April...

The past week has been pretty busy.   I loved conference, duh! But during the Sunday sessions Rich started to notice that he was having some kind of discomfort in his chest.  It seemed intermittent and I wasn't worried too much.  By Monday it seemed to be a more constant presence and he tried to get an appointment with his cardiologist.  Suffice it to say, nothing was available and since the pain didn't feel like an actual heart attack, he made an appointment with Dr. May for Tuesday.  He just didn't seem to be on his game and so he went to his physical therapywe spent the day doing "stuff" that was around here and where we could be lazy.

Tuesday came and Rich received a message of that Dr. May was out sick, so she was canceling.  Rich asked to talk to Rita, her nurse, and explained what was happening and she was able to get him an appointment with Dr. Cuthbertson.  So - off we went.  I decided to sit in the car and wait rather than be a distraction.  However, it wasn't too long before I got a call to come into his office.  He explained that there needs to be two of three or four heart attack indicators to know if a heart attack is happening and because of the "branch bundle block" (a heart configuration that a very small number of people have), it makes reading an EKG very difficult, if not impossible, for heart attack symptoms.  And their lab doesn't have the ability to get a heart enzyme reading.  So he recommended that he call in an emergency crew and take him to the hospital via ambulance.  And we said, "ok!"  Since Rich's cardiologist works out of Parkwest, we went there.  After 4 hours, it was determined that the heart enzymes were normal, the X-Ray looked okay, the EKG hadn't changed, and the pain wasn't increasing (or diminishing for that matter), and a consultation with Dr. Blackey (his cardiologist), it was determined that we could go home as long as we made follow-up appointments with Dr. May and Dr. Blackey.

Wednesday he saw Dr. May.  She feels there must be something going on...maybe lungs...maybe heart...maybe gastro.  Who knows at this point?  But, since he has problems with all three, we'll start the investigation with Dr. Blackey since that is the more immediate concern.  We have an appointment with him tomorrow.  My guess is that we'll end up scheduling a stress test or a catherization to rule out the heart, one way or the other.  In the meantime, he is still presenting with pain and discomfort that doesn't seem to go away.  At times it is less pronounced...but still there.  I wish there was something I could do.  I suspect that the most difficult thing about this is the not knowing.  Isn't that the way it always is?  So, maybe more answers tomorrow...but probably not! 

The rest of the week I tried to get in some gardening and organ practice.  Our gardens in the front were really neglected last year due to all our health issues.  And it shows!   On Saturday, Julio came to help and he helped by mowing and weed-eating the yards.  I was working in the front house beds and I was sad that the pine "tree" on the left side of the house was impossible to get standing upright.  We've had problems with that tree for the entire time we've been here!  Close inspection showed that the root ball was coming up out of the ground and so Julio tried to dig a bigger hole for it.  However, the roots were just circling in a very tight little ball instead of branching out...there was nothing to keep it standing...like trying to balance a beach ball on top of a tennis ball.  I had him pull it out...and the tree on the other side too.  We want to put on a front veranda style porch in a couple of years so they would need to be pulled then anyway...just sad and glad it is now.  I worked at pulling weeds for a while, and digging up a space in the grass that has moss for grass instead if grass.  However, by about 4 pm I was hammered and I knew Rich was too.  We put things away and headed to Costco for a few things.  Came home and put stuff away and headed to the church so I could practice.   

Yesterday was pretty good for me...except the organ!  *sigh*!  I hadn't figured out what I was going to do for Primary music by Saturday night...just decided to sleep on it.  By Sunday morn I knew what I wanted but slept in...yikes!  So I tried to grab the things I needed to do music, only to find that the DVD that was sitting on my desk ISN'T!   Nor is it in any of my files!  I couldn't spend anymore time looking so just left.  My brain just kept churning and churning...that may have been why I had trouble with the organ! Lol. When I got to Primary I also discovered I had no pianist and no possibilities in sight!   So - everything that I had thought I would do wasn't going to work anyway, as the gal that came to fill in for me is great with some notice...but I was going to be throwing things at her cold...not a great combo.  So mid-stream I revamped and simplified.  I went to the library and got pics of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve and sheets of paper (one for each child).  I shared with them that many years ago, in Europe, when the King wanted to send out information for his subjects, he would send out a "crier".  I told them that often the crier would announce his coming with a few blows of fanfare from his trumpet and then he would deliver the very important message or proclamation.  Then I shared that the King of Kings (Jesus) had a very, very, very important message that he needed to send and he had done that through his criers, the Prophet and the the apostles.  I told them that the song we would be learning had taken some of its words right from this important message..."THE FAMILY - A PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD".  

I reviewed the words of the song, "The Family is of God", and shared the words from the proclamation and had our pianist play through the melody.  Then, we made "trumpets" and blew our "fanfare" to announce the song.  The kids loved it!  Even my senior girls who are usually a little surly.  Then I told them that we would play "freeze" ... I would sway back and forth and call, "freeze!" occasionally and see if they were freezing like me.  Again, they loved it.  They sang their hearts out!  In the end I was able to bear testimony to the importance of this proclamation from The Lord and to encourage them to do everything they could to strengthen their families.