Garrett and Miriam visit

Garrett and Miriam came to visit last weekend. They brought Ruby along too.

Sadie is not very happy to share her home with any other dogs, but she got used to Ruby. I think she misses her now.

Miriam is taking a picture (with Mike's camera) of Garrett and Ruby while Sadie sleeps a few feet away. I'm not sure how many pictures Miriam took with Mike's camera--it was a lot. (I wonder if he has noticed yet.)

For more pictures and news about their weekend here, check out their blog by clicking here.

My Dad and the Morrills visit

In December, I found a $50 fare from LAX to Seattle, so I told my dad he needed to come visit. He bought a ticket for the last weekend of January. He came on Thursday and left on Saturday--quick trip. Mahana made friends with Grandpa right away. My mom loved Mahana too. She is a very cuddly cat. Mahana & Grandpa

Friday morning, my dad and I went to the Seattle Temple. It was nice to go there together. After the temple, Dad took me out to lunch :)

Hannah and Grandpa

Our friends the Toring family from the Marshall Islands wanted to meet my dad, so they came by Friday night. They gave him a beautiful shell necklace from the Marshall Islands.

The day my dad was coming, I was talking to Rachel and told her he would be coming that day. I don't know why I didn't tell her sooner. Anyway, she said, "Maybe the kids and I can come." (It is nice they live close enough to come for a day or two.) Friday evening, Rachel, David, Ryan, & Katy came to visit us and Great-grandpa Maughan.

Also, on that Friday night, Hannah and her dance competition partner, Cameron, had a private lesson with Ashly DelGrosso Costa! Pretty exciting!!

On Saturday, Hannah had a performance at Bena Roya Hall. We all went to see it.

Great-grandpa Maughan with Ryan, Katy, and David after Hannah's performance.

Sue, Dad, and Mike

My dad gave me beautiful flowers.

After the performance was over, I took my dad to the airport. It was a fast but fun trip.

Katy, Rachel, David, Mike and Ryan enjoying some time in the hot tub.

Recovery BLOG from November

I am the worst at blogging. I created the following blog as a Word Doc way back in November and am just now getting around to posting. Miriam says my injury has made me too touchy feely. She will not like this blog. Sorry Mia!

Yah know, this whole recovery thing is beginning to drag on way to long.
On the bright side, it has given me chances to count my many blessings, which has lifted my spirits to places I like to go. Let me mention a few:
My love and eternal dependency for Sue is stronger now than ever. We have been blessed with incredible children and three great sons in law. I am amazed to see how my three sons in law are so uniquely qualified to make their respective brides as happy as can be. To have all my children faithfully trying to live Christ-like lives does my heart a mountain of good.
I love and admire Dan and Rachel Morrill. It strengthens me to see and feel the love they have for each other. My heart soars when I consider the secure, loving, gospel centered life they are providing for their three wonderful children (David, Ryan and Katy). I was touched to hear that Dan was asking about my latest surgery.
I love and admire Scott and Nadine Sundblom. Their love for one another seems stronger every time I see them. I enjoy seeing how tender Scott is with Nadine. I am so happy that cute little Brady has joined their family. He is such an angel. As I observe them experiencing life I am assured they are building a loving comfortable life together. I know success will be theirs as they continue to work and put their trust in the Lord.
I love and admire Garrett and Miriam Kellams. Their loving life together seems poised and ready to transition from the life of being students (sort of) to wherever they end up. My confidence is that their path will lead to a wonderful life, together. I know their love for each other will bring them happiness and joy. I will eternally be grateful for Miriam’s weeklong role in my early recovery process (Garrett was there too).
I love and admire Elder Danny Smith. I am so pleased to read about the excitement he has for his mission. His letters are always so positive. I know the Lord is blessing him and I trust that his testimony is a blessing the lives of all with whom he comes in contact.
I love and admire Hannah. Having her home alone has allowed me to know her better than I otherwise would have. I am so pleased to see her making good choices with her life. She has shown me that she has a healthy balance of love for family and for the Lord while still finding plenty of room to have her own wonderful interests. She certainly is a talented young lady.
I love knowing that my parents and father in law are faithful examples of living the gospel. You would think that at my age, my parents would not have had to play such a big role in my recovery but they did and I love them for it. My time alone in thoughts has also done wonderful things for my relationship with my father in law.
I could go on but this is already too long so let me close by mentioning the greatest feelings of all. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. My Savior has played a role in my recovery that has carried me through when I could do it myself. I will be eternally grateful for the closeness I have felt for Him and look forward to using it to guide me through the rest of my life.

Stockings

Today I made two stockings--actually, I finished two stockings. I already had them cut out and the names embroidered on them. I know Nadine and Scott have been married for more than 2 years, but this is his first Christmas in our home. This is Braden's first Christmas, so this is the first year he has needed a stocking. I have made all of our stockings from the same pattern starting with Mike's and mine which were made before we were parents, so they say "Mike" and "Sue" not "Dad" and "Mom."

Here are the stockings that were already hung. The ones on the right are for the dog and cats--I did not make those.

I also made the stockings for Rachel's family and they are hung in their own home. Don't they look nice?

Medical update from Mike

Nov. 5 ready for surgery

Note: Mike had an appointment with Dr. Gruss, the plastic surgeon, last Wednesday, Nov. 4. He scheduled him for surgery the next day. We arrived at Harborview early in the morning--6:00 AM for surgery at 7:30 AM. He was in recovery by 10:00 AM and we left to come home just after noon.

Nov. 5 after surgery

From Mike:

Nov. 8
The surgery went well but produced more pain and swelling than I would have liked.
He opened up my left maxillary sinus through my mouth and scraped out a bunch of impacted infected stuff. The maxillary sinus opens into the nasal sinus and apparently wasn’t.
He also removed two of the 6 titanium plates and about 14 screws thinking I no longer needed them and they were maybe interfering with my teeth. I will bring it in for show and tell.
As I sit here Sunday evening the pain is significantly less but the swelling is a bother.
I have an appointment with the ocular plastic surgeon Monday AM.
We’ll see what he wants to do.

Nov. 9

I am back from appointment with the Ocular Plastic Surgeon.
It was a mostly pleasant visit, although the news today was all wait and see.
He wants to see me again in 4 months (March) before deciding if plastic surgery to eye lids is necessary.
That by itself is encouraging because last time he wanted to install gold weights in my eye lids right away. I guess I dodged that opportunity.
The Ocular Plastic surgeon referred me to a Retina Specialists to look at why I am seeing squiggly lines.
My appointment with him is Nov 17th AM.
My next appointment with the Craniofacial Plastic Surgeon is Dec 9th, so I have plenty to keep me occupied with the holidays coming.

Nov. 9 (today) at Eye Institute

Sunrise

I enjoyed a beautiful sunrise while I was on a walk with Teresa yesterday morning. Isn't it crazy that we walk early enough to see the sunrise--even after changing from daylight savings to standard time?

The Past Month--Mike's Surgery and Recovery

(from Sue's point of view)

One month ago today, Friday, September 11, Mike had surgery on his face to repair the injury caused by a softball hitting him on Thursday, August 27. Mike’s parents came Thursday evening, and Mike’s Dad and our home teachers, Trent & Mykel Hainer gave Mike a wonderful blessing. Mike was promised a “quick and complete recovery” depending on his faith. Mike looked and felt pretty good Friday morning.

Sept. 11

Mike, his parents, and I went to Harborview on Friday morning arriving there about 10:00 AM for surgery at noon. About 11:30 we decided to do a puzzle that was in the waiting room since it looked like it would be a while before we left that room.
Finally at 1:30 PM they called him to get ready, so he actually went to surgery about 2:30 PM. Mike’s parents and I went to get some lunch then went to a different surgery waiting room. At 3:20 PM I received a call from Nadine saying that her water had broken and that she was on her way to the hospital (about 900 miles away from the hospital I was in). Mike’s surgeon came to tell us that his surgery was completed and considered successful at 6:50 PM. Scott (Nadine’s husband) called at 7:15 to say their baby Braden Glenn Sundblom (see http://scottandnadine.blogspot.com/ I forgot how to put a link in a blog.) had been born about 25 minutes earlier at 7:51 PM Utah time…just as Mike’s surgery was completed. Mike was able to go to his hospital room a little after 8:00 PM which was the first time his parents and I were able to be with him since before his surgery. He had 3 incisions for his surgery—one under his eye, one outside his eye in the smile lines going onto his upper eyelid, and one inside his mouth from side to side between his gums and his cheeks. That way he won’t have noticeable scars. We stayed with him for a couple of hours and then went home.
Saturday morning I arrived at Harborview just after 9:00 AM and the doctors had just left. Mike was very worried as the doctors said he might have to go into surgery again if he couldn’t move his eye. They were concerned that one of the eye muscles might have been stapled or was attached in some way to the materials they had put in him during surgery so that he could not move it. An opthalmologist came in 3 hours later to determine if that was true. She used an instrument to open his eye, then asked me to hold it in place (thanks a lot!) while she used what looked like very pointy tweezers—she called them forceps—to move his eye around. His right eye was looking forward, but his left eye was being moved up and down, left and right by the ophthalmologist. It looked pretty strange. The good news was that she was convinced that his eye had mobility, so she would contact the plastic surgeons and tell them of her findings. We played the waiting game again. At Mike’s pre-surgery appointment, we were told he would be coming home the day after surgery about noon or so. Now it was close to 1:00 PM and we hadn’t heard from the plastic surgeons yet. Mike hadn’t eaten anything except some juice Friday night since Thursday night before surgery since they weren’t sure if he would require more surgery.
Mike’s parents came to the hospital at 2:30 and I left at 3:00 to go home and finish packing to catch my flight to Utah to see Nadine and her new baby. Here is the view from the hospital as I left. Mike received dinner at 5:00 PM and they took his IV out and told him he would not need additional surgery. Mike’s parents stayed with him for several hours then went back to our home to be with Hannah. They were back at Harborview Sunday morning to hopefully take Mike home soon. It turned out that Mike was discharged at 9:30 PM that night. He threw up as he got into his parents’ car—good thing he had asked for a bowl to take with him! They went home and hoped he would be able to heal better at home than in the hospital. Monday evening Mike called the community nurse at Harborview to tell them he was dehydrated and couldn’t eat or keep anything down if he could eat it. The nurse told him to call 911 and take an ambulance ride to the nearest hospital to be rehydrated. He was taken to Valley Medical Center and given 2 bags of IV fluids. They sent him home at 4:00 AM or some time around then (thanks to the Harris family for bringing Mike and his Dad home at that crazy hour).
Tuesday morning was Hannah’s first day of school (the Kent School District teachers had been on strike for 10 school days so school was starting Sept. 15 and not Aug. 31 as we had planned), and her Grandpa and not her Dad gave her the traditional back-to-school priesthood blessing (thanks, Grandpa) before they went to the hospital since Mike wasn’t feeling up to it. I didn’t learn about the emergency room visit until Tuesday morning when Mike’s mom called and let me know.
Miriam came from Pullman on Tuesday and Mike’s parents went home to Portland exhausted. It was so wonderful of them to be here to take care of Mike so that I could take care of Nadine with her first baby. I really appreciate their help.
Since Mike had been rehydrated Monday night/Tuesday morning, he was doing better. Miriam made a chart of his medications and wrote down what food he was able to eat. Mike called me to tell me he was so glad he was able to eat a potato and chicken. Miriam had texted me to tell me he had eaten half a small baked potato and the inside of 2 popcorn chicken. I guess that was a lot to him, but I don’t that was very much. On Friday, Mike had an appointment with the plastic surgery nurse to talk about his surgery healing. Miriam took him to the appointment. When he got there, they realized he was still very sick and from his symptoms Dr. Wheeler suspected Mike had clostridium difficile (C. diff), a bacterial infection. Mike had been tested for C diff at Valley, so they called to get the results. Valley said the tests had come back negative, but Dr. Wheeler kept looking at his symptoms and said he really felt like that test was wrong (apparently this test often gives a false negative), so they sent Mike to the ER again. This was the 4th time in an ER in 3 weeks! They gave him IV fluids and did all kinds of tests and decided to treat him for C diff even if he didn’t have it—it turns out he did. They sent him home with new prescriptions. The medicine to treat the C diff (Flagyl) is apparently very nasty, and he threw up the pill when he first took it. It was better going down when he put it in a spoon of yogurt. Miriam helped through the weekend and left Monday evening just before I got home from Utah. Mike was very worried and anxious throughout this time—both because he thought he might be going back to work that next week and also because that was the side effect of some of the medications he was taking. Miriam got out our family movies—including the super 8 films that we made in the mid 1980’s when we lived in Berkeley—to take his mind off of being ill. Over the next 2 weeks, Mike watched every family movie we have—hours and hours of movies! It did help him feel better. Miriam was very helpful! Thank you Miriam for all you did!
Mike is concerned with his eye not completely closing, but it keeps getting better. It is a slow process.
Last Wednesday, Mike had an appointment with the surgeon who performed his surgery, Dr. Joseph Gruss. He was pleased with the healing that has occurred. He approved Mike to go back to work gradually. He went to work for 4 hours on Thursday and Friday. He’ll work 4-hour days Monday-Wednesday of this week, then 5 days of 6-hour days, then back to full time.
Thank you for all of your love, help and prayers. I don’t know what we would have done without our family and friends.

Sept. 23

Sept. 28 With Katy on Oct. 2 October 7