OK, I guess I better update things

So, the hard work paid off last semester on my nursing class. This is for the BS I am pursuing through BYU-Idaho. I already work as an RN but it's with an associates degree. Some nursing programs stop at the associates, others at the BS. Either way, I have been an RN for over a year now.

We have been loving our nurse schedule, 3 days a week. This summer we took a few trips to CA and OR to see family. We like to take a few side trips on the way if we are going all that way to see family. The exception was the trip to CA, which was two days of driving with only one day of visiting. I totally miss my family from CA, and some of the fun things to do there. I don't miss the mid-summer heat, the traffic and the Lefty politics.

The mountain biking is light-years better in UT. CA trails are so spread apart, it's hard to justify the drive for a trail that's five miles long and takes one hour to ride. There are some "meccas" of riding but again, driving distance to trails makes it hard to do it more than a couple times a month. If you want to stay in shape with cycling, you have to also be riding a road bike. Road biking in Sacramento is phenomenal. The bike trail system is one of the best in the country. I left CA right when the big push to build more paved trails started so I feel left out. Utah is just barely getting the idea that bikes are useful and cars and bikes don't mix well.

I am tired of hearing radio pundits talking about how congress is wasting money on bicycle trails. Just this morning Rush Limbaugh said in a sarcastic voice that money for businessess to encourage bicycle commuting was just another "pork project" added to the behemoth economic bailout plan. If Rush is so in favor of a multi-pronged approach to renewable energy, why does he hate bicycles? For those of you who know me, have been a fan of Rush since 1990 but we disagree on this subject.

How did I get off on that tangent, oh well.

These last few months have been interesting as the reality of our childlessness comes home to roost with a big thud. As I mentioned before, we were pregnant last Feb but had to have it terminated due to the location of the embryo. In my interactions with people at work, people have to ask me the usual questions like, how long have you been a nurse, how old are you, are you married, have any kids, etc. The conversation invariable leads back to the subject of kids and these people always have an opinion, like, have you tried adoption, blah, blah. I understand now how people can have hard time with this subject and hope that some people can learn to butt out of the subject of childbearing. Not all of us have the "Disneyland" experience of childbirth. In fact, those who don't have SERIOUS problems would be the exception, rather than the rule. Mothers come so close to death when bearing children, the door is wide open for complications. This is why childbirth is a miracle, period. God erases the painful memories of birthing enough to make us want to have more kids. My hat goes off to all mothers, Amen!

So, a little note on Kari. About a month ago, she ventured out on a new workout program. I saw her beaming with enthusiasm and she was hoping to get me on board too. I have a healthy disdain for they gym but she almost had me convinced, esp. with winter coming on. Anyway, about two weeks after she started, she fell and broke her coccyx, just like Nepoleon Dynamite's grandma. To this day, it still hurts like heck with no end in sight. I really feel sorry for her. It's hard to work out, it's hard to sleep and it's hard to work. We havn't even tried to ride bikes yet. I hope she would be ok but part of me is affraid that she may never ride again...Anyway, we are hoping she will get better so she can reach her weight loss goals...

My last little topic to mention. We are working hard to get out of debt. I admit, I am not the greatest financial manger. If it were up to me, I would have a warehouse full of every outdoor recreation implement conceivable: biking, hiking, skiing, snowboard, snowshoe, bike touring, rock climbing...on and on. The rest of our money would be for getting us to the places to use this stuff. Alas, we have other more noble priorities in this life. So I turned the finances over to Kari. She has taken off with unforeseen deftness in this department. We paid off our truck this week and I'm thinking our biggest christmas present will be to put our last credit card into the MRI machine to have it erased. It's nice to see the extra money snowball into a debt eating monster, a la Dave Ramsey, thanks to Kari's determination. Hopefully, we will make it across the finishline before "the crap hits the fan".

Be a sponsor for my Tour de Cure ride

I'm riding my bike 100 miles to help cure and prevent diabetes. I don't have this condition but many of my family members deal with this disease every day. Plus, its fun to ride a bike and make new friends. I hope you'll be a part of this ride and be a sponsor by clicking on the following link.

http://tinyurl.com/3fgp36

You Never Know When You're Gonna Get Wet

We just got back from a wonderful vacation at Disneyland, Universal Studios, Sea World, San Diego Zoo and snorkeling at The Cove in La Jolla. It was the dream honeymoon we should have gone on eight years ago. The theme was "you never know when you're gonna get wet".




With temperatures pushing the 90's, 10 degrees above normal, water was the thought on everyone's mind. Thankfully, the heat didn't put a damper on our spirits too much. We just put on sunblock and headed for the water rides. I can't spend the time to bore you with a travel log. I'll just post some photo highlights as I can.

Be a sponsor for my ride in Tour de Cure!

I am riding in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure. I need to raise at least $250. Also, I will be representing the Utah Velo Club at the SOLD OUT Stadium of Fire on my mountain bike! Click the link below to donate! Several members of my family on both sides have Diabetes in one form or another. Help find a cure!

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=5056&px=4181577

TTYL

Open Thoracotomy and Disneyland

Warning, graphic content:
Yeah, I knew you couldn't resist. For all you nurses or macabre thinkers out there, this story is for you. I promise, I won't turn this into a journal of gross nursing stories but this one is a 'classic'.

Recently, while responding to a code blue in the ICU I saw a bedside open thoracotomy. That means they crack the chest open right in the patient's room and intervene with 'cardiac massage' and/or pacing. I won't get into details but it was very interesting. However, I have to think of the family and patient. The guy survived, as far as I know. Probably with a very sore chest.

So, on a lighter note, we are going to Disneyland next week for our anniversary! WEeeeee!

Out...

I hope I didn't create a monster with this blog. I actually am stressing out about how to fit work, school, family, etc. into the short hours of the day. There's never enough time to do my favorite thing and that's riding. We'll see if I get to do more of that this Summer. I wait all Winter for the weather to be good. I get flustered when a nice sunny day goes to "waste" with me inside doing homework or whatever. BUT-there are more important things to life, like spending time with Kari. Wouldn't it be nice if the 45 each way I spend driving to work could be spend riding!? Maybe some day.

Signing off...

We were pregnant!

So, the first thing people ask me when they are getting to know me is if I'm married. I say and that it's been 8 years. Then they ask if we have any kids and I say 'no'. Every time I answer that question, something that happened to us last February comes to mind.

Not may people know this because it has been painful to tell but we were officially pregnant for about 5 weeks this year. Complete with 3 positive pregancy tests. EPT in fact. About 3 or 4 weeks in, Kari starts to complain about some lower abdominal pain. This is our first preganacy so neither of us knows whether its normal. Being nurses doesn't help with this either. After a while the pain becomes unbearable and we head to the ER in the middle of the night. It was such a relief to see Alana, a former nursing school collegue working in the ER at Timpanogos when we arrived.

Neither of us had been patients in a hospital, though we obviously felt comfortable due to our work. Being nurses actually really helped us understand the whole experience much better. The nurses we had were awesome, even though they were a bit nervous once they knew we were both nurses. I even helped with some of their duties when they needed it...

Ok, back to the story. After we got the ER, all we could think about was getting the pain under control. After that, we went in for an ultrasound to see what the pain was. Long story short, they couldn't find anything so they sent us home but said to come back if the pain came back. We got a referral to one of the best OB/GYNs, Julie Grover for a followup. She would be keeping a close eye on our case.

A week later to the day, the pain comes back, only worse. Kari was getting ready for work but ended up with me taking her to the ER again. This is February 13th. They did a couple of exams and an ultrasound. While in the ultrasound room, the tech called in a Dr. for a confirmation of some finding that looked round but they didn't tell us anything at that time. They wheeled us to our room back in the ER and we get word that Kari is going in for emergency surgery for a laproscopic tubule pregnancy removal. It happens to be Dr. Grover's day off, so it takes a bit for her to get there.

They wheel Kari in to the surgery and I waited in the Same Day surgery area for an hour. I'm going through all the worst case scenarios. Finally the Dr. comes in with pictures of some of the stages of the proceedure. We were worried she would loose her right fallopian tube due to the need to remove that along with the zygote/fetus/embryo. Turns out, thanks to all the prayers and priesthood blessings, they didn't have to take the tube. The worst thing was that she would have a 10% chance of another tubule pregancy. We would have to be vigilant from now on for this happening again. I was very, very grateful.

Here's the scary part. When they first found the tubule pregnancy, they estimated there was about 80cc or 3 tablespoons of "free fluid", probably blood, in Kari's abdomen. By the time the surgery was done, she had lost 800cc's! That's almost a quart, or over 2 units. The doctor said the hardest thing about the surgery was getting the bleeding to stop. SCARRY!!!! If she had gone one more day without treatment, I would have been a widower, seriously. I am soooooooooooooooo thankful for modern medicine. Words cannot describe!!!!!!

Anyway, I will spare you some of the other details but Kari is okay now. The only thing she has is three 1/2 scars on her tummy, a little bit of small bladder syndrome and a tender heart. Obviously this is very rough for her because we want kids so bad.

We can still have kids and look forward to the day when we'll be blessed with our first full term child. What this experience does for me is give me an appreciation for many things including the priesthood, our friends and family, modern medicine and most of all for Kari. I also have some understanding of what couples go through when they encounter difficulties having children.

To celebrate our happy marriage together, we're going to Disneyland for our 8th anniverary next May 19th!

Thanks to everyone who helped us through this experience!

Wow, I'm a blogger now!

I've officially been swept up by this blogging craze. Actually, I'm hoping to keep in touch with friends in the most efficient way possible. I have lots of work school and family things going on but I want to keep in touch too. School has been going on for TOO long so its time to be friendly.

Obviously I can't update everything that has happened since, jeez where to start...Maybe some of the most significant things in our lives, good or bad. Actually, bad things might seem bad at first but turn out to be a good thing. I will try to look for the good in the bad things as much as possible. If I start to sound pesimistic, let me know.

Also, I realize a potential employer or someone might want to see what I do in my private life. Don't expect too much candor here. I will try to rein it in for that reason. That said, I will just get down to bloggin'.