After the wedding

Pete and Eliva, Johnny and Sue

Josh Jacob's Wedding

Sam Jocob's little girl, Paige


Molly Kirschstein and Josh
Josh and Molly are living here in New Ulm, Josh works with the fire dept/ambulance crew, and Molly works in Mankato at the clinic in records.

Before the wedding

Mom and Elvia

4 Generation Picture Judy, Jada, Brenna (Jada's little girl - going into first grade- doesn't she look like Judy when she was little?)

Pete, Elvia, Judy and Johnny.

Grandpa & Grandma Update

As you can see, the stone on Grandpa and Grandma's gravesite has been taken out to be fixed. They are going to put in re-bars to keep the concrete from cracking again in the future. We do not know when the stone will be put back, but we will let you know how it looks fixed!! What a bargain for only $213.00. Much cheaper than I thought.

Day #2

Well, day #2... Here is the progress. No progress on the front, but mom and I laid out how we would like the front to look...pavers by the front steps, then rocks, bushes and maybe one or two larger rocks in front of the window. In the back - bad news, the support beams for the deck are rotting, as you can see in the picture, so we need to get those fixed. We also have a brand new driveway in the backyard... Whoo hoo!

The crew working this year are Brynn, Steve and Tony. Brynn is taking Kristen's place because Kristen is having a baby within the next couple of weeks... They had to quit early today because it was raining and they did not want to create mud. They will be back Monday along with Sean, the guy from Gag's to move the air conditioner, and Steve the guy from Puhlmann's to see what can be done about the deck support beams. Stay tuned....

One Year Later - WOW!

Wow - Look at year later - we have never had such nice grass! It is like carpet! This is good because just wait until you see pictures of the back yard now!!

Backyard Before

Day #1 - Summer 2009

Well, here we go again! Tony and his crew came today, and tore out everything in front of the living room windows. We originally were going to keep the bushes, and just re-do the rock and border, but the winter was really hard on the evergreen bushes - and they probably had reached their peak anyways. Also, we thought, it did not pay for Tony to come and re-do the rock and border, then come back next year and replace the bushes. Not too much grass got torn up because they used a tractor to pull the bushes out. They are going to continue with the side of the hill when it dries out - it rained this morning and it is pretty muddy. Another item - I asked Tony about the Ash borer; I did not want the tree that Dad planted to die - and he said he could do a systemic treatment for only $25.00 - what a bargain. It is worth the prevention in case the ash borer makes it to New Ulm. I would hate for something to happen to the tree that dad planted.

Memorial Day 2009

Mom and I put flowers out at the cemetery today...

Devin's appointment at Mayo went well today. It was a completely different experience than we have had at Gunderson or any other medical facility we have ever been too and we walked away feeling that it was too good to be true.

There are 2 philosophies used for dealing with the hips of children with Spina Bifida. The older philosophy is to make sure that the hips are in socket. This can often mean surgery after surgery to keep them in this position. Even after repeat surgeries it can still be very difficult to keep them in socket because of the muscle imbalance that is present in children with Spina Bifida. The other thing that happens with surgery is that the hips stiffen up, which makes it difficult for children to be in certain positions after surgery. According to Dr. Shaunessy, Devin is at the beginning of this window. It sounds like we could do this up until he is about 7 years of age. After that, the process becomes more difficult to perform.

The other philosophy is that you leave the hips in a dislocated position. In order to implement this, both hips need to be pretty equally dislocated. The thought is that people can and do walk with their hips dislocated. While able bodied individuals may have pain with dislocated hips, people with Spina Bifida do not seem to have the pain sensation in the joints. While Dr. Wintersteen (Gunderson) is indicating that Devin's left hip is out of socket, Dr. Shaunessy feels that they are both out of socket. The left slightly more than the right, but pretty equally. The long term prognosis for each choice seems to have similar out comes.

Dr. Shaunessy was hesitant to make a decision on performing surgery without the advise of the other Spina Bifida Clinic doctors, but did give us information on non-surgical options. Mayo's philosophy is that children who have quadriceps that function should not use KAFO's so he has ordered that we discontinue the use of them. We are hoping to work with our PT to transition to only AFO's but our PT does think that the KAFO's have been a useful tool in getting him walking. Dr. Shaunessy feels that if we can not accomplish walking without the KAFO's that the tendon that causes his foot to turn in should be cut and at that time they will also correct the twisting of the lower legs, as this is not likely to correct itself. Dr. Wintersteen (Gunderson) had thought that this might correct itself. Dr. Shaunessy is thinking that this surgery would be more of a priority than the hips, given that the feet turning in is preventing him from being able to walk without KAFO's. This would involve casts on the lower legs only and would still allow him to stand and crawl.

We have made the decision to discontinue our doctoring at Gunderson. We will go to a local Pediatrician and go to Mayo for all of the Specialists. We will go to our first Spina Bifida Clinic at Mayo in about 3 months.