Red Barn CX Classic

Hello all,

As some of you know I direct a cyclocross event every fall (or at least I have for the past 3 years) up at the Tree Farm in Taylors Falls. I'll add a pic to this post later, but wanted to give a link for everyone to check it out.

We had a great event yesterday, perfect weather, record number of participants, it really couldn't have been much better.

http://redbarncx.blogspot.com

Our good friend Peter Nelson came out and participated. He had a great race and took second in the B race. The photo is of him.

Time for some Cuter Photos (Sorry Paul!)

We took a trip to Duluth's Great Lakes Aquarium with G'ma and G'pa Letnes and our nephews last weekend. As you can see, Anja loved looking at all of the animals, especially the big fish.

The boys (Emillio, Memmo and Erik) had fun with the water table exhibit and running around the playground outside.

Anja modeled her new winter coat for us. It's down, so it should keep her nice and warm this winter!

Doing well

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay on updates - no news is good news right?! In this case it definitely is. My dad is doing very well, still tired but all in all things are heading in the right direction. He has been out for a few short walks and even came over to help celebrate Memmo's (our nephew's) birthday, even if it was only for a few minutes. He still gets tired pretty quickly and certainly still needs a lot of rest, but we are very happy to know that he is doing better every day.

The photos above are from the scene of the accident. See if you can spot the metal hay rail at the top of the barn. The metal object in the second picture is the pulley that landed on my dad's head. Yes it fell off of that rail - anyone care to calculate the force of that thing coming down?

Warning! The photos below are not for the squeamish.

I've made them small so you can enlarge them if you wish by clicking on them. I think these are safe to post now, considering we know he's going to be o.k. These were all taken with my mom's cell phone in the ER at Regions. When we first got there, they hadn't stapled the wound yet, so every once in a while some blood would start to run down my dad's face. You can also see them cleaning the wound and finally putting the staples in.

Day 5 Update

We received this e-mail from my Mom this evening:

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Day 5 Progress

Paul Erickson has been making steady and slow progress.

The metal object that struck him caused the skull to break with two small bone fragments 1 cm into the brain cavity.

Also, there is an additional fracture or crack from the top middle of his forehead to the top of his left eye. There is some fluid in the sinus cavity that should dissipate on its own.

After the 3 CT scans the doctors concluded that there was no bleeding in the brain cavity so thankfully no surgery is required for now.

Dental Work

On Thursday, Paul went to the dentist to check out pain in the teeth and jaw. The force of the object caused a crack in a crown and readjusted his bite. Work was done on Thursday and a follow-up session will be required next week.

Prognosis – Good

Paul is now taking short walks within the house and is gaining strength. He is still experiencing soreness in his head, neck, teeth and shoulder.

Again, please no calls or visits for now.
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Here is a picture of Paul's last CT scan.

Update on Paul . . .

I stopped by with Jamba Juice for Paul and Marilyn this morning and though Paul looks better, he's still feeling quite tired and achy. He had an appointment today with his dentist, Dr. Frank Steen (from Concordia of course) to look into some pain he's been having with his teeth. Apparently, his teeth shifted from the impact. It wasn't a dramatic shift, but enough to cause some pain. Dr. Steen was able to do some work to put his teeth "back in order" and it seems to have helped a little.

Paul isn't quite up to phone calls or visitors yet, but is appreciative of everyone's continued care and concern.

Good news!

Paul at noon today. You can click on the image to make it larger so that you can count the staples for yourself. (This isn't necessarily for the squeamish!)

I visited my dad this morning before work and he was tired,
but doing ok. It's hard to get solid sleep with all of the
commotion, beeping and people checking in on you. He was
looking forward to some breakfast, I think it was supposed
to be French Toast, so that was a good sign. While I was there
they took him down for a CT scan.

Later this morning, I got a call from my mom with the results.
Great news! The air bubble or pocket that was underneath the
fracture has dissipated! I think the skull depressed about 5 mm
which may have been the cause of the air pocket. In any case,
this was the last major concern and we're greatly relieved
that it has cleared itself up.

As of now, my dad is scheduled to be released tomorrow morning.
They actually gave him the choice to stay another night so he
may decide to come home earlier, but we'll see. He is still
very achy, groggy and tired and I don't think one can be too
cautious in his situation. He has described feeling "like
getting hit in the head with a sledge hammer," which is
basically what happened. We'll see how things go.

We took some pics while in the ER that I'll try and post soon.
They're a bit grizzly, but I know my brother Karl will
appreciate them. Karl is famous for wanting to do medical
procedures on himself, drawing blood, etc. He may have even
wanted to staple himself back up after his spleen was removed.
In any case, I know Karl will want to see all 7 staples they
used to close the wound in my dad's forehead. He probably would
have wanted to put the staples in himself if he had been there.

Thanks for everyone's support!
Erik

Paul in Accident

My father, Paul, was in an accident at the tree farm late Sunday afternoon. Somehow, the metal pulley attached to the hay rail at the top of the barn came off and struck him on the forehead (think 20-25 pound cast iron object hanging 20 feet up). He has a skull fracture at the top of the forehead and is bruised up a good deal. However, he is recovering nicely and considering what could have happened, he is doing well.

At this time, the docs do not think he'll need surgery, although there is a small bit of air in the area of the fracture that they want to keep a close eye on. They assume it will dissipate on its own, but don't want to take any chances. There was no damage to his spine/neck, brain and thus far it appears he does not have a concussion. Throughout he has remained stable, lucid, able to walk, and fully conscious. We are very grateful that things were not worse! He is currently at St. Paul Regions and is scheduled for another CT scan tomorrow morning. After that the docs will make a decision about what to do; home or surgery are the two likely options.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he recovers. For now, he has requested no phone calls or visits until he's regained a bit of strength and finally been allowed to get some real sleep. We'll keep you posted with any new details.

Thanks for everyone's support, we really appreciate it.

Pick of the Week: Go Badgers

Say "Hi" to Bucky!

Anja's pick for book of the week is Connie McNamara's Go Badgers, a gift from who other than our friend from Madison, Peter Nelson. It's a fun book, with simple words and pictures, the UW fight song (Anja likes it when you sing that page), but it never gets old!

Anja cruising around with her pick. Do we have a future Badger in our midst?!

Swings, rocks and slides . . .

UP! UP! UP!

As you can see, Anja loves going to the playground. This playground is only about a 1/2 mile away from our house, right next to the library, so we get there quite a bit.

The rocks are cool, but not so cool when you have to do the old finger sweep to get them out of her mouth! (Enter Nuk!)

Hey! Hey! A tunnel!