August 21!!! I Can't Believe It!

Time continues to fly by with the good and the hard tumbling on top of each other in the way that mortal life often does.  I missed last week writing in the blog, so now I have two weeks to catch up and probably won't get it all done today.  Thank heavens for photos on my phone and my calendar so that I can document some of the highlights of the past few weeks.

So here goes the catch-up....

A Stop At the Syracuse Temple

On Saturday morning, August 6th, I headed up to Syracuse but I was a bit early so I decided to swing by the temple site to see the progress on "our" temple.  It is such a sweet blessing to have a temple in the very town where you live.

Views from the north--

This is the front of the temple.

There is a picture of the picture of the design of the temple.

What a day it will be when the temple is dedicated and finally available for doing work for our ancestors--it will be amazing to share with the good people of Syracuse---it is projected to be done by the first half of 2024 which means we may be on our second mission still--but if we are close enough...we may make a trip back for that event!

I am sure you will hear more about this temple in the months and years ahead.
 

And just being there early on a Saturday morning with no one else around brought that sweet spirit of temples to me and the crazy week of appointments, mission life, and everyday life seemed less pressing or complicated as I reflected on the love of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the great plan of happiness They have for all of their children.  Just what I needed to start another busy day and to end my busy week.

Mission Week Report For Last week (August 1-7)

I just noticed that I forgot to publish this post on Sunday.  It really belongs before the medical stuff post--

The first three days were a typical mission week--with the meetings, unscheduled meetings, sweet conversations and hard ones that fill our days as zone leaders.  I did finish a time stamp/description for an oral history interview we did in June ( 3 hours and 36 minutes) and we got some donation agreements returned so we could do a bit of work on our assignments with the US/Canada team but most of our time was spent in zone leader activities.

On Monday night, we had an evening fireside where President and Sister Holmes led a discussion based on three talks:  one given by President Holmes while he was serving in the General YM Presidency of the Church at BYU entitled- "The Doctrine of Christ (2017 BYU Devotionals); Life Long Conversion by Elder Dale Renlund (BYU Devotional); and The Challenge to Become by Elder Dallin Oaks (October 2000 General Conference).  We discussed how to deepen our conversion by using the "pressure cooker" of our mission.  President Holmes shared a quote which stated:  "We have taught the dance steps of the gospel but not the music of the gospel. (taken from Wilford Anderson, April General Conference 2015) "  "Little step by little step we change."

Friday morning, we got a new missionary for our zone-- Sister Alice Coley from Pennsylvania.  We are excited to have her in our zone.

Now to the medical stuff....

And The Medical Stuff

Thursday--  Jena's dental surgery

Over two years ago, her personal dentist recommended that she have a cavity done under general sedation because he was concerned it might require a root canal.  Our only option with her insurance was at the U dental clinic but with Covid stopping things for awhile and general lack of staff up there it has been a big process to get an appointment at all.  Then her first one in June had to be postponed because she had Covid.  They first told us it would be next February before there was an available appointment but they gave us a cancellation opening.  Not untypical with Down syndrome, she had many problems with her teeth and then ended up pulling four teeth plus doing other work in her mouth.  We ended up being there from 7:00 am and home at 4:00 pm.

While we were waiting to start

After surgery--she asked me to take this picture

to send to her siblings and tell them she was

very brave getting her IV and during surgery.

When the doctor came out to get me, he said that she woke up and gave them a big smile despite all the work they did in her mouth.  

Being at home was much more comfortable.  She has done very well at taking the antibiotic and asking for pain medication when she needs it.  It has been a long time since she has taken either of those so I wasn't sure how it would go.  She is doing great.

Friday afternoon- Ben's colonoscopy

(We were so grateful that it was in the afternoon which allowed me to attend the Go Forth meeting and meet our new missionary. Sometimes, life works out that way--and other times it doesn't!)

Ben has had chronic constipation which was considered to be a direct result of medications he is taking, but he has now developed chronic and explosive diarrhea (a common result of the first problem) and it is really interfering with his daily life as you can imagine.  He takes a combination of 7 different things to help with both problems without success---medication, fiber, vitamins, and other natural supplements.  That isn't great either.  The specialist we saw wanted to rule out a number of other possible reasons--which we all agreed.  However, the result of the colonoscopy was as expected.  It was clear of any signs of infection, polyps, or structure problems.  It was enlarged which is totally expected in chronic constipation situations.

I started to cry when I read the report which I thought was weird, because in one sense it is good news, right?  Then I realized that I was hoping there was something else wrong that could be fixed for Ben.  We can't "fix" schizophrenia but I wanted to fix this problem for him.  He was disappointed as well when he woke up.  He finally has had some success in dealing with the delusions of going outside, but now diarrhea is keeping him from engaging fully in treatment and being able to leave the hospital.

Ben's photo to send to Jena telling her that 

he was brave for his IV as well.

Once again, Ben gets the double dose of side effects.  They have tried the usual methods to manage the constipation over the past several years. The diarrhea has occurred off and on for a year, but now is constant which has led to all of this testing. Now it will be back to the drawing board for exploring other options.
  

I helped Jessica run somewhere Saturday morning and then went grocery shopping but by Saturday afternoon, I was wiped out and slept for 2 hours and then fell asleep later when we all watched an old movie together.  I did manage to get some weekly housework done and some laundry, but that was it.  Sitting in hospitals wears you out.

And that is our week!