Flatus

I came across this passage while studying today. I thought it very funny and descriptive. I realize that not everyone will agree with me, but I still wanted to share. I hope that you can at least get a chuckle from this...

From The Merck Manual, 16th edition:

Flatulence: Among those who are flatulent, the quantity and frequency of gas passage shows great variability. As with bowel frequency, persons who complain of flatulence often have a misconception of what is normal. In a study of 8 normal men aged 25 to 35 yr, the average number of gas passages was 13 ± 4 in one day with an upper limit of 21/day, which overlapped with many persons who complained of excess flatus. On the other hand, one study noted a person who expelled gas as often as 141 times daily, including 70 passages in one 4-hour period. Hence, objectively recording flatus frequency should be the first step in evaluating a complaint of excessive flatulence.

This symptom, which can cause great psychosocial distress, is unofficially described according to its salient characteristics:
· The "slider" (crowded elevator type), which is released slowly and noiselessly, sometimes with devastating effect;
· The open sphincter, or "pooh" type, which is said to be of higher temperature and more aromatic;
· The staccato or drumbeat type, pleasantly passed in privacy; and
· The "bark" type (described in a personal communication), characterized by a sharp exclamatory eruption that effectively interrupts (and often concludes) conversation. Aromaticity is not a prominent feature.

Rarely, this usually distressing symptom has been turned to advantage, as with a Frenchman referred to as "Le Petomane," who became affluent as an effluent performer who played tunes with the gas from his rectum on the Moulin Rouge stage. Despite the flammable nature of flatal H2 and CH4, no hazard is likely to those working near open flames, and youngsters have even been known to make a game of expelling gas over a match flame. However, gas explosion, rarely with fatal outcome, has been reported during jejunal and colonic surgery, and even during proctosigmoidoscopic procedures, where diathermy was used.

This last week Tuesday, March 10 was my mom's birthday. It was a sad day...I wish that I had been able to be home with my dad and sister to celebrate her life and her birthday and to mourn her loss. I cried more on Tuesday than I had in quite a while. That same day I got a couple of emails from our Swiss relative. One of these included an older photo that I wanted to share. This photo shows, in the back row (the big people, left to right), Dad's Swiss second cousin Ursula, Dad, Dad's Swiss second cousin Margrit, Mom, and Aunt Ginnie. In the front row (the little people) are Teresa and my cousins Ali and Dusty.

I hope this posting finds you all well. I am doing OK as I remember Mom frequently this week and as I miss Stacy (she is in Germany with her mom and friend Julia for the wedding of her friend Ryan...hopefully she will bring some pictures we can share).

God Bless,

KON

A New Post ... At last!

It has been over 2 months since our last post. I had planned to update our blog a month or so ago, but realized I only had pictures of Emma, so I waited it out a little longer. Now, I realize that my pictures still are mostly of Emma. We have been busy, mostly working and enjoying the time we have off together.
I found Emma showing off her buck teeth in her kennel one night and could not stop laughing.
Here is Kon holding the baby Judah in a carrier, while we enjoy dinner. Below, Emma is giving kisses to Judah. She really likes him!
Emma got a haircut in anticipation of my mother visiting this month. The cube she is sitting on is from Teresa's work in Bozeman. The multi-functional cubes have been a hit in our house, acting as an ottoman, seat, and end table!
We had a special visit from Dustin, Shannon, and Caedmon last week. Here's a picture of the whole group at the Mall of America where we spent a couple of hours catching up.

Last, we had the pleasure of dog sitting a sophisticated Dachshund named Lucy last week for one of my colleagues. Look at how she sits up in the chair. So fun! Emma enjoyed having some doggy company too.
Kon is working hard this month on the Labor and Delivery floor, delivering babies. I have a lighter month and a week of vacation coming up too! Hope all is well! Love, Stacy

Winter Wonderland

Here is a quick photo tour of our last month. Fred and Teresa visited us for Thanksgiving. Here we jumping with downtown St. Paul in the background. The weather was frigid! We stumbled upon an awesome evening at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul where we watched Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" from on-stage. The live show was impressive and we are hoping to go again in future months with future guests!
Here is our studious dog. She likes to sit on the desk chair and watch all of the happenings on the street. She keeps us pretty entertained with her fun personality.
In early December, we spent a short week in Montana. We had a great time visiting both sides of the family. All of Kon's cousins are having babies, and they are all growing so fast and are so cute! Kon and I tried to spend some time in the mountains. It was too early to ski but we did spend one morning picking out a Christmas tree, and hiked up the "M" on the Bridger's a couple times too.
The following is Kon's artistic picture.
Rochester has been hit with some snow over the past couple of weeks. Here are some pictures from today. Emma loves the snow and does a great job of playing in it even when it is deep.
This is the view of our home this afternoon. It is blanketed!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Love, Stacy

The Emma Story

Kon asked me to share the story of how Emma became a part of our family. Really, I should wait a few days as he just posted a new blog entry yesterday, but here it is ...

On the first full day that Fred was in town, Fred and I took a walk on the trail behind our house. On our walk, we met Emma, who was being walked by a volunteer from the shelter. We stopped to pet Emma, and the volunteer told me all about how I could become a volunteer too (I thought that would be the perfect way to spend time with dogs without actually taking one home). Emma was super friendly and so excited to have us pet her that Fred and I walked to the shelter and picked up the volunteer paperwork. Over the course of the day, I kept thinking about Emma and then looked her up on the shelter website and found out she was a Cockapoo (a breed that is supposed to shed less and be hypoallergenic). I was sold. I begged Kon to go to the shelter with me that afternoon, but first we all had to go to the hardware store. I typically hate going to the hardware store, but tagged along, in hopes that afterward we could go see Emma! Well, by the time we made it the shelter, I was told that there were already two families who had filled out paperwork to adopt her. We left immediately, and I was crushed and crying.

I spent the next 2 days browsing the internet for dogs to adopt in Minnesota, all the while watching the local shelter webpage to see if Emma was going to move from the "available dogs" column to the "adoption pending" or "recently adopted" column, but she didn't. So I emailed the shelter, and she was still available!!! One woman couldn't take her for a month and the second wanted a running dog and thought that she was too small. So, that Friday afternoon, hours after I received an email that she was still in need of a home, Kon, Fred, Teresa and I went to the shelter, and came home with Emma. She has been fantastic so far. She's only peed in the house once, and that was at my Aunt and Uncle's house (sorry!). She is a snuggler (perfect for me) and a playful, fast runner in the dog park (Kon loves to take her). Anyway, we're excited for everyone to meet her!

Introducing Emma and Judah

It has been a long time since my last update...a lot has happened, but I will just share a brief overview (and some pictures). Sorry to those of you who have checked for updates during this long dry spell. In particular, sorry to Grandma and Grandpa Kessler (pretty sure you have checked more than anyone), and to Nicole as you have watched for pictures of Emma.

Stacy and I returned from MT and Mom's funeral to jump right back into residency stuff. It didn't feel right for quite a while, and it still has its times when things just seem a little off. Stacy came back to cardiac intensive care, while I came back to anesthesia and psychiatry (interesting combo, but it worked well). We each had three weeks of that rotation before starting our next ones.

In October, Stacy was doing neurology, and I worked all night shifts in the emergency department. I moved the guest bed into the basement, so I could sleep in the darkness during the day. The last week of the month I left Stacy home alone (well, almost...more to follow). I went with all of the first year emergency medicine residents (except Niels...also more to follow) to Chicago for an emergency medicine conference. We had a good time there.

Earlier in October--Dad from the 13th and Teresa from the 16th, both through the 20th--my family came to visit. It was so nice to see them. While they were here Teresa helped with decorating our house.This is a picture of our bedroom. If you compare to the earlier bedroom picture you will notice the new lamps and the new rug (thick and cushiony...feels great on bare feet early in the morning). Teresa also helped brain storm a lot of other changes. She will get to help again when they visit around Thanksgiving.

While they were here I also got help from Dad on a couple of house projects. We put some lights in the back porch and moved a couple of light switches among other things. The changes are great, and I would be happy to share them with anyone who chooses to visit us.

Another big change happened while they were visiting. We got a new dog.
Emma is just over one year old. She is half poodle and half cocker spaniel. She may be the sweetest dog I have ever known. Perhaps Stacy will update the blog with a more complete story behind the adoption at a later time. Emma likes to rest with people she loves...here you can see that she and Dad get along quite well together.This is Emma at one of the dog parks in town. She thinks it great fun to play with the other dogs and to meet many new people also.Judah Niels Harden was born October 22. Niels (his dad) is one of my emergency medicine co-interns, his wife Karly is a nurse at Mayo, and together they are our best friends in Rochester. We get to see them pretty frequently, but we look forward to spending more time with them in the future. This is Karly and Niels when they visited us the other night for dinner. It was the first time Judah had been over to visit.

Dad and Teresa will be coming in just under 2 weeks. They will be here over Thanksgiving, and I am really looking forward to spending more time with them. Stacy will be working that week, but I have the week off (we each have 3 weeks of vacation this year...2 of our weeks are at the same time, and we each have one week where we are on vacation alone).

That's it for now. We hope to do updates a little more regularly in the coming weeks, but we are making no promises.

God Bless,
KON

Here is Mom's obituary...I tried to just find a link for it, but it didn't work. Teresa was the primary author, and I think she did a great job. Anyway, I thought it would be fitting to include this in our blog. Kessler, Phyllis A.
Phyllis A. Kessler, 53, of Belgrade passed away Aug. 24, 2008. She was born March 10, 1955, in Bozeman to George and Thressa (Danhof) Kingma. She loved Jesus. She was beautiful, very gifted and she loved life and everything about it, especially babies, Earl Grey tea and crossword puzzles. Phyllis grew up in Bozeman the eldest daughter of George and Teddy Kingma's five children. After Phyllis graduated from Manhattan Christian High School in 1973 she had planned on refining her natural artistic abilities at an art institute, but she met and fell in love with Fred E. Kessler, a Bozeman native and son of Fritz and Lillian Kessler. He was the love of her life and she his. Together they raised two children, Konrad Lee Kessler, who is training to be a doctor of emergency medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Teresa Renee Kessler who is working creatively, inspired by her mom, at Shack Up Interior Design Studio in Bozeman. She was very proud of them both. They lived together in Belgrade for 31 years where she worked alongside Fred in their business, Kessler Dairy Supply. Phyllis was a wonderful, dedicated, loving wife and mother, amazing daughter, sister, aunt and friend, and she loved to extend that love to others. She was a volunteer with Love In the Name of Christ, coordinating volunteers from her church with needs in the community. She was also active in Bozeman Christian Reformed Church, teaching Sunday school, leading craft lessons, and hosting small group Bible studies. Every fall she looked forward to the beginning of Bible Study Fellowship where she was able to meet and make new friends and deepen her relationship with her Savior. She enjoyed family time, having fun and laughing, traveling, reading, painting, making jewelry, sewing, skiing, fishing, going on walks with Fred and eating Blizzards. She especially enjoyed spending time at Ennis Lake where God welcomed her home while water skiing on Aug. 24, 2008. She is survived by her husband, Fred; son, Kon and his wife, Stacy; daughter, Teresa; parents, George and Teddy Kingma; siblings, Tom Kingma (Judy), Jan Stehman, Ken Kingma (Sandy), Tammy Marcotte (Jerry) and many nieces and nephews. She touched many lives with her tender heart and will be missed and continually loved by them all. Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 29, at Bozeman Christian Reformed Church, 324 N. Fifth Ave. Visitation at Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday. Memorials in her name may be made to Love INC, Love In the Name of Christ, P.O. Box 7117, Bozeman 59771.