Neal's Battle

 My oldest brother, Neal, has been in a battle for his life for the past 6 weeks. There have been many ups and downs so he's never really been out of the woods. Many prayers have been said on his behalf.

It all started with a trip to Instacare on January 13th. So much has been going on that I can't go into much detail, so I will write this in bullet points as updated to us from Melanie, Neal's oldest daughter.

• Neal went to Instacare with headache and uncontrollable shaking.
• The next day he went to the ER in extreme pain, low blood pressure, then transferred by ambulance to ICU at UVRMC in Provo. 
• After an MRI, they started treating him for sepsis. He was in septic shock and his body was shutting down. He had strep in his knee so immediate surgery was necessary to take out his 15 year old artificial knee. They took 1/2 liter of infection from his knee. A piece of Neal's knee replacement had possibly broken off and was floating around in his knee. Some kind of plate with antibiotics was put in where the knee replacement had been removed.
• After surgery, he needed to be intubated and put on blood pressure meds for low blood pressure.
• January 17th - He was still intubated and had a fever. He wanted his breathing tube out.
• Got out of ICU, but still weak and in pain.
• January 18th - He was transferred to the infectious disease floor. Still weak and tired, but remains pleasant and submissive.
• January 20th - He wasn't getting any better. Many prayers on his behalf. The family is leaving it in God's hands.
• January 21st - Not sleeping well and has a loss of appetite.
• January 22nd - Went back into surgery for pain in his hip and running a fever. They thought there might be infection there as well. No infection, though.
• January 29th - Blood pressure dipped and he had to have a transfusion. He's having physical therapy but it's very difficult for him.
• January 31st - Chilling, fever, and nausea continue. No appetite. Evidently, one day of septic shock takes 25 or more percentage of your body strength and Neal was in sepsis for two days.
• February 4th - Hopeful to be transferred to the Heber Hospital, but it didn't happen.
• February 6th - Neal spiked a 103.5 degree fever. This is day 22 and still not doing well enough to be transferred out of the hospital. A PET scan was performed. Neal found it to be a pleasant experience.
• February 8th - PET scan results were normal. Can transfer to a rehab center in Heber tomorrow.
• February 11th - Neal was able to go home and was set up in a hospital bed at their house.
• February 12th - Neal was back in the ER with blood clots in his knee and lung. Put on blood thinners and sent home. Prayers continue. 
• Today, February 24th - Neal was at Provo hospital for surgery. Since getting blood clots, his pulse has been very irregular and high, making him weak. Heart has been having to work very hard to get blood past the clots. Heart is struggling. The surgery was to shock it back to being in regular rhythm A scope was put down his throat to make sure there was no infection in his heart. Found out that there was no infection there. They only had to shock the heart once to get it back to a normal rhythm. Got to go home.

So that's it in a nutshell. The rollercoaster ride continues. We are all hoping and praying that things will improve for him now, but who knows. It is all in God's hands. God has a plan for each of us. We don't know what that plan is, but we just need to trust him and trust the process.

Here are some photos of his journey.

(Neal while intubated)

(Surrounded by family)

(Melanie with Neal. She's done a great job keeping us up to date on Neal's progress)

(Lynda's tender care)

(Jon helping with physical therapy)

Overjoyed Curtis

 Last week when I showed up for my physical therapy session, Curtis, who is an aid there, escorted me to a therapy room where heat is applied to my joints in preparation to see the physical therapist. Only a curtain separates the patient from the exercise area.  As he was applying heat to my left hip and right knee, he blurted out that he had been to the temple for the very first time the night before and that it was AMAZING! I asked him which temple he went to and he told me it was the Jordan River Temple. He went there to do baptisms with a group of friends who had all taken family names to do the ordinance work for. I don't know his age, but I would guess that he's around 22 years old. Nice, friendly young man.

I was kind of surprised that he shared that information with me. After all, did he know I was LDS too? Maybe he suspected it. I don't know, but I was pleased to hear his report. To hear a young man so excited to go to the temple to do baptisms was such a joy for me. It seemed that he wanted to shout it from the rooftops.

Later, as I was riding the recumbent bicycle which is close to the therapy rooms, I heard him share the same joy of going to the temple with another patient. His excitement hadn't waned a bit. I wonder how many individuals he shared his experience with that day.

If only everyone had such excitement for going to the temple. That would be amazing! With that type of excitement out there, its possible that those who have never been before would want to go to see what all the excitement is about. I don't think I've ever voiced my excitement for going to the temple with anyone I barely knew, but that didn't stop Curtis. 

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Speaking of physical therapy, I have been going twice a week since January 8th because of bursitis in my left hip and pain & stiffness in my right knee, which hadn't healed completely since my knee replacement surgery in Oct. 2023. Well, I got good news today. I had improved enough to graduate today. I believe this is about the 5th time I have graduated from physical therapy. Each time you graduate, they give you a parting gift. I didn't accept a gift the last two times I graduated because I already had the items they were giving away. This time they had a new T-shirt so I accepted it. It is much better looking than the shirt I got the first time I graduated. It's just a T-shirt, but I like the new one.

[The first shirt I got]

[The new shirt I got]

I'm just thrilled to be done with physical therapy. It was beneficial so I will continue to do the exercises because I don't want my problems to return. Hopefully, by continuing the exercises I can get stronger and healthier.

Disconnected

We have a recumbent exercise bicycle in our basement. It is one of my favorite forms of exercise because it doesn't hurt my back to use it and I can watch tv at the same time.  I have used this bicycle a lot during my recovery from surgeries in recent years. It is one form of exercise that my physical therapists have had me do at each visit and I have continued to do at home.

One perk of the bicycle is that it keeps track of my heart rate as I exercise. A few weeks ago, I noticed that that feature was no longer working. I missed it and wanted it to work, but I'm not mechanical minded in any way so I didn't know how to get it working again. I just got used to not being able to monitor my heart rate while using the bicycle.

One day while doing some physical therapy exercises behind the bicycle, I noticed that there was a wire hanging below the seat that wasn't coupled with its counterpart. One of my grandchildren must have pulled them apart while playing in the basement.

I plugged it in, sat on the bicycle, started pedaling and, voila, the machine could once again track my heart rate.  Simple fix - the two pieces just needed to be coupled again and it was working perfectly.

I was thinking about how this can be compared to our relationship with God. If we are not carefully striving each day to stay close to him - to stay connected - we can start to feel a little distant from him and not feel him in the small details of our lives.

 One thing we can do to stay connected to him is by having daily prayer where we pour our heart out to him letting him know about the ups and downs of our day. Even though he is aware of everything we do daily, he wants to hear it from us. He loves us and wants to be a big part of our lives. 

We can also visit him in His house. Going to his holy temple always helps me to feel a closeness to him that I can't get in any other way. Now that we live so close to a temple, we try to go there several times per month. While serving as an ordinance worker in the Los Angeles Temple before moving to Utah, I felt His spirit and literally saw miracles many times. Those years serving as an ordinance worker are some of my fondest on this earth. The effort it took to get there every week was nothing compared to the blessings poured upon me because of my service. The payoff was huge! Whether serving as a patron or a worker, the spirit is there for the taking and can really bond you to the Lord.

Learning more about God can certainly make you feel more connected to him. The more one knows about him, his life, his mission, his great atoning gift to all mankind, and his great love for every individual, the closer you will feel. It is by reading the scriptures, studying the words of the prophets, and bearing testimony of him that the love and closeness will grow.

My hope is to always stay connected to the Lord. I want to know him better so I can better exemplify him and let His light shine through me. Having that connection closes the gap and will allow him to help me be a better, more spiritually strong individual.

Birthday Celebration

 Alan's birthday is today. He is 73 years old. As a family, we decided to celebrate his birthday last Sunday instead of today. Weekends are better than week nights for most members of the family. Unfortunately, Alan got sick and had to isolate himself. Not a very fun way for him to celebrate his big day, but he was able to come out of isolation long enough for us to sing happy birthday to him. Fortunately, he is feeling better today so we can go out to eat together to celebrate.

Since his birthday is always two days away from Valentine's Day, I like to make him either a cherry cheesecake or a heart cake. He likes both. This is what I made this year.

This is a chocolate pudding cake with a cherry cheesecake topping. One of my favorites and everyone else seemed to like it also. So good that it makes you think that you have died and gone to heaven. Seriously! At least that's how I feel about it.

We are leaving soon to go to dinner. Our children gave us some gift cards to Costa Vida for Christmas, so we will be going there on their dime. We both like Mexican food so it should be good.

I'm so grateful to have Alan in my life. We met 50 years ago. I can't remember off hand the exact date, but it was early February in 1975. We danced all night together at a dance held at the Cottonwood Mall in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. The rest is history. 

Many people have reached out to him today to wish him a happy birthday. He is surrounded by people who love him, including me. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALAN!

Unusually Unique

Our granddaughter, Lainey, my "sweetie pie punkin' girl", has been such a joy to us since her birth almost 17 months ago. She is growing into such a cute little toddler and she is very unique in one very fun way. It's all about her hair.

Cheryl sent me these pictures a few days ago and I just had to include them in my blog. I think her hair is darling. It reminds me of a baby chick. Admittedly, her hair on this particular day was sticking up more than usual.

Isn't that the cutest? The way it sticks up reminds me of pictures of someone who put their finger in a light socket, but, obviously, nothing like that happened. It just really likes to stick up on its own. I'm sure that once the hair grows longer and thicker it will lay down normally, but for now we will gladly embrace her uniqueness.

Turning Three

 Wesley turned three years old on January 16th - the day Cheryl returned from Hawaii to relieve us of our babysitting duties. I had a gift for Wesley, but it was at home on our kitchen island. I planned to get it to her on Sunday when she would be celebrating with her whole family after Parker returned from Hawaii, but then I got sick and couldn't make it. I had to wait over a week before I was feeling well enough, but we were finally able to make it happen. 

On Tuesday, January 28th, Alan and I went on a "Birthday Date" with Wesley. We took her to the closest McDonalds to their house. Wesley ate a chicken nugget happy meal and then had a great time playing in the kids play area.

As a treat, we bought her an ice cream cone, which she really enjoyed.

Wesley is at such a cute age right now. She is such a joy to be around and she says funny things that crack us up. She is growing into such a fun little girl. We love her beyond measure and can't wait to see what the next year brings for her.

Happy Birthday, Wesley!!!