Iowa

Well, I made it to Iowa on Thursday morning safe and sound. The taxi came to pick me up at 3:15 so I could be sure to get on my 4:45am flight. Other than having to de-ice in Bismarck and again in Mpls/St.Paul, it was an uneventful trip. I was glad to see my sister, Kysa, waiting for me in the airport.
Mom was hooked up to her IV when I arrived at the hospital, getting hydrated before the surgery. She made it through the surgery very well. It was; however, a complicated procedure. The doctor had to call in reinforcements as he discovered that she was 100% blocked in both of her femoral arteries. She is now sporting 3 new iliac stents and they weren't even able to do what they were set out to do in the first place, however, they are thinking that with these blockages cleared, the other won't be necessary. She recovered very well from the surgery and we were able to go home Thursday afternoon, as planned. Due to the excessive amount of contrast that they had to use during the complicated procedure, they are concerned about renal function, so her next surgery on her carotid arteries is pending. She will have bloodwork on Tuesday and then we will go to Des Moines on Wednesday to see the surgeon and will then find out for sure if her kidneys are doing well enough for the surgery on Thursday. I am supposed to fly back to Bismarck on Saturday, so I'm hoping that everything goes as planned.
It snowed here on Friday (I think that's what day it was?) so I wasn't able to escape the snowy weather. However, I learned that Bismarck is expecting another blizzard and saw on Scott's Facebook page that he has already cleared 5 inches of wet snow from the driveway with plans to clear at least that much, or more, again tomorrow morning. I don't think spring is ever going to arrive.
My sister, Kim, and her husband, J.L., were here for the weekend so it was nice seeing them. I hadn't seen her since a year ago this past Christmas, so I was glad that I was able to see her this weekend. Everyone was here except for Scott and the kids, and I certainly did (and do) miss them. I know Gage and Emma would have had lots of fun playing with Colton.
Speaking of Scott, Gage and Emma............they seem to be doing great. I don't think they are going to want me to come back home with as much fun as they have been having with Dad. Emma even got to have her friend, IsaBelle, spend the night last night. They have had quite a busy weekend and will probably need to rest at school this week. I mentioned to Emma on the phone that she probably wouldn't want me to come home and she said, "WHY?" in quite a shocked voice. When I told her why I thought that, she reassured me that she DID want me to come back home.
I just wanted to be sure and let everyone know what was going on as most of you may not have Facebook, where a lot of the dialogue has been happening lately.
I'm hoping you all have a great week and praying that everything goes well here with Mom.