Dennis Elder-10/15

Dennis' feeding tube was removed at Mayo on Thursday. Amen! He has been having bouts of pleurisy occassionally. Chest x-rays were done that showed that everything is looking good. Overall, he is doing very well and looking good! He is back to his fiesty self! Again, I say Amen.

He still has daily struggles that he must deal with. Most people spend at least part of their nights, lying on their sides. Dennis is not able to do that right now. So he is having to sleep with a Genie Gizmo that allows him to incline. That takes pressure off of his back. Hopefully, he will eventually be able to lie on his side again. (Note from Lynn: I don't know this to be a fact, but I ASSUME that doctors had to break his ribs so that they could operate on his esophagus. My surgeons had to do the same thing to me when they did my open heart surgery. Afterwards, the ribs are wired shut again. Eventually, the ribs heal but the wires stay in place. In my case, it took 2 months before I felt comfortable lying on my side and even longer before I could sleep on my stomach. It always felt like my heart, etc was falling forward. Not a good feeling.)

The weather is really nice right now so Dennis is starting to walk more. He and Susan are enjoying the little things in life that most of us take for granted.

PLEASE pray for Susan! Her headaches have gone from mild to border-line migraine. She is living with their recurrence every day now. Susan thinks that they are probably brought on by stress.

In God we trust.

VLE-B