Daddy - Daughter weekend

Ellie & Uncle Mike

Cottonwood Lake

On a hike with Daddy

A few weeks ago, John took Ellie to his family cabin in Star Valley, Wyoming. Ellie loved all of the attention she got from her Uncle Mike and her Grandma & Grandpa Evensen. They had a great time!

Jack should be in a TON of trouble...

Such a PUNK!!!

When I walked into the bathroom, I was suppressing a laugh and ready to get mad at him...the problem is, John walked into the bathroom 10 seconds after me and starting laughing his head off and ran down to get the camera. So, again, Jack thinks he is so cool. Yes, that's MY lipstick. All I can say is that I was putting Ellie to bed. Where was John? I'm not sure :).

Recent Pictures

These pictures are out of chronological order, but who cares?!

I left the kitchen for 3 minutes and Jack had climbed up onto the counter to get a treat...He thought he was AWESOME and had just accomplished the most amazing feat. Such a punk.

THE ZOO

Not sure why of all the animals, Ellie wanted to ride a seal. And not sure why Jack had to ride with her...

DISNEYLAND!!

Ellie's favorite ride - the "red rollercoaster" in ToonTown. We went on it at least 7 times...after that I lost track...

The Love of Ellie's life...She was SOOOO shy!

Everytime we go to Disneyland, I take Ellie's picture at this door. She's getting SO big!

Disneyland!

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling sort of melancholy so I booked a last minute vacation to Disneyland for me and Ellie. We had a great time! It was fun to spend some "girl" time together. It was a quick trip, but so worth going. Ellie is such a sweetheart and so fun to be with. She's funny because she's not really into the princesses (thank goodness..I can't believe people wait in that line for hours just to see them!)...she's much more into the rides...and Goofy :). Good times. Oh did I mention I also booked a vacation to Hawaii for me and John in January? I can't wait. Some women need retail therapy to get them through rough times. I'm way more into vacation therapy :).

John got his hearing aid a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it isn't working the way he had hoped. He has a lot of ringing in his ears, and the hearing aid is amplifying it. And it's blocking what natural hearing he does have, so it's very annoying to him. Last week he ordered a different kind that should be here at the end of this week. It's an over-the-ear one, so we were hoping he could get it in black or silver, but it's such a new aid that he can only get it in flesh color right now in the US. For some reason the colored aid that John needs is sold in Europe already, but it hasn't been launched here yet. Hopefully we will be able to get it within the next 6 months. I hope this aid helps! It's supposed to be the best of the best, so I'm hopeful that John will like it. Even if it is over the ear and flesh colored :).

John and I went on a really fun date on Saturday night. It was really the first date we've been on since he got sick (which began two months ago yesterday). We went to dinner at the Garden Restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building - which we hadn't been to for years. And then we walked over to Abravanel Hall for the symphony. It was fantastic! It was Cirque de Symphonie, so throughout the symphony there were acrobats and contortionists doing amazing acts. We always love the symphony, but this was really fun. It was a great night.

Today, we took the kids to the zoo to see the baby elephant. John was a great sport to make it his excerise for the day. He didn't really want to go, and wasn't sure he could walk that much, but he did great. Of course we took it VERY slow (not just for John...we didn't use the stroller, so walking with Jack takes forever!), and rested a bunch. The baby elephant is so darling! It was a perfect day to go.

Pictures to come soon. I have a new computer, and I have problems uploading them from my camera. I'm not so tech savvy. I'll have John help.

My Little Preschooler

My sweet little Ellie on her first day of preschool. She loved it!!!Ellie started preschool a couple of weeks ago, but I've been having problems with my computer...so, much more to come very soon. Update on John...and Girls only vacation...

This week...

John has made tremendous progress in the past 10 days! His headaches are not constant anymore, and he has much more energy. He's also started driving regularly. And, the best thing is that he finally has the strength to pick Ellie up again...which she points out all the time :). I'm finally feeling like we can see that John's body is going to recover from this nasty infection. He was fitted for a hearing aid last week and it should arrive any day. Apparently, he'll likely need one for the right ear within a few years also. Apparently the hearing loss is due to nerve damage in his brain caused by the infection. Amazingly, he's not bothered at all about wearing an aid. He's so frustrated by not hearing, that he is very anxious to get it. Plus, what's the big deal about a little hearing loss...at least he's alive!

His next doctor appointment is on Tuesday with the neurologist. I know that eventually she wants to do another lumbar puncture to determine the implications of the abnormalities on John's brain. However, because John had 3 punctures in the hospital and his brain is still healing, he won't have to have another puncture or MRI for a few more months.

So, I feel like this big chunk of time has been just removed from our lives...and our summer. I was feeling bad for our kids because for 5 weeks we didn't have a single outing. So, I took them to the zoo and we've been swimming several times the past couple of weeks. And I'm so looking forward to all of the autumn activities we can go to.

Ellie had her preschool orientation this morning and starts on Thursday. What?! Wasn't she just born last year??? I cannot believe how fast the time has FLOWN. I admit, I've been a bit melancholy. I'm sure part of it has to do with wondering what the future holds for John's health, but Ellie's life is starting a new chapter...and while it's a good change, she'll never ever go back to just being home with me. I'm a sappy mom. I love the stage of life I've been in for the past 3 1/2 years! I guess I'm struggling a tiny bit with all the change (real or imagined) that our lives have dealt with the past six weeks, and what we may deal with in the future. I know Ellie will absolutely thrive in preschool...she's so ready. I'm just not sure I am :).

What a difference a day makes...

Wow. My last entry was 5 weeks ago today. And the next day, our world was rocked. Here's the story.

I had been to lunch with my Grandma Woodward and called John on my way home just to say hi and see what he was up to. At that time, he casually mentioned that he had a headache. No big deal. I didn't think one thing. That was at 3:30 in the afternoon. Soon after, I got home and at 4:30 John said he had taken 800 mg of Ibuprofen and it didn't touch his headache, so he took a Percicet and went up stairs to lay down.

At 7 pm, he came downstairs again, and by this point he was bothered by the light and said he'd never had a headache that bad. He then took a Lortab and went back up stairs. I took the kids outside and played for a couple of hours so they wouldn't bother John. Then I came back in to get them ready for bed and took an ice pack up to John. We both thought he had a migraine, and his back was starting to hurt. When he gets really tense, his back (which he injured years ago) seizes up and starts spasming. So, I put the kids to bed and laid down with Ellie for a minute and dozed off.

At 10:30pm I heard some groaning and got up to find John on the stairs. He said he needed to go to the hospital. He was stuck on the stairs and couldn't move. So I called my sister (she lives across the street...so lucky for us. Had she not been there, I would have insisted that John just go to bed), and asked her to come over. When she got there, she saw John's condition and asked if her husband Joe should come give him a blessing.

So, Joe and our neighbor Garrett came and tried to move him down the stairs. When they realized how much pain her was in, they gave him a blessing right there on the stairs. It was the most personal, beautiful, and specific blessing I have ever heard. Garrett blessed John that his breathing would calm and that his heart rate would slow. He said the pain would subside within 2 to 3 hours, but that there was a long road ahead. As soon as the blessing ended, both Joe and Garrett said we needed to call an ambulance.

So, I called an ambulance to come get John. At this point, while John was still conscious, he wasn't very lucid. And, admittedly, I still thought it was just a bad headache from which he needed relief. Joe and Garret tried again to get John down the stairs and with EVERY move, John would cry out like he was giving birth. (Admittedly, my sister and I were on the front porch chuckling - not that it was funny that he was in pain - it was just comical to us that two grown men were trying to be so delicate, and yet the third grown man was crying out so loud with every touch. I'm a rotten wife, I agree.)

So the ambulance came, put an IV in for morphine and off they went. I followed them in my car (still thinking he just needed some injections in his back and a good dose of morphine for the pain and we would be coming home that night). By the time they got to St. Marks Hospital, John was unconscious. They could rouse him enough to ask him his name and where he was, but then he'd pass out again. And within 20 minutes of arriving to the hospital, he was completely out...unresponsive.

Okay, so here's another admittance. When he passed out, I started to worry that he had taken more pain medication than I was aware of, so I thought we were dealing with an overdose...but the ER staff (who were GREAT) knew way more than me, and knew this wasn't the case. Although John didn't have a fever (which is very rare with an infection), his blood pressure was very high.

So, in the ER, the doctor did some tests on John's eyes and immediately knew there was pressure on his brain (specifically the right side). They took him for a CT scan, fearing he'd had an aneurysm. When the scan came back normal, they immediately did a lumbar puncture (spinal tap). They had some additional nurses come in to prop John up to do the test, and we were all just chatting until the fluid starting coming out. Their faces all changed, and one nurse said, "Holy crap.", and the doctor said, "Oh my." Apparently spinal fluid is supposed to be clear like water, and John's was more like the color of milk. The doctor said he's never seen spinal fluid so cloudy and told me John had bacterial meningitis. They took four viles of fluid and another ER doctor came in to look at it because he hadn't ever seen it so creamy either. Very comforting.

Up until that point, I had been very calm, but when they told me it was a life threatening infection and started moving REALLY fast, I got sort of weak and probably went white. It took me about 10 minutes to regain my senses. So there we were. The doctors put him on a steroid to reduce the swelling in his brain and started the antibiotics right away along with an anti-seizure medication.

When they moved him from the ER to ICU, he was in isolation so I had to gown up to go be with him. That only lasted the first day when they found out he wasn't as contagious as they had originally thought.

The next day, the kind doctors tried to be gentle, but they weren't sure he was going to make it. So for three days John was in a coma fighting for his life. I was in shock, but doing really well. The doctors thought I was in denial and finally one doctor talked to me with my mom (I think he was hoping she could get me to understand that John could die - which I understood, I just couldn't process it). John had so many doctors working on him...a neurologist, an infectious disease specialist, a pulminologist, etc. They told me that even if he pulled through, there was a significant possibility that there would be long term neurological deficits and he was at risk for a massive stroke. Again, while I understood what they were saying, my mind couldn't process it (plus I know I was being sustained...how grateful I am for the power of prayer!). John also had pneumonia and a sinus infection that we didn't know he had.

Finally Thursday morning John woke up. What a relief! So many people had been praying and fasting for him and he'd been given two blessings, and his name was in temples all across the country. He was really out to lunch, and was extremely weak (and 5 weeks later, he is still very weak), but he was alive! The doctors kept telling us (and still do) how lucky John is to be alive.

We were lucky in that he had relatively few setbacks in the hospital. He gradually got well enough to go home. He was in the hospital for 9 days, and was sent home with a pic line for the antibiotics. He was on home health care for a couple of weeks.

So now, we're in recovery mode. He's in physical therapy for weakness and balance...he still has a massive headache...is still very weak...and has permanent hearing loss. All very manageable! Okay, he does have some very slight memory issues and maybe some small personality changes, but those too are very manageable. He has some abnormalities on his brain that we are working on (only one was consistent with a small stroke) finding out what they mean - if anything. And the infectious disease specialists (two of them) think he might have an immune disorder that makes him more susceptible to infections. We'll start the testing for that in September.

For the past several weeks, we've had doctor appointments several times a week, and had to go back to the hospital because of a all-over body rash. But this coming week, I think the only appointments John has is physical therapy....and getting fitted for a hearing aid. And just this weekend I've seen HUGE progress. He hasn't been driving, but yesterday he felt so good that he went to the store (it's only a half mile away, but how liberating for him!!).

John's illness has been so hard on Ellie and Jack. Thank goodness they are resilient. And Thank goodness my mom and my family have been SO willing to help with them. Neighbors have also been awesome to help with meals, my kids, mowing our lawn, bringing goodies, bringing projects for Ellie and Jack to work on, etc. I have learned so much about service. It's been so humbling to be served. People have come out of the wood work with kindness. A little old lady I'd never met even brought over a loaf of homemade bread! That's how I want to be...willing to serve others. And I've learned that it's the little things that make such a difference! And how wonderful it feels to have people you don't even know show such love.

I am so grateful to have John with us! I realize how close he came to death. His body has been absolutely ravaged by this. I know that Heavenly Father is so aware of John and of our little family. I'm grateful that he has allowed us to go through this to change our course slightly. I am grateful for prayer, and am so grateful for the priesthood and for the good men who have administered to John and to me. I am grateful for the MANY tender mercies we have seen and been blessed with throughout these past few weeks.

Thank you to everyone who has called, sent messages on Facebook, prayed for us, or helped us. It has meant the world to us. I'm sorry I haven't been good about responding...my focus has been on John and my kids :). Hugs to all...and I'll try to be a little better about posting John's recovery. Hopefully within a few weeks we'll have some good news about his long term health. I'll let you know. Oh, and I'm too tired to go through this entire post...so if it doesn't make sense, sorry! I know it's very long and wordy. I'm sure if I took the time to reread it, I'd edit the heck out of it. But, right now I've got to get in bed :).