Monday, August 28, 2006

Two good eyes!

I now have two good eyes! My second cataract surgery went very well. Last Thursday, when I was back to the doctor I found out that the vision in my left eye was 20/25. That was just the day after surgery! The vision in my right eye was still 20/40 or was that again. It was painful, very red and swollen. Dr. Affleck said that I was having a rebound. From the prednisone type drops that I had been putting in my eye for a week and hadn’t put any in since Tuesday night per his order. He told me to use the drops four times a day again thro’ the weekend. I put them in just three times yesterday, two times today and will do it just once tomorrow. I think I will taper off the same way with the left eye too. I’m still getting used to seeing when I first open my eyes in the morning. I still can read without my glasses as long as the sun is up. If it’s cloudy that complicates things but that’s OK.

Last week in church we were told that we would be getting a new bishopric this week. Of course all week, we have been wondering who it would be etc. We found out yesterday. Lamar John is the bishop, Paul Chugg is his first counselor and Todd Havens is his second counselor and Troy Lastle is the executive secretary. Ed Harper was released as executive secretary to Bishop Coombs and immediately put in as a high counselman. He will make a good one.

I had a neat experience yesterday. A couple of them really. As I was curling my hair yesterday morning, the name of Lamar John popped into my mind. My next tho’t was, his health isn’t the best and this particular calling really takes a toll on a man’s health. Then the Spirit whispered to me. But the Lord will sustain him and support him and help him thro’ this. Then the verse in I Nephi 3:7 came to my mind: I will go and do the thing which the Lord has commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

After we got to church we noticed that all of Lamar and Vernarae’s children were there except for their daughter who lives in Washington. Sherrie had been here visiting for a couple of weeks about a month ago. Two of them had come up from Utah and the other two live around here. I knew then for sure that he would be in the bishopric and would probably be the bishop. He is very humble about it and will make a very good bishop.

After our block of meetings, we had our interviews with the Stake Presidency for our temple recommends. Karl had written my name down when he wrote his so I didn’t have to wait very long to go in. He was thro’ with his before he came and told me that. President Batt is the one who interviewed me. I told him of my experience while curling my hair. He said, “ I’m glad to hear that you have received that reaffirmation from the spirit.” He said that Bishop John would have been called four or five months ago except for the “natural man in me.” He said that he knew of Lamar’s poor health and that he tires very easily and that’s why he was reluctant. But “I went to the Lord and told him I was sorry and would do what he wanted.” He said that as soon as they discussed it as a Stake Presidency that they knew it was right. He also said that Lamar has the same attitude about it: that the Lord will sustain him and help him do it. I also told Bishop John this experience too and he told me he appreciated my telling him. I know he will make a good bishop. It feels good to know that I'm still in tune and worthy of the promptings of the Spirit even in things like this.
I find that having a temple recommend interview is very humbling. When they ask me if I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the World my heart literally burns within me as I answer. The same with the ones about loving the Lord and our Heavenly Father and sustaining President Hinckley as the Prophet of the church and the only one who receives revelation for the world. Our Stake Presidency, all three members have the questions all memorized so that they look you right in the eye as they ask you. I’m sure they could tell if someone were lying. I feel that they are men of God and know that they are called by him. I’m glad to have this experience. I’m also glad that it is only every two years instead of every year.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

A Full & Interesting Week

We had quite an interesting week this passed week. Sunday, Téa and the children went to church with us and then we met at the shelter by Falls Valley School for dinner. We took crockpot roast beef with potatoes and carrots, a Jell-o salad, lemonade and butter & apricot jam for rolls that Téa brought. She also brought the cookies for dessert and the plates, cups, utensils and napkins. The children played on the toys there at the school for a while. It was very enjoyable being there with them. Jennifer Baisden, Duncan’s primary teacher, came up to Téa after RS and told her that she really enjoyed having Duncan in her and her husband’s primary class. He asked how old their baby was and told them all about Ephraim. It turns out that their baby will be a year old a week before Duncan’s 9th birthday. He didn’t mention that. Just told them when Ephraim would be a year old on August 26th. I started putting antibiotic drops in my right eye this day in anticipation of my surgery on Wednesday. I wore my contact to church but left it out the rest of the day because I need to put them in four times each day.

On Monday I went to Pilates and then my water class. I told Yvonne that I wouldn’t be there Wednesday or Friday because of the my cataract surgery on Wednesday and a Funeral on Friday. She told me that she would call and put my name on the prayer roll of the temple for me. She is very sweet. She is a very little lady who wouldn’t weigh 90 lbs. soaking wet and has difficulty getting up the steps of the warm pool and Apple Athletic Club so I help her. That’s why I wanted her to know that I wouldn’t be there those two days.

Tuesday we went to our walking class. We were to walk the track at IF High School but they had just resurfaced it in anticipation of school starting tomorrow. So we walked around the outside fence around the track which was a little bigger than the track itself. I went around seven times. I figure I went at least two miles that day. The rest of the day was just laid back. I worked on Abbie’s I’m a Child of God plaque. I’m making good headway on it. I should be able to have it done by her 1st birthday.

Wednesday, I was going to go to the 10:00 water aerobics class but I didn’t wake up soon enough. I had been awake earlier in the wee hours of the morning and then read for 45 minutes or so then went back to sleep. I was to be at the surgery center by 2:00pm for my cataract surgery on my right eye. The surgery went very smoothly. Like Dr. Affleck said my vision was kind of milky until Thursday morning. Then things are so much brighter with my right eye! I need to wear sunglasses now because things are so bright now. I just took it easy the rest of th day. I couldn’t see to embroidery nor read so I just watched TV. The dialation of my right eye didn’t really leave completely until Friday morning.

We went back to see Dr. Affleck Thursday morning so he could look at my eye and see how I was healing. He said I was doing great. My vision was already 20/40 without correction. He said that that would improve as the swelling went down. He said I would be 20/20 for distance easily but would most probably need to wear reading glasses in order to read or see anything up close. I was to have a massage Thursday afternoon but Shelley called that morning to change it because they are doing things and getting ready to move into their new home. So we went to the temple. We’ve been going once a week since it reopened in July. I noticed on the way to the temple that I was able to read the street signs! I haven’t been able to until we were practically on top of them. It’s great!

Friday we went to Virgean Frederickson’s funeral. She had had back surgery in April while we were in Phoenix for Easter. She arrested either on the table or shortly after and was never quite the same since. She had to learn to talk and walk again and do everything else too. She was in intensive care for a month or six weeks initially and eventually went to a rehab center in Bountiful. She was just about ready to walk again when she had a bad turn for the worse and ended up in intensive care again and died there on August 11. She was one special lady. A lot of fun to be around. She would have been 61 this coming Tuesday. A relative young age for this day and age. It was the largest funeral that I have attended. There were five or six rows back into the cultural hall after the rows in the over flow area. I’m glad that we went.

Afterwards we met Téa and the children at Arctic Circle for lunch at 2:00. we treated. It was fun watching the children play. I enjoy watching Ephraim do his raspberries. I got a kick out of Elena as she came down the slide. The slide is plastic and due to static electricity her hair was sticking out all over her head. I got a couple of pictures of it that shows it when they are enlarged. We left at 4:00 to go to the temple Visitor’s Center and see the Joseph Smith Film, Prophet of the Restoration. None of us had seen it yet. It was very well done. The characters were very well cast. It reaffirmed to me that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he did restore the true church of Jesus Christ. It was a tear jerker as they say. I held Ephraim most of the time thro’ it. He went to sleep right after the “first vision”. Janice Harrop and her husband were two of the missionaries there. She taught one of my nursing classes my first year in nursing. It was good to see her again. We took some pictures there on the temple grounds in front of the beautiful flowers. We told them good bye because they were leaving the next day for Utah and then Denver and then home. I have very much enjoyed our interaction with them. They are growing so quickly. They are all very loving.

Yesterday was kind of laid back again. I called my sister-in-law Jewel and talked to her about my surgery. She is having her first eye done this Tuesday and the other one done next week. I tho’t it might help her to talk to someone first hand who had just gone thro’ it. I told her that she would love it. It was good talking to her. We talked about 1 ½ hours.

Today we learned that we will be getting a new bishopric next week. As I looked around to see who it may be, I tho’t or James Baisdon and Greg Johnson. Of course the Lord may have other ideas. Whom ever it is they will be called of God and I will sustain them. Paul Chugg may also be in the new bishopric too. He has only been in the present bishopric for a few months. Time will tell. I’ll report next week who it is.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

No more Contacts!

Ever since I was nine years old I have had annual eye exams to see how much my eyes have changed. Three or so years ago I was told that I had a slow growing cataract on my right eye. I've noticed since about the first of the year that my vision has been a little blurry. The last three months have especially been bad. I knew I had an appointment for an eye exam the end of July so I just waited until then. It was postponed until the 3rd of August since the doctor was going to be out of his office. Last Thursday I found out that the cataract in my right eye has really blossomed and that my vision in my right eye, which has always been better than my left, is actually worse. I went to see Dr. Aaron Affleck yesterday. He said that both eyes are eligble for cataract surgery. They do them a week apart. And with my bad eyes -9.25 in my left eye and a -7.25 in my right eye that it is greatly to my advantage to have both eyes done. That way I can have close to 20/20 vision when they are thro' with me. They will replace my natural lenses with a man-made lens that has power enough to get my vision up to 20/20. I won't have to wear a patch at all or have stitches in my eyes. He will make a 3mm slit in the lens cover of each eye and break up my natural lens and vacuum it out with an ultra sound machine. Then he will fold a flexible tiny lens and slip it into the slit and the cover will hold it in place. The lens has a fine little hook on each side that helps hold it in place. He said that my vision will be blurry the first day but when I wake up the next morning I should be able to see just fine without glasses or contacts. I will have to wear glasses for reading and close hand work etc. but hey, I'm almost 63 years old and I've been very blessed that I haven't had to been doing that for 20 years already. Some people would have. He said that the whole procedure takes about 20 minutes is all and they have it set up in the waiting room so Karl will be able to watch the whole procedure there. Then he turned to me and said I'd be able to watch when he did Karl's eyes when the time came. Boy, technology has come such a long way in less than 30 years. When I graduated from nursing school in 1975, the patient had to sleep with sand bags on both sides of his head and keep the bed at a 45 degree angle, wear a patch for at least two weeks and have coke-bottle thick eye glasses which the patient could only distinguish light and dark without them. With eyes as bad as mine, it is actually advantageous to have cataracts. Interesting, huh?

My surgery will be: Right eye August 16th, left eye August 23rd. It won't slow my life down much at all. I may have to miss my Thursday walk class both weeks but that's about it.