His Journey with Cancer

Congratulations to this years NHL Alumni Ace Bailey Award for Courage our man Earl!!!!!

Darby and I (along with 26 others) were there to accept the award for him. It was a grand event, but could never compare to the grandness of Heaven.

Feb 28, 2009

Surgery a Success

Hi Everyone,

Earl had his surgery on Tuesday and it was short (only 1 hour 10 mins) and everything went very well. They were able do the surgery with a scope which was great news as it will make for a quicker recovery for Earl and it enabled them to get a good look around the lung, which was healthy and showed no other tumors and to remove the tumor. Earl had a bit of a hard time with pain...I am not too impressed with the pain management provided, but Earl is a trooper and made it through the pain. He was feeling more like himselft yesterday and he may even come home today.

I will update again later and share the rest of the story, but right now I need to get on my way to the hospital.

Debbie

Feb 23, 2009

Go Wings Go!!!!!

Hi Everyone,

Earl, Darby and I had a great weekend in Minneapolis/St Paul,,,,shopping and hockey,,,What else is there to life!

We left on Thursday, arriving in Albertville around 2:30, checked into our hotel and then headed to our favorite outlet mall. We shopped and shopped getting lots of great deals. The deal of the weekend for Earl was buying 2 NHL jerseys at the Mall of America for $32 US (total that is) and for Darby CROCS fir $2.99 a pair. Darby broke an all time record by buying 10 pairs of shoes!!!!!
We had a great dinner at a Thai restaurant, watched some TV and then crashed for the night.

The next morning we woke up had breaky and then headed back to the Mall to finish up. We stopped at our favorite hamburger place "Culvers" and headed into to St Paul. We checked in and then....guess what!....we went to the Mall of America, where we shopped and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp.

Saturday morning we headed to the Xcel Energy Center for the Detroit Red Wings/Minnesota Wild morning skate. We had a difficult time finding our way into the arena until Andreas Lilja (who wears # 3) saw us and walked with us down to the dressing room. How cool is that! Once we arrived Earl was in his Happy Place surrounded by his favorite coaches and players. Darby and Earl were certainly made to feel at home and just visited and hung out with the guys. We had taken some pictures when we were in Detroit in November and had them blown up, so Darby and Earl had fun getting the guys to autograph them all. We hung out for quite a while and if you ask the boys I am sure they will have some stories to share with you. Earl wore his prosthetic to show everyone and was walking around without his crutches.....smiling broadly.

After we had lunch at the White Castle, we headed back to the MOA and finished some shopping, then back to the hotel where Earl had a little rest before the game.

We were at the arena by 6 and watched our team unfortunetly loose to the Wild. (5-2) But we congratulate Tomáš Kopecký, on the birth of his baby and on scoring a goal. What a way to celebrate the birth of your baby on the same day. After the game we ventured or should I say adventured our way down to the dressing room. There were quite a few Detroit fans, so we were thankful that we had our "Special Access Passes", but still had a bit of a struggle getting past security until Jiri Hudler (#26) helped get us through. We had a nice visit with Jiri, Chris Draper and Steve Yzermann, before heading into the dressing room. We hung out again and then said our goodbyes....funny we were almost the last to leave the dressing room.

Once again a very big thank-you to Mike Babcock and the Detroit Red Wings for making yet another dream come true!!!!!
I will post some pictures, in a bit.

Earl heads into hospital tomorrow morning for surgery at 10:30...so please think of him and keep him in your Prayers.

Debbie




Feb 12, 2009

Upcoming Surgery

Hi Everyone,

We have seen the lung surgeon and the date has been set. Earl will have what they call a wedge resection of his right lung on February 24th at Health Science Center. The surgery will take place at 10:30 am and he is expected to be in hospital for 3-4 days. (provided there are no complications) We were at the hospital today for a pulmonary assessment and Earl did great. We have one more pre-surgical appt next week with the anesthesiologist.

Earl is not to worried and as usual has a very positive attitude. His rehab and working with his prosthesis will be put on hold for a while, but I am sure he will be back at it in no time.

I came up with a plan to keep his mind off of the upcoming surgery...and thankfully Mike Babcock came through again, so we will be traveling down to St Paul next weekend to see the Detroit Red Wings play the Minnesota Wild. Mike is one incredible guy and we are blessed in getting to know him. Earl will be able to attend the morning skate and then of course the game in the evening. He is hoping we will be invited into the dressing room after....so let's all cross our fingers.

Earl will be playing his last sledge hockey game of the season on Monday Feb 16 from 8:45 to 11:00 at Silverstone Arena in Fort Richmond. So if you want to see him in his glory and check out the game of Sledge Hockey....come on out...I know he'd love to see you there.

Please keep Earl in your prayers and keep in touch.
Debbie

Getting to know Earl

Getting to know Earl
Earl and the Kickers

Earl's Trip To Minnie

Earl's Trip To Minnie

Checking out the New Guys

Checking out the New Guys
Earl and Paul Lapolice

Earl Cook

planning block

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