Minutes by Minute

We bought our first home in December of 2011. A beautiful brickrow townhome in The Lakes of Blaine (Minnesota). We rented it out for the last five years or so. I had a dream / plan of moving back into it after our kids were grown and out of the house. Emily showed interest in selling the home, especially recently and especially as we’ve talked about the possibility of using the profit we would gain to start some kind of business. It was late February or early March 2019 and Emily and I began to talk a little more about the possibility of starting some sort of business. We had very little direction. I applied to become a Chick-Fil-A franchisee a couple years ago. That’s like winning the lottery, and I didn’t make it. I briefly looked into Pizza Ranch since I knew some of their corporate employees. It was far too expensive and I didn’t have a strong enough interest anyway. It seemed like just the day after Emily and I prayed about possibilities that someone reached out to me on Faceb...

I originally started writing this blog in May of 2017 and now I've picked it back up on April of 2018.  It's a pretty safe assumption to say that most people know the phrase "life isn't fair." We speak it to our children often when they complain that they can't have their way. Lately Evan has begun showing his strong personality. He knows what he wants when he wants it. When he doesn't get what he wants, he knows how to communicate that it's not fair! We didn't teach Evan to whine and cry when he doesn't get what he wants. It came naturally. It's humanity, really. Some of the things Evan typically wants most right now are milk, pacifier "paci", blanket "banky", basketball, hockey, Ruff ruff (kids show), Momma, etc... you get the idea. His tendency to fight for what he wants isn't something he's going to grow out of. Yes- he won't always cry for milk. But when he gets a little older he'll whine because...

This is part of a handful of blogs I've written chronicling my experience in going through surgery to remove a carcinoid tumor from my right mainstem bronchial tube. _____________________________________________________________________________ I've now been home for over a week and my progress has been substantial. Emily and I drove home on Monday night (April 24th). My pain levels have remained below 2. Often times I'm in no pain at all. I haven't been taking the pain narcotics they sent me home with and I often don't even need over-the-counter meds to get through the day. The biggest challenge I face seems to be my lung capacity at this point. If I move to quickly, talk too much or too quickly or go about life at the pace I was used to previously, I seem to need to breath deeper more quickly and catch my breath. I often have a slight wheeze. I recently followed up with my primary doctor and got a chest x-ray which seemed to show clear healthy lungs. I returne...

This is part of a handful of blogs I've written chronicling my experience in going through surgery to remove a carcinoid tumor from my right mainstem bronchial tube. ___________________________________________________________________________ I thought it'd be good to put together a small post about some of the staff here at the hospital. We've been quite impressed. Of course Dr. Wigle is top notch and I've written about him before. We've had very limited time with him but I of course had a good 5 hours or so of time with him while I was unconscious and my chest cavity was wide open haha. Mayo is of course super well known not only in Minnesota but throughout the world for their quality healthcare and medical advances. It so clear that they do a ton of education. If fact, most of the staff attending to us has had at least one, sometimes more, students shadowing them. Even in the operating room, we're pretty sure a resident (student) had his hands in my ches...

This is part of a handful of blogs I've written chronicling my experience in going through surgery to remove a carcinoid tumor from my right mainstem bronchial tube. ________________________________________________________ Saturday was one of two days that felt a little tedious. We kind of knew that our doctor and his residents weren't really working over the weekend and thus my bronchoscopy was scheduled for Monday. If I had the surgery done on a Monday I may very well have had the bronchoscopy on a Thursday or Friday and gotten the chance to go home quicker. However, my second chest tube had to stay in until the bronchoscopy and thus I had to deal with that on Saturday as well as Sunday. By midday on Saturday I had adjusted to being off the epidural meds and on oral pain medication (Oxycodone and Tylenol). I was able to enjoy hot showers and could mostly care for myself in the restroom, shaving, etc. Saturday Emily's sister Susan came to visit from the Cities and s...

This is part of a handful of blogs I've written chronicling my experience in going through surgery to remove a carcinoid tumor from my right mainstem bronchial tube. _____________________________________________________________________ Each day I feel substantially better. I slept better on Thursday night even though I did have to wake a few times. They nurses seemed to give me a little more time in between vital checks and medications so I could get better sleep. Friday was a good day.  I did some pulmonary therapy, which wasn't hard, but felt very good. Really just doing some stretches and doing a little work on one of those sitting bicycle machines. We talked extensively with Shari the rehab lady about what to expect and strive for in terms of rehab and exercise. I will walk a lot during my rehab. Very thankful that we have good walking paths in our neighborhood. I did a lot more walking on Friday than I did on Thursday and I started moving around faster as well. I bec...