Jerod and Dr. Carter...

OK, so a little update on our life. Thursday March 16th Jerod met with a neurosurgeon in Madison to talk about back surgery options. "No doubt about it," says Dr. Carter, "you are in alot of pain. (no surprise, there) I don't tell anyone that they have to have surgery, but here are your options: Have the procedure done or continue living this way." Well, DUH! Whaddya think we are going to choose? So he shows us Jerod's MRI films and my goodness!-even an untrained eye like mine could see the huge rupture on his L-5 disc. It made MY back just looking at it. The rupture was 80% as big as the disc itself. Not good. So, Dr. Carter (BTW-Nothing like Dr. Noah Carter from ER fame-more like Uncle Pat Rock with hair) says he is not sure what his schedule looks like, but we are probably looking at surgery the 6th of April. UGH-3 more weeks in pain. I could see in Jerod's face that he wasn't thrilled with that prospect, but we had mentally prepared for it. What surgeon has openings in his schedule a day or two out? Well, as it turns out-He did! When his nurse came in to go over paperwork and such, she mentioned that the Dr. had a cancellation the next day. If he gave the go-ahead, then Jerod would be under the knife and done by this time tomorrow. WOW! There are miracles to be had! We were thrilled, and to make a long story short-Jerod had a microdiscectomy done Friday, March 16th and was home the next day. His leg feels a million times better, he can walk upright and he has actually smiled a bit in the last week! It will be several weeks before we know if the nerve will heal itself 100%, but in the meantime, he can feel his toes again.

The kicker is this: Will he be able to go back to construction? My gut says probably not. If not, then what? It makes my head hurt to think about it. We are just trying to take it one day at a time and do what we can to keep afloat.

One major good thing we learned from Dr. Carter: We have a good case to sue Worker's Comp. He said that he's been involved in hundreds of lawsuits and has never lost one yet. So, we have a profession endorsement to boost our case. It is exciting! However, like everything in the judicial system, it will take a long time. Perhaps a year or two. So, we have to exercise patience, but we will prevail! Now to find a good lawyer.....not something I am looking forward to doing.

There was a road under here somwhere!

Here's the family-less Gench's

Yep, not an ugly one in the bunch!

By the time we got this picture done a full force blizzard was raging outside. The gathering broke up rather quickly after that.

Some reception photos

My handsome trio of men!
Joyce, Andrea and Patty Kelley
I love this one of Andrea and Kieran-I'm going to have to frame it.
Not sure how to read the expressions, but, boy can you tell they are Dad and son, huh?
These girls really shone that night. Brit, Tiffany and Val. They definetly aren't the girls climbing up the trees in our front yard anymore.

The best dancing partner (& the cutest)

Kieran was such a gentleman! He insisted on dancing with his mom. It melted my heart. Every so often, he does something so sweet that it makes my heart ache.

What beautiful people!

Jerod was way under the weather, so he didn't dance at all. So no cute couple shots of us..Although Kieran was a great dance partner.

We wish Eric and Melyssa the very best!

What a cute couple!

The day of the Blizzard...I mean wedding!

I'm having problems posting pictures to my blog, but thought I'd put this out there to let you know that I am trying . I have some great shots of some of you slow dancing with your favorite snuggle partner! I promise I will get those on here ASAP. Also, for those of you who might be having problems remembering what a Wisconsin winter/blizzard is like (you know who you are, Panamanians!), I'll put some shots of the weather from that day. Yes, we did get 15 inches or so of snow. But-main thing is-no one got hurt, everyone had a good time and Eric and Melyssa are now officially hitched!