Last year the boys and I gave Chad a smoker for his birthday and he tried a lot of different things and we enjoyed his efforts. He was sad when winter came and we put it away. Well today he had me help bring it back out, and even though it hurt to move I was glad to help out. It was one of the best pork roasts I've had in a really long time!! Thanks BABE for yet another awesome smoked dinner!! LOVE YOU!! :)

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Today I sent Chad a message and said... wow you've been real quiet today... is everything ok?

His response,"Good day kids have been good"... YEAH!!!!!!!! Very Grateful for good days!!

Very Grateful that Chad and I are a TEAM!!! I have watched this wonderful man of mine change and develop right in front of my eyes!! It has not been an easy 2 months, but he has been AMAZING!! I will tell you more about some of these things a little latter... I have to be up in a couple of hours and really need a little sleep. But I just wanted Chad and all of you know how grateful I am for him and ALL that he has done!!

THANKS BABE!! YOUR AMAZING!! AND I LOVE YOU!!....

SO MUCH!!!

Today was Chad’s BIG Birthday. He has been dreading it for a year now, he even had a dream about it and it wasn’t a good one. He sincerely asked me to keep his birthday low key and to not make a bid deal out of it. So I really tried to honor his wishes. Two weeks ago we went out to dinner, dessert, and movie that he wanted to see, that is what he wanted to do and we really had a great time.

His Mom has been planning on coming out since I think Easter we first talked about it. So we were able to keep it a secret and she got here today and surprised him!! It really meant a lot to him!! She took him to get the gift that he really wanted, it was great to see him smile and be so happy!! He has dreaded this day for so long, it was nice to see that he was able to relax and enjoy himself.

His Aunt Jo also surprised him and showed up to go to dinner with us. Mom surprised him with going to his favorite place to eat (and where we don’t get to very often) Tacono’s Brazilian Grill, then to the Hotel for a dip in the pool. She brought out our Nephew Tyler, and we had the boys (they love Grandma and was excited to see her and share in Uncle Chad’s Birthday),

the three of them were really good!!

I was amazed at how much Chris ate…WOW!! He tried EVERYTHING that Uncle Chad did!! What a trouper,
HE LOVED IT TOO!!

It was a fun packed day for the boys; Grandma took them to lunch and the park before we went to pick up Uncle Chad from work. And now they are all having a “sleep over” in the House tent in the Living Room…. Wow that’s a lot in one day for little boys :)
They are SO HAPPY!! And have had a BLAST ALL day!!

I love you Chad, I’m glad that you had a great day!! You survived and it wasn’t so bad :) It has been my pleasure to share 12 Birthdays with you; I hope that we have MANY, MANY MORE!!
Some of the things that I LoVe you for, see in you, and admire in you are;
You have an amazing heart and capacity to love.
You have the ability to make people smile and laugh,
especially me.
You can make a serious and tense situation lighter with a joke or a funny poke at something no one would have seen.
You try new things and have an adventurous soul and spirit.
You are able to take risks, even when it scares me to death.
You are always supportive of me.
There are so many more, Thank you Chad for being in my life and heart. Thank you for staying with it and us. Thank you for loving me. I hope that the next ½ of our lives are filled with Joy, Happiness, Fun, Everything you hope and wish for, and above all LOVE!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE!!

He danced!! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!! He was GREAT!!

That's our Chad!!

Just a few pictures right before he went in… We were “blowing off” some stress and having a few moments of fun… I truly love my husband

and BEST FRIEND!!...

I’m so glad that the Lord answers prayers!!

and for the peace that knowledge gives me!!

Thank you to everyone for all of your prayers and concern. For those that weren’t in “the Know” about the latest for Chad, he went in on Wednesday for an angiogram. On Monday morning we were told that the results were

VERY VERY irregular.

So when they finally called us back in the afternoon they told us to be prepared to stay over night. I asked for an explanation to the “VERY VERY” comment. They said that the results of the test showed that there was major damage to the font of his heart and that it looked as if it wasn’t getting blood flow nor oxygen. She said that they were preparing for SEVERAL stints unless the damage had diesed his heart, and if that was the case they wouldn’t do anything more then, but that he could be placed on the heart transplant list.

OK…. SO IF THAT DIDN’T SCARE US TO DEATH

I DON’T KNOW WHAT WOULD?!?!.....
We talked about things that no 38 & 39 year old couple should ever have to face…. We do know that we should but on our terms and not someone else’s.

We had so many prayers from everyone and his name placed in 4 temples. THANK YOU!! We believe/know that we received a miracle. He has had 3 heart stress tests in two different hospitals and all showed that there were blockages. And when they did the angiogram there were

NO BLOCKAGES!!

What a relief!! Now we just have find out what is wrong with him, BUT at least it’s not his heart!!

He is a walking example of the Lord’s mercies

and latter day miracles.

summer 2007

On the same day as the Fieldtrip… 9-30-08, Chad went out doing one of his favorite things in the world to do… Mining. He went with some friends and they went horse back ridding into the mountains. Chad’s horse got spooked and bucked him off. He hurt his back pretty bad. Gratefully NOTHING was broken, but he was banged up pretty badly and in a lot of pain. He missed a week of work, but is now doing a little better. Hopefully he will be off “light duty” soon, and feeling on top of his game again. Here are a few pictures of his day that ended quite early (due to his injuries).

We thought that we would post about Chad's latest bout with his medical problems, but first here are a couple of pictures from his first visit at the hospital in April. The one of Chris is when he came to visit Uncle Chad in the hospital and Uncle Chad feed him some Oreo's while I was in a mtg with the hospital advocate.


Now onto the present...

Chad has still been having problems since the hospital visit in April, but we thought we knew what the problem was and we were working with the Dr. hoping that we were on the right track. Well we weren't, but now we ARE.

So Chad has been taking lasix since March, and still suffering with the swelling. Little by little it getting more and more out of control, till finally it was out of control as it had been in March/April. After being in and out of the Dr. office for a week and trying everything that we could to get the liquid off of him, including Oxygen at home. I took Chad to the Hospital on Tuesday August 12, 2008. I was able to bring him home on Saturday night the 16th. This time was so much better than the last visit. We had his Internalist the whole time, so we didn't have to continually repeat ourselves to a new Dr. He knew his whole past and what had been happening up to this point. He had an idea of what was going on and being in the hospital confirmed what his belief was.

Chad has sleep apnea and has had a C-Pap for the last 8 years. However his apnea has progressed to the point that he is not getting enough oxygen when he is sleeping (even just laying down to relax), and he is breathing VERY shallow. This has caused a sever chain of reactions. Due to his lack of oxygen the right side of his heart is contracting and not allowing his blood flow to get were it needed to be. His lungs aren't getting oxygen so they are holding onto the fluid so that they can stay saturated. His CO2 levels are DANGEROUSLY high. The normal should be in the low 30's and he was at 70, which causes anxiousness (hummm), confusion (mmm), acidic in his blood (so the blood that was getting pushed around was poisoned), and exhaustion, just to name a few...all of which he is suffering with greatly. His Potassium was dangerously low as well do to all the lasiks, from before and during the hospital visit.

On Wednesday night I watched my love nearly die. It is something that I hope to never have to experience again. There were "some" that had said I didn't need to stay there with Chad (I only left to go home and get things that he needed and a Dr apt I had), but I am so glad that I listened to myself and the promptings of the Holly Ghost. I was able to be there when he really needed me, and made sure that he got what he needed. The out-come of what happened was, we had the House Nurse and the respiratory nurse amongest others there to help him. As you will see in the pictures they had him wear what they called the "jason mask" (you'll see why). It was a REAL struggle to get him to put it on, but finally we were able to get him to wear it. He didn't know till today that I was able to get pictures.

They were able to get 7 gallons of fluid off of him, 35 lbs., and got his CO2 levels better, not as far down as they wanted, we couldn't get him to wear the Bi-Pap enough, but they were at least low enough that they felt ok with releasing him. His Potassium was still really low too, but we are continuing to work on that out of the hospital.

Getting his CO2 levels more normal brought back my husband that has been "lost" for quite some time. I keep asking him if he's "ok", because the only time that he's been this CALM or quiet is....well I don't remember it must have been ages ago. He said today that he can feel the edgy feeling coming back a little, he's struggling a little since he started back to work with changing habits that have to be changed. At least now we know what it is and how to "fix" it. All in all they helped him 100% more than his visit in April (different hospital this time too). They did more for him and actually figured out the prob and are working with him to resolve it. He felt much better this time coming home.

The short (LOL yea right) of it is... he has oxygen that he wears at night with his C-Pap, adjusted meds, habits that have to be changed, and quiting "chew". (The nicotine is also constricting his blood vessels adding to the problem) Not much at all...LOL

We would both like to thank ALL of our family and friends for their concern and prayers on Chad's behalf. We know that these prayers saved Chad's life and helped the Dr. to find what the problem was and the way to help Chad heal and feel better. We wanted you all to know that and to let you know that he is doing better and on the road to better and stronger health!!

The three of the helicopter are from the window in his room. It was a great view, and we enjoyed watching the helicopter land and take off. Got a video of it too.

He Sleeps....

This is an entry that I have meant to post for some time now, but I am about 4 posts/weeks behind. I'll explain in a new post why....

I just thought that this was just a classic of Chad sleeping, and why should I be the only one that gets to see how amazing this is...:)

I love this guy with all my heart, and it amazes me how he can sleep this way. I took the picture to have prof for him that I wasn't making it up that he "buries" himself while he sleeps. There is usually a wall of pillows all around him and as you can see sometimes on top of him.

What we haven't know is how his SLEEP is causing so much "havoc" on his health.

So here are some of the pictures that I have taken of Wicket
... they start from the begining of him coming to us up to... well Chad giving him a "hair cut". Wow I really can't leave him alone...lol

He was really trying to help, but I let him know that he definatly isn't a "grommer" he was close, just the tail just seems wrong...LOL ... Oh well, at least is was cooler for him in this heat we've had. I just hope now that it's cooling down he'll grow his hair a little faster :) We had a good laugh and Chad asked me to post the pictues and show his "handy work"....