I can see clearly now...

I had laser eye surgery (PRK) on January 6th.  I was sick of wearing glasses and contacts.  So I went for it!  I only had one eye done.  


The first couple days hurt like crazy.  I had to wear this awesome guard so I wouldn't rub my eye.  Admit it...I look pretty sweet.  

I'm just glad that I can see and that the painful part is OVER!  It is awesome to just get up and go to work without having to find my glasses (which I always lost).  My glasses looked like they had been through a war with all the scratches and splatters (don't ask of what).   


I think I may have to reward myself with a new pair of Oakley sunglasses.  :)

We've been MIA for a couple months

We are not dead!  We've just been MIA for a couple months for good reasons.
 
      1.  We sold our West Jordan House!! Woo-hoo!!!!!

 

I can't tell you what a relief it is to have the other house sold.  So long, WJ house.  You served us well!!  Now maybe we can get blinds at the new house.  Blinds would be a bonus seeings how my entire family is coming to do Thanksgiving at our house!  We are excited to host our first Thanksgiving and I'm hoping that this will serve as a motivator to get blinds ordered and installed.  Keep your fingers crossed. 

        2.  Alan had surgery AGAIN.  He had his right shoulder scoped to alleviate impingement syndrome and he has his left knee scoped to clean up scar tissue from his previous patellar tendon rupture and repair.

These pictures are really grainy b/c they are from my crappy cell phone camera.  Al was getting his boogie on before he was laid up again.   

I was laughing so hard, I'm pretty sure I snorted a few times.  :)

He is recovering quickly and will back to work around the first of December.  He does PT every Monday and can't be up on his knee for very long before he has to rest/ice/elevate it.  He's been a trooper...we just hope this is the end to a long string of surgeries.  Bad joo joo go away!!

And now you are caught up with us.

Mad Haitian Love

Many of you may not know that I spent some time in Haiti with a great group known as Healing Hands for Haiti in 2002 and 2003.  

The group provides medical service (focused on rehab) to the Haitian people.  It is an amazing non-profit group.  I never served an LDS mission, but my brief time in Haiti felt like it was my life changing experience.  I had never been exposed to that degree of poverty and devistation.  I was instantly humbled.  On both of my trips, I stayed for approx 2 weeks each time and although this time was short in the scheme of things, I felt like I had been subjected to a lifetime of experiences that I would NEVER forget.  

I was submerged into a culture that, despite it's poor circumstances, had found happiness.  They were thankful for the basics that I never thought about: food, water, shelter, and love.  

I spent a good portion of my time in orphanages where a large percentage of the children were left on the door step by parents who could not take care of them and loved them enough to give them up in hopes of them getting these basics.  

Some of the orphanages had better funding, donations, and were better equipped to care for the children.  Others made me cry as soon as I walked in...children lined up in a crib with no muscle tone to even hold their own head up because they have never been held and they were extremely malnourished.  The Healing Hands group kept medical records on each kid and I would find a chart, look at the actual age of a child and gasp because they were the size of a 2 year old but they were actually 8.  

This scrapbook page is of a fairly decent orphanage in Port au Prince on my first trip to Haiti.  

 

Nothing could have prepared me for the heart ache I felt for the children I met.  

The little boy in the picture below is one such kid.  He was in a very, very, very poor orphanage that didn't have much of anything.  Most of the kids in this orphanage had other disabilities (MS and down syndrome just to name a few diagnosis.)  They needed so many supplies and would never get them.  

This little boy was so sick that he couldn't even move.  I could hear from across the room that he was choking on his own spit.  I picked him up and could feel the fluid in his lungs shake his little frame as he struggled to breath.  He was also burning up with fever.  

 

I had to leave him that first day without providing him any medical assistance.  It killed me, but I didn't have anything to help him and I had to leave to get what he needed.  I hoped he didn't die before I got back the next day. 

I had no way to give him the antibiotics and nutrition that he needed because he couldn't swallow without sucking everything right into his lungs.  I went back to the clinic and scrounged to find a nasogastric tube, but they did not have one.  They did have ONE dobhoff tube.  These tubes are much longer and are meant to be placed into the small bowel to feed patients long term.  This tube was an adult size (way too long) but it was the only thing I had.  I talked with the physician on the team regarding antibiotics to take back with me, dose, and frequency.  The first time I placed the tube, he was so lethargic that he could not even fight or resist as it passed through his nose (which is NOT fun and is painful).  I crushed up the meds and then gave him nutrition.  At the end of each day, I had to remove the tube, take it back to the clinic, clean it, and go back the next day to do it all over again. I did this for over a week.  By the end of the week, he had his eyes open and even resisted the tube going into his nose.  I was ECSTATIC that he could had rallied enough to fight.  I remember telling him over and over to keep fighting. 

I never saw him again.  I checked back with another team to see if he had lived to see another medical team come in and he had.  I will never forget him.

A couple months ago, I started to think that I needed to go back. In fact, I had contacted my old roommate, Erin, and asked her now that we are both done with grad school if she would consider going back.  I started looking into when groups were going etc.  Then, of course, I got caught up in my own life (moving, surgery, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) and before you know it, Haiti is in the spot light and comes to the forefront of my mind again.  

January 12, 2010 - - 7.0 Earthquake rocks Haiti

The ONLY thought in my mind was: how can I get over there to help?  

I looked into every organization that I could find and asked if I could get on their team.  Each organization already had their teams assembled and were awaiting safety clearance before they went in.  I checked with Healing Hands and they too were on hold.  I even signed up with the DEMPS group at the VA (Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System). I was told that I would be put on the list but that the DEMPS groups are deployed by location to the disaster and that the Utah VA may not even go but that I was on the list.  So I took their training, started to get my immunizations updated, and expedited my passport (I hadn't updated it since I got married and changed my name).  I didn't care how I got there, I just felt like I needed to be there.   


Then out of the blue, I receive an email from my cousin who had heard of a Utah group (Utah Hospital Task Force Group) getting ready to head over and they were taking applications of interested people.  I signed up IMMEDIATELY!!  

 Over 700 people applied to go and I was one of 150 people chosen to go on January 27th for 3 weeks.  I was nervous and had some reservations about it, but knew I needed to go.  Then, my husband injured his knee and we were waiting to hear if he needed surgery.  I felt so torn.  I felt like I needed to be in two places at once.  I had to withdraw my name from the group to stay in Utah and take care of my hubby.  He had surgery the day the team left for Haiti.  I know I made the right decision to stay home, but it was hard to say no to this opportunity to go back and serve.  Senior executives at the USAID office said that this group of 150 people was a group that "appears to be more 'put together' than any team I've seen during my time here at AID." 


I watch the blog postings daily of the utahhospitaltaskforce.blogspot.com.  I encourage anyone who needs to get outside themselves to read the daily records of what this team is doing for our fellow brother and sisters.  

I would also encourage anyone who feels like they would like to donate to the cause to do so via www.healinghandsforhaiti.org.  If you want to have your donation to go to the Utah Hospital Task Force, just indicate that as you process your donation online.  Your donation will help fund another plane full of people to go to Haiti.  

I'm not sure how I will get over there...but I will.  I don't know why I wasn't suppose to go with the frist group, but God made sure I wouldn't be there because he gave me an equally important person to take care of here. 


I have mad love for the Haitian people and cannot wait to get back over there to help.  

Lots of stuff...

Okay...I've been really, really slow to update our blog. We've been a wee bit busy.

First, we moved right before Thanksgiving. Below is a picture of our AMAZING kitchen! I absolutely LOVE it! It makes cooking/baking so fun!

Speaking of baking: I've been baking tons of stuff! For example home made rolls and breads.

Proof that they turned out:

It is the recipe that my Grandma Penrod used when she worked at the school making lunches. These rolls are awesome. These did not look as good as Grandmas or my Mom's but they sure tasted awesome!


Alan got his wish for his birthday...he got a kitty. Her name is Munchie (& she was being uncooperative in each shot I took of her). She is a good kitty but she does have some schizo tendencies.

Her favorite toy is a rope like tassel that came around a blanket that Al got from his work for Christmas. She will chase after it and even do a run and skid around a corner to get at it.

A couple weeks before Christmas, Alan had to have surgery again on his wrist. The original repair had developed a lot of scar tissue around the tendons and they were stuck to the bone with the scar tissue. So he had it cleaned up and it is doing MUCH better.

My work had a Christmas party and the theme was DI Formal. We had dinner at Jean's house (which is awesome) and then went bowling. It was hilarious! The best party yet. (The lady on the left is Jean - - her dress has Christmas ornaments hanging off the bottom. Louis, the only guy in the picture, got his super swanky coat from DI!)

We spent Christmas Eve at Alan's sister's house doing Fondue (super yummy) and then we drove through the night to my parent's cabin in Island Park. We arrived around 2AM (I believe). My brother, his boys, and my brother-in-law cut down this BEAUTIFUL tree before the rest of the family got there and decorated it. It was gorgeous. 

I hounded my family for some pictures of it decorated because we are notorious for packing our camera with us and then not taking any pictures. 

My favorite Christmas gift was my new wheat grinder!!

 

This grinder makes grinding a whole lot easier than my hand crank one and the flour is so fine!  Just like store bought.  I have a killer recipe for whole wheat bread that I make at least once a week.  I would make more at a time but we don't have the freezer space!  For anyone looking for a new refrigerator here is some advice....the side by side have more usable room that the ones with the freezer on the bottom.  We bought a new fridge for the house that was stainless steal.  It has the freezer on the bottom and it wouldn't even hold what we had in our old freezer and this thing was BIGGER!  So deceiving!

Anywhooo....

Alan injured himself again this last Wednesday evening playing volleyball.  His boss plays on an inter-mural team and wasn't going to be able to make one of the games.  He asked Alan to sub for him.  So the last thing I said to him was "be careful and don't hurt yourself".  I was more thinking about his wrist that had just been repaired.  I was afraid that he would injure it while bumping the volleyball.  So I get this call from him saying "I think I blew my knee out."  Sad thing was that it happened AFTER the game!  They were just practicing spiking the ball.  He pushed off his left foot in prep to spike and felt like someone hit his knee (outside) with a ball really hard.  When he came down his patella had dislocated and was on the left side of his leg.  He had to straighten his leg out and pull the patella (knee cap) back into place.  

We took him to TOSH (the orthopedic specialty hospital) the following day and had it evaluated.  We had XRAYs and then opted to also have a MRI.  And it was a good thing that we did too.  The doctor who saw us first thought that Alan had ONLY dislocated his patella not that he had any other damage done.  The MRI showed that his patellar tendon had almost completely torn & it was only hanging on by a "couple strands".  Even after the specialist got the results of the MRI he still didn't understand the severity of the damage.  It wasn't until Alan (very bluntly) said "so you can rehab this thing even when I can't even lift my leg??  The doc looked very confused, grabbed the MRI scan and took them into the hall to show to a surgeon.  The surgeon came in and said, "yup, you torn your patellar tendon and you need surgery."  

You can see from the anatomy picture above the patella tendon and how it connects to the patella (keeping it in place) and ultimately meets up with the quad muscle.  Al's patella tendon was almost completely disconnected.  He also torn the retinaculum (fibrous tissue on side of knee that helps hold patella in place. 

And he sprained his MCL.  To fix it all, they had to drill anchors into his knee cap and then suture the tendon to the anchors.

 

Needless to say, he is in some pain...drilling into any bone is no fun.  I don't think he expected it to hurt this much b/c all of this other surgeries he has not needed to take pain medicaiton, but bone pain is MUCH different.  

Here he is chilling in the massage chair.

 

 

 He wanted to show off his fancy new gear....Yea, he doesn't look very comfy does he?

 

The rehab is supposed to be a real pain and he is not expected to be back to 100% for at least 3 months.  He is pretty much going nuts b/c he can't do anything.  

Last, but not least, I cut off 9 inches of my hair.  

 

I was a little shocked at first...notice my tentative smile.  Kind of like..."What did I just do?"  It took some adjusting but I really like it.  Here is a crappy self taken photo of the back. 

 

Thanks Vanessa for giving me a great new due!!  Love it!!


That's all for right now.  

Battle wounds...

When Al sliced his wrist open with a mirror (accident) back on Memorial Day weekend, I took pictures with my phone camera while we were in the ER. When we got home, I couldn't find where my phone had saved them. I looked forever. Then the other day I FOUND THEM!

**WARNING**

Bloody pictures to follow...

If you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip this post...

(Personally, I think they are awesome pictures and not gruesome at all. But I've been reminded that not all people like blood. I just wish my phone camera was better quality; they are a little grainy and don't show all the cool anatomy that the mirror slice exposed.)

His wrist is healing slowly. He has had problems with some "binding" of the tendons. The surgeon thinks he has some scar tissue that developed around the tendons which is limiting his movement. He has another follow-up appointment next week (I think) to evaluate to the need for further surgery to break up the scar tissue. He has been doing his exercises to loosen the tendons but it just doesn't seem to be improving a whole lot.

We hope he doesn't have to have another surgery. However, he says, "if I have to get it done, I want to get it done before Christmas so I can snowmobile at the cabin." Talk about priorities. LOL!

Traumatic weekend

Traumatic Part 1:

The weekend is Memorial weekend and Al went and got a haircut. The hair cut accentuated some thinning so we discussed shaving it off. So here is the before....



And AFTER:



I think it is awesome! He was a little unsure about it with comments (as we were shaving it) like..."What did you make me do???" and "There's no turning back now!!"

Al was a little self conscious about it and of course we had to show it off at a family dinner at his sister Shana's house on Sunday. Her son, Garrett, had a birthday and we were going to do a birthday dinner at her house in Springville.

Traumatic Part 2:

Now Shana and Mike have been holding a frameless mirror in their dining room for over 2 years. They offered it to us and we told them we would take it off their hands. However, each time we are at their house, we forget to take it with us. As we were getting ready to leave, Shana says, "Hey are you guys gonna take that mirror?" We measured the back of the car and sure enough it would fit. Al picked up the mirror and was hauling out to the car when one of the corners of the mirror nicked the concrete stair.

In slow motion, I saw the mirror ripple and shatter over his head. Al jumped out the way but he wasn't quick enough. One of the glass shards hit his right wrist and slashed down to the bone. So we wrapped him up in dish towels and drove to the nearest ER, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (UVRMC).

They triaged him quickly, wrapped his wrist in a compression dressing, and then the waiting began. We entered the ER around 7PM and we were not taken back to a room until almost 10PM. He got an XRAY to make sure no glass shards were still in his wrist. Then the doctor came into evaluate his wrist. He found that one tendon had been cut. He did not hunt further because he already knew Alan needed surgery.

Unfortunately, by the time we saw the doctor, it was close to midnight and the hand surgeon was already out of the hospital. He set us up with to see a hand surgeon on the following Tuesday (Monday being the holiday). We left the hospital with a crude splint and ice packs. I took pictures of the gash on my phone but somehow they disappeared. So no bloody pictures here...sorry. I'm really ticked about it.

This blew his Monday plans...putting the boat back together again. Over the winter, Al had the boat reupholstered and all the parts needed to be placed back in the boat. That didn't happen.

He saw the hand surgeon on Tuesday which was a wasted visit. The surgeon just did a "pre-op" visit. Total waste. He had surgery on Thursday. When the hand surgeon got in there he found that all three tendons and a nerve had been severed by the glass shard. He had to make another incision higher up on his arm to retrieve the tendons that had "snapped" back up into his arm.

He hand and the first portion of his forearm were immobilized for the first 2 weeks following surgery. Even after that his movement was really limited. It's just been in the last 2 weeks that he has being moving it more and using it on a regular basis.