Stroke

Hello everyone, As most of you know I have been hanging out at the U of U! Thursday I guess I didn't want to go to school so I had a massive stroke and took a helicopter ride here. About 2 days ago I was deemed stable and now I have been sent to rehab. I want to thank my roommates, my family and friends for everything you have done and are doing for me. THANK YOU! In rehab I have been doing speech, occupational, and physical therapy all day, and it is hard. I also got to mak a new friend. His name is frank and he works here at the hospital. Tonight he snuck me me a chocolate shake.
Sometimes it's hard to think about how long this recovery is going to take but most of the time I am just in awe at how lucky I am.

Comdey+Trauma = Tramedy

So we got a little snow today. By a little I of course mean a ton. Anyway I decided before I do anything else this morning I ought to help my mom and brothers shovel. So I layer up (a jacket, 2 coats, 2 pairs of gloves, tights, socks and a hat...what, I get cold easy?!) and head outside. After shoveling for a while mom asks for someone to put the garbage on the street. "No problem" I think and head over to the side of the house.

I brush off the snow and start trudging towards the street. I'd trudged maybe 3 steps before slip, crunch, ouch! I had slid and fallen on the snow and had taken the garbage with me. The bin had landed on top of me and having already used up all my strength shoveling I found I couldn't lift it. I was trapped, and it was SMELLY. Um...help I said without much hope since my family had gone to the neighbors. Lucky for me it didn't take very long before Dom rounded the corner and rushed to my aid. That my friends is what Simpson's and I call a comedy+trauma = tramedy.

For the Simpson fans this experience reminded me of the time Homer Simpson gets stuck under the tractor. By the time Dom had found me I was yelling, "Move the hand break!" :)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I have had this song playing in my head all day and for the first time I recognized in the text a feeling of both peace and power. For a moment I wondered how something could be both those things at the same time in my mind power and peace were opposites. Then I remembered the Savior and realized that there is nothing more powerful and nothing more peaceful. He is the The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.
Have a wonderful Christmas.

Tag!

My Aunt Tagged me and I am finally getting around to the tag post.

4 shows I watch:

I don't have TV but I do watch MASH on DVD and If I could I would watch Criminal Minds.

4 things I am passionate about:

The Gospel

Family

Education

Ice cream

4 Phrases I say a lot:

"What are the odds?"

"Oh honey"

"love you"

"Crimeny!"

4 things I have learned from my past:

You wont usually regret being kind to someone

If you are really craving something just eat it so you don't eat everything else in you cupboards

Everything changes

You are never alone

4 Placed I would like to go:

Italy

New York

Harry Potter world

Home

4 things I did yesterday:

Saw Harry Potter 7 (LOVED IT)

Ate my favorite kind of Pizza

Did a crossword puzzle with my mom

Studied anatomy

4 thing I am looking forward to:

Christmas vacation

Graduation...someday

Buying a new box of cereal

The future in general (is that a comp out :) )

4 things I like about winter:

Early morning walks in fresh snow it is so peaceful.

Hot cocoa

Christmas

That my family gets to be together

4 things on my wish list:

New church clothes

To know what my parents want for Christmas

Cute, warm, long socks

To redo my 72 hour kit.

4 people I tag:

Jenn B.

Kelli J.

Deb S.

Chessie O.

Pacemaker printout

Back on Nov 1st I sent my cardiologist all the recordings my pacemaker had made in the last 3 months. I just hooked up a monitor to a phone and put an antenna over the pacer and it sent everything to Orem where they were able to print it all out.

Yesterday my parents happened to be down at the cardiologists and were able to get a copy of the printout. And this is a little bit of what it said.

• My heart rate dropped down to 0-39 beat per min (bpm) about 20 times a day
• It dropped down to between 40-49 bpm about 70 times a day.
• It also recorded lots of tachycardia even up to about 169 bpm. That is without exercise... um that's crazy.
  

So I realize this might not be fascinating to anyone else but it blew my mind. I can't believe that My heart has been doing that for pretty much the last 6 years. Why did it take so long to get a pacemaker?

Oh well I have it now and I am very glad for it. I'm for sure seeing a difference in energy levels. I feel so lucky to be have the stamina to go grocery shopping, go to 2-3 hours of school, and watch a movie with my friends all in the same day! I am still passing out and am tired since my blood pressure isn't stable. I am also having a hard time with temperature regulation and nausea but without having a ridiculous heart rate all that seems more manageable. I'm just so pleased that it's helping I can't even put it into words.

'Nuff said

USU 31

BYU 16

'Nuff said!

Freedom

This semester I am in an institute class that covers the history of the church. So far we haven't even gotten to the restoration we have been covering the many things that had to happen first. I have been amazed by all the different events that led up to the restoration. Last week we were talking about America and how religious freedom was key. Our teacher showed a us a quote from a speech given by Ronald Reagan and I loved it so much I wanted to share some of it with you.

Some years ago a writer, who happened to be an avid student of history, told me a story about that day in the little hall in Philadelphia where honorable men, hard-pressed by a King who was flouting the very law they were willing to obey, debated whether they should take the fateful step of declaring their independence from that king. I was told by this man that the story could be found in the writings of Jefferson. I confess, I never researched or made an effort to verify it. Perhaps it is only legend. But story, or legend, he described the atmosphere, the strain, the debate, and that as men for the first time faced the consequences of such an irretrievable act, the walls resounded with the dread word of treason and its price—the gallows and the headman's axe. As the day wore on the issue hung in the balance, and then, according to the story, a man rose in the small gallery. He was not a young man and was obviously calling on all the energy he could muster. Citing the grievances that had brought them to this moment he said, “Sign that parchment. They may turn every tree into a gallows, every home into a grave and yet the words of that parchment can never die. For the mechanic in his workshop, they will be words of hope, to the slave in the mines—freedom.” And he added, “If my hands were freezing in death, I would sign that parchment with my last ounce of strength. Sign, sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, sign even if the hall is ringing with the sound of headman’s axe, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the bible of the rights of man forever.” And then it is said he fell back exhausted. But 56 delegates, swept by his eloquence, signed the Declaration of Independence, a document destined to be as immortal as any work of man can be. And according to the story, when they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he could not be found nor were there any who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.
Well, as I say, whether story or legend, the signing of the document that day in Independence Hall was miracle enough. Fifty-six men, a little band so unique—we have never seen their like since—pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Sixteen gave their lives, most gave their fortunes and all of them preserved their sacred honor. What manner of men were they? Certainly they were not an unwashed, revolutionary rebel, nor were then adventurers in a heroic mood. Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, nine were farmers. They were men who would achieve security but valued freedom more.
Jan 25,1974 "City Upon a Hill" speech given at the first annual CPAC conference source: Reagan 2020 - Selected Speeches of Ronald Reagan

When I hear someone say that this country was founded with divine help it feels very much like they are speaking truth. I'm grateful to have been born in this time, in this place, and into this gospel. I wonder how it is that I ended up so surrounded by blessings?