Another Halloween Video

So remember last year when I posted video from my eye surgery for your Halloween viewing pleasure? I just got a new video for you. My surgeon gave me a DVD of my heart surgery. Anybody interested? (So far I have watched two and a half seconds, then I shut it off. I can't watch!!)

Open Heart Surgery

My story actually begins way back when I was eight years old. I had strep throat and during my visit to the doctor, it was discovered that I had a heart murmur. This led the doctor to believe that I had rheumatic fever which is a disease caused by the strep germ that can damage the heart valve. I was sent to the hospital where, I believe, I spent three days and it was determined that I did not have rheumatic fever. I was most likely born with the heart murmur and would probably outgrow it, which most children do.

Jump ahead 20 years and I was expecting my second child, DJ. My blood pressure was unusually high during this pregnancy and I was put on modified bed rest for the last 5 months of my pregnancy. It was assumed that the high blood pressure was caused by the pregnancy, but it did not go down after delivery. No one ever connected the heart murmur and the high blood pressure. Instead I was just given a pill to control it and that was the end of it.

Fast forward again about 10 years. I had just started seeing a new doctor (who I LOVE by the way) and was at my yearly physical. She told me that she could hear a heart murmur and I told her it had always been there and doctors always told me it was nothing. But during my entire physical I could tell she was distracted by something. At the end, she said she just wasn't comfortable calling the heart murmur nothing and she would feel a lot better if I would just meet with a cardiologist.

So off I went to the cardiologist. He did an ultrasound on my heart and wasn't totally comfortable with what he saw, so he decided he would do a TEE, which basically means they sedated me and put an ultrasound scope down my throat to get a closer look. This is what he found: First of all, I have a bicuspid valve (bottom). Normal valves are tricuspid (top). Because mine is bicuspid it doesn't close all the way, allowing some blood to flow back into my heart. This is what causes my heart murmur.

Second, I had an enlarged aorta. To put it in perspective, he said that he treats a 7 foot tall Jazz player and my aorta was bigger than his!

Last, I have what is called a coarctation. That is a narrowing, or pinching off, of the aorta that came after the enlargement. That is what causes my high blood pressure. My heart has to work harder to get the blood past the enlargement and through the narrow part. I felt like kind of a mess!

The cardiologist said he wasn't real worried about all that. Everything seemed to be working fine and I am young and healthy and stable so he just wanted me to come back once a year to be monitored.

So the next year (which was this past August) I went back. This time the cardiologist sent me for a CT scan. They put iodine dye through my blood vessels and then ran me through an x-ray to see how well my blood moved around my body. When I went back to the cardiologist after the test, he said my blood flow looked great, no blockages. But the enlargement had grown a lot and had become an aneurysm. He thought I ought to go meet with a thorasic surgeon and get his opinion on when to have surgery (not IF, but WHEN).

I went thinking it would be in a year or so. Maybe even next summer when I was off work. So imagine my shock when he told me he wanted to do the surgery Tuesday (it was Friday at the time). I managed to put him off at least until the next Friday so I could get some things prepared at school and home. That was the most awful stressful week of my life! I'm surprised my heart even made it that long! : )

First thing I did was call my parents because I was a little freaked out and I guess I freaked them out, too. They sent out an email to all my brothers/sisters and my aunt who then forwarded it to all my cousins and aunts/uncles. Before I knew it I had friends and family in 6 states and three continents fasting for me that Sunday. I also had several people say they had put my name on the prayer roll at the temple, including my substitute teacher who had never even met me! What an amazing feeling it is to know so many prayers and so much faith was being exercised on my behalf!

Mom and Dad were able to fly out, which took a lot of the stress off me. It helped so much to know that someone was here to take care of my kids, even though they are old enough to do most of it themselves. I am their mom, right? I have to know someone is here making sure their needs are met.

The following Thursday I checked into Intermountain Medical Center's Heart and Lung Institute. I spent the entire day meeting with doctors, surgeons, anesthesiologists, respiratory therapists, nurses, etc and touring the ICU, surgery area and recovery area. Oh, and as soon as I got there they gave me an anti-anxiety pill that made me feel so calm! I wish I could have brought some of that home! hehe

The next morning they woke me up at 5:00 a.m. and started preparing me. I had to take an anti-bacteria shower and get hooked up to a bunch of lines. The best part was when the nurse stuck some morphine in my butt! I don't remember much after that. I do remember them putting the little surgical hat on my head and I was freaking out because they didn't get all my hair in it! Then I kind of remember being wheeled into surgery but that's it. While I was in surgery, my heart was stopped and I was put on a bypass machine. My body temperature was dropped very low to protect my brain from any damage. The doctor cut out the aneurysm and replaced it with an artificial graft. He took a look at my valve and decided that for now it functions well enough and decided not to replace it. A valve replacement brings further complications down the road so if my current valve works, no need to go there. Also, my body has built a "highway" of what are called collateral vessels/arteries to work around the coarctation, so no need to repair that either! Amazing to think that my heart was stopped for several hours! Wow. I was in surgery for a total of 5 hours. My awesome brother Jason showed up in the waiting room to sit with Dean so he wouldn't have to sit there all by himself and worry.

After the operation the surgeon told me that the wall of the aneurysm was quite thin. It would not have lasted a whole lot longer.

The next thing I remember was being moved into a bed in ICU. Mom and Dad and Dean were there. Dean told me he had already been with me several hours, but I don't remember. Being in ICU was horrible. I had a tube down my throat and I really wanted it out, but they wouldn't take it out until I could stay awake, which of course I couldn't. Finally they just let me go to sleep and the next thing I knew I woke up and the tube was gone. I don't remember them taking it out. At night they wouldn't let Dean stay with me, so I was alone. The nurses were horrible. They were so loud out in the hall I had no hope of sleeping. My nurse told me that I was her only patient, but when I pushed the call button for pain meds, she never showed up. Oh was I glad to be moved to a regular room the next morning!

So I spent a week in the hospital recovering and getting stronger. It is much quieter up there, no noisy nurses. The only downside was when they flipped on the light at 5:00 am to take all my vitals and blood! Always scared me to death. My sweet husband stayed with me the entire time, only leaving my side when I made him go eat or run home to take a break for a few minutes and check on the kids. It was so nice to have him there so I didn't have to rely on nurses to help me walk to the bathroom or shower.

And here I am at home three weeks later. My recovery is going very well, but sometimes I get discouraged because of my limitations. I just want to be back to normal RIGHT NOW! Patience is not my strongest virtue. I have been so blessed by so many neighbors who showed up with dinner without even being "assigned" by the ward. Treats and gifts have showed up at my door when I needed it most. So many have called and said "I am going to the grocery store, what can I get you?" And my sister Amy gets me out of here a couple times a week for rehab and a little play time. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to be so blessed to be surrounded by such great family and friends. But I am so grateful for all of it. Grateful to be healing quickly. Grateful to a doctor who followed her "gut" and probably saved my life. Most of all, grateful to a Heavenly Father who watches over me and protects me.

Bryce Canyon

Last week we sent Lindsie away to EFY down in Cedar City. Since we had to drive all that way anyway, we decided to hitch up the trailer and have a last little camping trip before school starts back up. We spent a couple days at Zion, went to the Shakespeare Festival, and then to Bryce Canyon. Didn't manage to take any pics at Zions or the Festival, but here are some from Bryce. Believe it or not, this picture was taken at about 10:30 at night. Looks like daytime almost, huh. We couldn't see the canyon, it was too dark. But the camera shutter stayed open for almost 30 seconds, letting in enough moonlight to show the canyon. Cool.
Here is our campsite. It's the only picture I have that shows our new truck! Our old truck was great, but it just struggled to pull our trailer up hills. So we went and got this Tundra. It pulls way better! And as a little bonus, it is a 4x4, so we took it up over the mountain on the backroads. That was fun!

My handsome boys.

Jarod never stops climbing rocks!

We had a lot of fun hiking down into the canyon and playing around down there for a few hours. Not so much fun hiking back up! That was rough! Now I have to say that I am glad school is starting back up. I need a rest!

Home again home again

In the last four weeks we have been in 15 states: Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, and Colorado. We put just over 6,000 miles on our car and spent over 40 hours total driving (not including sightseeing driving, just cross country driving). It was an amazing trip and we had so much fun seeing this great country that we live in! Now we are home and back to normal. Laundry is done, the car is unpacked and scrubbed down, fridge is full of groceries, and we all got to sleep in our own beds! It was an incredible, once in a lifetime trip!

Now I think we will just stay here for awhile!

Almost home!

Today was a much prettier drive than yesterday. And we are only 200 miles from home. It was tempting to just stay on the road and get home, but it is already 10:00 and we don't want to be driving down Parley's Canyon and falling asleep! So we are in Vernal tonight and home tomorrow! So here are today's pics.Continuing the staduim tour again. . .Mile High Stadium. Oh and I took a whole bunch of really cool pictures of Denver, Colorado and then realized that my camera didn't even have a card in it. Oh well. The pictures will just have to be in my memory.
It has been three weeks since we saw real mountains. They only have "hills" back east. Of course, they would say that we don't have real rivers here! What we call a river wouldn't even be a creek out there.

So into the Rocky Mountains we went. Beautiful scenery. First stop was Vail, Colorado. Oh man is that place above my pay grade! It makes Park City look a little small.

We stopped at the Aspen Gardens (cuz it's free!). We loved walking around looking at all the flowers. I was having fun taking pictures! I think when I grow up I will be a photographer. Here are some of my pics. I think they are pretty good!


























Driving through the canyon, we went through several tunnels. My kids love tunnels so this pic is for them! This tunnel was about 3 miles long.

We followed the Colorado River most of the way through the canyon. Just like rivers in Utah, this river is running really high. I don't think trees usually grow right in the middle of the river!

We planned to stop at this park and BBQ our dinner. Just when dinner finished cooking, it started to downpour! So here is our very wet picnic. It didn't rain long, just long enough to get us soaked (and our food, too!)

This place is called Kenney Reservoir. It is about 45 minutes from the Utah border. They have a little picnic area here and a "kind of" campground. Man if this was in Utah it would have campgrounds and picnic areas all over! Apparently this place hasn't been "discovered" yet. It was nice and quiet with only a couple boats out on it.

We have never been so happy to see a billboard!! Only about 3.5-4 hours in the car and then I am not going anywhere for a LONG time.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...Oh man, we still are!

Spent most of today driving across Kansas. We say so much . . . nothing. I thought Wyoming was boring. Kansas comes in a very close second, if not tied. Here is . . nothing.
And some more . . .nothing.
This one is some cool . . . nothing.

We did manage to run into a little museum in the middle of all the nothing. It was called Fort Hays Museum. They filmed part of Dances with Wolves here. Don't we look just like Kevin Costner?

As we left Kansas (finally) and moved into Colorado, we ran into this. Kinda scary approaching this big wall of storm! Dean was hoping for a tornado, but thank goodness he didn't get his wish.

There was so much lightning! We would see bolts like this about every 2 seconds all across the sky. It was our entertainment for the day!

Now we drive through Colorado, then tomorrow HOME!!

It's a long, long, (long, long, long) road

So so tired of driving and living in hotels! Almost there. Two more hotels and then I can sleep in my own bed.

After leaving Nauvoo, we drove into Hannibal, MO, where Mark Twain once lived. We thought about going into the Mark Twain caves, but they wanted too much money for it. So we just drove around and looked at the town. Look who we drove past driving around town: Mark Twain! This guy was just strolling down the street.

Then it was on to St. Louis. The archway is kinda cool. It is really very large when you get close to it! Never did figure out what it's for. Anybody know?




St. Louis Temple. It's funny how in Utah we are used to seeing a church or a temple everywhere we go. On our travels, we didn't see those things as much. So driving past one is a little exciting! Feels like home!


Went to my first major league baseball game. St Louis Cardinals vs the Cincinatti Reds. Yes, the same Reds that we were cheering for from the riverboat in Kentucky. So now we had to cheer against them! It was a fun game to watch and the guy at the hotel helped us get pretty decent seats for cheap. Only downside - the humidity was so high you could see it - kind of like fog. And when the humidity is high it doesn't cool down when the sun goes down like it does in the desert! Oh man it was so hot! And then it went into extra innings - four extra innings to be exact!

Continuing our stadium tour - Kansas City Chiefs!






Not much to see in Kansas, but we did catch a beautiful sunset!





Today - on to Colorado!

Nauvoo

We have spent a lot of time the last few weeks seeing places that I have heard about my whole life. It has been a neat experience to be in places where the church has its roots. To walk in places where Joseph Smith walked. Being here opens my mind to a whole new understanding of the things that went on and the things those people has to sacrifice in order to build the church.

The last few days we spent in Nauvoo. It was pageant time, so it was a little crowded. I think I would have enjoyed it more during off season when it would be more peaceful. But then I would have missed the pageant! We arrived in Nauvoo on July 4th. First thing we did after getting settled was to go see the show Rendevous and I really hope I spelled that right. Thanks Marcia for getting us tickets because there weren't any left by the time we got there! So do you see any of your friends in this picture? Everyone knows Marcia here!
Next we went over the river into Iowa to watch them shoot fireworks over the Mississippi. That was fun to watch!

The next morning we were up early so we could get a wagon ride through town. I loved the senior missionaries as they gave us the low down on the town. Now we knew what places we wanted to hit up! Although we enjoyed walking around and looking so much, it wasn't until we were done that we realized that we hadn't taken many pictures! Oh well.

Later that night we went to the pageant. We lucked out and got really good seats. This pageant is incredible. I LOVED it. I understand why so many people want to come and watch it. Of course, I forgot my camera so I had to settle for phone pictures. They aren't the best, but they will do. I love this temple. It stands as a powerful testimony to the saints and all their sacrifices. I think they must have rejoiced to see this temple rise again after they had to leave it so many years ago. Such a strong spirit here. I am grateful to know that because of temples we can have our families forever! And we will see again those who we have lost.

This is my favorite statue. In fact, I had to buy a little one to have in my house. It is Joseph and Hyrum Smith standing together. They stood together in life and in death. Such amazing brothers. I hope my two boys can learn from their example to stand together and build each other up.

Now the sad part of our journey. This is Carthage Jail where Joseph and Hyrum were murdered by a mob in 1844. What a dark and sad place. The jailer here was actually kind to them and he let them stay in the bedroom most of the time.

This is the door that was kicked in by the mob. It is the original door. You can still see the bullet hole from the bullet that killed Hyrum Smith.

And this is the window that Joseph fell out of after he was shot. Two great men lost their lives here because they refused to deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were amazing men and my testimony of their purpose has grown just by being here in these places.

Lindsie asked me to get this picture. This is where Joseph, Emma and Hyrum Smith are buried in Nauvoo.

I miss Pennsylvania!!!!!!

We had such an amazing time in Pennsylvania with Dean's family. It was really hard to say goodbye. But all good things must end I guess. It was especially hard to leave my babies behind, but we decided before we left that we would fly the children home with Grandma and Dean and I would make the drive home alone. They were SO SO great on the 10 day drive out, we decided not to push our luck! So they get to spend a little more time in PA, then some time in Idaho and they will get home the day after we do! Lucky ducks!

So here are a few pics from our last day or so in PA. I WANT TO GO BACK!!! Here are my Civil War Soldiers. We went to so many historical places, particularly about the Civil War, so they were really into it. Uncle Dean's backyard is a forest, so what better place to play soldier? It was so funny to watch. They had a blast.


We found this fun park that looked like a giant wood fort. So many places to climb! We didn't have time to stay long, but they loved it.

Covered wooden bridge. Not many left back here, but we found this one. It creaks and groans a lot when you drive over it! YIKES!




Hunting for crawdads in Sherman Creek. The "creeks" out here are bigger than our rivers!









Lindsie caught one, then that was enough. They are kinda creapy little things!





Didn't take long for it to turn into a big water fight!






Aunt Helen made us "Thanksgiving dinner" complete with all the trimings! It was nummy!

Hi. I'm Dean. This is my cousin Dean. That's my uncle Dean. And this here is my son Dean. Yeah, it got confusing when anyone would call out "Hey Dean!!"
The whole fam. Man we miss you Uncle Dean, Aunt Helen and Deanie. We miss Grandma and the kids too! And we have only been gone 2 days!