Sam downtown

The last few weeks

Recently we went to an outdoor concert with the Meyers.  Claire was a dancing machine.  Sam, Kate, and I spent a day hiking around Devil's Lake.  One of Sam and Dusty's favorite games is to play tag through the glass table.

Sam Laughing

This is from two weeks ago. Sam crawled out of the sunroom and then I heard a "boom". I thought it was him falling, but it was my camera hitting the floor after he pulled it off the couch. I picked him up and told him what I thought had happened. When I said "boom" he thought it was hysterical. Kate and I got a lot of mileage out of saying "boom" for the rest of the day.

Quite a lot to cover

I haven’t done any posts in a while.

I am typing this at a Caribou Coffee in Milwaukee. Katie is in Middleton. Sam is in Sussex. Betsy is in Oconomowoc. Mom is in Wauwatosa. There, you are caught up.

My mother went in for a check up on her ankle last Monday at Froedert. She had surgery to fuse her ankle about two years ago. She tripped two weeks ago delivering Meals On Wheels and had a sore ankle since that date. Last Monday her ankle was checked out at Froedert Hospital and instead of sending her home she was admitted

.

She has a Staph infection in her ankle. She has spent the past week at Froedert and has undergone three surgeries. The first was to pull the hardware and clean up the infection as well as draw fluid to culture the infection and figure out what was in there. The two following surgeries were to further clean out the ankle. I have been primarily in Oconomowoc since last Monday. Mom’s friends (some of “The Network”) have been taking Betsy to and from work.

I went home (Middleton) with Betsy on Tuesday after mom’s first surgery. I played with Sam and finished cutting out the bottom foot of drywall/studs in our basement to prep for a perimeter trench/sump pump install on Wednesday and Thursday. Then Betsy and I went back to Oconomowoc. Kate got our nanny to come in early/stay late and avoid the house while the jackhammers were running. On Wednesday Kate took Sam to a cardiologist appointment. Thankfully everything looked good for our little guy.

Mom’s second surgery was Thursday. The cleanout went well. Her third surgery was Saturday. Again, the cleanup looked good. During the Saturday cleaning the surgeons removed the vacuum dressing that had been sucking goop out of her ankle. She is on an IV of antibiotics tailored to fight her particular strain of Staph.

Betsy and I went back to Middleton Saturday night. Some friends were visiting from out of town. I hadn’t seen Sam in a few days. He seemed strangely quiet and snuggly. Then he had a temperature of 101. We reviewed the last two weeks. Our Wednesday to Friday nanny’s daughter had a slight fever. Then Kate remembered taking Sam to a friend’s house the week prior to play with their kids. I called these same friends to see if they could watch Sam so I could head into Oconomowoc to help mom. They said Sam probably shouldn’t come over as the kids were just getting over Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. Their kids exhibited symptoms a few days after Sam’s earlier visit.

So, Sam has Hand, Foot, and Mouth. He obviously can’t visit his grandma in the hospital and probably shouldn’t be around mom until she is feeling better. He is with the healthy mom (grandma Hughes) and Katie’s sister Lisa in Sussex right now. They will meet Katie in Johnson Creek this evening. There is an outside chance that Kate and Samuel will spend the night in Oconomowoc tonight depending on mom’s release time. If she is in the hospital they will come over. If she is back in Oconomowoc they will head for Middleton.

There was a check up on Mom this morning and the doctors seemed satisfied with her progress. She is allowed to eat again which would seem to indicate that they are done opening the ankle. She has not been given a release date/time yet.

My clients have been wonderfully understanding in rescheduling reviews and giving me time to help out my mom where I can. Thank you. My wife has been an unsung hero coordinating the nanny and taking care of our sick kid. Sam is always great. Betsy has done a good job dealing with the daily changes in her schedule. We spent some quality time at Lakerz last week, two nights in Middleton, and were at the State Fair yesterday.

Mom has been a great patient. She usually wants to help everyone else and pushes her own stuff to the bottom of the list. That is difficult to do when your foot is held up by a metal bracket and you are hooked to an IV.

Mom’s friends have been wonderful. I didn’t know (and still don’t) when she would be coming home so I haven’t been able commit to Betsy’s work schedule. I sent out an email of The Booper’s schedule and the moms split up her transport amongst themselves.

A number of pictures are attached in no particular order.

Please pray for mom’s ankle and recovery. Please pray for Sam to get better soon too so he is at 100% when I see him.