Yesterday was a red-letter day. We were planning to spend the afternoon attending sessions at the WTHA in Abilene. I started to walk in the morning when thunder brought me back. It started raining and rained all morning. By 1 p.m. we had 3" in the guage. We were planning to go in for the 2 p.m. session, but the radar indicated thunderstorms and the TV was saying possible hail. Sue called from CP saying they had hail. I watched the storm in red on the radar move into Abilene. At 3 the radar indicated that the storm had cleared Abilene moving toward us. I told Lou we could get to the garage and drive through the rain and get in HSU. As we backed out of the garage the rain drops started. By the time we got to the top of the hill it was raining and got heavier all the way to I-20. I drove about 45, still heavy on I-20 had to stay at 55 through Baird. By Clyde the rain had lessened to let us drive 65 on in. Got to HSU about 4:15 after stopping for gas. Lou missed Joe Specht's talk about WT music. She got to visit with Noel Parsons, manning the TT Press booth and signed a JANE RUSHING book for Lewis Toland, who had presented the honorary award to her Friday. We went to the reception where Lou got to visit with a lot of friends like Margaret Waring, Tiffany Fink, who was one of the local hosts, Paul Carlson and his wife, Mildred Sentel and her daughter from Synder. I asked Janet Nuegebauer how she got Laura Bush to write the forward to her book of archival WT photos and essays by Walt MacDonald about WT. She said Judith Keeling arranged it. Laura did a great job. Janet is hoping to get George W. to do the foreward for her book on Kent Hance and George Mahon. I will bet that he will do it. He is that kind of person. When we drove back down 2228 we ran through two debris piles on the highway indicating high water earlier. My guage measured 4.5" for the day.

This morning Lou decided she had too much yesterday, got me up at 5:30 so that I could make the session I was chairing. It had been originally scheduled for 8:15, but changed in the official program to 8:00. I started on time with a few in the audience. By 8:15 the room was full and even one of the speakers came in. Dr. Toland was the first speaker, telling about immigrants from south of the border in Kelton's stories. The second speaker was Ashley Wallace, from Ireland, a student at Angelo State working on a MS in history with a great story about a hispanic woman, now 94, who overcame discrimination to become a leading teacher, married an oilman, helped him create a fortune that after his death she has used to encourage students to achieve their goals. The last speaker was Matt Tiffen, a newly minted Phd from TT who is teaching at Stephen F. Austin this year. His claim to fame was that Lou had taught his wife, Lesley, at Cooper HS in the same class as Bob Estes, the golfer now leading the Houston Open. In addition Lou taught her mother at McMurry. Tiffin's paper was a chapter from his dissertation on the history of German Texans describing their persecution during WWI. I mentioned I had read WILL'S WAR about a German descendent on trial in Abilene during that time. Also my father was interviewed by the FBI during WWII because his German name made him suspect. I always have to get my two cents in. I attended sessions and went to the dinner where my friend Travis Roberts, an engineer from Dallas with ranching interests in the Big Bend was inducted as President. Cheryl Lewis, outgoing pres told us more than we wanted to know about Hamlin. I got home at 3:15, napped till 4 and wrote my LW column.

Lou is still hurting when she tries to move but is hoping to get better. She plans to not be too active for a while.

Tonight Lou took a pain pill at 5:30 that let her dress and go to the newcomers reception dinner of the West Texas Historical Association meeting at Sharon's BBQ in Abilene. She and Dr. Ken Davis were both honored with Honorary Life Member plaques. Lou's was presented by Dr. Lewis Toland, a professor at New Mexico Military Institute. Cheryl Lewis, a nurse from Hamlin and a history researcher of the early buffalo trading in that area, is the current president of the society. We visited with her at our table. Our daughter was one year old when we lived in Hamlin and used their medical services. She knew the doctor that Lou took Kathy to. We got to visit with many old friends and got Lou home to bed by 9. She still has a lot of pain when she jars or makes a quick move with her back. She keeps hoping that the pain will cease and desist. Her appetite is slowly improving but she is still eating small portions.

She is still debating how much of the meeting she will attend tomorrow. There are several sessions she wants to attend and has prepaid for the annual dinner. Her latest decision is to take pain pills that will let her stay through the dinner. But we will see how it goes tomorrow.

We enjoyed watching the rain showers come through all morning. Not a lot of rain. Most of it soaked in, but it was much appreciated. About .5" in all. Brings our weeks total to 2". We are worried because we have seen no swallows returning this year. None have appeared under bridges or at either house. Normally the scout swallows come in about the 20th of March with the families returning by the end of the month. I have bluebird boxes up, but haven't seen any of them at our bird bath.

Today was a day to remember. First it rained all night without any hail, high wind, thunder or lightning and this morning we walked to the car under an umbrella. We then drove through the rain all the way to Ranger where Lou predicted it would stop and she was correct. We got to TWU and were allowed to park at the back door of the Library where the Librarian met us and escorted Lou to her office where a catered luncheon was shared with the Chancellor, Ann Stuart, the Chair of the English department, our long time friend, Phyllis Bridges, an English prof, Dawn Letson, Ann Barton from the Women's collection of the Library. There was an official photo op with the chancellor and then Lou spoke to 100 guests about her book JANE GILMORE RUSHING and signed 36 books. We then drove back through heavy rain from Denton through Decatur and Weatherford to Ranger Hill where it stopped. I had about 1.65" in my rain guage.

I got home just in time to attend the Pastor Parish Relations committee meeting with the District Superintendent who gave us the name of our new pastor for next year. And I still got home at 7:15 to help Lou. She did get to fix her own supper after I opened a can of soup before I went to town.

Tonight Lou said she fells like the pain is a little less. However she started the day with prescription pain pills, took more before the lecture and more before the drive home. I tell her her pain is due to the humidity. At least that is what is causing my arm pain, I am sure. But we needed the rain and thank the Lord for blessing us with it.

Yesterday we had our 10 day checkup with Dr. Siadati. He examined Lou's back and could find no cause for her pain other than the healing of the sites. He looked at Xrays taken before we saw him and found no new problems with collapsed disks, so there is no reason for the pain other than the normal healing process. He discussed the biopsy report and informed us that the biopsy was taken during the normal drilling of the hole to insert the balloon for the kyphoplasty, but they cored the hole and sent that specimen for biopsy. He thinks that an inflamed nerve may be causing the pain problem and should ease up with the healing process. Asked about pain medicine that wouldn't cause constipation problems, he told her that aspirin, Tylenol, Ibuprofin, etc. would not cause the problems of the prescription pain medicine.

This morning Lou felt some better. She found that if she can sit in a chair with arm rests that it relieves her back pain. So we moved her chair to the East and moved the rocker/slide chair to her lamp. This works better and she is feeling some better. I think the anesthesia is finally wearing off and the surgery sites are healing. She is still using her back brace during the day.

We are still praying for rain. The goldfish are making love in the pond, but rain has teased us with a trace falling. Can't even float the red marker in the big guage. Lou reads her Bible every morning. I think she is working on John and an old testament book. She also reads Amazing Grace everyday. While we were in the waiting room, and this time we were delighted to go in on time for both the X-rays and the doctor appointment, I read a book for the Library about the life of Thomas A. Edison. A pretty good school book, but he ignored the huge fight Edison had with Westinghouse on providing power for lighting New York City between Edison's DC and Tesla's AC power grids. It would have added an additional interest to the story. But I did learn some new things about Edison. He owned and loved to visit mines in New Jersey to watch the extraction of metal ores.

The good news today is that Dr. Siadati's office called with the report on the biopsy that was taken during the last surgery. There is no indication that her problem is due to cancer in that area. She is still hurting when she moves that is due to the healing of the incisions and I think is due to anesthesia still in her system. I removed the bandaids this morning after her shower and there was some blood on her gown tonight so the incisions still need some time to heal. I put new bandaids on. She is trying to wean herself off the pain pills because of the side effects, notably constipation. But she is taking them at night to sleep and is sleeping better. For a look at the animation of the surgery look at the site: http://www.spine-health.com/dir/kyph.html that my son, Mark, found.

She still has not gone upstairs to work on her computer so this afternoon I used the laptop to go through the 75 emails that had stacked up since 3/9. We got them down to a few for her to work with when she gets back to work. I was asked tonight at a meeting if she needs food, but she has very little appetite and is eating soup and yogurt and oatmeal. This is again a part of the problem with taking pain pills.

It is quiet after having all the wonderful people here this weekend. This morning Ashley made pancakes with a mix supplied by her mother on a griddle that she brought and they were good. Kathy prepared a great lunch today for us and Lou's sister, Sue, who spent the night at the Halsell house where she is working on her bookkeeping while one of Ike's daughters spent the weekend taking care of him. Before she left Kathy vacuumed, mopped, did the laundry and prepared food for us. She made an excellent pot of sirloin steak soup that is stored in containers for next week. Last night Kathy reminded us that we used to eat our supper on the front porch and watch the wildlife. The bees were working the peach blossoms, but the swallows haven't returned yet. They are due today, but were a few days late last year also.

Ashley and Ross Pagenkopf, her fiance, really helped me with chores yesterday. They took my firewood holder back to storage, cut broken and dead limbs from our peach trees and hauled the brush to the brushpile. They also fixed the container holding the goldfish food because Kathy and I saw 6 large goldfish for the first time in months in the pond after our walk. They hide under the big rock and Ash and Ross didn't get to see them. Today Ross crawled under the dining table to tighten the wing nuts to correct what Lou percieved to be a shaky table. If I had tried to get up and down doing that I would still be trying to get up. He did it like a jumping jack. Ash and Ross went to church with me this morning and I appreciated that.

Lou is improving slowly. Her back still has enough pain to require taking pain pills. Last night she slept without her back brace that she has been wearing since she got it. She says it is a life saver.

It has been a active time. Yesterday about 5 p.m. Vanessa and her friends Lauren and Kahli came in from their trip to Florida to spend Spring break with another former roommate there. They drove from Mississippi yesterday. They spent the night in the Halsell House. About 11 last night Ashley and her fiance, Ross, slipped in after we had all gone to bed. We had watched Texas beat the Aggies (NM) and the Mavericks barely beat the Celtics. Lou was in bed by 9 so we had to tell her about the Mavs this morning. Vanessa and her friends left before 7 this morning. Ashley and Ross made a grocery trip to show Ross downtown Cross Plains.

Kathy helped Lou sign a box of books that is being circulated for those who were not able to sign them at the TSHA meeting. Each of the essay authors for the book on Texas Women on the Trails will get a book signed by the others.

Today Lou is doing a little better. We got home about 11:30 this morning. Kathy fixed a great fruit salad for lunch. After lunch we all took a nap. About 3 Mark called to ask if we were watching the Aggies play in the NCAA tournament. We got to see the last half where A&M beat Penn to advance. Kathy said she was glad that Texas Tech lost so that we don't have to meet them later in the tournament. This has been a beautiful day. Lydia had filled the deer feeders and I had to put a new battery in the automatic feeder. Kathy and I made a trip to town to replace our larder. We had 1" in the rain guage and there is a promise of more rain in the future. Things are looking up. Now if Lou can heal, it will be perfect.

Lou had a good night last night. The pain is less and she slept well. Before she retired she had a shower and washed her hair that made her feel a lot better. Mary Kathryn prepared a wonderful meal last night with fresh strawberries to go with all of her baked treats for dessert. Lou is looking forward to getting back home. This morning Kathy and Mary K are visiting the Aledo Methodist church to see if they can arrange for a room for a wedding shower for Ashley. Lou was disappointed to find this morning that the Mavericks had lost to the Suns by two points. Ought to be a good playoff season.

Lou was discharged from the hospital about 10:45 this morning. She is feeling better but still has some pain. When I went to Walmart to get her prescriptions filled, I found a lumbar pillow and she likes that. The Physical Therapist this morning took her on a walk around the hallway and gave her suggestions on how to walk, get out of bed, and not to twist or bend. Her soft back brace that looks a lot like an old-fashioned girdle is helping a lot. Mary Kathryn had some great sandwiches for us for lunch with special desserts that she had baked. I had the chocolate almond rolls she made last night while Kathy and Lou had the fresh baked banana cup cakes. Kathy and MK have gone shopping, I have had my afternoon nap and Lou is watching old movies on TMC channel.

She regrets missing her WWA board meeting today in Albuquerque, but plans to make her book signing March 26 in Denton at TWU. Her surgery checkup with more Xrays is scheduled for March 23. Dr. Corky Henderson and Connie came in to see Lou wheeled out of the room. Her father is not doing too well. She is an art teacher who had an art refresher course scheduled in New York during Spring break and some intuition told her to cancel last December. We are accusing her of being psychic. She is spending her Spring break with her father in the hospital. So continue to keep her in your prayers for Lou.

Dr. Siadati came in at 4:30 and suggested that Lou spend one more night. He said she can leave tomorrow morning and suggested she spend tomorrow with Mark and go home Thursday. The PT had her walk aways and later she walked to the bathroom. The soft brace is a real help. She watched the storm go thru this area on TV. Our granddaughter has to drive to Denton tonight for one of her classes at TWU for her Master's work and Mark told her it had moved through and she should be able to get there. We always worry about anyone on the road. A new wrinkle at the hospital is that each patient has to order their meal by phone. Kathy just helped Lou order her supper. She is now ready to eat. She hasn't eaten much for the last three days.

Lou was fussing this morning about all the tubes and by this afternoon they are mostly all gone. She spent the night with oxygen, IV, catheter and leg stockings that pressurized her legs all night. She also had a morphine machine that she used sparingly to let her get a good nights sleep.

Dr. Siadati and his PA, Sean, came in about 11:30 while Kathy, Mark and Mary Kathryn were here to get any questions answered. He ordered another round of X-rays to see if there is something causing pain. He also ordered physical therapy for this afternoon and they have just gotten here. She has a new back brace that looks a lot like an old-fashioned girdle. She says it really helps. She walked around and came back with a low level pain remaining. The PT helped her learn the right way get in and out of bed. The doctor will come back this afternoon to say when Lou will be released. It looks like it will be tomorrow now.

Kathy and I ate lunch with Connie Henderson. Her father was in emergency the same time that Lou came in Sunday. Connie is married to Corky who owns the apartments that Mark and I and recently Ashley lived in out by the lake. Corky found his father-in-law in a comatose state Sunday when he went to visit him at the Alzheimer's facility. He called 911 and they were here when we brought Lou in. He has regained consciousness but had a tough time last night, so keep "Doc" Robinson in your prayers.

Lou was taken to preop at 5 p.m. Surgery started at 6:25 and completed at 7:35. Dr. Siadati reported that the surgery went well. He used kyphoplasty on L-3 and T-11 and took a biopsy on T-11 just to make sure there is no cancer problem. After a hour and half in recovery she was brought back up to the room. The nurses turned her on her side to check her back and she did not scream in pain so it is better. She has small pain due to the holes like a puncture wound from the surgery. They have her on oxygen as a usual precaution. If she does as expected she will be released tomorrow, spend the night at Mark's and go home Wednesday.

Thank all of you for your prayers. They have been answered. It even rained in Callahan County!

Lou's surgery is now scheduled for 4 p.m. This morning we had Mark and MK visit as well as Rex and Mary Gaggino. Both Mark and Mary had MRIs in their hands from their doctor's appointments. Many have responded to the email and I thank all of you.

Dr. Siadati came in while Kathy and I were eating lunch. Mary Kathryn was here. He plans to correct both places and will also take a biopsy just to make sure that the problem is osteoporosis and not cancer. If all goes well she will be released from the hospital tomorrow and will spend Tuesday night at Mark's. So we should be back home healing Wednesday.
Charles

Dr. Siadati came in this morning, looked at the pictures and has scheduled surgery for 2:30 this afternoon! If all goes well, Lou will be home tomorrow. He will be doing kyphoplasty on two areas, T-11 and L-1 if I understand it correctly. Thanks to everyone for your prayers.

It is great to have children that come to your rescue. Our daughter, Kathy, came to help and our son and daughter-in-law opened their home with no advance notice so that Kathy and I could get a good night's sleep after bringing Lou to the hospital on an emergency basis Sunday. We contacted Dr. Bechtel, who was working the weekend shift for Dr. Siadati and he advised Lou to come on in. He arranged for her to go directly to room 592 of Harris Methodist hospital where she was X-rayed and CT scanned. He looked at them and diagnosed a compression fracture of T-11 vertebra and a possible old crack of L-3. Then about 7 p.m. they took her for an MRI. We presume that Dr. Siadati will have enough information to inject plastic to stabilize her spine. The good news is that no fragments have entered the spinal canal to cause problems there.

Kathy and I left the TV showing the Mavericks game. Lou said she wanted to see it and then get some rest. We waited until almost 9 p.m. but decided if she needed sedation for the MRI that it would be a while before she got back. We are going in early this morning, hopefully to see Dr. Siadati to determine what the next step is.

I will try to keep everyone posted. I am using my laptop on son Mark's high speed connection.

The Calvary to the rescue. After hearing about our travails last night, our daughter, Kathy, cancelled her Spring Break plans and came to our rescue. Last night Lou was in great pain and about 3 a.m. her multiple doses of Milk of Magnesia finally came through and we had a big washing to do. This morning I called Dr. Siadati's office and Dr. Bechtel was on duty. He called back and called a prescription in to Abilene. I drove in and picked it up along with Lou's suggestion of a back brace. I got back and we both got a little nap in the afternoon. I got most of the laundry done, but Kathy came in in time to finish up and let me write my Livestock Weekly column and my Kiwanis weekly email. I still need to post the Library accounts before Monday.

Early Monday we will call to make an appointment as soon as possible to do whatever is necessary to heal Lou. Keep her in your prayers. She is in great pain when she tries to move. Walking is a real chore for her. The pain pills provide a little relief but aren't working as well as before.

The ornamental pears lining Main street in Cross Plains are in full bloom, to match my peach tree. I shouldn't know that because we were scheduled to spend the weekend from Thursday at the Texas State Historical Association in San Antonio. But the pain in Lou's back was too much to let her attend the sessions Friday. We got there Thursday afternoon and Lou encouraged me to attend the Witte Museum tour which I enjoyed and got to see a lot of our friends. I rode the bus out with Sarita Hixson, who grew up with Helen Kleberg Groves children. Apparently she is an Armstrong heir, or at least has ranch holdings adjacent to the King Ranch. We discussed the wind turbines going up there. She is on the TSHA board.

At the Museum Sylvia Mahoney told me that the Trails group is planning a monument at the Witte and another in Bourne. I rode back to the hotel with another board member, Joe Fulton, who is a contractor from Corpus Christi. We talked construction projects. Lou had gotten dressed and was able to walk to the honors banquet where we shared a table with Margaret Waring, the Comanche Librarian and a good friend. A lot of Lou's friends dropped by to sympathize with her. She had a lot of pain and took prescription pain pills to get to sleep. She had a bad night. She is OK in bed but walking is very painful.

This morning she decided she couldn't make the day and we needed to come back home. Because she needed something to eat with her pain medicine I got crackers and OJ downstairs. She insisted that I use one of the breakfast tickets that she had bought ahead. The speaker was Red McCombs, Mr. San Antonio who owns the Spurs and the Minnesota Vikings among all of his automobile dealerships. Bill Wright was there and before the meeting told me about he and his wife both having spine surgery. He blew a disk on a trip to Afghanistan. Don't know how he made it home. He recommended his surgeon in Houston. McCombs told about his collections of artifacts. He loves anything with a story. He told about a search for complete Gatling guns with carraige and ended up buying two. He never worries about the price. He didn't want to, but his wife talked him into buying a ranch. As a result he became a leading purebred Longhorn breeder. Even sold special organic beef for a short time.

After breakfast Lou hosted several friends in the room before she got dressed. Joella Exley came up with Joyce Roach. Joyce volunteered to chair the session Lou was chair of and got Lou's files. She had calls from Paula Marks and Slyvia Grider. Judith Keeling came up from the TT book booth to visit with Lou. We finally left close to noon and drove home. Stopped a DQ in Brady.

Got home about 4 and Lou's back didn't hurt too much riding, but before she got to bed she was in great pain. Took some bufferins. She doesn't hurt in bed, just when she has to get up to walk somewhere. She plans to contact Dr. Siadati Monday. We have had a lot of advice from everyone. The Net says that 80% of Americans have back pain and we have confirmed that. Everyone has a story. We appreciate all the prayers from everyone to help Lou overcome this problem.

Today our early peach tree bloomed. Does that mean Spring is here?

Yesterday Lou had her first hair appointment since her chemo and she rode in the car without a pillow with no hurting. Her hair dresser said she can do more when it grows another 1/2". Lou felt great and thought everything was going well until later in the day when she bent over a little to pick up something and a sharp pain stabbed her in the back. It was as intense as the first time. She first thought it was just a muscle pull, but now wonders if it is another disk failure. Today she took a lot of strong pain reliever and is ok while sitting, but standing and walking are painful. She didn't walk this morning. The last two mornings she had walked past the front gate and down the highway for aways. We were hoping that the pain would completely disappear, but it didn't.

Because I am also having some pain problems we have arranged for household help every other Tuesday to vacuum, mop and do the bathrooms.

Tomorrow she insists that we go to San Antonio for the Texas State Historical Society meeting where she is chairing a session Friday. She signed us up for the trip to a museum Thursday night and we will see after the trip if she can make that side trip, or just rest at the hotel.

So continue to keep her in your prayers. She is trying to decide whether to ride it out, which is one of the options for back pain management, or have more surgery interventions.

We had a great day today. We drove to Austin coming in on 183 through all the stop signs south of Leander, but got to the Omni hotel at 11:30 after leaving at 8. We got to sit at the table of the president of the Texas Veterinary Medical Association, Dr. Guy Sheppard, for the luncheon where he passed the gavel and made his presentations to the outstanding DVMs in Texas. We joined our daughter, Kathy, who was Guy's wife, Valerie's roommate at A&M. Valerie and Guy spent a lot of time at our house during their tenure at A&M. We have followed their career like our own family. Not only was this a year of service for Guy, his daughter and son both got married this year. They were at the table with us for the ceremony.

Our only blemish on the day was a bad mistake on my part. I decided to take I-35 to Georgetown to miss all the stoplights on 183. Don't ever get on I-35 in Austin. Even on Saturday when everyone in the Austin area gets in their car to go buy something. We got slower and slower and finally stopped. I turned off the engine and we waited for over 10 minutes. It took 2 hours to get to the turnoff at Georgetown and we got home two hour late.

There was an offsetting bonus. Because we were after sundown, we got to see the full moon arise at the end of a total eclipse. When the moon rose only about a quarter of it was visible and we got to see it rise and slowly clear the shadow of the Earth.

Right now Lou has gone to bed. Her back is still a problem but getting a little better every day. I am watching the Mavericks battle Orlando and it is a close game.

Feb 28 we went to Fort Worth for Lou's checkup with Dr. Siadati. He said she was healing well and should get better every day. We are looking forward to her recovering her energy level. Today we walked this morning and she walked further than she has all week. We think that will strengthen her whole body.

I am having problems with my right arm and have not been able to take care of all my chores. We are looking for some help. However, it got better as I drove to FW and is doing better today. Keep us both in your prayers.