Saturday, September 18, 2010

Ryle High School Homecoming

Tonight is Ryle's Homecoming Dance. Michael & Mckenzie are going together and Emily is going with her friend Foxx. Emily had dinner with her girlfriends before the dance. Michael had dinner with a large group of friends. Everyone looked amazing & they are all so excited!

Emily & her girlfriends.




Michael & Mckenzie & their friends.

Thanks to Em's GREAT hair stylist...Aunt Amy!


Emily & Foxx



Michael & Mckenzie.




Thursday, May 20, 2010

Update for Grandma
We visited the eye specialist a week ago and Grandma does have the "wet" macular degeneration in her right eye. This is very diappointing news but it is treatable at this stage. The doctor has said that it is a very mild case and that hopefully she will respond to the treatments and they will be able to keep the disease from progressing. She had her first treatment yesterday. This involves getting a shot directly into the diseased eye. Of course they numb the eye but it is a very unsettling experience. The "shots" will be given once every six weeks for three treatments. After that they will run more tests to see if the treatments are successful.

We also visited her G.P. this week and he has recommended that she undergo physical therapy to strengthen her legs. She has had weakening of her legs for the past couple of months and hopefully this will help.
We go in next Thursday for an evaluation by the therapist and a recommendation on what may help her. Let's hope that she will be more mobile and move about easier.

Her birthday is the 29th of May and we will be having a little get together for her. She will be 94 years. old. Go Granny!!

I will continue to keep you all posted. If you get a minute, drop a line here to the blog or drop her a note.

bj

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Hi Everybody
I hope all you mother's had a great Mother's Day. We had a great day here in northern Kentucky. Julie and Cory had us all over for a cookout. How brave they are! The weather did not cooperate as much as we would have liked, but we all had a really good time.
Hannah's First Communion was a few weeks ago and it was indeed a beautiful day. What a little angel she is!
Emily's 8th grade dance was this past week end. She and her friends are really beautiful young women and they all had a great time.
Both the LaRoy's and Wiehoff's have been busy with soccer, basketball, scouts and on and on. I think they are all ready for summer vacation.
It won't be long now.

Grandma's medications for her congestive heart failure seem to be working well. She has had no swelling in her ankles and has had no more breathing episodes that we know of. I do think that the whole ordeal has slowed her down a little bit, though.
Her latest concern is her vision. It has been slowly deteriorating for the past few months and has reached a level that is fairly difficult for her to deal with. Her left eye is the one that had the macular degeneration so badly a few years ago. This eye is not very functional. The vision in her right eye has dropped from 20/30 to 20/50. The doctor has increased the power of the reading part of her glasses lens. So far this has not had a very big impact on her vision. We will be seeing a specialist today to check for macular degeneration progression in her right eye.

In other news, Ken is doing better after his second surgery and we are all looking forward to the day when he and Todd will be making a visit home.
Trenda will be having sugery on the disc in her upper neck area next Monday. This will hopefully help the problem that she has been suffering with for so long. Good luck Trenda.

Let's hear from each of you. Share some of what you each are doing. I will continue to post updates on Grandma.

bj

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Grandma....
Grandma had her angiogram yesterday at 3:00 p.m. The doctor said that he was very pleased as he found no new problems with her heart. We knew she had congestive heart failure and a 'leaky' valve. There were no blockages or anything unexpected. He said that her problems will be controlled with medications.
She had to lay flat for about 5 hours and then they watched her for another hour and we got home around 9:30 last night. She was pretty tired but other than that she was doing well. She had a very restful night and was doing well today.
We have doctor visits next tuesday and thursday with her g.p. and her cardiologist. I will keep you all posted as to how she is doing.
Ken's big surgery is tomorrow, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
bj

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all
It was so good to be with everyone on Easter Sunday and get caught up on everyone's news after such a long hard winter. It was indeed a beautiful day.
Spring has sprung. The weather here in Kentucky is really beautiful. Mrs. Duck (we recently found out her first name is Jemima) is on the nest again and taking very good care of what looks to be about a dozen eggs. She carefully turns and covers each egg each day. I think this is a little earlier than last year. Can't wait to see them hatch.
Spring break will be here in Northern Kentucky next week and it looks like a good week for all of the kids.

The week before Easter we were visiting Todd and Ken for about 10 days. Ken needs to have another surgery on April 16. The doctors will drill 8 holes into the top of his skull in an effort to allow blood vessels to be pulled into his brain. This is a very simple explanation but the surgery is more complicated than I can explain here. Please keep them both in your thoughts and prayers. Ken will need to discontinue his Plavix for 10 days before the surgery and this is what caused him major problems with his surgery last November. He has been off the Plavix since Sunday and so far things are going pretty well.

On Easter Sunday night Grandma had an episode of breathing difficulty.
She did not tell anyone until monday evening. Mike was with her and said she was still experiencing some shortness of breath. We took her to her general practitioner on Tuesday. He had some blood tests done, made a couple of small changes in her medications and called her cardiologist for a consult. We took her into her cardiologist the following morning and he recommended an angiogram. Ted was with her at the cardiologist and he was very impressed with the doctor's explanations and reasons for the test. Grandma has agreed to the test and will have the test at 3 p.m. on Wednesday April 14. If there is a need for a stint it will be put in at this time. We know that there is a problem with her heart but the only way to pinpoint the problem and be able to treat it is with this test. Overall Grandma is doing fine at this time however she is a little nervous but I think the wait is the most difficult thing for her. Amy paid her a visit on Friday afternoon to check her lungs and talk to her about any questions she has with the procedure. She is ready for this to happen.
The doctor recommended that she not be left alone at night as another episode could happen (it is more likely to happen at night when she is laying down). Debbie, Mike and I have been taking turns spending the night with her. On Sunday Linda is coming up and has agreed to stay with her through her test on Wednesday.

That is all the news from here. I will try to keep everyone up to date on all the happenings of next week. Keep us all in your prayers.

bj

Thursday, April 1, 2010

We are Alive and Well in NC

Hello to all, finally back up and running, thanks Todd! It's good to hear what's going on with everyone, and for those who are going through a trying time, our prayers are with you.

We are all good here, busy with life and all it has to offer. Love watching the kids grow up. Zack is doing great in school, math is the most challenging subject but he's such a trooper, he keeps trying. He is such a good kid, he makes us laugh. Chase is the brain, everything comes so easy to him, he's a sweetheart and a great brother. Meg still runs things!! I am the princess, she is the queen!! She's amazing as well, we are so blessed to be their parents.

We miss seeing you all and hope life finds you well. Lots of Love from the Jenkins!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Update

Ken has been taken into OR for a cerebral angiogram. Dr. Deshmukh is performing the procedure himself. Hope to hear more in a few hours.

If the angio shows that the artery bypass is not supplying enough blood, we have to discuss more options. Perhaps a vertebral artery to MCA bypass which would mean another surgery on that side.

Here is the angio from October 2009. The left side shows his good side. The right side shows the bad one.



Sigh . . .

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Happy Spring!



Finally the snow has melted and we are starting to see some green leaves poking up out of the ground. Probably the one real sign of spring for us around here was that Mr. and Mrs. Duck returned this week for a short visit. One of the first things she did was to check out the area where the nest was last year. They are so beautiful and fun to watch; I hope they end up nesting with us again this year.



Mom had her follow up visit with Jim (her G.P.). He was quite pleased with her progress. He
has cut her water tablet in half. He also stressed that it is very important for her to use her cane as she expressed to him a feeling of unbalance when she walks. Nothing really new, her blood pressure is excellent and he seemed quite pleased with her progress.



She had a pretty busy week this week. Tuesday is the day we go to the grocery and run other errands. She is ususally out from about 10 a.m. to around 2 or 2:30. I think this tires her out quite a bit but she likes going out and choosing her own supplies. On Wednesday we went in to the doctor and stopped at the drug store. Mike, Rick and Debbie treated her to dinner out that night. On Thursday we had lunch with Chris and Teal and she seemed pretty pleased to be out and about. On Friday her cleaning ladies came over. This is usually a busy day for her and also a great opportunity to have someone different visiting.



I know Linda has been busy with her gardens, Andy is working hard on exams, Julie and Cory are busy preparing for moving day and the LaRoy's and Wiehoff's are juggling all their usual activities. Amy is having some work done around her house and busy preparing for Hannah's First Communion. Ken is making slow progress but progress nonetheless.

Sherry, it was so good to hear from you. Please, keep in touch.

If you are reading this -- take a minute to update the rest of us on what is new with you.

Enjoy these beautifu day. bj

Monday, March 1, 2010

Greetings from 3113 Edge Mar Dr

Hi All!

I think I have finally figured out how to post to the blog. Sounds like Bonnie has been keeping everyone up with Mom/Grandma. I just came from her house and she seems fine today even worked around the house a bit. When Mom works around the house it means she will be tired for the next few days. I try to go over at least once a day and check on her. Mom's basement recently started to leak with all the snow melt but hopefully it will stop again.



Julie and Cory close on their house in the morning. Julie has lists of things to do; or rather a "book" of things to do, according to Cory. I will start helping with the painting on Wednesday. I'll try to remember my camera to get some pictures posted.



Andy will start taking his exams sometime this month. I know he is looking forward to this portion of his studies to be over.



Glad the snow is starting to go away....everyone keep warm.



Debbie

From Todd

Some spam has been coming through on the blog as comments. They pose no danger, and the IP address from the sender is being blocked, so they should stop.

Todd