My Mom's Open Heart Surgery

Hey well this week has been a good and kind of worrisome one.
My mom has had heart problems for years with her heart in aphib. She has had a hard time going up stairs, or any inclines. She is tired of it, so my mom went to hospital on the first Tuesday in November. She got prepped for surgery on Wednesday. She was supposed to go in for surgery around 1:30pm. She didn't get in until about 2:30pm. There was about another hour of prep work and she was put through surgery. This is a recap that dad emailed about the surgery.

Wendy's (Mom's) Heart surgery was a success. It was a 5 hr operation. It didn't end until about 7:15pm MTN. They successfully repaired the mytral and Tricuspid valves. They performed "maze" ablation, and reduced the enlarged portion of her heart. While in there, they found an "appendage" which they removed. I think the "appendage" was a result of uncirculated blood over time.

The only glitch that occurred during the surgery was one of the pacemaker leads detached from her heart. They re-attached it. I guess it was the best time for a lead to come detached, the surgeon and doctors where right there to fix it. As a result, they decided to not re-set the pacemaker deeper. So the pacemaker still protrudes showing a bump below her left front shoulder blade.
Wendy did well with the heart-lung" machine. She is in ICU right now and is on a ventilator, (normal procedure). She will not be conscious until perhaps tomorrow morning. She will go off the ventilator then she will have to exercise her lungs to get her lungs back into the whole breathing thing again.
That's all for now. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.

She is currently still in the hospital in Albuquerque. She was on a ventilator and I am currently trying to find out if she is off of it yet.

Thanks to everyone who asked and showed concern. Especially thanks for your prayers.

P90X

Well Stephen and I started P90X which is a work system (on DVDs) that emphasizes muscle confusion. Well I can't say that I absolutely ripped in two weeks, but I can say that I have been consistently sore somewhere on my body (legs, arms, back, butt, ankles, shins, jaw bone, etc). So I am not sure yet if it is working but I am sure that there is something going on with my body.

This P90X thing has been my saving grace. Since I am taking 17 credits to graduate, working, and very active as the president of a club for BYU, I find that this work out everyday is the best thing that helps to keep me going. I always knew that I needed to exercise to keep my spirits up when the weather starts to change here in Utah, but I guess I had never tried at home DVD systems. I do these work outs more than I went out running on my own.

We want to post our before and after pictures when we see more results later on. So look for that in 90 days!!

ALbuquerque, New Mexico

After our trip to Arizona, we traveled to Albuquerque to spend time with my parents. One of the first few days we were there we went the Balloon Museum. It was so fun and interesting. Going to the museum made me want to go on a hot air balloon ride. According to our guide when we first got to the museum, he said there is balloon travel like in the the movie 'Up'. At first I didn't believe him but then we saw the picture of a group in the air with normal looking balloons, I was so surprised!

Standing in a balloon basket!
This is a simulation on flying and landing a hot air balloon. Stephen failed the first time, but did much better the second time!
Character balloon....
This one I took a picture of for Stephen. I call him 'Scuba Steve', from the movie Big Daddy. I just thought this was the perfect character balloon for him.

During our stay in Albuquerque, we went to the temple. Just so you know that temple is really small, and surprisingly not very attended (well I am used to Utah temples). It was a good time, my Dad was going to meet us there after work but he couldn't find his recommend, but he had it on him the whole time. We all went out to dinner afterward though, so it turned out great!
Outside the Albuquerque Temple

We spent a lot of our time helping my parents get ready to move to the house they had just bought but the timing of the sale was not working in favor of our stay. But what Stephen and especially I was good at was distracting my Mom from her work or things she needed to get done. So we got to play a little.

On our way back to Provo, we always pass the funniest sign in Farmington, New Mexico. I took two pictures. The yellow sign says 'Adult Video', while the reddish sign behind it says 'Jesus is Watching You' with a picture of Jesus looking toward the door of the Adult Video store. We laugh every time we pass it.
Adult Video sign, with Jesus sign right below the street light
The Jesus sign, a little closer (can't read the words but can see Jesus' face)

Portugal Monastery

Here is a video from Portugal, this is the gorgeous monastery we toured. This is footage from the outside of it!

Safford and Duncan, Arizona

So Stephen finished school for the summer term and I decided that we should go see his grandparents. But this meant that we should also visit his sister Ashley's family, and then on the way back home stop in Albuquerque to help my parents move a little to their new house.

Our first stop was Ashley and Mark Smith (Stephen's sister and brother-in-law). We drove the long way, but it was the beautiful way once we got out of miles and miles of reservations. Honestly I am not sure why there is even a road there, and how evil of us americans to leave the indians the worst part of the United States to let them live on.

On the reservation(s), it was also 'Open Range', so here is the cow we found in the road

Once we made it to the Coronado Trail we were almost there, but that trail seemed to never end. But there were lots of cool sites, like Elk, Deer, and a herd of Wild Turkeys. But it was really cool seeing this tree with over hundreds of arrows shot into it. Below is a picture of that tree!
May have to look closely to see the arrows...

When we got to Safford it was kind of late, but we really weren't too worried, we were on vacation! We went and saw the temple that was there being built. We got snow cones, played in the yard, tried to clean the church, and then we went to the lake!
Mark and his brother, we knee boarded behind the jet ski... So FUN!
Little Hailey, she swam the whole time we were at the lake with Stephen and her cousins

So the real reason for this trip was to visit Stephen's grandparents. But while we were there Stephen wanted to take a picture of the house where he grew-up. Amazingly his dad built this house and it used to be yellow (i guess). The little town to Duncan really wasn't much but it was so great to meet his grandparents, they are the sweetest people in the whole world. But let me tell you that Grandpa Elms can make a mean Ham Sandwich. YUM!
Stephen's old house in Duncan/Virden, cool little house with a cute fence

So the trip was fun and very relaxing, we weren't very good at going to bed early... But we are very excited to see Mark and Ashley again at thanksgiving. Also if Mark reads this we have your hat and when we get money we will mail it.

Oh and a funny fact that was learned on this trip... According to Audrey (ashley and mark's youngest daughter) You are a cousin until you are no longer fun! "Shhh, the cousins are sleeping"--Audrey

Oh, I almost forgot to post this picture. Goes to show how much fun we had, we only took this picture right before we left, and Audrey only wanted to be apart of a tea party with all her cousins and was not all about a picture with her 'other cousins'!
Stephen is holding Audrey, and I have Hailey