November 24th

It snowed today so we had to go and get the kids snow clothes so they have something to go out in. We had to take pictures so they could send them to Sara in Texas.

Isaac, Maggie, David, and Sammy

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November 23rd

Today I spent the morning at Ogden Regional Medical Center getting a PET Scan for further diagnosis of my cancer.  We went there and were confused because the place they told us to go was the cardiac wing of the hospital.  When we got there they told us we had to go to the front of the hospital and register.  So we went there and registered.  I was surprised when they sent us back to the cardiac wing.  But we checked in there and we were told to sit down.  After a few minutes they came to get me and they took me to a portable unit on the back of the hospital.  They said that they travel from Hospital to Hospital and are there on certain days.  Larry could not stay with me so he left to do some things. When I was finished he came back to pick me up.

I was surprised that you have to sit so long after they give you an IV and you drink a glass of something that tastes like Crystal light with something not so good tasting in it.  It took about 2-3 hours to do the whole thing.

We went home in the afternoon and ate lunch and tried to get ready for Nathan to be there in the evening.  We picked him up about 6:00 p.m.  Keith has let us use his Suburban for the week while Nathan is here.  We took the kids to the hotel that we had rented for him and dropped off Nathan and David’s stuff then we took everyone to the house and had dinner.  Nathan was mad that we had not built ramps for his wheelchair.  I felt like when he was at Marcy’s that he walked up her porch and her stairs so I felt like things were adequate but he did not want to do that.  Larry and David could not pick him up in the wheelchair and try to carry him so it was a frustrating evening.  The kids and Nathan stayed at the house for a while and then we took Nathan and David to the hotel.   The little kids are staying at our house with the cousins.  They will be here until Sunday night after Thanksgiving.

November 22

Today was Sunday.  Larry and I did not get up until about 9:00 a.m.  We went through the rituals of Eating, Reading, Showering and Dressing and finally were ready to go to church about 12:30 p.m.  We quickly ate some lunch and went to church. 

I am supposed to have a PET Scan tomorrow so they said that I could not have caffeine, sugar, fruit, juice for 24 hours before the scan.  I think that I may be addicted to sugar because I have had a hard time with those restrictions.  I fudged and put chocolate in the milk I drank because I cannot stand plain milk but it said I could have a low sugar low carbohydrate diet

I talked my friend Kelly into subbing for Heidi, my companion teacher, in Primary so I felt good about that.  The lesson was on Tithing  I was particularly impressed by a quote by Heber J. Grant on the blessings of tithing.

We came home and ate.  I was not impressed by the fact that I had to eat a high protein meal.  I have been eating low fat for so long I don’t really understand why people like so much protein, unless it is a steak.

We had agreed to Skype with Nikki and the kids for Myles birthday at 5:00 p.m.  After we ate we texted and asked if they were ready.  They were still eating but I needed to get the computer in the living room so I went to set it up.  It wouldn’t let me sign in so I had to ask for help and I was just changing my password when Judy called to see how I was.  I talked to her for a few minutes and then handed the phone to Larry when they finally were able to get the call through on Skype.  I talked to them and Larry talked to her some more and then he had to excuse himself and it was Marcy calling about where to meet.  He talked to her and got the information and then he joined the call with Nikki and the kids and we talked for a while.  Nikki started to give us a tour of their new house and finished with the first level and about that time the home teachers came to give me a blessing.  They talked with Larry while I was able to see the tour.  The have a wonderful home with three levels.  It was fun to see it.

 

After church Larry had our Home Teacher Brian Deppe come and help him give me a blessing tonight.  He wanted to have a blessing with oil for healing.  Larry gave the blessing and he told me that I had great faith.  He mentioned that as I exhibited great faith that I would be healed.  He pronounced several blessings for the doctors to know what to do for me.  He mentioned that blessings here in mortality can often apply to both sides of the veil.  He charged me to exercise faith and to follow instructions of my doctors and to continue to try to exercise and eat right.

We talked a little after the blessing about the possibilities.  I was surprised at how much Kirsten knows about cancer prognosis from typing on the labs in Ogden at McKay Dee and she actually typed for one of the doctors at Utah Hematology and Oncology where they sent me.  I have been looking for someone who is a girl that I could talk to and maybe she is the perfect person to talk to.  She said that maybe that is one reason she was supposed to move in with us.

Right now we are going to Salt Lake to meet Marcy Voglur to get a ramp for Nathan who is flying in tomorrow so maybe if we need to we can push him in the house.

November 20th

Yesterday was Myles's birthday and Nikki sent a picture of him with a present.  Today is Taylor's birthday and Kirsten went all out to have a fun party for her.  She invited some of her friends and they had a good time.

Myles

Taylor with friends

The theme was Monster High

fun times

Taysha, Taylor, Morgan, Ellie

Birthday cake

Happy Birthday dear Taylor

November 18th

Today we went to Utah Hematology and Oncology.  I met with Jan Davis the PA.  She didn’t say for sure what kind of Cancer I had.  She said that I would have to have some tests to determine what the diagnosis was.   She scheduled a PET Scan for me on the 23^rd and then I was supposed to have a biopsy  on the 30^th of November.   I asked her if I would be able to do the mission and she said yes for now.  They were not specific about the type of cancer but said that it might be Multiple Myeloma but she said if there was just the one spot then it would be a different cancer but the tests would give them a better idea of what was going on.

November 13th-Cancer Diagnosis

I was up a great deal of the night and spent a lot of time in the recliner.  When we went to the temple last night I got a pain in my ribs as we were going in but when we got in to do sealings it did not hurt so I assumed it was nothing but then when I was dressing it began to hurt again.  I kept thinking that it would go away but it did not and I ended up calling Tanner Clinic when the phone line opened about 7:00 a.m.  They said that they had an appointment with Dr. Michael Yeates at 8:30 a.m.  so I took it.  I didn’t have a regular doctor to ask for because Dr. Lee had died about a week or two before and I did not want to go back to a Dr. Kendall that I had gone to recently.

I woke Larry up and asked him if he wanted to come with me.  We got dressed.  At the time I was worried about a heart problem. Larry gave me a blessing before we left.  In it he told me that this was a short problem and that I still had things to do.

When we got to the doctors they did several tests that determined that it was not in my tissue.  They did an EKG and it said that there was a 95% chance that there was nothing wrong with my heart.  But the doctor said that he wanted to send me to the hospital to get some tests just to make sure.  He gave me two papers one for a prescription and one for the tests.  I assumed I knew which one was the prescription and when we got to the hospital I didn’t know what to give them so we went back to the doctors office to get the orders.  In the mean time I went to the pharmacy for the prescription and when I gave them what I thought was the prescription it was the orders.  So I felt stupid but we went and got the other orders and went back to the hospital.  The tests at the hospital were blood tests.  We had them completed and went home.

 

We went home and ate and waited for some eye exams that we had at 2:00 p.m.  About 1:30 p.m. the doctor called and said that we needed to go back to the hospital because one of the tests had indicated that I had a blood clot.  I asked him if I could go to the eye exam first and he said that he wouldn’t .  He was afraid that I could have the clot move while in the chair and could die there so we postponed the eye appointments as we drove to the hospital.  They were very understanding and gave us new appointments the next week.

They did a CT Scan at the hospital.  Then we went home to wait to hear what the doctor said.  He called about and hour later and asked us to come into the office.   So we went to the office again.  Thankfully it is only 5 minutes away.   

When we got there it was about 5:00 p.m. They were trying to close up the office so I was surprised that he had us come down.  When we got there he said that the good news was that it was not my heart.  But then he said that the bad news was I had a broken rib and that I had bone lesions on my ribs that was probably the reason for them breaking.  He said that with lesions like this I could have broken my ribs by sneezing.  He then told me that he had made an appointment for me with Dr. Carl Gray at Utah Hematology and Oncology on November 18^th.  I wasn’t sure how bad this was but the nurse looked at me like I had just been told I was going to die so I figured that it was Cancer.  We came home kind of bummed

November 8th

Today was Sunday, we drove to the Price/ Helper area of Utah and went to the welcome home for a couple in our mission that spent most of their time in the northern part of the mission, The Adairs.

Elder Skidmore, Elder, June and Larry trying for a selfie

Elder Skidmore, Elder

We got there early and tried to find where we needed to be when we got in the church.  We didn't see any other missionaries there but later we found a couple of Elders that had worked with them.  They had a good meeting.  It was combined with a grandson that had gone on his mission about the same time as they had left.

After the meeting we went to their daughter's home but the dinner was in a room above the garage.  It was a huge room above the garage and there was a double car garage below that could be used also for a family party.  It turns out that the room above the garage is an apartment that her daughter and her husband had built for the grandson that was just returning home to live in.

Elder, Elder Adair, Sister Rena Adair, Elder Skidmore

We got to talk to Elder Skidmore and Elder        for quite a while when they were getting the food together.  Then we got to talk to the Adairs for a while.  They are really a fun couple and it was good to get to know them on the mission.  Sister Adair has fibromyalgia like me and had been in a wheelchair before the mission.  She said it was a miracle that she got to walk while on the mission.