Hi, Frost Lake 5th Graders!

Hello, hello Everyone!

Are you excited about the new year starting? We've been working really hard over at the school to get everything ready just for YOU!! So, we'll see you on Tuesday - can't wait!! Enjoy the weekend, and see you soon!

All the best -

Ms. Lucas :-)

Welcome Back to School!!

Hi Everyone -

How have you all been this summer? It has been a long, relaxing time for me, and I feel GREAT!!  I am ready to see you all soon!

Me enjoying a neighborhood picnic.

I wanted to thank you again for everything you did to help me get better after my surgery - your good thoughts and notes on my blog really helped me more than I can tell you. I will always hold a special place for each of you in my "new" heart!!

I hope you all have a wonderful year in 5th grade, whether you are at Frost Lake or somewhere else.

All the best to each of you, always -

Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Summer Break!!!

Congratulations, Kids! You are 5th graders!!!
Be good this summer, read ALOT, and come back in the fall!


Lots of Love,


Ms. Lucas (Sandy:-)

Hello!

Hi All,

I hope you all had a great 3-day weekend! Yesterday (Memorial Day) was very beautiful in the afternoon! I like it when the temperature gets up above 75. I lived on the equator for several years, in Malaysia, and I LOVE hot weather. The hotter the better!

Well, things are going along very well here. I continue to do my daily walks and such. I just finished a book titled, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. It is a very interesting, well-written story about a man who fought in World War II (he was in the war from about 1942-1945, when it ended). The things he went through were very difficult, but he survived, and went on to live a full life (he is actually still alive - he is 98 years old now!). His plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean, and he and two of his friends drifted in the ocean, in two small rafts, for 47 days. Many other very bad things happened, but he somehow kept going. Quite an interesting story.

What are you all doing these days? What are your plans for this summer? There are lots of interesting programs to get you out and doing interesting things. Here are a few links that you can check out - talk to your family about joining in!

• St. Paul Programs - The official St. Paul City page. Click on the link and you can look at a whole book of programs available in St. Paul.
• St. Paul Urban Tennis - Learn how to play tennis at a tennis court near you!
• Sprockets - This website let's you type in your address, and then finds summer programs that are near you!
• East Side Arts Council - provides accessible, low-cost or free arts programs to children and families.
• St. Paul Public Library - Don't forget all the cool things you can do at the library - read, listen to books, use computers - and LOTS of other stuff, all summer long! Don't forget the bookmobile!

I hope you find something you like - there are a lot of other things going on this summer - and you probably have some good plans for yourself!

All the best - I think of you often -

Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Quick Hello!

Hi All,

Well, I don't have much to report, other than I am continuing to recuperate. I am walking every day, several times. It still hurts where they made the incision and did the surgery, but that will get better soon, too.

I have been reading a lot - mostly mystery and detective novels. I am currently reading one titled The Lincoln Lawyer. They made it in to a movie, which apparently was not very good, but the book is o.k.

What are you reading these days? My neighbor, who is also in 4th grade, gave me a book called The Lightning Thief. It was really fun. The setting is in the present, but it's about a boy whose father is one of the Greek gods from Mt. Olympus and his mom is just a human. This causes him quite a lot of trouble, but he seems to handle it.

What else is going on with you there at school? I hope you all are doing your work and enjoying yourselves. Let me know what's going on!

All the best -
Ms. Lucas (Sandy:-)

Home in Minnesota

Good Morning!

Guess where I am sitting in this picture to the left. If you guessed that I am sitting in my own front yard, you are correct!! I am back in Minnesota!

I flew home last Thursday. The people at the airport could not have been nicer. They put me in a wheelchair and pushed me right through security with no problem.

Me in wheelchair

One word here on people in wheelchairs... I noticed that often adults don't make eye contact with you if you are in a wheelchair, but kids almost always look at you and say hi. Maybe this has something to do with your height when you are sitting in a wheelchair - I was a lot closer to the height of most kids than adults - but in the future, I will definitely make an effort to connect!

I was very nervous about flying, but there was no reason to be. The flight was smooth from take-off to touch-down. Thank you, pilots!

Since arriving home, I am doing mostly the same things I was doing in New York:

Walking

Resting

Reading

Eating

Walking

Reading

Resting

Eating

And so forth.

Yes, I know this sounds a little boring - and honestly, it IS a little boring - but this is what my body needs to get better. As my doctor explained, it's like I have a broken bone right in the middle of my chest where they had to cut me open to work on my heart. They can't put a cast on it, like they would if I had broken  my arm or my leg, so I just have to take it easy until it heals.

As you can imagine, sitting still is NOT the easiest thing for me to do, so if you have any ideas for things I could do while I am getting better, definitely let me know!

What books are you reading these days? What are you doing in school? I know you have a few field trips planned before the end of the year. I hope you are continuing to do good work in the classroom so you can go enjoy your well-earned field trips!!

My mom and dad leaving New York

Well, that's all for now. My mom asked me to tell you all hi. I think she misses blogging! Maybe she will start her own blog!!

I hope you all are well.

All the best,

Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Homeward Bound!

Hello, hello,

Headed to Minnesota!

Well, I went back to see my doctor today, and all the news was good! He said I have a "perfect repair," and my x-rays showed that I only have a little moisture in my lungs, so they said I can fly home tomorrow - yippee!!

I am very happy to be going, but I have to say, I will always have a very soft spot in my heart for New York City. The people here at the Mt. Sinai Hospital, and the Marriott Hotel on 92nd Street where we stayed, at the little restaurants and stores in the neighborhood, and the taxi drivers who drove really carefully after I told them I had heart surgery, were ALL wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. It is a busy, alive, eclectic place. I met people from the Philippines, Morocco, Guyana, Colombia, Turkey, Somalia, Canada, France, China, Hong Kong, and many other places. Fantastic!

So, I'll be back in Minnesota tomorrow, but my heart (kind of literally!) belongs to New York!

More soon -

Love, Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Back to the Doctor - Fingers Crossed

Me leaving hospital!

Hello, hello,

Sorry I haven't posted much. To be honest, I have never been more exhausted in my life than I have been since getting out of the hospital.

My daily routine =

Wake up

Weigh myself (I have to do this every day at the same time for two weeks to make sure I am not gaining or losing too much weight).

Eat a little breakfast.

Rest.

Walk a little.

Rest - read a little.

Eat a little something (I'm supposed to eat many small meals a day instead of three BIG meals).

Walk a little, maybe up one flight of stairs.

Rest some more - read.

Eat a little more.

If weather is nice, walk outside one block to park - find a bench, and rest.

Walk back to hotel room.

Rest.

Eat a little.

Watch Oprah (I have never really watched Oprah, and now she is going off the air!)

Walk a little.

Rest.

Eat a little dinner.

Watch Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

Walk.

Get ready for bed.

And that's about it. Not very exciting, but it's what I can do right now!

Dr. Adams

Chest x-ray

Today is a big day as I am headed back to see Dr. Adams for the first time since leaving the hospital. They will take an x-ray of my lungs to make sure they are working o.k. Hopefully he will tell me that I can fly home to Minnesota tomorrow! Fingers crossed!

I hope you all are well and being good at school! What are you reading these days? I need some good suggestions!!

All the best!

More soon - Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Still Doing Fine!

Hello, hello dears,

Well, I have been home from the hospital for almost four days (since last Thursday). I was IN the hospital for almost 10 days!!! That's a long time!! As I said in my last post, it feels like it was a dream - but it wasn't. I kind of keep trying to put the pieces back together from the day I went in. It went something like this:

On Monday, April 25, I went in to the doctor for a pre-surgery test, and to find out final details. They told me that I would need to check in at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday for surgery. "Great!" I thought, "Not too early, not too late."

Well, at 3:30 in the afternoon of the 25th, the office called and said there had been a change, and I would need to check in at 5:30 a.m.  "Well," I thought, "that's o.k. This way I won't have to wake up and worry for very long!"

So, we all got up, and walked through the quiet streets of Manhattan at 5:00 in the morning to the hospital. The hospital is about 12 blocks from the hotel, so it took us about 20 minutes to get there. It was nice to just take in all the quiet, fresh early morning air as we walked along 5th Avenue right along Central Park. The flowers were in full bloom everywhere (I think my mom shared some of the beautiful pictures of flowers she took). It really buoyed my spirits to see this feast of color on the walk to the hospital!

Upon our arrival, I had to change into my hospital attire - this robe is the same one that pretty much everyone wears when they are having surgery. I actually have TWO hospital gowns on here - they have no buttons, only a little string at the top to tie them together, so I wore one frontward and one backward. Lovely!

They then put me on a stretcher, I said good-bye to my family, and was then rolled down to the operating waiting area. I asked if I could walk down, but they would not let me ("hospital policy").

I had to wait there probably 30 minutes. Several doctors came by to say good morning, as did my nurse Her name was 'Matherese' which, of course, means 'Mother Theresa,' which I took to be a very good sign! My anestheseologist's name was Dr. Stone. I tried to remain calm, breathing deeply (in through my nose, out through my mouth), until it was time to go in.

Finally, it was time to go. Dr. Stone pushed me right up to the operating theater doors, at which time he asked if I wanted to walk in!!! I couldn't believe it, but of course I said YES. And that is what I did - I jumped right off the stretcher, pushed open the doors, and walked right in for my surgery!

Well, that's all for now. Things are moving along very well - I am walking every day and going up and down stairs and eating and resting (alot!). My energy is coming back a little at a time - I'm not doing Tae Kwon Do yet, but I hope to someday!

This is a picture of me with some friends who live here in New York who came t visit yesterday. I may be tired a lot of the time, but I can still stick out my tongue! :-)

More soon - thanks for your continued good thoughts!

Much love - Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Out of the Hospital Thank-You!!

Super-tech-mom

Hello my dearest friends!!

I am just finishing my first FULL day out of the hospital!!! I can't believe that I was in the hospital for almost 9 days! It feels like a dream.

The first thing I must do is thank my MOM for taking over blog responsibilities in my absence. She was not very sure about all of this, but she did it anyway, and it was so great!! Thank you, super-techno-Mom!!!!!

She is also in this next picture:

My Angels

Look closely - can you see the wings sprouting from the backs of these three?? That's my dad, Jim,  on the left, my mom, Jo Ann,  in the middle, and my friend, John, on the right. They all came with me out here and have been my guardian angels every step of the way. They stayed with me before surgery when I was really scared, and sat for 6 hours during my surgery waiting to find out if everything was going to be o.k. Then they stayed with me in the hospital every day (they took turns - my room was small!! :-), helping me with every little thing that I could not do for many days.


And look here - these are just a few of the things that I looked at the morning I went in for surgery that helped calm me (these are just a few that I could take pictures of - I was surrounded by all your good thoughts!!):

I'll write more tomorrow about how I'm doing (generally very well!), and how everything went at the hospital (generally very well!), but for now just THANK YOU - to every one of you for every little thing. 

More Soon - 

Love, Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Thursday Reporting

Triboro Bridge

Ms. Lucas' mom reporting.   She was released from the hospital, to a hotel, this morning.  The hotel is very near the East River. We can see the Triboro Bridge.  As you may be able to tell from its name, the bridge connects three of the five parts of New York City. The parts are called Burroughs. At night there are lights all along the bridge and it is a very pretty sight. As you might imagine, the bridge has thousands of cars cross it each day.

Ms. Lucas has to keep up with the breathing machine each hour, trying to get that ball to go higher and higher. She also has to walk, and rest each day.

This will be the last time I report, as Ms. Lucas will be back to posting her own stories for you all. I thank you all for your good thoughts and greetings. This has been a fun thing for me to do.  All the best to you all.
Jo Ann Lucas

Monday Report

Ms. Lucas at work

Greetings to you all. This is Ms. Lucas' mom. Getting better from this operation is a little like being on a bicycle ride in a place that is new to you. There are unexpected dips in the road and curves that you can not see around and hills to climb. One of the dips in the road to getting better  involves the left lung.  We all have two lungs, and they are the parts of the body that use the air we breathe in to make our bodies work. The left lung is not working as well as it will, so that is making it harder for her to get that ball up on the breathing machine.  The repair that the surgery was for is working perfectly, and that is the best news.
We have met people in the hospital who are from Poland, Russia, Singapore, Turkey, The West Indies, Jamaica, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. The next time you look at the globe, check out the location of some of these places. It is fun to listen to the different languages.
All of us send thanks to you for your care and good thoughts and packages and cards and flowers....each of them helping us along this "bicycle ride" in a place that is new to us.
Jo Ann Lucas

Reporting Some More

Saturday reporting on Ms. Lucas' from Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC. This is her Mom once again. Ms. Lucas walked the distance of walking around the edge of the classroom three times. She continues to work very hard to make the ball climb in the breathing machine. It hurts to do that because of the repairs that were made, but it is very important work to do to get well.

I have gotten to go to the park across the street from the hospital and these are some of the flowers that are blooming today.

Thank you for your care and good wishes.  It makes getting better easier.  Jo Ann Lucas  (Ms. Lucas' mom)

Reporting Some More

Tulips in Central Park

Saturday reporting on Ms. Lucas' recovery from heart surgery in New York City.  This is her mom again and I want you to see the flowers that are blooming right across the street from the hospital. We get to walk in the park sometime each day

Reporting

Good Morning.
It is a rainy morning in New York City.
Yesterday Ms. Lucas got started on physical therapy. She had to touch her thumb to each of her fingers. While in a sitting position, she had to straighten each of her legs and bend her foot up and down. She had to move herself from side to side in the bed, without using her arms. She realized that takes some thinking about and she was able to do that.
She also started working to be sure she is breathing deeply. What she uses looks like a clear measuring cup, with numbers on the side. A ball rests on the bottom of the cup and there is a bendable, great big straw that she puts in her mouth. Then she must breathe in, and that makes that ball go up in the cup. They cheer when she gets it up to a certain number.  She does this five times every half hour, and they hope she will get the ball to go higher today.
The nurses, therapists and doctors are taking good care of her. She will have stories to tell you soon.
Greetings from all of us and thank you for your continued care.
Jo Ann Lucas  (Ms. Lucas' Mom)

Surgery report

Sandy's Mom, Jo Ann

Greetings.
This is Ms.Lucas' Mom.
The surgery was yesterday and the doctor was able to repair the part of the heart that needed fixed.
 This morning she is eating ice chips.

Thank you for your comments and greetings to all of us here. We are grateful to you and will continue to keep you posted.

Jo Ann Lucas

Surgery Tuesday

Mom

Hi All,

O.K... I'm checking in at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. New York time, which is 5:30 a.m. St. Paul time. Most of you will be sound asleep! My mom, Jo Ann, will get on the blog and post an update when she has one (I'm teaching her how to do this tonight - it will be her first blogging experience!).

Guggenheim Pavilion,
Mt. Sinai Hospital

Here is a picture of the Guggenheim Pavilion at the Mt. Sinai Hospital where I will be. It's beautiful and airy and full of light - and it was designed by an architect (that's a person who designs buildings) named I.M. Pei. Mr. Pei is originally from the country of China, but he has lived in the U.S. for most of his life. I interviewed him after he designed a building at Indiana University where I went to college about 30 years ago. I was working for the school newspaper. Isn't that cool!!

Not exactly sure when the surgery will start, but the whole thing will take about 6 hours. Thank you for all your comments on the blog, thoughtful notes, little bracelets, and mostly your good thoughts!

All the best - talk to you soon!

Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Easter Sunday in New York City

Hi All,

Well, I am not a big celebratant of Easter, but I must say, it was fun to be here in New York on that day.

Started with breakfast at Bagel Bob's - "Everything baked on the premises" - and there is nothing better (well, almost) than a bagel with lox and cream cheese in New York City. My mouth is watering as I write this, so I may have to go back for another one today.

Then we hopped a city bus and headed down to Greenwich (pronounced gren'-itch) Village, which is farther south on "the island." Yes, that's right, I'm actually staying on an island! It's much bigger than Harriet Island there in St. Paul, but Manhattan is one of the 5 burroughs (or parts) of New York City - kind of like East St. Paul, West St. Paul, etc. are separate areas of St. Paul, but everything is still really "St. Paul" - except each of the different parts of New York City is HUGE, and the part I am staying on, Manhattan, is an island. Cool, huh?! No, I am not sitting by the ocean on my towel watching the waves roll in over my toes. You will just have to go to Manhatten sometime to see what it's like!

Man with potted
plant bonnet

Ms. Lucas and 2 girls
with Easter bonnets

Anyway, on our way to Greenwich Village, we noticed a bunch of people gathering, so we hopped off the bus to investigate. It turned out to be the Easter Day Parade! The city closes 5th Avenue, one of the busiest streets in the city, for a few hours, and people walk up and down the street in their Easter finery, including Easter bonnets (which is a fancy word for hat). Here are a couple of pictures of some of the more unusual bonnets I saw. I jumped in to the picture with the girls on the right, and it turned out that the shorter girl is a 4th grader here in New York City on the island of Manhattan!

Jim and Jo Ann Lucas,
my mom and dad

Oh, and here is the picture I promised of my mom and dad. Next time you walk past my room there at Frost Lake, take a look at the black and white picture of the two adults with a baby. Well, that is the very same mom and dad that you are looking at right here in this picture. And the baby? Well, you must know who that is! :-)

Take good care everyone. More soon -

Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Grand Central Station,
New York

P.S. Remember that story we read about Herbert Fieldmouse, Secret Agent, and how he went to a train station? Well, does this picture look familiar? It reminded me of that.

Flying to New York

Hello, hello from the Big Apple (New York City's nickname)!

We left Minneapolis at 10:00 this morning - my friend Tari graciously chauffeured us to the airport. Good things happened right away, including someone walking up and handing me a voucher for free food at the airport for no apparent reason. He said, "Do you want this voucher? I've got to get on the plane right now." That was super nice as I had not had any breakfast before leaving home!

Then, I actually DID get a window seat, as you can see. I was one row ahead of the exit row, which is a good thing, also. When you sit in the exit row you have to promise to take care of opening the emergency door in case of an emergency, and I just wanted to read my book and not really worry about one more thing.

There was NOT any sort of emergency - in fact, ANOTHER good thing that happened on the way here was that there was an empty seat in my row on the airplane, so I didn't have to squeeze into my seat and excuse myself over TWO people when I needed to get up and take a quick walk down the aisle. Very lucky!

My mom and dad were already here when I arrived. They flew in from Indiana earlier in the day. I haven't taken a good picture of them yet, but I will put it up when I do. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw an interesting exhibit called - I'm not kidding - "Guitar Heroes." It was all about the history of the guitar, some of the famous people who have made them, and how they do that. The Met is a HUGE art museum, and we got there about an hour and half before it closed, so we only got to see a fraction of what they offer. I've been there before, but I love it!

Prior to that, I wandered through Central Park, another amazing place in New York. The people in charge of the city back in the 1860s were smart enough to save 843 acres, or 6% of New York City's total acreage, to use as a park for the people to enjoy, instead of building gigantic buildings all over the place. Central Park includes:

Central Park, New York City

• 7 different bodies of water (ponds, a reservoir, lake, etc.)
• 250 acres of lawns
• 136 acres of woodlands

And it's all right in the middle of one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world! Very smart!! (Actually, the people who designed St. Paul and Minneapolis did something like that when they built our lovely cities, too. They set aside lots of woodlands and lakes for people to enjoy FIRST, then decided where to put the buildings. Very smart!!).

Well, that's all for now. Hope you all are well.

More soon - Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)

Last Day of School

Washington Middle School Concert

Well, like a slow train moving along the track, the last day of my year finally arrived today! It was lots of fun! We had a concert by the Washington Middle School Concert Band and Girls' Choir in the morning ...

4th Grade Math Bee

... then enjoyed the 4th grade "Math Bee" in the afternoon (Congratulations to the victors, Demetrius and Kashie. Well done!!)

Work hard for the rest of the year, kids, and be nice to each other and to yourselves!!

I fly to New York on Saturday - hope to get a window seat. I'll wave as I fly over the school!

Check back here for more exciting and up-to-the-minute coverage of the trek to heart surgery! Pictures of family and New York soon.

Take good care - 

Ms. Lucas (Sandy :-)