Home for the holidays

We had a very nice Christmas once again this year. This year we got to go up to Pocatello and spend Christmas with my family for the first time since we've been married. It was really nice to get away for a few days and we had a great time with family. We now have a photographer in the family (Shawn's so good at his hobbies) so there are some great pictures from Christmas and we did family pictures too but we had to leave before they were done so I'll have to post pictures later.
I just love this time of year. It always reminds me of how fortunate and blessed we are. Especially this year with how well everything went with Monty's surgery. We are so very grateful for our Savior and for the life he lived that makes the rest of our lives worth living.

Life returning to normal

We're slowly starting to get back into a normal life now. This week Monty went back to work full time. It's his third week back but the week of Thanksgiving he only did 18 hours and last week he did 30. He's doing so well and we are very grateful for that. We know how truly blessed we have been the past couple months. Last weekend was project weekend. My brother Steve and his wife came over from Rock Springs, WY and my parents came down from Pocatello to help us work so some of our projects that have been put on hold. They finished my shelves downstairs which is so nice. I was finally able to get our food storage out of boxes and grocery bags and see what we really have. They did a great job on them.

The next project was a much bigger undertaking and took much longer than we thought it would. That could be because I didn't have the right cutting tool, but I also come from a famliy of perfectionists so things just take longer to do, but that's ok because the backsplash turned out AMAZING!! Thanks guys for all your hard work.

Monty created the design for it and while it added a lot of cutting, I really like how it turned out. We still need to grout it but with working all week that part hasn't got done yet. Hopefully this weekend it will.

So much to be thankful for

While Monty and I cheered when October was over, it left us with so much to be thankful for. We came home from the hospital last Wednesday, so we have been home a week and Monty is doing so well. Our experience the last few weeks is not one I would even wish on my enemies, but we have survived, and more importantly Monty survived. When we found out he had to have surgery his surgeon said that it needed to be taken care of but that there wasn't a huge rush. Later they realized that wasn't the case. The aneurysm looked a lot worse than they had expected. It was so big it was displacing his heart. We have some amazing pictures the surgeon took but I'll spare you the blood and gore. His surgeon told me that after they opened him up they all held their breath until they were able to get him onto bypass and there wasn't blood running through his heart anymore. The valve that they thought was leaking a little bit because it was stretched was actually not stretched but leaking heavily because it was so deteriorated.

This is a piece of the actual graft that now makes up the first few inches of Monty's aorta.

The graft itself is the same size as a normal aorta. The top rim of the cup that it's in is how big Monty's was. The typical aorta is a little bigger around than a quarter and the portion they removed was about the size of a soda can. Very scary. They figure he only had a matter of weeks before it would have ruptured. I can't even begin to explain how grateful we are that they found the aneurysm when they did and that they were able to repair it and the valve so quickly. He now has a St. Jude mechanical valve. He ticks like the second hand on a watch and it is the sweetest sound to me now.

I had to throw this picture in. This is what kept us busy during Monty's 5 hour surgery. They had a few puzzles in the waiting room and we thought this one was fitting for Monty. It took me, my mom, and Monty's mom almost exactly as long to finish it as his surgery was. It was something to numb my brain as I waited for the phone to ring with the next update on how surgery was going.

The evening after surgery was very rough. because of previous lung surgery, Monty's lungs don't function at a normal capacity. While he does just fine like this, it took some convincing of his ICU nurse. They didn't want to take him off the ventilator until his lab work looked good. The problem was he was completely awake and conscious, breathing through a tube for hours on end and his labs were not improving. Poor Monty was awake on the vent choking and gagging for about 6 hours. It took some heavy persuasion, a persistant respiratory therapist, and getting the doctor to come in before they finally pulled the breathing tube. Monty says this was by far the worst part of the whole thing.

This is a picture 2 days after surgery. It's the first one we took in the hospital. While Monty debated whether or not he wanted to see himself right after surgery, after seeing him, I decided it was something I didn't want to remember and so I avoided the camera. Other than being very tired, he was already doing remarkably well. The dressing for the chest tubes looked worse than the actual surgical incision. He recovered very quickly and was ready to come home on Monday, however, because of the mechanical valve, he is now on blood thinners and they had difficulties getting his blood therapeutic. Finally Wednesday morning we had the number we needed to go home.

Since being home he ended up with an abnormal heart rhythm that landed us in the ER Monday night. However, the medications he was already on protected him from any serious complications from the rhythm. Yesterday we had another blessing in our lives. His cardiologist prescribed a med to convert his heart back to a normal rhythm. It can be pretty toxic to the body and is a 3 month course. However, by yesterday evening he felt and sounded so much better. Another trip to the cardiologist today showed that he had converted himself and he won't need the medication. While on our visit yesterday, the cardiologist said that he normally sees patients a few weeks to a month after surgery and they look like they've been run over by a truck. He said Monty looks like he's been run over by a Schwinn bicycle. and he might have to send him back to work early. Not bad for 13 days after surgery.

So this may not be the cutest picture ever but for two weeks after open heart surgery I think it looks excellent. We are so grateful for Monty's continuing recovery. We contribute it to all the thoughts and prayers given on his behalf. We have truly been blessed through this experience. I have learned to appreciate every day with Monty so much more than I ever did before. When you realize how close you were to losing someone you love, you see what a gift each and every day is.

Quick update

So, Monty's surgery was moved up from Friday to Wednesday for scheduling purposes but it ended up being a very good thing. The doctors didn't realize the severity of his condition until they opened him up. He was in much more danger than originally thought. However, surgery went well. They did have to replace his valve which we were really hoping they wouldn't, but it will be much better for the long term especially considering the condition of the valve. He is recovering well. We're still at the hospital but hoping to be able to go home in the coming few days.

Life on hold

Call it independence, stubbornness, or just plain pride, there's one thing Monty and I have in common...neither of us like to ask for help. However, at this time we are sending out a quiet plea to family and friends to please pray for us. Friday, October 23, Monty will be undergoing open heart surgery. They will be opening his chest, stopping his heart, and replacing a portion of his aorta. While we have been told that when this surgery is scheduled as "elective" (as if there really is such a thing as elective heart surgery!?!), that it has a very high success rate. However, it is still terrifying and has definitely turned our lives upside down. We ask you to pleas keep Monty and me in your thoughts and prayers over these coming weeks.

What we've been up to

So I figured Sunday afternoon would be a good time to finally give our blog a good update. We have been very busy the past few weeks trying to get stuff done around the house but have made a little bit of time for fun too. The last week of August we spent trying to get the yard ready for a sprinkler system. We borrowed Monty's mom's tiller which is a very beastly thing as you can see. Sadly it didn't do much but scrape up the top layer of dirt. Where we live the ground is mostly made up of two things, rocks and clay. We've decided we're going to have to wait til the sprinklers are in so we can water good and then just till around the sprinkler heads.

We did finally start and pretty much finish one project Labor Day weekend, and that was the front patio. We had a little inlet between the house and porch and decided to make a little patio out of it instead of finding good shade flowers for it. It still needs a little sand and we have to find the bench we want for it still but it's the first project we've actually finished.Saturday night of Labor Day weekend we went to the Jon Schmidt concert at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah. They have a beautiful outdoor amphitheater with a gorgeous waterfall background. Sadly I forgot to take the camera down for that one. The concert was AWESOME!! I'm a huge Jon Schmidt fan (for those who don't know he is a pianist) and he had his awesome cellist Steve with him. He debuted his new song Love Story Meets Viva La Vida. It's an awesome song, he is still working out the rights to it so it isn't published but you can find it on YouTube. Check it out. Sunday we got to go to Jackson's blessing. He's the awesome new member of the Allen family and it was so nice to see them and get to visit our old ward. Sunday afternoon we headed out to go camping and 4-wheeling with some of Monty's family. It was nice to go camping since we didn't make it out at all this summer with everything going on with buying a house. We went to Simpson Springs out in the west desert. It's on the old Pony Express trail. It was a fun little place and we had a good time. Monty and I got to go out on the 4-wheeler a couple times, including this one sporting his nieces helmets. It's really too bad you can't see the Disney princesses on Monty's helmet. Sadly, Megan's helmet actually fit me (she's 7 and I have a very little head).

This is one of the old stations along the pony express trail. Which apparently you can now take all the way from Utah to California.

One of the coolest things out there was all this green lava rock. It's kinda hard to tell in the picture but there were all kinds of mounds of green rocks. Apparently it's volcanic rock that is native to the area.

When we came home it was back to yard work, however, we now have trenches. Luckily one of our new neighbors knows someone who will trench your yard for the same price as it costs to rent a trencher so we didn't have to do that part. We were very grateful we didn't do it because when he left and told us this was the hardest ground he has ever seen. However it didn't leave us too confident for the digging we still have to do.

This is one of the two big holes I dug for the sprinkler boxes.

I even managed to snap a shovel in half while I was digging. I guess I don't know my own strength but you would really think that the ground would have given way before the shovel handle, who'd a thunk??

We spent the rest of the week digging trenches by hand over the gas and electrical lines, under sidewalks (stupid park strips), and in other places the trencher couldn't quite get to. We have also been attempting to clear some of the rocks out of the yard but there are so many and they aren't exactly little.

My dad is coming down tomorrow from Pocatello to help us put in the sprinkler system so hopefully within the next couple weeks we will have a yard, well a front yard anyway (we're seeding the back yard).

Finally a few pictures

It's just a couple pcitures and of course everything wasn't put away but I figured I'd better finally get a couple pictures up. Not much time now, more to come later.