Family,
As you all will remember,I have had back aches forever. Since the first of the year they have been getting worse. I had an MRI and x-rays taken and have two herniated discs with impingement on the sciatic nerve. Our medical doctor says that I needed back surgery. Instead I have opted for Spinal Decompression by a chiropractor. Doctor Avery, our medical doctor told me that in my situation he would probably try the Spinal Decompression first before trying the surgery, since surgery only works about half the time. So I started the program yesterday. I will be on the program for a year with annual follow-up treatments. Hopefully this will take care of the problems. For the next two weeks I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy, ride my bike, mow the lawn or do any digging. Spinal Decompression is not covered by Medicare or our medical insurance provider since the medical profession won't accept it because it is performed by Chiropractors.
The weather here today is beautiful with the temperature in the mid 70's but tomorrow it is going to be cold and rainy with possible snow. So much for spring,
We love all of you and hope that James is doing better now.
Dad
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Can someone please get this black cloud away from me? We have not been having a good week.
Two days before James' asthma attack, I twisted my ankle. It was still bothering me, so I went to the doctor yesterday. Nothing is cracked or broken, but he told me to stay off of it and ice it twice a day. Yeah, right.
On Sunday, right after writing the message here, I ended up taking the cat to the vet. He had to have emergency surgery for a blocked urinary passage. The next day, I took him to my regular vet, who took the catheter out and charged me $300 to watch him. Then, he let me take him home in the afternoon, but said he wasn't sure the cat was better. The next day, my vet was only in for half a day and obviously didn't want to deal with my cat, as he kept putting me off and saying to just watch him and if he wasn't better by afternoon, I needed to take him to a different vet. So, by 4:00pm, my poor kitty was again at the vet, who felt his abdomen and said, "Oh yeah, he's gonna be with us for a few days."
Last night, James had another attack. I took him to an after-hours clinic which was able to get it under control, but I was not happy with the time they made him wait until starting a breathing treatment. They kept checking his oxygen levels, and since those were technically okay, they just let him wait until the dr was done with another patient. I had to ask if I should just take him to the ER before they took it seriously enough to get the doctor in to see him.
This morning, I had to take him to our regular doctor for a follow up. I told the doctor about last night, and he assured me that that was not proper protocol and he would be having "a little talk" with them! Anyway, they upped the dose of orapred he's taking and gave him another inhaled medicine to take. Hopefully, we can get his lungs back to normal soon. I know both of us are getting tired of this!
On the way home from the doctor, I was going to pick Striper up from the vet, only he called as we were leaving the dr, and said Striper is blocked again, and he would have to do another surgery, maybe two. When I got to the vet's office, he showed me on the x-rays what he would be doing. He really didn't think the first procedure would work, but he would try that first, then if it didn't work he would go ahead and essentially make Striper look like a girl kitty in order to make his urethra bigger so he can pass any more stones he might make. The good news that the vet gave us was that he wouldn't charge us any more money for either surgery.
So, have I had any time to put my foot up and ice my ankle? I was able to do it once so far!
Two days before James' asthma attack, I twisted my ankle. It was still bothering me, so I went to the doctor yesterday. Nothing is cracked or broken, but he told me to stay off of it and ice it twice a day. Yeah, right.
On Sunday, right after writing the message here, I ended up taking the cat to the vet. He had to have emergency surgery for a blocked urinary passage. The next day, I took him to my regular vet, who took the catheter out and charged me $300 to watch him. Then, he let me take him home in the afternoon, but said he wasn't sure the cat was better. The next day, my vet was only in for half a day and obviously didn't want to deal with my cat, as he kept putting me off and saying to just watch him and if he wasn't better by afternoon, I needed to take him to a different vet. So, by 4:00pm, my poor kitty was again at the vet, who felt his abdomen and said, "Oh yeah, he's gonna be with us for a few days."
Last night, James had another attack. I took him to an after-hours clinic which was able to get it under control, but I was not happy with the time they made him wait until starting a breathing treatment. They kept checking his oxygen levels, and since those were technically okay, they just let him wait until the dr was done with another patient. I had to ask if I should just take him to the ER before they took it seriously enough to get the doctor in to see him.
This morning, I had to take him to our regular doctor for a follow up. I told the doctor about last night, and he assured me that that was not proper protocol and he would be having "a little talk" with them! Anyway, they upped the dose of orapred he's taking and gave him another inhaled medicine to take. Hopefully, we can get his lungs back to normal soon. I know both of us are getting tired of this!
On the way home from the doctor, I was going to pick Striper up from the vet, only he called as we were leaving the dr, and said Striper is blocked again, and he would have to do another surgery, maybe two. When I got to the vet's office, he showed me on the x-rays what he would be doing. He really didn't think the first procedure would work, but he would try that first, then if it didn't work he would go ahead and essentially make Striper look like a girl kitty in order to make his urethra bigger so he can pass any more stones he might make. The good news that the vet gave us was that he wouldn't charge us any more money for either surgery.
So, have I had any time to put my foot up and ice my ankle? I was able to do it once so far!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Samuel's Mission E-mail April 21, 2008
Everyone:
Well, things here have fortunately cooled down a bit. We're still probably in for a hot summer, but right now it's not bad at all.
So, let's see... this week, starting with Tuesday, we tracted and tried to contact some referrals and less-actives.
On Wednesday I was on companionship exchanges with Elder Munoz (there's a ~ over the n), my district leader's companion. They are on bike, so I was using my district leader's bike. I apparently didn't get along very well with that bike, because after tracting for a bit, we were riding along and the chain slipped off and got tangled up, and then a little while later I somehow managed to destroy the back tire. So, the rest of the day we spent walking to our appointments.
On Thursday, we had our zone conference. It was interesting because we had a Jewish Rabbi, Rabbi Wolpe, come and talk with us a little about modern Judaism. It was an interesting discussion. In the evening we worked some more on contacting less-actives.
On Friday we had our weekly planning, we tracted, and in the evening we visited a referral named Alma Gonzalez. She is a Spanish-speaker, and seems very interested. We'll be meeting with her again.
On Saturday, we tracted some more, and we had our appointment with Rosie Jasso, the friend of the recently departed missionary from the ward. She's great! She read everything we had asked her to read on Sunday, and she had even started in on the Book of Mormon and bought a book called "Mormonism for Dummies" (don't worry, both the authors are members) and read some parts of it that answered some questions she had. In the evening, we visited another referral named Maria Rodriguez.
On Sunday, we had our church meetings (and Rosie was at chruch!), we tracted, and we worked on contacting some referrals.
Today we're having capture the flag in the evening, so we've been tracting and referral checking a bit.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Well, things here have fortunately cooled down a bit. We're still probably in for a hot summer, but right now it's not bad at all.
So, let's see... this week, starting with Tuesday, we tracted and tried to contact some referrals and less-actives.
On Wednesday I was on companionship exchanges with Elder Munoz (there's a ~ over the n), my district leader's companion. They are on bike, so I was using my district leader's bike. I apparently didn't get along very well with that bike, because after tracting for a bit, we were riding along and the chain slipped off and got tangled up, and then a little while later I somehow managed to destroy the back tire. So, the rest of the day we spent walking to our appointments.
On Thursday, we had our zone conference. It was interesting because we had a Jewish Rabbi, Rabbi Wolpe, come and talk with us a little about modern Judaism. It was an interesting discussion. In the evening we worked some more on contacting less-actives.
On Friday we had our weekly planning, we tracted, and in the evening we visited a referral named Alma Gonzalez. She is a Spanish-speaker, and seems very interested. We'll be meeting with her again.
On Saturday, we tracted some more, and we had our appointment with Rosie Jasso, the friend of the recently departed missionary from the ward. She's great! She read everything we had asked her to read on Sunday, and she had even started in on the Book of Mormon and bought a book called "Mormonism for Dummies" (don't worry, both the authors are members) and read some parts of it that answered some questions she had. In the evening, we visited another referral named Maria Rodriguez.
On Sunday, we had our church meetings (and Rosie was at chruch!), we tracted, and we worked on contacting some referrals.
Today we're having capture the flag in the evening, so we've been tracting and referral checking a bit.
Elder Samuel Stephens
Sunday, April 20, 2008
James is home
I don't know if Mom was able to get the word around yesterday that James was in the hospital for observation, but I thought I would let you all know that he is now home and doing much better.
This is the story: He got sick last Sunday with a cold. He missed school on Monday, but went the rest of the week. His cough, however, was getting worse, and Friday morning he woke up with a low-grade fever and needing a breathing treatment, so instead of to school, he went to the Doctor.
The doctor diagnosed him with the start of a bronchial infection and prescribed antibiotics, and told us that if he didn't improve significantly in the next 48 hours, call him and they'd get him on some steroids. He also told him to continue the breathing treatments every 4-6 hours as he needed them.
Well, he was fine all day. He even went to play strategy games with some friends and his dad until 1:00am! But when he tried to go to bed, he had an asthma attack. He did a breathing treatment, but it didn't do any good, so by 2:15, we were headed to the Emergency Room.
It took them 2 hours to get his breathing to an acceptable level, but his heart rate was way too high. Around 6:00, they decided to admit him to the hospital where they could monitor the heart rate and watch him.
He ran a low grade temp until after his second dose of antibiotics, then it started to go down. But his heart rate stayed high all day. So, all day he was hooked up to two different monitors, plus an IV that was dripping fluids into him constantly. At least with the IV, they could just shoot the steroids into that instead of giving him shots every few hours!
The cardiologist said that a high heart rate is actually very common in asthma and bronchial patients, but that James was on the far end of the spectrum which is why they wanted to keep him monitored. He said that as the meds and breathing treatments started to work, the heart rate should go down.
And that is pretty much what is happening. His heart rate is still higher than they would like to see, but it is dropping, and his breathing is better, so they sent him home. The doctor even said he could go to school tomorrow if he wanted, but I would most likely need to go up to the school in the middle of the day and give him a breathing treatment. Not surprisingly, James is opting to stay home!
We are both looking forward to a better night's sleep tonight!
Thanks for everyone's prayers and thoughts.
LaDawn
This is the story: He got sick last Sunday with a cold. He missed school on Monday, but went the rest of the week. His cough, however, was getting worse, and Friday morning he woke up with a low-grade fever and needing a breathing treatment, so instead of to school, he went to the Doctor.
The doctor diagnosed him with the start of a bronchial infection and prescribed antibiotics, and told us that if he didn't improve significantly in the next 48 hours, call him and they'd get him on some steroids. He also told him to continue the breathing treatments every 4-6 hours as he needed them.
Well, he was fine all day. He even went to play strategy games with some friends and his dad until 1:00am! But when he tried to go to bed, he had an asthma attack. He did a breathing treatment, but it didn't do any good, so by 2:15, we were headed to the Emergency Room.
It took them 2 hours to get his breathing to an acceptable level, but his heart rate was way too high. Around 6:00, they decided to admit him to the hospital where they could monitor the heart rate and watch him.
He ran a low grade temp until after his second dose of antibiotics, then it started to go down. But his heart rate stayed high all day. So, all day he was hooked up to two different monitors, plus an IV that was dripping fluids into him constantly. At least with the IV, they could just shoot the steroids into that instead of giving him shots every few hours!
The cardiologist said that a high heart rate is actually very common in asthma and bronchial patients, but that James was on the far end of the spectrum which is why they wanted to keep him monitored. He said that as the meds and breathing treatments started to work, the heart rate should go down.
And that is pretty much what is happening. His heart rate is still higher than they would like to see, but it is dropping, and his breathing is better, so they sent him home. The doctor even said he could go to school tomorrow if he wanted, but I would most likely need to go up to the school in the middle of the day and give him a breathing treatment. Not surprisingly, James is opting to stay home!
We are both looking forward to a better night's sleep tonight!
Thanks for everyone's prayers and thoughts.
LaDawn
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Samuel's Mission e-mail April 14, 2008
Everyone:
Spring has apparently fled the Downey area. We're currently experiencing temperatures in the 90's, so... yes, it's hot.
Anyways, starting with Tuesday of last week: On Tuesday we tracted for a while and worked on contacting some less-actives. On Wednesday we also tracted, and we did some service at a care home by running a bingo game and a "bowling" game for the people there.
On Thursday we had our usual weekly planning, we tracted a bit, and we worked on preparing a fireside for the Spanish-speaking Santa Fe Springs Branch. On Friday we had district meeting, we tracted, and we worked some more on our less-active list.
On Saturday is when it got really hot. We visited some less-actives, tracted a bit, visited an old referral called Gladis, and prepared some more for the Santa Fe Springs fireside.
On Sunday we went to church at the Downey 1st ward. One of the ward members, Justin Medina, is leaving on his mission to Brazil tomorrow, so he invited one of his friends, Rosie, to church, and she came! We talked with her a bit at church, and then we went out and tracted a bit, and then we went to the little party the Medinas were having for our dinner, and Rosie was there. We talked with her some more, and she eventually asked for a Book of Mormon! We gave her one and arranged an appointment with her for Saturday. In the evening after that, we had our fireside with the Santa Fe Springs Branch. It was an interesting experience--I was conducting it (yes, in Spanish). We had a pretend "Flight to Hawaii" that "crashed" on the way, so that everyone ended up in the Spirit World. While we were doing this, the smoke machine we were using set off the fire alarms, so that was exciting, but we were able to continue and have everyone visit the Three Degrees of Glory.
Today has been a pretty normal Preparation Day thus far.
So, that's my news for the week. Keep an eye out for unexpected opprotunities to share the Gospel--'cause they're out there!
Elder Samuel Stephens
Spring has apparently fled the Downey area. We're currently experiencing temperatures in the 90's, so... yes, it's hot.
Anyways, starting with Tuesday of last week: On Tuesday we tracted for a while and worked on contacting some less-actives. On Wednesday we also tracted, and we did some service at a care home by running a bingo game and a "bowling" game for the people there.
On Thursday we had our usual weekly planning, we tracted a bit, and we worked on preparing a fireside for the Spanish-speaking Santa Fe Springs Branch. On Friday we had district meeting, we tracted, and we worked some more on our less-active list.
On Saturday is when it got really hot. We visited some less-actives, tracted a bit, visited an old referral called Gladis, and prepared some more for the Santa Fe Springs fireside.
On Sunday we went to church at the Downey 1st ward. One of the ward members, Justin Medina, is leaving on his mission to Brazil tomorrow, so he invited one of his friends, Rosie, to church, and she came! We talked with her a bit at church, and then we went out and tracted a bit, and then we went to the little party the Medinas were having for our dinner, and Rosie was there. We talked with her some more, and she eventually asked for a Book of Mormon! We gave her one and arranged an appointment with her for Saturday. In the evening after that, we had our fireside with the Santa Fe Springs Branch. It was an interesting experience--I was conducting it (yes, in Spanish). We had a pretend "Flight to Hawaii" that "crashed" on the way, so that everyone ended up in the Spirit World. While we were doing this, the smoke machine we were using set off the fire alarms, so that was exciting, but we were able to continue and have everyone visit the Three Degrees of Glory.
Today has been a pretty normal Preparation Day thus far.
So, that's my news for the week. Keep an eye out for unexpected opprotunities to share the Gospel--'cause they're out there!
Elder Samuel Stephens
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Samuel's Mission e-mail April 7, 2008
Everyone:
Well, I am indeed in a different area, now. I'm in the Downey 1st Ward, which is part of the eastern edge of our mission (which means it's a whole 20 miles from the beach). And guess who my new companion is? Elder Chadwick! Not only that, but I'm here replacing Elder Zemp, so there's a lot of familiar missionary names around here.
Let's see... Tuesday last week was my last day in Windsor Hills, and we didn't do anything too out of the ordinary. Wednesday I came down to Downey to find that Elder Chadwick was moving, too (they switched him from a different apartment to the one we're in now, even though he's still in the same area.), so it took us a while to get situated. On Thursday, we had our normal planning time, we tracted, and we worked on contacting some of the large list of less-active members in the area.
On Friday, we had our Zone Meeting, we tracted a bit and continued our less-active work. On Saturday we attended all the sessions of Conference and tracted a bit in between. Sunday was similar--we went to Conference, we tracted, and we contacted another less-active member.
Today we had our Beach Preparation Day, so we went over to the beach with our zone and played some beach volleyball and such. We also are helping out some of the elders on bikes in our district by taking them up to the mission home to pick up a bike for Elder Otis, who was transferred to the area at the same time as I was transferred to my area.
Well, I really enjoyed Conference this weekend. I think everyone who was in the Priesthood Session will remember President Monson's ear wiggle (Elder Chadwick is still trying to figure out how to wiggle his ears). In seriousness, though, I was noting how several of the talks were dealing with missionary work or with refuting false ideas of doctrine. I think that we have just seen the beginning of what needs to be done in terms of missionary work, and the carrying forth of this work will need not only the increased effort and worthiness of the missionaries but also the members. I was actually estimating from the numbers given at Conference how many non-members there are for every missionary. My estimate was that there are 115,000 non-members in the world for every missionary in the world, or 230,000 for each companionship (very roughly speaking). If we add in the members, though, it would be more like... let's see... around 1,000 non-members per active member or so. So yes, we all need to do our part. And our missionary meetings have been emphasizing recently how part of our calling as missionaries is to help the members know how to do their part. So ask your missionaries about that! I'm sure they'll appreciate the interest.
Elder Samuel Stephens
The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane. The only victory is the victory at the summit of Calvary. Welcome to the journey of the Disciples of Christ.
--Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
(Note: Elder Chadwick is the son of a family that used to go to our ward. His family moved to the Louisville area before we moved to Madison, but they visit pretty frequently. He also lived in the same dorm as Sam at BYU, one floor down. -- Newel)
Well, I am indeed in a different area, now. I'm in the Downey 1st Ward, which is part of the eastern edge of our mission (which means it's a whole 20 miles from the beach). And guess who my new companion is? Elder Chadwick! Not only that, but I'm here replacing Elder Zemp, so there's a lot of familiar missionary names around here.
Let's see... Tuesday last week was my last day in Windsor Hills, and we didn't do anything too out of the ordinary. Wednesday I came down to Downey to find that Elder Chadwick was moving, too (they switched him from a different apartment to the one we're in now, even though he's still in the same area.), so it took us a while to get situated. On Thursday, we had our normal planning time, we tracted, and we worked on contacting some of the large list of less-active members in the area.
On Friday, we had our Zone Meeting, we tracted a bit and continued our less-active work. On Saturday we attended all the sessions of Conference and tracted a bit in between. Sunday was similar--we went to Conference, we tracted, and we contacted another less-active member.
Today we had our Beach Preparation Day, so we went over to the beach with our zone and played some beach volleyball and such. We also are helping out some of the elders on bikes in our district by taking them up to the mission home to pick up a bike for Elder Otis, who was transferred to the area at the same time as I was transferred to my area.
Well, I really enjoyed Conference this weekend. I think everyone who was in the Priesthood Session will remember President Monson's ear wiggle (Elder Chadwick is still trying to figure out how to wiggle his ears). In seriousness, though, I was noting how several of the talks were dealing with missionary work or with refuting false ideas of doctrine. I think that we have just seen the beginning of what needs to be done in terms of missionary work, and the carrying forth of this work will need not only the increased effort and worthiness of the missionaries but also the members. I was actually estimating from the numbers given at Conference how many non-members there are for every missionary. My estimate was that there are 115,000 non-members in the world for every missionary in the world, or 230,000 for each companionship (very roughly speaking). If we add in the members, though, it would be more like... let's see... around 1,000 non-members per active member or so. So yes, we all need to do our part. And our missionary meetings have been emphasizing recently how part of our calling as missionaries is to help the members know how to do their part. So ask your missionaries about that! I'm sure they'll appreciate the interest.
Elder Samuel Stephens
The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane. The only victory is the victory at the summit of Calvary. Welcome to the journey of the Disciples of Christ.
--Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
(Note: Elder Chadwick is the son of a family that used to go to our ward. His family moved to the Louisville area before we moved to Madison, but they visit pretty frequently. He also lived in the same dorm as Sam at BYU, one floor down. -- Newel)
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