Welcome Scarlett

Welcome to the family Scarlett. Such a pretty little puppy!

Puppy Mania!

Welcome to Ella's new puppy, Scarlett. Scarlett will be joining our family tomorrow, December 1. Scarlett was born on August 7, the day before Ella's birthday. Scarlett is significantly potty-trained (bonus!). Her kennel is in Ella's room so she will be Ella's companion at night and she will spend her days with Ramius and Fenton. Ella is very excited about her new little charge.

Ramius remains in stable condition. He's eating with modest interest. Last night Todd took Ramius for a late night walk through the neighborhood off leash and Ramius had a bounce in his step the entire way!

news from wisconsin

Well, I guess I can make it out to the computer so I should make a little post. I had, as I am sure you all know, my appendix out Saturday night about 8pm. they "let" me go home on Sunday am about 9 - just a little over 12 hours post op. I was only sick from about 9 am saturday to discharge at 9 am Sunday. Then again, 1 of my classmates had a baby in the middle of the semester and she only missed 2 nights of class.

I have finals coming up and of course did not plan to spend the weekend in bed sleeping, but studying. I am not sure how I will get 40 pounds of books and computers to the classroom tonight as 15 pounds is my limit to lift. Guess I will take notes on paper and ride the elevator to class.

The incision is remarkably small and I feel much better than I thought I would but of course no where near normal. So off to the shower and to work for a few hours before I trek to Milwaukee for my last class of the semester. I hope we cover very little new material and spend most if the class time reviewing.

Best get moving to avoid stiffening up. See you at Christmas.

Thanksgiving 2005

It has been a good day!

Dee Donohue and Dave played 18 holes of golf this morning while Dorothy came over and spent the late morning with Nancy. Then we all had lunch.

The weather is a Chamber of Commerce day today. Upper 70's, no wind, full sunshine.

We can now smell the turkey roasting and will have a full dinner later this afternoon.

Hope all of you are doing well.

Picture of the day

First row (left to right):
Galen, Floyd C., Mary Elizabeth, Stine A., Harry

Second row:
Edne, Claude D.

Top row:
C.H., Ray, Glenn










Todd

Deja vu

The lab tests confirmed today that Ramius' baseball size growth on his chest is cancerous. Melinda is taking him to the vet this afternoon for chest xrays and a biopsy. If the cancer has not spread, I expect that surgery will be the next step. If it has spread, there really isn't anything that we can reasonably do.

I expect that one of us will update this post later today.

Todd

UPDATE: The news is not good. He has a tumor on his heart and in his lungs. There is nothing they can realistically do to treat him.

Health Update from AZ

Today has been a busy day for this generation to be on the phone in regards to doctor appointments, etc. and for myself seeing the opthalmoloist.
First his report. He was pleased that my vision was 20/100 before surgery and today it was 20/50. Still have blurred vision, but we are working on that with all these eye drops. Due to that we are not even going to talk about a new lens until I see him in four weeks. In the mean time he said to take the lens out of my glasses on the left eye. I asked today what each of these eye drops were for. One is a steriod; one is for decreasing swelling in the front of the eye, one for decreasing swelling in the back of the eye, and then the ointment at bedtime just because I am on the CPAP. One was an antibiotic and I no longer have to use that. I also have to make a new schedule because now I don't have to use the eye drops quite as many times a day. Still one every hour.
He said no night driving, but I could drive some during the day. I am ready.
Dad, has talked to the orthopedic office also today and they are going to try to get him on the surgery schedule in about four weeks. This will be confirmed tomorrow. The cyst filled back up within 24 hours. He is keeping it wrapped during waking hours and it is uncomfortable. He did try really hard to get up some out door Christmas lights today and just had to call it quits and put them all away. We can do more next year.
I have my first appointment with the oncologist tomorrow. Boy is that office sophisticated. Your history is taken on computer cards with filling in the apporpiate circle. Glad they sent them in the mail instead of having to fill them out in the morning. We should be becoming pros at filling in all these forms.
We had two of our neighbors over last night for wine and a few snacks and they all seemed to enjoy it and we were able to get better acquainted with them. One of the couples goes to our church and Dad plays golf with him.

What a Week!

Well, it's been a very busy week for the Greer-Pearson family. As you know from our prior post, Todd and Ella prevented the house from burning down on Monday. I've been out every night this week leaving Todd & the kids to fend for themselves. Monday night I had a very late LaSemana meeting. The Chair of camp runs a very decentralized operation which is good in that it allows everyone to say everything on their mind, but the downside is that our meetings ramble on from 7 to 10 p.m. with only about an hour to an hour and a half of business being conducted. Tuesday I spent the day in Rochester meeting with clients and then went to a wine tasting event hosted by the women lawyers of our firm for our clients. Our weather turned bad Tuesday night and sure enough, despite all the warnings from Cole's school that winter was coming and that us parents should be organized I sent him off to school on Wednesday with no hat and I was labeling his boots with his name standing in the hallway at school. Cole went to a extra curricular art class Wednesday after school and brought home a very innovative version of the Mayflower. It may have to make a trip to AZ for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Last night I drove out to meet a client at her home in Excelsior. There was a definite appearance of some very cool scenery driving around Lake Minnetonka, but it was a bit hard to see in the dark. I'll have to drive it again sometime in the daylight. This afternoonI have another late meeting and after a quick dinner at home I'll be headed off for Let's Dish. Tomorrow morning Ella and I will be attending Cole's ABC Thanksgiving Play at school. Cole will be starring as the letter X. Cole has fencing Saturday morning and the kids will need to get packed for AZ. We only have one work day next week! Then a few days of fun in the sun. Ella can't wait for short-sleeve weather! We will then return to a very busy but fun-filled December. You all may be seeing my Christmas cards around the Martin Luther King Holiday. Have a good one all. Melinda

Update to the Update

I saw the orthopedic surgeon today. He drained 30 CC's out of the cyst and will schedule me for arthoscopic surgery, probably early December.

For now I am wrapped in the equivalent of an Ace bandage for a few days. No restrictions on activities.

Dave

Comments

1) Thank you Ella!

2) As to the weather, we are feeling quite superior. It is 77 degrees, light south wind. I have played golf four days in a row. Two birdies today.

3) Appointment with the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow will decide my immediate future.

4) My respiratory problems slowly getting better inch by inch.

Dave

Close call

Near disaster at our house today. Click here for details.

Todd

Comment

Nancy added a lovely short comment/biography to Kate Cooke's picture. It will be worth checking out.

Dave

Wisconsin

Hi - I am going to try yet again. The computer seems to be eating my posts!

Last week, Dan and Karl were (un)lucky enough to go to a Packer game with Nancy, our off-site phone service. Thy lost of course but had a great time.

I am supposed to be studying for finals but find the computer to be a distraction. I am a bit behind. I spent 2 days in Mt Horeb at a reproduction seminar and now have a head full of new stuff and nowhere for it to go! I am also in the process of signing a contract to write a semi-technical book about Canine Reproduction for veterinarians - my summer project to keep me from getting bored!

we are all healthy - just regular Dr appointments for bloodwork and flu shots. Nothing near the drama and frequency as the Arizona crowd. they are hard to keep up with.

Todd - the Pearson blog is very nice. Is this the type of writing the Supreme court looks to when evaluting candidates? If so, I need to be careful with what I post on the
http://smallanimalclinic.blogspot.com as it contains words blocked by some filters.

Thanksgiving plans here look like a short trip to the lake home Dave and Cindy are building - it is nearly done and we didn't know they were even planning to build. Guess a jello salad will be the admission for the grand tour.

This is indeed a great way to stay in touch. Would be nice if the college crowd joined us now and again. Perhaps the computer skill requirements are outside of their scope. :)
Marty

Picture of the day

POSTED BY TODD:

Nancy's note on the back of the picture says: "Kate Cook -- Nancy's grandmother - My Mother's Mother."

Inspiration

This endeavor has inspired me to set up a blog for the Pearson family. Gotta keep up with the Jones.

Todd

Perhaps we should just call this the Greerz health post!

My back is somewhat better today. I spent 2 1/2 hours last night cleaning our indoor grill. Todd suggested that I stay up all night cleaning if it made me feel so good. We'll see how it goes sitting in a chair all day.

Cole has the next two days off of school. Tomorrow I'm taking him out for breakfast and we are having a friend of his over for a play date in the afternoon. We had Cole's parent-teacher conference yesterday at school. He has made fabulous progress since the beginning of the year in both his academics and the social aspects of school.

Our school referendum passed yesterday. I'm glad our wealthy neighbors on Lake Minnetonka will be paying for better schools for our children.

Talk with you all soon.

New update

Nancy's cataract surgery went well. We were home by 8:25 AM.

Update

I had the MRI this morning. The written results will not be back for a day or two. I see the MD about that on Tuesday. Looking at the films, the cyst is pretty impressive. It is just a matter of what he thinks should be done. The problem with going to a surgeon, they want to do surgery. As the internist says, they want to do new knees, not mess with small stuff.

Saw the internist today. She said making progress, although slowly. Come back in two weeks. I may end up going to a pulmonologist. Time will tell.

Good Luck

Best of luck to Mom and Dad this week. I hope you can get some answers Dad. And Mom, I'm sure your surgery will go well. I'll be thinking of you.

Melinda

P.S. Being at work has not been good for my back. In fact, I am quite uncomfortable. If Cole weren't out of school this Thursday and Friday I would have taken a couple of days off of work to recoup, but I don't feel I can be out most of this week and then be out again most of Thanksgiving week. Such is life.

Have a good week all.

Regards from Minnesota

Great to have Barb joining our blog this week. Friday morning while at the vet with the dogs, I threw out my back. It has been pretty unpleasant. I spent most of yesterday at the office and quite debilitated until I finally followed my husband's suggestions to use a heating pad and take some anti-inflammatories. I feel much improved today but not yet 100%.

Fenton is up to 37 pounds and his heart murmur is gone. Yeah! He will be getting neutered on December 26. Merry Christmas Fenton!

Friday night we went to the Marshall Field's Cinderella exhibit. Each year Marshall Fields puts up a extravagant holiday display in their auditorium. It was well done as usual, but not one of my favorites. The figures we a bit too modernistic for my taste. Then we took the kids to Murrays for dinner. A nice steak house that is straight out of the 50s. Pink interior, live band, etc.

Saturday morning I took Cole to a fencing class. The instructor was testing him to see if he was ready to start classes before age 7. Because another new boy was starting that morning she's decided to let them try it for a month or so and see how it goes.

Friday Ella had a LONG play date with her alter ego, Kate. They are two peas in a pod. They are the same size, they look a little bit alike, they are both very smart and they get along great. One of these days soon we are going to have Kate spend a Friday with us. She is a very nice girl. I think she will be the one friend from Child Garden who we make a real effort to stay close to once the girls move on from preschool. Much like Ellis was for Cole until, unfortunately, Ellis moved to Georgia. Cole professes that he is ready to get on an airplane alone and fly to Ellis' house.

Cole is out of school this Thursday and Friday so we have a short week coming up.

Thanks again to Todd for posting the family photos for us. I really appreciate his efforts!

Have a good week all. Hope you feel better Dad.

Picture of the day

POSTED BY TODD:

Thanks to Nancy for her post commenting on last week's photo. This is just a suggestion, but I think it would be nice if the comments are posted in a "comment" to the photo post rather than as a separate post. That way, the comments will forever be tied to that post. To show you what I mean, I have added Nancy's thoughts in a comment to last week's photo post. See here.

Followup

I had an X-ray yesterday and now they have decided I don't have pneumonia. What? I don't know. I will see the MD again Tuesday.

I am scheduled for an MRI on the knee Tuesday, then will see about that.

Halloween Aftermath

On Halloween Chris spent the evening at a friends house where they decorate and set up the porch like a small haunted house to scare the older trick or treaters. Sometime during the evening he and a friend collided and he hit his mouth on his friends head. When he came home he said his tooth hurt. I looked at it and didn't see anything and it wasn't loose, so didn't give it much thought. He mentioned on Tuesday it still hurt and after he brushed his teeth Tuesday night he noticed that there was a small fracture line horizontal across a lower front tooth. We went to the dentist today and indeed it is fractured. Now the waiting game. He is on a soft diet and advil for a week. The best case scenario is it will heal and everything will be fine. The worst case scenario is that he will need a root canal and a crown. I suggested he not eat anything at all for a week, but he didn't particularly care for that idea.
I thought the only thing to worry about after halloween was too much sugar. I certainly didn't anticipate this. We go back to the dentist next Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully we will know more at that point, but I'm not sure we will.
Barb

Halloween

Hi,
We were suprised at how few trick or treaters we had at our house last night. The weather was a bit nippy but not wet or windy so I thought we would have a lot more than we did.
Beth went trick or treating with a foreign exchange student from Switzerland, who had never gone before. They had lots of fun and got LOTSSS of candy.
Glad the doctor said to just watch the knee, Dad. Certainly better than the prospect or surgery.
Barb and all