Perks

Dad's surgery has had some perks for us. I'm not sure that he would say that it was worth it... Lots of people have visited, sent cards, flowers, cookies, candy and even a few meals. One of the free meals came from Matt's sister. She brought a meal and they ate with us. Following are some fun pictures of that evening. Matt and the girls were being silly.

Presidents Day

Two exciting things happened today. Matt had the day off of work, so we went in to Wichita to do some shopping. We didn't actually find what we were looking for, but I enjoyed spending time with Matt.

The other thing was that Dad got to come home from the hospital. We got back from Wichita and didn't know when Dad was going to arrive, so we decided to go for a walk. We were a couple of blocks from the house when he and mom drove by, so we turned around and headed back. We were very glad to have him back home.

Valentines Day

Unfortunately Dad was still in the hospital for Valentines Day. We went to visit him in the morning before starting on our own Valentines adventure...

Matt told me that he had plans, but wouldn't tell me what they were. We got in the car and drove toward the north part of Newton. I made lots of guesses, but Matt wouldn't give me any hints. It took Matt a few tries to find the place he was looking for. When we finally arrived, we discovered that it was closed for the year. It was a green house. Matt was planning to buy me some plants for my Valentines gift. I never quite feel like I am at home without a plant or two. We were a bit disappointed, but weren't ready to give up yet. We stopped by a little plant shop down town, but decided to hold out for a nursery. We went home, had some tea and looked for another plant place. We were fortunate to find another one in Newton. Following are the results of our next trip.



We met some friends that we hadn't seen in quite a while for lunch. I should have gotten some pictures with them, but alas I was too busy visiting and eating.

Dad's recovery (Feb. 13)

This morning Mom called to say that Dad had a hard night, but seemed to be doing ok now. His blood pressure kept dropping, so they gave him two units of blood. This made him itchy, so they gave him some benedril. I was glad to hear that he was doing ok.

About ten minutes later, Matt's sister called to say that Mom wanted her and I at the hospital right away, as something had happened to Dad. That kind of shook me. I started praying right away that he would be ok and that I would be able to keep it together enough to be a help. I called Matt on the way to the hospital to tell him that something was going on with his dad, but that I didn't know what. When I arrived, Dad's room was swarming with nurses and doctors. Mom told me that Dad's heart had stopped, but that they had him stabilized now. We were both kind of shook up and one of the nurses gave us both a hug. After that the doctor came out and told us that he wasn't sure why Dad's heart had stopped, but that it might have been all the meds he was on. The doctor did have him moved to the critical care unit and said that a cardiologist would have to check him out on Monday.

Mom and I started gathering up all of her and Dad's stuff to move it to his new room. About that time Missy showed up. We had to wait a bit for them to get Dad settled into his new room, so I called Matt to fill him in on what had happened. Once we were able to get all the stuff moved into the new room, it didn't take long to figure out that it wasn't going to work to have Annika and Susannah in the critical care unit for very long. They were feeling very energetic, so being still and quiet wasn't going to happen. We decided that it would work out best for me to take them back to our house, so that Missy could stay with Mom. I was so thankful that they were on their best behavior the whole day. Missy came to pick them up in the late afternoon, which gave me just enough time to run some errands before Matt got home. Matt went over to the hospital to visit Dad after dinner. I stayed home to try to de-stress.

Dad's (Stucky) surgery (Feb. 12)

Dad found out at the beginning of this month that he had prostate cancer. The doctor recommended that he get his prostate removed, so they promptly scheduled the surgery for February 12th. The surgery was supposed to start at noon and last about three hours. As it turns out, it didn't get started right away and ended up lasting closer to five hours. Apparently it was a harder surgery than the doctor anticipated. He said that dad lost a bit of blood, but not enough to warrant a transfusion. That made for a long day at the hospital. I went over for a while in the afternoon to wait with mom. There were lots of other family members there, so I didn't stay for the whole afternoon. Matt and I went back over to the hospital once he got home and took some supper to mom and Missy, who had been there all afternoon. At that point Dad had been moved to the recovery room and not too much later he was moved to a hospital room. We were able to see him for a little bit before going back home for the evening. He seemed to be doing ok, considering that he had just had surgery. Mom spent the night with him.

Annika's Birthday (Feb. 8)

Annika's birthday was, of course, much more exciting than any of the rest of our birthdays have been... We went over to Joel and Missy's house to celebrate. Annika's birthday wish was to have an ice cream cone. Apparently at the ripe old age of four she had never had her own ice cream cone, and thought that would be fun. Matt asked her how long it had been since she had an ice cream cone. She got a serious look on her face, thought about it for a minute and then said, "About twelve years." Anyway, we had ice cream cones after dinner, despite the fact that it was early February and very cold out. Following is a video clip of her with her ice cream cone.



The top part of Annika's cone broke off after she had been working on it for a while. At that point she asked for a new cone. We all got a chuckle out of that. Missy was quick to explain to her that you were supposed to eat the cone as you went and that you didn't get a new cone when your current one broke. Following is a clip of Susannah with her ice cream cone.





Finally, Annika opening her gifts.

January

January of course included New Year's Day and Matt's sister's birthday. We took down the Christmas decorations on New Year's Day. Following is Matt's impression on the American method of bringing in the new year...



Needless to say, it is not nearly as exciting as some of the other New Years celebrations we have witnessed.

We had Missy over for her birthday.



After the birthday celebration we all went outside to take family pictures. Unfortunately it was a bit chilly and windy. We weren't sure if we were going to get another chance though.



We had the camera on a timer so we were counting and telling the girls to smile, so Susannah decided to start counting with her fingers.