I know you are all aware of what happened, but thought I would record it here for future reference. After telling the doctor what had been happening, Doctor Isaacson was all ready to send Dad in for an MRI on his back to discover the issue, when Dad added, "And, on top of all that, I've developed this crazy rash on the top of my leg..." The doctor then looked at the rash, sat back in his chair with a sort of satisfied look on his face, and said, "You have shingles." Well, thankfully no MRI, just more medication with lots of relief that it wasn't something worse. It has been excruciatingly painful, but Dad has been a trooper through it all! Alex asked me if he had been grumpy after not having slept for so long, but he really hasn't at all. He's been very tired and uncomfortable, but hasn't been impatient or unkind or grumpy in any degree. Truly, Dad fulfilled Elder Maxwell's hope when he had health issues, that he "wouldn't shrink." Dad's amazing, as you all well know. Now, he's taking medicine to 1. kill the virus (which is the same as the chicken pox virus), 2. another pill to calm the nerves that are affected by the virus (which decides to live in a nerve and then come alive whenever it wants to), and 3. a regular old narcotic pain killer (an opioid!!). He's only taken the pain med once and really doesn't like the nerve medication because of the side affects, and the antiviral medication is like a giant horse pill!! You'd be proud of him for even being able to swallow them. He's been sleeping much better the last few night, can drive the car longer distances without the terrible pain, and has hope that the pain will continue to subside until it disappears altogether. Prayers are indeed answered.
The only negative part of this diagnosis was that the Mannings and Joe's family were supposed to come this weekend to enjoy some fishing and time at Grandma's. We have had to postpone that so that none of the grandchildren would get chickenpox from Grandpa! That's a real thing! He is not contagious for shingles because it doesn't spread like that, but he could potentially infect anyone who hasn't had chickenpox. He should only be contagious until his own pox scab over, probably another week or so. Crazy! Shingles isn't a one time thing. You have the potential to get it again. So, as soon as this is healed up, we are both going in for a shingles vaccination. Jenn assures us that it is expensive and not always readily available, but nevertheless, we will get the shot!
The only other thing of note is that Dad and I got new callings. Did we already tell you that? We were sustained today as "Youth Family History and Temple Specialists" or something like that. So we will have to get in touch with the YW and YM leaders, as well as the Family History specialist in the ward and see how we can get the youth to the temple more often and get them excited about family history. Any ideas?? We'd be really happy to hear some suggestions. We are sad to leave Primary - we were just getting to feel comfortable with working with lots of wiggly bodies! But, this is where the bishop said the Lord wants us right now, so we'll do our best. I'm so glad that Dad and I still get to work together!
We sure love you all and appreciate your prayers and thoughtfulness recently. Things are well here and we are loving our garden produce and the beautiful flowers that Elise and Lauren and Ruth helped us with earlier this year. They are "feeding our souls" and providing "eye candy," as Elise calls it! Hope to see some, or all of you soon!
Some lovely gladiolus that Elise and Dad planted and we didn't even
know if they would actually produce! They are definitely people pleasers!
We have been gorging ourselves on fresh garden produce...
Cucumbers - more than we can eat, even after sharing with lots of neighbors!
Green beans, onions, tomatoes, peppers...
More tomatoes and potatoes...
Carrots and beets (the peas are harvested and gone already!)...
And luscious strawberries! Yummy!!
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