This past summer was busy with many graduations, weddings and road trips with the motorhome. We were blessed to have our family together for a campout at Milacs where we took a fishing launch. It was great fun but the kids really had a good time.  In August we helped out granddaughter move to her new digs in Duluth. Did some sightseeing as well. Britty is a fulltime student at UMD and loving it. Her roommate is her gradeschool friend so they know each other pretty well. That helps!  In July I had my 50  year class reunion. It was a good time and I really enjoyed seeing classmates and friends from back when…………… Hard to believe that many years have slipped by. Another milestone to celebrate this year will be our 50th aniversary. Even with the age of our children and grandchildren I must say it sure doesn’t seem that long ago. I will post some pictures in another post.

Another highlight this July was the family pig roast in Fergus. It was held the weekend of my class reunion but we still got to spend time with family and friends. 

Our second son gave us a scare a few weeks ago. He had been having chest pain and shortmess of breath for quite awhile. He finally took himself to ER on the way home from work. Ended up in ICU for five days with blood clots in both lungs and right leg. He is doing better but will be on blood thinners for at least 6 months to a year.

I am going to sign off  for now and will update  again soon……….

Sharon

GiGi and Logan

December 20th  we became great grandparents to Logan Deland  born to Bobby and Krista. Logan weighed in at 7 lbs. 5 ozs. and 20 inches long. Very exciting for all of us. The day that Logan came home from the hospital his Great Uncle Jeff was there and his Grandpa Chad and Great Grandparents, Del and Sharon.  Logan is a first grandchild on both sides so he will never want for attention and love. I remember like it was yesterday when Logans father Bobby was born. He was our first grandchild and we could hardly contain ourselves. Each grandchild brings that same feeling of wonder. Amazing to see the resemblance of family members. I remember when Bobby was born everyone said he was the clone of his father Chad.  Logan missed our aniversary date by three days and Christmas by five days. Thats ok thos because now he doesn’t have to share his birthday.

Tonight is New Years Eve. We will soon leave behind a complicated year of 2009 and look forward to ringing in the New Year of 2010. Our plan is to spend a quiet evening here at home. Celebrating is for the young ones and anymore it is a risky time. To many people out on the highways and byways and maybe with to much to drink?  What are your New Years Resolutions?  I remember New Years Eve of 1999 my husband and I quit smoking cold turkey.  The power of prayer is an awesome thing. I know without Gods help I would not have stuck to my resolution. Because of His mercy and favor I have never had the urge or desire to smoke. Thankyou God!!  Not so sure there will be a resolution this year but thats ok.

We are heading south next week with the motor home and look forward to warmer climate. Wished we could take everyone with us. It is very cold here in the Tundra and the weather man says it will get below zero tonight.

Let me in on your New Years Resolutions!!!!!

It is Black Friday here in the Tundra. Everyone seems to be going off in different directions today. Some are shopping the mall or out at MOA, husband is off with grandson Bob to hunt pheasants up at the leased farm by Herman, Mn. Nephew Tim and son Ty just left so I am alone for a couple hours to catch up on my blogs and emails.

Thanksgiving dinner was at our daughter and son-in-laws in Lakeville. Oh my goodness, the food! It was in abundance and oh so good. Guess what was missing?! Sweet potatoes! How that happened I will never know but it did not go unnoticed. The turkey was probably one of the best that I have tasted and that comment was made by others.  Our two oldest sons and there family’s were missing for the dinner as they were at there in-laws.  All the family were together for dessert and fellowship. There are now twenty-one members of our family, which is a full house. Along with all of us were nephew Tim from Mahnomen and our daughters in-laws from Champaign, Ill.
By Christmas we will have another addition. Grandson Bob and wife are expecting there first child December 22nd. They are awaiting a baby boy and have already named him Logan Deland. It could happen on our 49th aniversary on the 17th of December. Wouldn’t that be wonderful gift for us?!
Expectant Parents

Thanksgiving is a time for sharing and giving thanks for the blessings that God has given us.  Our family is no exception. Del and I have been blessed with each other, good health, our children have made us proud and the grandchildren continue to bring us great joy. We have had a few challenges set before us this last year but with God in our midst we have been able to meet them head on. Our little grandson Joe Pankey has recently undergone a major repair surgery at University Childrens Hospital. It is hard to believe how those little ones can bounce back so fast.  He was off the pain meds with in days of the surgery and is walking all over. This he started doing before the surgery so we wondered if he would be doing it when he came home. Yes, he now walks most of the time. Joe is also featured in a commercial about the University of Minnesota Amplatz Hospital and if you go to the website you can see the commercial as well as his Mom and Dad talking about Joes condition.   http://www.uofmchildrenshospital.org/joe   Joe also has a Caringbridge site at 

 http://www.caringbridge.org  and then enter the website babyjoe. Joe and Daddy

It is so hard to believe that Christmas is only a month away. This is my most favorite time of the year.

Will write more later. In the mean time a question for you.   What tradition do you follow at Christmas time? Do any of you eat lutefisk and lefse??

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I wish you a Very Merry Christmas.

Busy week for this gal. Our little guy is home from the hospital and doing remarkably well. Yesterday I picked up my grandchildren out in New Market and stopped by to see Joe and his sisters. My daughter and I decided to take the kids to Culver’s for dinner. Our guys are hunting pheasants in South Dakota so the next five days we do not have to cook meals or “make the bed” if we don’t want to. ha ha! Does anyone relate to that?  While at Culver’s a lady stopped by our booth to say that she was impressed by all five kids behaviour. What a nice thing to say to us and it ofcourse made us feel good. 

I am working on my blogs and spending time at Renegade University online so not alot of time for extras but its a good time for me to get “educated”.  By the way, I joined the BraveHeart Women and welcome any of you readers to go to http://www.braveheartwomen.com  and look at some of the interviews with ladies who have inspired.  I went on a webinar with Mike Klinger early part of the week and his guest was Ellie Drake from BraveHeart Women. She is an awesome speaker and on her website she also has a BraveHeart TV show, called BraveHeart View. Check it out and do sign up for the newsletter.

Thats it for this day!

Hello.  I understand today was a gorgeous day – I hope you all got out and enjoyed it!

We were moved out of the PICU at about 11 this morning.  Joe was able to have both the i.v. that was in his neck removed, as well as the arterial line he had in his left hand.  That made him ready to go to the “floor”.  He now just has a i.v. in his right had which they can give him fluids and meds though.  He is drinking and eating really well, so not too much fluids needed.  He is also going to the bathroom pretty much normally too.  YEAH. 

He still has the chest tube in his right side and there still is a fair amount of drainage.  The doctors reminded us today of all the trauma Joe’s body went through yesterday in the search of those veins, so the drainage volume is not surprising.  He also is hooked up to constant ekg monitoring.  The unit is wireless, which is nice, but it is bulky and heavy.  Joe actually just tried to throw it out of his crib…that did not go over too well.  ha ha

He as been really active today – more so than I expected.  Sitting up and wanting to play and read his books.  Mostly whipping all the toys out of the crib.  I guess watching us fetch everying is half the fun   For him.  The key is to keep up with the pain meds.  He is still getting the tordol every 6 hours, and the morphine and tylenol as needed.  He has not had any since 11 this morning.  He was not too happy after getting the lines removed this morning, and then we moved.  I think he may have cried for a good hour.  After he got his meds though, he had a good nap.  When he woke up, Lisa Brezonik came to visit us   Joe was very happy to see her!

After Lisa left, he fell sound asleep in my arms, stayed sleeping while I transferred him to his bed and stayed sleeping for 3 hours!!  I hope he sleeps good tonight!?!  Mike and I took him on a long walk in a car tonight – the same car we have at home.  He loves the car!!  It would be nice if we had some sort of track to take him too so we could get some real exercise – feeling a little couped up here.  The nice thing is the hospital is pretty quiet right now and we are alone in our double room. Woo Hoo.

Mike’s mom Adele had the girls all day today.  She took them and our neighbor Gavin to the movies.  It sounds like they had a lot of fun!  I miss them, so does Joe!  It sounds like they will be up in the morning.  They have their first day of Mite Prep hockey tomorrow afternoon!!

It sounds like we could maybe go home tomorrow, but most likely Monday morning.  We need to get the chest tube to dry out some and he has had a little high blood pressure.  We will know more tomorrow.

Thank you for all of your messages.  We love to read them.  Slepp well and take care.

Hello. We are here with the babe in 5C – the PICU. We have a great nurse – Rebecca – and she will be here until 7. Lots of docs in and out because Joe is throwing some funky heart rythyms – always something isn’t it?? BUT he is stable and resting not so comfortably now. They removed the breathing tube already (yeah) and he is starting to stir and he is really not that happy about it. The docs said he would be pretty sore – they had to cut through his ribcage and use a rib spreader to gain access – and it seems they were spot on: Kari Pankey, mother of Joe

The surgery – he was in for about 4 hours total and the actual surgery lasted around 2 hours. Dr. St. Louis came to see us at noon to let us know how the surgery went, and you could see it in his face that he was not too happy. He explained that he was not able to make the repair. That after dissecting the lung to get to the pulmonary vein, he found there was too much scar tissue to use the vein. He then tried the vein lower near the diaphragm and there was still too much scarring. The scarring went all the way up near the hilum space (where the vein was originating from). Dr. St. Louis said he was surprised to see so much scarring in such a short time (this is fromthe scimitar syndrome and not from previous surgery). He felt terrible that he was not able to successfully make the repair, but we are just thankful that he was willing to try to make a difference.

So what does this mean for Joe going forward? He will live his life with one healthy lung. He should be able to do what ever he wants, short of professional football, basketball, hockey…but he could be a pro golfer The right lung is still pushing blood, albeit in small amounts, but it is still functioning. When the scarring completely stops that blood flow, the pressure from the left lung will start to be too much for the heart, and it will be time to remove the lung. They do not want to do that while he is so little since the lung takes up a lot of space in Joe’s chest cavity and removing it causes other problems (sunken chest wall). The bigger he is the better the chance the other organs will move and fill up the empty space.

We are so thankful that Joe has been so healthy up to this point. He has great doctors here at the U that will continue to watch him to be sure he stays that way! Speaking of the University of Minnesota – some of you may not know that Joe is currently being featured as part of their ad campaign for the new UofM Children’s Hospital. He is in a commercial, in magazines, on billboards and in the newspaper – along with his big sisters. You can check his story out at http://www.uofmchildrenshospital.org/ Click on the Joe’s Story link to see the commercial, see our daughter and son-in-law interviews.

Update written by: Kari Pankey

So…Here We Go Again!

Tomorrow morning at 8am, Joe will be back at the University of Minnesota in the care of Dr. St. Louis and Dr. Bass. One year, 2 weeks and 1 day after his first surgery. How? Why? Here is some “back story”.

At last entry, Joe was recovering from his cleft palate repair. While it was a very difficult recovery, he healed beautifully and you would never know he even had a gaping hole in the roof of his mouth!! He now has 14 going on 16 teeth and they are in the appropriate place

In May, Joe had a 6 month follow-up check and echo at the cardiology clinic at the U. At that time, the echocardiographer had a hard time getting decent pressure readings from the repaired vein. He said it could have been that Joe was pretty wiggly, but Dr. Bass wanted to get Joe in to the Cath Lab again for some good, true readings. Keep in mind that Joe has NO syptoms, shows no signs that there are any problems. So, July 23 we were back at the U for a day in the Cath Lab. To say the results were disappointing is an understatement. Not only for us, but for the cardiac team as well. The vein that was repaired and moved in October was completely closed and Joe’s right lung was only functioning at about 1-4%. The photo attached to this entry is a scan from that appointment. It shows his right lung and the pulmonary vein that was repaired. TThere are 2 veins leaving the hilum (?). The repaired vein is the one on the right. It should continue to the right and go slightly up to the left side of the heart. Instead it just dies off. We knew at the time of surgery that there was a chance that this would happen, but to happen so soon is just sad. We left the appointment not really knowing what the next step would be. We thought that there was a good chance that Joe would just live his life with one lung – the doctors said he could live a normal long life with one lung – just no olympic track team for him!

Dr. St. Louis, Dr. Bass and the rest of the cardiology department had many long discussions about Joe and what the options are. Dr. Bass called us while we were on vacation in New York City in September and said he would like to meet to discuss what they had decided. We went in and were told that Dr. St. Louis would like another shot at gaining function in his right lung. When I asked Dr. Bass what he would do – he said he would like to see more function in that lung and that he (Joe) deserves this chance. That takes us to tomorrow…

The plan is to go through Joe’s right chest wall and access the pulmonary vein where it originates (I believe this is the hilum) and is wider and use some sort of graft (a gortex tube or a chryo vein) to bridge over to the right side of the heart. While this is not the correct side of the heart, the immediate goal is to gain lung function and this should achieve this goal. The advantage to doing this procedure is to get from that vein to the heart is only about 5mm. Joe does not need to go on by-pass because they do not need to work inside his heart. If this works, Joe should have greater lung function. If the graft closes off (and it could) then we are no worse off than we are now. If it remains open they will go back in 2-3 years and move the vein from the right side to the left side of the heart. Short term, the heart should not be adversely affected by the blood flow being rerouted to the right side. This is a creative solution to a very complex problem. As Dr. St. Louis said, with Joe’s anatomy – we need to think outside the box.

Please send your good thoughts and prayers our way. For Joe to come through this with flying colors. For his doctors to be successful in their quest.
Thank you to Kari Pankey for the update!

I will check in with you tomorrow post surgery.
This is written on 11/05/2009

This is a topic that I really do not like to get into but the emails, media coverage in newspaper and on tv I think it might be time.
I can not believe some of the emails I have been getting from people I know and also people I have never heard of. I grew up in a republican home. At least I think it was. My father never really divuldged his party affiliation but Mom sure did. I never doubted that she was a republican and a conservative. Dad use to tease her to get a rise out of her, I think. It was all in fun back then. Today you have to be careful who you say anything to or how you say it. I did not vote for President Obama but I like him, I like his wife Michelle and his daughters are adorable. President Obama is our president and we need to respect him as the man who is in authoriity of our country. Right now few things are a greater threat to our country than the venomous anger we express toward other Americans with whom we disagree. Many politicians and pundits write off such division saying that it’s what’s great about America, but this kind of bitter division is not a positive expression of our freedom.
Tho I share strongly the following paragraphs I can not take credit for all of its contents. Thanks to ROP discussion group.

For eight years many Christians and conservatives, did everything in their power to destroy Bill Clinton justifying it as righteous protesting. Over the course of the following eight years many liberals did everything in their power to discredit and undermine George W. Bush. Neither of these two presidents were anywhere near perfect, but they were (are) the president of our country. What this means is that for 16 years a substantial minority within our country has had a vested interest in seeing the president utterly fail and many have acted to ensure that he would. It is time to reverse the trend, my friends and fellow Americans. We should be devoted to the idea that the president is worthy of respect and that our country is better off when people of all political persuasions support him.
For several reasons the president should be treated with respect;
Whether we like him or not, he was selected by the majority of our peers. Their opinions matter and should be regarded as important.
Whether we like him or not, he is the most powerful person in the world. That power must be acknowledged.
Whether we like him or not, he is uniquely positioned to do great good.
Whether we like him or not, he is the caretaker of our country. It benefits us all if he is successful.
Whether we like him or not, he is our ambassador to the world. It speaks well of us to the rest of the world if we esteem the leader we chose.
Whether we like him or not, treating him with dignity and honor nurtures a national environment of harmony and, when appropriate, respectful disagreement. Conversely, despising and deriding the president compromises our ability to engage in honest discussion for the greater good and causes us to deteriorate into a nation that is easily manipulated by the powerful. It may seem like a stretch, but I’m convinced that respecting our president lessens the influence of the often inflammatory and manipulative media.
Whether we like him or not, respecting our president sets a precedent of respect between us all.
Whether we like him or not, it is in our religious DNA to honor the president. Christians especially engage in willful sin when they curse, dishonor, and slander the president. For people of many religious persuasions it is morally right and even a command of God to show right respect to the president.