Dad’s Surgery Update

People have asked me for updates on Dad’s surgery. I’ve given updates on Facebook, but not everyone is on there. Why is that? So, here’s the run-down for everyone else.

Dad was born with one kidney. This wasn’t discovered until he had surgery in the late 1980s. Everything was fine for most of his life and many people live long lives with one kidney.

A couple of years ago a doctor discovered a mass on his one kidney. They monitored it and then this year decided that something should be done. The mass was most likely a tumor. The tumor, in addition to rising creatine levels, made surgery necessary.

The typical surgery for a kidney tumor is partial or complete nephrectomy, or removal of the kidney. In this case, this was not an option given that he only has one. Kidney tumors are always treated as if they are malignant because they do not respond well to traditional cancer treatment like radiation and chemotherapy. Thankfully, they rarely metastasize. Dad, Mom and the doctors opted instead for a Laparoscopic Renal Cryoablation.

Cryoablation is essentially the freezing of the tumor, in place, until the tissue is dead. The surgery was on Tuesday, March 10th and Clarian North in Carmel. It involved the insertion of several needles and scopes into his side and a carefully controlled injection of -40 degree Celsius inert gas into the tumor. The surgery went well and as far as everyone can tell the tumor is completely dormant.

A couple of days after the surgery, the kidney shut down. He stopped producing urine and his creatine levels shot up. The doctors immediately ordered him to start dialysis. Fortunately, this was something he and Mom were prepared for. He was in the hospital longer than we would have liked, about a week, before he went home. After returning home he immediately started a dialysis routine in Lebanon.

The dialysis center in Lebanon has only been open a few years. Without it he would have had to drive to Indy 3 days a week. Mom opted to not return to work to care for Dad and get him back and forth to treatment. He was on dialysis for about a month when he got the surprising news from the doctors that they were going to take him off the treatment! Turns out that his kidney function has bounced back after the stress of the surgery. His kidney is still failing, but he is no longer in end stage failure. They’re going to monitor him every couple of week, but at least for now, no more dialysis!

So, that’s the update! Dad’s doing well we’ll hopefully see him, Mom, George and Dawnielle this weekend. Oh, and happy 76th birthday to Dad and happy Earth Day!

Why aren't you on Facebook?

It's been nearly two months since the last post on the Roach Family Blog. This has been brought on for various reasons. Weddings, funerals, holidays, surgeries, baseball, new U2 albums. But mostly it's been brought on my Facebook. Seems like nearly everyone we want to keep in touch with is on Facebook now! So, the question is, why aren't you? Cathy and I have been posting regular updates, pop culture jokes, family photos, political ramblings, movie trailers and all that other fun stuff over there. Check us out here:


Jim's Facebook
Cathy's Facebook
Parker's Facebook: Coming 2018

We'll still likely to post on our blog, but not as often. I'll likely post longer articles and rambling here. I need to write up something about Dad's surgery soon (he's doing well).

So, see you all on Facebook!

Parker Update

I think it is time for a Parker update! This might involve some bragging- but I am completely entitled, I am his mom!! Look at that face! I can't believe how big he is getting! He wants to do everything for himself - if we accidentally do something for him, he will completely redo it just so he can do it. It can be really hilarious! The other night he wanted to get his blanket from his room and I got it. He got so mad and then took the blanket all the way back to his room just so he could get it.

He is in this eating phase where all he wants to eat are pancakes-microwavable baby pancakes. I can't let him eat all that enriched flour and sugar all the time. So I have tricked him a little. He does find the whole wheat blueberry waffles acceptable and I even was able to talk him out of using syrup! And he will drink the drinkable yogurt with it - so I don't feel as bad. I think he likes to eat this stuff because he can make it himself - he can open the freezer, put them on the plate and push the buttons on the microwave. A few more weeks and Jim and I can start sleeping in on the weekends - he can fix himself breakfast and work the tv - why does he need us? JUST KIDDING!

His other phase right now is that he wants to know how to spell everything. Everything he looks at he asks you how to spell it. So far, from memory, he can spell: Parker, stop, go, off, pool, open, on, no, hot. It is exciting to watch his little brain working. It is fun to watch him make connections between things and how things work. And to know that he really does hear us even when we don't think he is listening!

The funniest thing he does is ask why -constantly! We still haven't come up with a pat answer that will satisfy him. We use "Because God made it that way" alot but then we get "Why did God make it that way" He is fascinated with why the Hulk only wears pants. "Why does the Hulk only wear pants for" (and yes he ends ever sentence in "for" we are working on that!) "Because he gets angry and grows out of his clothes" "Why does he get angry for" "Why did his clothes get too little for" "Why did he turn green for" This usually ends with "I'm not sure, you should ask your dad" Super Heroes are really Jim's area. The cycle is just so funny and it is usually the same set questions every day!

And I think that by far though best thing that he does is the spontaneous "I love you Mommy" and "I love you Daddy" that he says several times a day. He says it in this sweet little voice with a tight hug that just makes all right in my world.

And there you have it! A Parker update...

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When I'm 18.........

Every since we took Parker with us when Cathy voted, Parker has been very aware of things he can't do because he's too young. So far the list of things he has to be 18 to do includes:

• Vote
• Drink coffee
• Ride in the front seat of the car
• Be a Dad

Today I tried to tell him you have to be 18 to play with Star Wars light sabers. Parker response? "No you don't, Dad. Those kids (on the commercial) aren't 18." I can't put anything over on this kid!

Tubes in, Adenoids Out

The Roaches are back from the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St. Vincent's in Indianapolis. Parker's been having chronic ear infections since.....well....since he was born. He had ear tubes inserted when he was 8 months old and they helped for a while, but this summer he's had one infection a month. One tube was still in and not functioning correctly and the other one was long gone. Tuesday morning, bright and early, Parker had a second round of ear tubes inserted and had his enormous adenoids removed. Apparently his adenoids were so large they were blocking his Eustachian tubes and not allowing for proper drainage of the ears. It was all around a pretty good experience. Parker and I toured the hospital the day before and that helped a lot. That plus him being able to drive a Bat Mobile ride-on car from the prep room to the operating room. He was good to go, barely even noticing we weren't coming with him! He had some trouble with disorientation in the recovery room and that was probably the worst for Cathy and me. But after a good 5 hour nap he was back to his usual happy and bright self in no time. He was ready to go home yesterday morning though! The doctors and nurses at St. Vincent's were fantastic. They made everything very easy.

Also, a big thank you to everyone who's called or e-mailed their concerns!

Congratulations George and Dawnielle!

The Roaches spent last weekend in the Windy City helping my brother George and Dawnielle get married. By "helping" I mean Cathy helped make the corsages, I gave a best man's toast and Parker slept through the ceremony. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was great to meet George's Chicago friends. They are probably wrapping up their honeymoon in sunny Sedona, AZ right about now. When they get back they'll be moving into their new apartment in Carol Stream, IL. (Weather in Sedona: 78 and sunny, weather in Carol Stream: 53 and showers). We wish the newlyweds lots of luck and love in their new life together! See you guys at Thanksgiving?!

36/36

Parker was in the doctor's office yesterday (pink eye) and they weighed and measured him. He came out at 36 inches and 36 pounds. I just thought that was kind of cool. ............carry on.............

Parker's pick up line

We visited Lebanon a few weeks ago to help Cathy's Mom re-roof her house. While we were there, Cathy and Parker visited with Kary Hill and her family. While the kids were playing, Kary's youngest, Molly, who's about 7 months or so older than Parker, can downstairs wearing one of her Disney princess dress up gowns. Parker proceeded to tell her "Molly, you're a pretty princess. Wanna see my underwear?" When Cathy told me this, I just about died laughing. Watch out ladies, here comes Parker!

Potty Training: Done

Well, that was easy. What's the big deal? Parker was potty trained in a little less than 2 weeks. Well, we've been working with his for almost a year, but once he decided he was ready to do it all the time, he was ready. He now wears big boy underwear all the time, except for long car rides and at night. And even then, the extra precaution hasn't been necessary. We were even away from home the last two weekends and he had only two accidents. I don't even count one because it was at the end of a 3 hour car ride and we were stuck in construction traffic in Chicago. He went 4 times at Denny's on Friday night! Our baby is growing up! Next big step, tricycle proficiency.

When I'm Big

So, last night Parker went down a list for us of all the thing he was going to do when he gets big. Here it is:

• Pee on granny's tree like cousin Jake did.
  
• Play football on a football field.
  
• Watch Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 movies.

That kid of ours is so flippin' cute!

Politics, Poker, Potty Training and Pepper Potts

So, I haven't posted much in the last few weeks. Work and the great, although cool, weather has kept me busy.

I was in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada, for 5 days at the beginning of the month for the 100th annual conference of the American Planning Association. Yes, that's right. The good citizens of Bloomington paid to send me to Sin City. This was my first trip to Las Vegas and it may have been my last. The conference was great, but the city was more than I can handle. The conference Keynote speaker was Congressman Earl Blumenauer from Oregon. He spoke about McCain's "Gas tax holiday" and the sorry state of public infrastructure and infrasture funding in the country. I also got to attend a session by Jack Dangermond, founder of ESRI about the future of GIS including consumer oriented geographic data systems, like Google Earth, and the sharing of data and data analysis tools over the web. Of course I had some fun too! I played a little video poker, a little 3-card poker, a little video blackjack, a few slots. In the end, I came out about $20 ahead. I ended up checking out 5 casinos; Paris, Bally's, Bellagio, Planet Hollywood and the classic downtown Golden Nugget. The whole city stank of capitalism to the extreme, unchecked growth and wealth, and conspicuous consumption however. Everything was for sale and had a price. Not really my style. While in Vegas, we made one trip out of the city to Red Rock Canyon. This was the first time I'd ever been in any kind of desert. We were lucky because it was a beautiful spring day in the 60s and the desert flowers were in bloom.

I saw Iron Man on Tuesday. It was phenomenal. They stayed true to the comics story line and Robert Downey Jr. was a perfect Tony Stark. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to stick around in the theater until after the credits. There's a great scene with a new character and major hints about future movies. Also, if you're quick enough, you can apparently catch of glimpse of Captain America's shield in Stark's workshop and the band in Caesar's Palace (Which I didn't get a chance to go into while I was in Vegas) is playing the Iron Man cartoon theme song from the 1960s. In my opinion, this was the second best super hero film that's been made, right behind Spider-Man 2.

We are in full blown potty training mode with Parker and it's going well! He's been using the potty sporadically for almost a year. He's been wearing underwear almost exclusively during the day for about a week. He still doesn't go #2 in the potty, but we're working on it. We bought him a bunch of underwear with his favorite characters on them and we're keeping spare pants with us all the time. I hope he's totally potty trained in time for George's wedding in October.


While I was in Vegas, I missed the highly anticipated Barack Obama rally at Assembly Hall. I was impressed when I heard that 17,000 attended. That's more people than live in Lebanon! This pales in comparison to the 75,000 he attracted in Portland Oregon last week. Cathy didn't get a chance to attend the Obama rally either, or the Hillary Clinton rally 5 days earlier. My parents got a chance to hear Bill Clinton speak to a less than half full Lebanon Middle School gym. Only 750 people turned out to see him. Kind of sad considering this was the first time that a president had visited Lebanon since Abraham Lincoln. The Clintons' visits to Bloomington and Lebanon didn't help much. Obama won both counties, but Clinton pulled out a narrow victory in the state. To all but Clinton, the primaries look like they're all but done. Obama has Clinton the pledged delegate lead and is 57 56 delegates from clinching the nomination. November can't come soon enough!

Lots to Celebrate

The Roach family had lots of fun and excitement this past weekend.

• The weekend started on Saturday as the Roach kids threw our Dad a surprise 75th birthday party. George and his girlfriend Dawnielle (more on that below), and Cathy and I have been planning the party for the last couple of months. This is the biggest "milestone" birthday since we've all been out of college and more or less "adults" so we thought we'd make it a good one for Dad. All his brothers and sisters and all but one of Mom's brothers and sisters were able to come, from as far away as Maryland. We had it in the old Stokes Elementary school building in Lebanon. The last few years the building has been used as a community center, housing a day care center, a church, and several social service organizations. Cathy said the building hadn't changed much since she was there nearly 20 years ago. Mom works at the daycare center and got us a great deal on the room. About 85 friends, family and neighbors packed into the cafeteria and gave Dad a big surprise. He said that it was his first big birthday party ever. Well, it was about time. Happy Birthday Dad!
  
• After leaving Dad's party, we headed over to Montgomery County for Parker's cousin Jake's 4th birthday party. Parker loves to play with his cousins and had a blast even without a nap all Saturday. And he even left the party with a free hand-me-down bicycle. Win-win. Happy Birthday Jake!
  
• The celebration continued on Sunday as we met Mom, Dad, George and Dawnielle for lunch in Indianapolis. Those two crazy kids shocked us by announcing their engagement! Everyone was ribbing them about getting married all day Saturday, but George kept a straight face. He probably had the ring in his pocket the whole time. He popped the question at Eagle Creek Park in Indy before lunch then we followed them back to the park to take some pictures for them before they heeded back to Chicago. Congratulations George and Dawnielle!
  

Dick Ford: 1936-2008

Long time McElwee family friend Dick Ford died on Wednesday. Dick and his late wife Polly were friends of Cathy's Mom Frances from high school. They were reacquainted after Polly died in 2000. Dick was a lively and welcome addition to McElwee family gathering the last few years and he will be missed. Our prayers and sympathies go out to the Ford family.

Funeral services will be held at 1:00 on Saturday at the Advance Community Church. Memorial contributions can be made to The Advance Community Church, 305 North Main Street, Advance, IN 46102.

Easter: 1977

My brother George and I chipped in and got some of my parent's old 8mm movies digitized for Christmas. I was originally going to try to do it myself, but time and energy got away from me. Plus I needed to find a variable speed 8mm projector to sync the 29.97 frame per second video with the 18 fps 8mm. Made my head hurt. George found a company near where he lives called fodeo.net to do the work. I haven't seen the full DVD transfer yet, but he's really pleased with the way it turned out. Now, through the magic of the internet and telicine transfer technology, the Roach Brothers bring you Easter 1977 from the Roach Family Film Archives (also known as a box in my parent's closet). Just don't tell Jim and Tella, it's a surprise.

123s to 911!

So, Parker sometimes stutters a little when he gets excited. His brain is working faster than his words are coming out. I think it's adorable. I have to keep myself from repeating things in his stutter so that he learns to say things correctly. Well a couple of weeks ago we were giving him a bath and he was talking and stuttering a little. It reminded me of the chorus from Public Enemy's 1990 single "911 is a Joke." So, I sang it to him: "So get up get, get get down, 911 is a joke in yo town." I may have done it one other time since then. Monday, Cathy called me into the bathroom when she was giving him his bath. He was singing it himself, without prompting. His mother was so proud, let let tell you! Now we just need to get the kid a big clock necklace, two turntables and a microphone and he'll be set. "Yeah boy!"

Mexico Caravan '07

Video from George's recent trip to Mexico.

George's trip to Tijuana

My brother George led a group from his church to Tijuana, Mexico, last week. They spent 4 days building houses in the city. Check out his blog post, or his roommate's web site for more pictures.

Monkey Birthday!

Monkey Birthday!,
Originally uploaded by jcroach.

It was a Monkey Birthday weekend at the Roaches as Parker celebrated his second birthday with family and friends and a big bouncy thingey. I like to think the highlight was the new swingset and slide that Parker got from his Mom and Dad and Grandpa and Nana. I spent most of Friday putting it together then on Saturday decorated his Monkey Birthday Cake. Yes, I am a Renaissance Man. I make Cathy call me that now.

If you want to see more pictures of the party, check out the link to the right.

Battle of the Bands

Thought I'd pass this on for some free advertising. My cousin, Jack Waggoner, has band, The Strokin' Aces, that's trying to get seen and heard in the Indy music scene. They're playing in a Battle of the Bands at Birdy's nightclub in Indianapolis on Sunday, June 3rd. So, if you're in indy that weekend and want to hear some good live music, check them out!

Long time without an update!

Ok, I've been slacking on my blog updates, so here's a big one.

• Congratulations to Mike and Julie McElwee on the birth of their 2nd daughter, Madeleine Grace McElwee. Parker is no longer the youngest grandchild.
  
• Congratulations to Matt and Connie Brown on the birth of their 3nd child and first daughter, Cassidy Rynne Brown, who was born on January 21st.
• Cathy, Parker and I saw our first "kids concert" on February. We saw Justin Roberts here in Bloomington. It was a benefit for the Children's Corner Cooperative Nursery School. He has some infectiously funny songs that I can't get out of my head!
• We celebrated my 32nd birthday a week ago. It was rather uneventful, but it was great to go out to dinner with my family. Parker loves pizza! My parents however didn't call me on my birthday and sent my card "postage due!" I'll be milking that one for years, I'm sure.
  
• Parker continues to grow and amaze us. His new favorite words are clock, button, crayon and star. He's learning how to hop and he's got the best "ribbet" I've ever heard! We're working hard on his colors and "Please" and "Thank you."
  
• I keep getting hooked further by Heroes on NBC. It's the super hero fix I've been looking for since I "grew up."
  
• I leave on Saturday for a week in New Orleans. And no, it's not going to be drunken debauchery. I'm part of a team of about 20 from our church that are going to help rebuild and repair homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. It's part of a spring break blitz being organized by the United Methodist Committee on Relief.