| Earl was recently diagnosed with an
Abdominal
Aortic Aneurysm. On Wednesday night (July 30, 2003) he was
transported to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He went into
surgery at approximately 1:30 pm on Thursday, July 31. The surgery
lasted nearly seven hours.
The aneurysm was located below the kidney and above the aortic
branch to the legs. A synthetic graft was installed in the
problem area. Judy flew down to Mayo this morning and will be
contacting us frequently to keep us posted.
Our family will keep this site posted with any current news,
and we all wish him a speedy recovery.
Judy, Teri and Tony
|
| Latest
News (see
photos) |
| Wednesday (August 27) - Earl came back to work this morning
for 2 hours. Tomorrow he will try again to stay a little
longer. He is sleeping and eating better now and takes
walks around the block several times a day trying to
get his strength back. He wants to thank everyone for
all the cards, flowers, and e-mail's he's received.
He's enjoying the company during the day of the 3 grandchildren
who stop over frequently to check on him. This afternoon,
Colin was coming over to mow our lawn with the new riding
mower. By next week the construction should be starting
on the new workshop building in the back yard. Earl will
enjoy keeping an eye on what the workers are doing, to make
sure their work passes his approval. |
| 11:00 am
Tuesday (August 12) - Earl is home and trying to
get back into a routine. He's been stopping down at the
office for short spells to try to tend to any immediate
projects. He has just quit taking pain medicine to try
to get his digestion system back into normalcy on the
advice of Frank Wolfe. |
| 11:00 am
Wednesday - Earl is home safe and sound. Judy said he already has plans to go to Rotary lunches at the Superior and Skyline clubs this week. You can say hello to him there! |
| 4:30 pm
Tuesday - Teri called to say they are already on their way home. He is riding in the back seat of the Suburban in relative comfort and they are stopping every hour on the way home to let him get up and get circulation going. They should be home by 9:00 pm or so. |
| 10:30 am
Tuesday - Great news! Earl is going to be released from the hospital today. Teri is driving down to pick him up and will have him home this evening. All of his tubes and wires and whatnot have already been removed, so there isn't any reason he needs to stay down there. Everyone is obviously thrilled. |
| 6:45 pm
Monday - The latest news is that Earl may be able
to come home as early as Wednesday to finish his
recovery in the comfort of home. This is great news,
so we'll all keep our fingers crossed. |
| 6:00 pm Saturday - Earl had a bowl of beef broth, a cup of
Jell-O, and a glass of apple juice for dinner, so his appetite is soundly back
and he said he wanted more. |
| 4:10 pm
Saturday - Earl has been up walking around, just not very far yet. He was given a cup of chicken broth at 3:00 pm, and he said he wanted more. Tony told him about a great roast beef and provolone sandwich he had for lunch and Earl just rolled his eyes. He hasn't lost his sense of humor. He's trying to get his bowels back in motion right now, but that may take some more time. |
| 1:40 pm
Saturday - We first saw Earl at 9:00 this morning, and he was comfortably sitting in the chair next to the bed. He was doing
exercises to his lungs with a little breath-volume device and could consistently blow about 1000 ml of air. He finally got dizzy after awhile and quit. They moved him to an intermediary ICU room at 10:30 am on a different floor that is a little more relaxed than the regular intensive care unit. He's got a nice window letting in sunlight. Dr. Yarbaugh just visited with him at 1:30 pm and asked Earl if he is feeling any hunger yet. He said he is starving, which the Doc said was a great sign. He'll get to start taking sips of liquid later this afternoon and see how it goes. Everything is still looking up. |
| 3:40 pm
Friday - Teri and Tony drove down to Mayo this morning to meet Mom and see how Dad is doing. Earl is awake and alert and looking well. He was up out of bed and sitting in the chair next to his bed earlier today, but it wasn't very comfortable for him. He is surrounded by some of the fanciest machines you can imagine, and the staff in the ICU are doing a tremendous job. He and his roommate in the ICU share a single nurse that attends to them. They're upping his dosage of pain medication to try to get him more into a comfort zone. The pain intensity increased after he moved between the bed and the chair, as it pulls on the incision. His biggest discomfort is trying to clear his airway, as it is difficult to get enough air for a good cough. He is expected to be moved out of the ICU Saturday morning to go to a regular room. When he moves to the regular room Saturday, Judy plans to take him in a wheelchair out to a courtyard area within the hospital campus where there is a nice fountain and grass. The fresh air and sunshine will probably be most welcome. If anyone is interested in knowing the address of the hospital, it is: St. Mary's Hospital, 200 1st Street SW, Mary Brigh 7D, Rochester, MN 55905. |
| 8:35 pm
Thursday - The surgery went very smoothly,
according to resident MD Yarbaugh. He described it
as a very challenging surgery, especially because of
the size of the aneurysm and the relative size of Earl
M. Rogers himself. Dr. Bower, the staff vascular
surgeon, conducted the procedure and reportedly did a
great job.
Earl tolerated the
surgery just fine. Dr. Yarbaugh cautioned that many
things can still go wrong, and they will be monitoring
his heart, lung and kidney function in the ICU this
evening and into tomorrow. Earl will stay intubated
until morning most likely, and will be extubated late
in the morning tomorrow and they will possibly have
him drinking fluids by Friday afternoon if all goes as
expected. He will be in the hospital for 7-10 days
depending on his recovery. This is all great news so
far, and the most dangerous part of the procedure is
now behind us. If any resident Doctor on staff has
any more info (and I just found out they know about
this website address), drop me a line at one of the
e-mail addresses below and to the left. --Tony |
| 7:55 pm
Thursday - They are just closing up the surgery
now. The head surgeon was relieved and lets the rest
of the team complete the closing procedure. Earl will
be out of surgery around 9:45 pm, but will still be
intubated until he becomes alert and wants the
breathing tubes out. |
| 7:20 pm
Thursday - Mom just called and said a nurse told
her they successfully installed the synthetic graft on
the aorta and the surgeons said everything looked
exactly like they expected it to from the pre-surgery
ultrasound images...no surprises. Mom said she just
got back from eating at the Canadian Honker restaurant
across from the hospital and enjoyed her baked fish
dinner and salad. |
| 6:30 pm
Thursday - A nurse called during the surgery to
say everything was proceeding normal, with no blood
clots, and blood pressure is good. |
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