Back to the Books!

Yesterday, I had the exciting experience of attending a prenatal classs for birth mothers at the LDS Family Services office in Centerville. After working with the agency for 3 1/2 years as Church Service Missionaries, it has been hard to leave such a wonderful calling. I had told our supervisor that I would love to be involved with the prenatal class, but he indicated that there was not an opening at the time. But, a couple of weeks ago, I got a call saying that they had lost a nurse and would like for me to be involved. I was really excited!

At the class, there were 2 birth mothers, both 16, one who came with an aunt and one who came with her best friend. One was 7 months along and placing her baby boy and the other was 4 months along and undecided at this time on whether to keep or place her baby boy. Since both were past their first trimester, the lesson focused on labor, birth, and postpartum.

The nurse who taught the class was so cute and she did a great job. When I met her, we both thought we knew each other. It turns out that she was a friend from high school of my daughter,Julie. She has not been able to have children and she has adopted two children through LDS Family Services and has been a volunteer for years, in various capacities. The atmosphere was very friendly and casual and lunch was served, so it made a very comfortable experience for the birth mothers. A cute adoption case worker was there, so she participated, and I was able to make a few comments, as well.

I am excited about this opportunity to teach and to serve. It will be a fun experience, but I'm afraid I am going to have to do some studying about obstetrics. My experience has been in Allergy and Urology and it has been a lot of years since my OB/Peds classes and rotations at the hospital. The manual for the class is wonderful! It is very comprehensive, with lots of pictures, illustrations, and diagrams and it is very understandable for the birth mothers.I've also pulled out my book from nursing school and I have a copy of The Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy. It would be great if I could attend a labor and delivery sometime. Maybe I will have the opportunity with one of the birth mothers, if they need a support person during labor and delivery. The other part of the assignment involves attending the birth parent support group one or two times a month, to be on hand for questions that may come up and to encourage attendance for the prenatal classes, which are held every other month.

I guess I'm official since they had me listed on the card that they handed out to the birth mothers. Now I'm on-call for questions and issues so I'm serious about getting back to the books and learning so that I can be prepared!

It's Good News!

(Hopefully, the same could be said of all nurses!)

Yesterday, I went for my stress echocardiogram and, while my diagnosis remains the same, everything looks really good. Dr. Fowles said that the results were even better than he expected and he expects me to do really well with the condition. He showed me on the echo images exactly where the thickening is and said that it is in the best possible place it could be and not obstructing the blood flow into the aorta. The stress test did not change things- no arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), no worsening of the flow with exercise, and it ruled out two more serious conditions. He cleared me for exercise, saying that I would not have a sudden cardiac arrest because of my condition. He said I couldn't run or train for any marathons, half-marathons, etc., (Sorry, I can’t run a Wasatch Back!) but I can run a 5K if I stay within the bounds he has set: heart rate no higher than 120 and stay hydrated. He went over the history of how the pericarditis had initially brought me in but was unrelated to the hypertrophy, and he showed me the labs that showed dramatic improvement with treatment for the pericarditis. He also reported that the month-long cardiac monitoring showed no abnormalities, as well. So, it’s all good!

It is crazy to think that I am now a cardiac patient and I am now on Dr. Fowles’ "radar screen." He says that he will follow me closely- check-ups every 6 months and yearly re-evaluations with echos and stress tests. His biggest caution was against dehydration. He emphasized that I would be in big trouble if I became dehydrated. He wants me to “drink enough to pee every hour!” That will be hard since I have never been good at drinking water, but I’ve gotten better since my last appointment and his instructions then.

So, it is a big relief to finally have some definitive data and “a plan.” However, I cannot deny nor forget the absolute peace and calm that I have felt from the very beginning of this experience. What a tender mercy of the Lord! I have felt that I have been in His hands, no matter what the outcome. While I have prayed for the blessing of healing if it be the Lord’s will, I have also felt ok with a “but if not” outcome. I have been blessed by the prayers of my family (What a tender experience to hear my grandsons praying for my heart!) and friends; having my name on the prayer rolls of a number of temples; and having been anointed by my son, joined by my son-in-law, and blessed through the holy Melchizedek Priesthood, by my husband. It is true that my heart is literally enlarged, but it has been enlarged, as well, with gratitude for my many blessings!

Time Out!

My daughters are all busy moms, right smack in the middle of raising our 12 grandchildren. Each of them have 4 busy, amazing kids. As in most families, on occasion, the kids get a little challenged and need a some personal time out for their own good and for the good of the mom and the family. What's true for kids is true for moms, as well- sometimes in the midst of busy, challenging lives it's good for some personal time out for the good of the mom and the family. So, that's just what happened last weekend. My daughters came from Portland, Los Angeles, and Seattle, and I came from Salt Lake to enjoy a time out experience in Seattle.

The whole idea started "cooking" back in November when I attended Time Out For Women in Salt Lake with friends. As I looked around, I saw so many moms with their daughters. Having experienced many BYU Education Weeks and BYU Women's Conferences, I had always hoped that someday I would be able to attend a Women's Conference or Education Week with my daughters, but having a baby in tow is problematic. But, at TOFW, there were lots of nursing mothers in the group. I sat there and thought, "We could do this!" I checked the locations for TOFW and found one in Seattle.Perfect! So, for Christmas, I gave my daughters an experience rather than a tangible gift. Each received an invitation to Time Out for Women as her gift. Judging from one daughter's reaction (She was visiting us at Christmas.), it was a pretty exciting gift. She had tears in her eyes as she read her invitation. We have all been excited for 4 months and it really did happen- last weekend! Of course, lots of arrangements had to be made and, it never could have happened without the help of our awesome sons-in-laws and cooperative kids. I owe a huge "THANKS!!" to husbands/dads, Lance, Brad, Tom, and husband/grandpa, David. THEY made it happen!

Emily had the great idea of going up on Thursday instead of Friday morning, so we met Julie and Amy for lunch at an Italian restaurant, before Amy got a new "do" for her birthday and, later, Emily got a new look at the Olson "salon," while I taught my daughters and granddaughters how to make organza flowers, just for fun.
Friday morning, Amy had a "gig" at Julie's daughter's first grade class doing a dramatic re-telling of "The Real Story of the Three Little Pigs." Amy was famous for her rendition in her younger years. What a fun flashback for all of us and the first graders loved the story and the popcorn we brought for the show.

We met my sister, Jennifer, for lunch at a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant in the Asian district of Seattle. The food was incredible, as well as beautiful,and it was so fun for Jennifer to visit with all my daughters at one time. What a GREAT memory!! After lunch, the girls and I went shopping at our favorite spot in Seattle- Goodwill. A trip to Goodwill to do school clothes shoppping was always a highlight of our summer trips to Seattle, so this was a trip down memory lane, plus Emily really scored this trip. We used our Marriott rewards points to stay in downtown Seattle- very convenient for the TOFW events Friday night and Saturday. After the session on Friday, we went to the hotel for a chocolate fix and surprised each other with Mothers' Day gifts.
Though the best part of the weekend was just being together, the TOFW events were great. The speakers were wonderful and the music was fun- Saturday especially, since none of us are big fans of the Friday night music guy. We all took away significant thoughts and impressions and we all were "recharged" and ready to go back home and implement things that we learned into our real lives. The theme of the conference was "Choose to Become," based on the scripture in Mark 9:23, "All things are possible to him that believeth." Each speaker took a different "take" on the theme. Michael Wilcox was one of my favorites and he spoke about learning and knowing as the key to becoming. He recently lost his wife and he shared some tender thoughts and told us that the only question that the Lord has answered about his wife's experience in the Spirit World is about what she is doing. He has gotten a definitive answer- "She is learning." She is doing more of what she was doing on the earth- learning and becoming. My other most favorite speaker was Emily Freeman, who challenged us to choose to become closer to the Lord; choose to become His. She wove Mosiah 5:12 and Isaiah 49 together, speaking of taking upon us the name of Christ and having His name written always in our hearts and never forgetting the promise that the Lord will never forget us, for we are graven upon the palms of His hands.

The whole weekend was non-stop fun and full of great experiences with my daughters. Here we are enjoying another great meal, this time at the Seattle Art Museum Cafe, during our lunch break on Saturday. Notice that Amy's Jack was having a great time, as well. He was awesome!It was great that the weekend was so close to Mother's Day, as well. It was the best gift I could have ever given them AND myself. We all agreed that it was an awesome "time out" experience and that we'd love to do it again. Yeah for TOFW!