May 7, 2009 Update

Hello...

Alot has been going on since my last update. We went to Tampa for our oldest daughter, Ashleigh's, graduation from Florida College. We drove and Allison flew. We had purchased her tickets quite a while back because at that time she absolutely could not ride in a car for any length of time. Now she can but we still have to be very careful. It really felt like a whirlwind trip because it takes about 10 hours to drive and on the way we got caught just outside of Atlanta in the traffic that was stopped for about 1 1/2 hours due to that 18 wheeler truck being stolen and the truck driver riding on the back of the cab while the man who stole it drove across Georgia. So that was interesting. We felt like we would NEVER get to Tampa. Allison was there way before us. Ashleigh graduated on Thursday night and we had planned to come home Friday morning but that didn't work out. When we finally got everything loaded in her car and the van it was around 2 p.m. so it felt pointless to pack up at the hotel, drive 6 hours, get another hotel and then drive the remainder on Friday. So Ashleigh stayed out and did some more visiting with her friends and Allison, Aimee, Barry and I went to Anna Maria Island which is about 45 minutes from Tampa. We had about 3 or 4 hours there and it was nice. VERY relaxing. Allison couldn't get wet because her incisions haven't healed completely but she just laid on the beach and rested. Of course we were in our knee shorts and shirts. :)

Allison is doing pretty good. She has good days and bad days. Her pain was aggravated by the travelling, really from Minnesota to flying to Tampa and then riding back with us. That was her plan and her choice. The doctor okayed it. We stopped about every 2 hours and such but it took its toll. I don't know if I mentioned or not but she is severely anemic right now. Her hemoglobin is 8 which is half of what it should be. We are still working on getting her blood at a therapeutic level on the Coumadin and the doctor will address the anemia in a bit. Alot of the iron rich foods are foods that also thicken blood so that is complicated. We will get through though. We are so thankful for her opportunity for surgery and that it seems to have been successful. I only say 'seems' because we won't know for certain until our next Mayo visit and then the next milestones are varied over the next two years.

So....that is our update for now.

Have a great day :)
Love,
Jennifer