of what we don't use anymore.

Now for the most important news.  On Wednesday John went for his nuclear stress test.  It took about 3 1/2 hours for the test.  He was injected with something and then had numerous pictures taken and then had to go to the cafeteria to eat, come back for another injection and more pictures.  The cardiologist told us to call in two days for results.  I called Friday morning, but they weren't in yet, so instead of calling and talking to reception, I emailed the doctor in the afternoon.  She got back to us right away, told us the test was normal and that John could proceed with surgery.  Now we are waiting to hear from the surgeon's office as to when that will be.  We are not sure what happened with the EKG at the hospital, but are glad to be moving forward.

It's been over a week since I lasted posted anything, so I guess I better back track on what we have been doing.  Last Thursday we took our annual birthday outing to Grand Forks, ND to do some shopping and dining out.  It just so happened that there was a track meet in East Grand Forks that afternoon, so John and I were able to watch our granddaughter, Jenni, run the half mile--she came in second.  With cold weather and either rain or snow, there haven't been many track meets this year.

Our weather this week has been on the cool side with cloudy days and some rain; however, John has been able to start working on our huge wood pile and has enough cut up that he needs to start splitting and stacking the wood in the shed.  Since his surgery was postponed, we keep working around the house and tackling the little jobs that need to be done in the spring.

On Wednesday afternoon we saw the cardiologist.  First thing, she had another EKG done.  When she stopped back in the room she said she thought she had the wrong EKG as it was nothing like the one John had before surgery, so they took another one.  Now this is where it gets fuzzy for me.  I think she said these last two were fairly similar, but not like the first one from the week before.  The doctor then did a thorough exam, asked many, many questions, and said she couldn't hear anything wrong with John's heart.  But, she needs to find out what happened with that first EKG.  She told us it could be something with the electrical impulses of the heart or a blockage.  He is now scheduled for a nuclear stress test next Wednesday afternoon.  So now we are once again in a wait and see situation.

It took us all of yesterday to recover from the stress and disappointment of Tuesday.  We were both emotionally ready for the surgery and anxious for it to be over and finally learn what we are facing as far as a cancer or no cancer diagnoses.  Now we are back to square one as far as knowing what we are dealing with with John's heart situation.  We do have an appointment with a cardiologist next Thursday afternoon.

On the bright side, I guess, postponing the surgery has allowed us to do some jobs that we thought would have to be put off for a month or so.  John got out the four wheeler and drag and worked up our driveway getting out the ruts and low spots.  It's now nice and smooth.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, our shrubs took quite a hit with the snow this past winter and were pretty well smashed.  Since the ground is still pretty damp and soft, he hooked up a strap and used our truck to pull them out.  They popped right out.  Now we have to decide what we are going to put back in that space.

Since my birthday is today and John's is on Monday, we have decided to get out of town for the day tomorrow and head over to Grand Forks for some shopping and then watch a track meet.  Our weather has been nice and warm, but next week looks like a return to winter.

It's hard to believe that a week ago we were digging out from another 10 inches of snow and now it's  just about gone, the grass is turning green, and there are buds on the trees. Our Easter weekend has been beautiful with warm, sunny days.  Since John's surgery is this Tuesday, we thought we should take advantage of the nice weather and get a few jobs out of the way.  We started Saturday off by hauling all the screens outside and washing them. John also did some raking in the front yard and hosed off the apron in front of the garage.  The car tires deposit quite a bit of gravel on the apron when we drive into the garage.  John and I did take the time to put the screens in our bedroom windows--it was so nice having the windows open overnight and getting fresh air in the house.  The most important job of Saturday was baking apple pies for our Easter gathering.

Hard to believe the snow was almost to the bottom

of the basketball net

 

Easter Sunday we were off to church and following the service stopped back home to change clothes and then head to Matt and Sara's home.  They hosted Easter dinner for 14 people with everyone bringing a dish or dessert to share.  We had a delicious meal and a fun time visiting with the Minnesota grandkids.