JUNE 2008 FAMILY LETTER

 

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Lloyd & Nilda

(Lloyd is in the hospital and Nilda has been spending as much time as she can taking care of him. She hasn’t had a minute to write in the letter so I took notes from her so you can get information on what is going on. Please forgive me if the details aren’t perfect. Please call Nilda if you want more information. Teresa)

On July 1st  (Tuesday) Lloyd went in for therapy. On Wednesday his therapist suggested that he be taken to the hospital because he was having a hard time walking on his left side. He went to the hospital and they found a clot on his brain – he had a mini stroke.

When they went to discharge him (not sure when) he had an ach in his belly. CAT scan showed an obstruction and a mild infection which Nilda says is part of the Parkinsons.

This is all the information that I have. Please keep him and Nilda (and their family) in your prayers. This is a tough time for all of them.

He is at the U OF U hospital – NAC 5th floor, Room 5.

 

FROM DARLENE AND BOYD

We have some good news for June.  Judy and Garth went to the Provo temple on the 16th and had their family sealed together.  It was a very special day and it was an answer to our prayers.  We have been waiting and praying for this for 24 years.  That is how long they have been married.  The 16th was their anniversary--what an excellent way to celebrate.  Boyd and I were the only family that went with them but they had a few ward members, including their bishop that were there.  Ann wanted to go but she was in Missouri visiting Jim and family on that day.  We were able to take some good pictures outside afterwards with them in their white clothing.  We could tell they were happy because they were all smiles and just beaming.  We went to their house after and had lunch that Judy fixed for us and spent the rest of the day with them. 

     On to other things.  On June 21 we went to our Kindred reunion at Kelly's Grove.  We had a pretty good turn out.  Pat was in charge and did an excellent job. She decided to make the theme around Boyd's Mom and Dad's 80th wedding anniversary.  We found some old pictures of them and she, Pat, made some copies and put them in three booklets, one each for Boyd, Kent and Phyllis.   We were all very pleased with them.

     The night before the reunion, I was having some problems. I have to take coumidin and needed to have my blood protime tested the day before and the numbers were sky high.  Where normal is between 2 and 3,  mine was 14.9.  The higher the number the thinner the blood. I was told to stop the coumidin and to eat lots of dark green vegetables that had vitamin K in and come back on Monday for another test.  Well, Friday night I had several things wrong with me, a blood blister in my mouth, little red dots on my legs, a pain in my neck and my toenail was turning black.  Then I noticed my eye was very red and we became nervous about it so we went to the ER.  They gave me a vitamin K pill and some pain pills, took a ct scan of my brain to make sure there was no bleeding there to cause the pain in my neck and there wasn't. The Dr. said it was OK to go to the reunion the next day but to be very careful and not fall down or get bumped.  So I did go and was careful.  By Monday my blood was back down to normal, my symptoms went away and I am Ok now. 

     One more thing we did--we went to Springville to watch the fireworks for Springville Days with Judy and Garth.  That was the day before Father's Day.  Boyd had a very nice Father's Day. I'm sure you all did.

     That's it for this time.

     Love to you all,

        Darlene and Boyd 

 

From Wayne & Loree 

Well, here it is another month.  I'm sorry about my letter being missed last month.  I thought it had been sent.  I didn't even have a copy to resend.  But I'll try to remember what is important that you missed.

    First of all, I did tell you about our trip to Serena's on Memorial Day weekend.  I went down on the Tuesday before by bus so that I could help Serena get ready for everyone to be there.  A few weeks prior to this she had fallen and hurt her neck, putting it out.  She was in a brace for awhile and still was hurting some at this time.  Wayne came down on Friday night.  Everyone except Ken and his family was there.  We had a great time on Saturday attending David's graduation and then having a party at Serena's in the afternoon.  Sunday Tammy's family came and spent the night with us.  We were fortunate in that Kurt had been given a fifth wheel and a trailer for some of us to sleep in.  We got the fifth wheel, and Paul's family got the trailer.  It wasn't much of a trailer as everything had been cleaned out of it except the beds.  In the fifth wheel, everything was there, but we couldn't turn on the water.  Oh, well.  Small sacrifice, since we could go into Serena's house to use her bathroom and shower.

    Sunday was our birthday party for Heidi, which I mentioned in the late letter I sent.  She turned fifteen and Janeen had gotten her tickets to a concert in Boise that night of her favorite country singer, Carrie Underwood.  Janeen, Heidi and Serena went.  Heidi was very excited about it. 

    We all went home on Monday.  It was a good weekend together.  We wished Ken and his family could have been there.  I want to update you on Rachel's news.  I was wrong about the date.  She is due the middle of January.  She is working at WSU for the summer, but her morning sickness gets in the way.  Except it's not just in the morning.  It hits her again about the time she is coming home. 

    Rachel and Jeff came to Grangeville for the 4th and we were able to get together at the fireworks display.  Afterwards they showed us the new (to them) truck they had bought over the internet.  They had to go to Minnesota to pick it up so they made a short vacation out of the trip. Then she called Sunday on the way home to let us know she had landed another teaching position for the next school year.  It is teaching the first grade in a catholic school.  She's just a little concerned about the religious part but thinks it will be okay because they don't teach too much of the doctrine in the first grade.  I guess that's why they hired her even when she's not catholic.  The best part about the job is that it's only about 5-6 blocks from her home in Moscow.  She can walk to work on good days.

    We had a couple of other trips during the month of June.  The first one was to Salt Lake.  I'm sorry we didn't let anyone know we would be there, but we knew we couldn't get together with any of you, so we didn't even call.  It was a very busy weekend.  We stayed in a condo in the Gateway mall area.  We were with the group of friends that we meet with about every six months, usually in Logan, but changed it this time.  There were only two keys to the place which let us into the parking area, on the elevator and into our room.  With twelve of us there was no chance to get away to visit.  Sorry about that.

    The next trip we had was to California for Steve's graduation.  It was a nice trip but the temperatures were over 100 the whole time we were there.  Ken can't use his air conditioning in his home because it doesn't work very well.  So we suffered with the heat.  But we enjoyed the time we were together anyway. 

    It's hard to believe that we have grandchildren old enough to graduate from high school.  We aren't getting older, but they are.  How does that work?

    We are glad to be home now.  There are no plans to go anywhere until maybe September.  So we're busy with our garden, and just everyday living here in the mountains of North central Idaho. We love you all and love getting your letters.  Keep them coming.

 

From Wayne and Julie

Dear Family,

 

I’m sitting here at work trying to think what happened this past month.  Nothing comes to mind so I guess we haven’t done anything worth talking about.   However, I do have a couple of things to report.  Teresa has a bone spur on her neck and has to have it removed and the bones fused together.  She has been in a lot of pain (although she hides it very well) and so she went to a surgeon.  They did some tests and decided that surgery was the only way to alleviate the pain.  She is scheduled for surgery on July 31st and will be out of commission for a couple of months at least.  Everyone please keep her in your prayers.

 

As for the rest of us, we have just been enjoying our summer.  We are looking forward to having another Hempel granddaughter the end of the summer.  Valerie is due on August 29th, but since she has a C-Section she can kind of pick the date.  She’s thinking of having it on my birthday.  That would be great B having a granddaughter with my same birthday.  I did it for my Dad (as you recall, Teresa’s birthday is July 21st as well.) 

 

We are going to the Oregon Coast for our summer vacation.  Joe and Amanda are coming with us for half the time.  I’m looking forward to getting away and really enjoying Wayne’s company.  After what I have been through this past several months, a week away sounds very inviting.  I just found out that Rick and Marlene are going to the same place we are, only a week ahead of us.  Too bad we didn’t talk about this.  Maybe we could have scheduled it for the same week.

 

That’s the scoop from the Hempel family for the month.  I hope everyone’s summer is going great.

 

Love,

 

Wayne and Julie

 

From Mike and Teresa

Hello all! I thought I’d better write this month since I have to put off next month’s letter – thought I’d better explain. On July 31st I will be going to the hospital to have surgery on my c-spine. C-3 C-4 to be specific. Last March I started having a lot of pain in my neck. Muscle spasms. I have had problems off and on again for years – since a car accident back in 1995. This was the starting of the last straw. I had my doctor order an MRI. The results showed a bone spur on my spine, which can pinch the nerve. I found a good neurosurgeon in Provo (Judy works in that office! Nice surprise.. have a friendly person to see when I am in the office). The surgeon suggested that I have an epidural injection. This is a procedure done in the hospital. An anesthesiologist would numb my neck and then put in cortisone. The purpose of doing this is 2 fold. One – if the neck goes numb and the pain goes away – then we know that the bone spur is causing the problem. Nerves run all through the body and just because you have pain in one spot doesn’t mean that is the source of it. Since they have to numb it to find out then they shoot cortisone in there hoping to get relief for a time from it. It was nerve racking, but all in all the procedure was fine (I was given versede – so maybe that is why I was fine!)

The numbing worked and it took about a week for the cortisone to start working – but it did work (but unfortunately for only 1 and ½ weeks) Some people get months and even years relief. I went back to the doctor to report what had happened and he said that the outcome of the shot was good. Because numbing the spot made the pain go away – we needed to have surgery to remove the bone spur. So here we are waiting for that to come about.

I will go in on the 31st and have to stay overnight. Once I am home I have to be very careful. It will be hard to even lift a gallon of milk! So being a mom of 6 with one of them 14 months! – you can see the stress I am feeling. In the surgery they will remove the spur and fuse my c3 and c4 together. – Total fusion takes 3 – 6 months though. The first couple of weeks I wont be able to do much and hopefully after that I will slowly increase my abilities. But until I am fully fused I need to watch what I do so I don’t end up back in the same situation.

So as you can see – we will need to postpone the letter for 1 month. My husband could do the letter for me – but he will be doing a lot as it is so it is just better to ease up on a few things. Remember you can always communicate via e-mail with each other. But I have a feeling taking a month off is great for every one!

Love to all!

Teresa and Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any problems or questions e-mail me at thj2u@yahoo.com