It has been a long weekend and an even longer day. The day started at 5 am, leaving for Salt Lake at 6:30, and getting home at about 10.
Before I knew about all of the latest things going on with Larry, I had planned a trip to go and visit my sister, Janice, in NV. With Larry's appointment being today, I made the decision to still go last minute even though I knew it would be a quick trip and a lot of driving. I'm glad I went, as I don't get to see my sister very often, and it helped keep my mind off of today's procedures. We were greeted with warm hugs, delicious food, and were able to take a tour of the back country surrounding Mina. The kids and I also got to listen to the complete Unabridged version of "Where the Red Fern Grows" and Anne of Greene Gables" and we sang the Nevada state song over and over again so that I could learn it. Funny story--Nate's second grade teacher, Mrs. Wait, is also from NV. She taught her class the ID state song immediately followed by the NV state song. The whole class even sang it to me when I came in to help in the class one time. Sadly, I did not know most of the words to my own state song until now!
We got home from our trip last night at about 8 pm. At about 8:30 we had a whole support team show up at our house. We spent about an hour talking, reminiscing, and telling stories. Before they left Larry and I were given priesthood blessings (a priesthood blessing in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a prayer for healing, comfort, or counsel given by a Melchizedek Priesthood holder, who lays his hands on the head of the person receiving the blessing) to help us face the upcoming giants that we had awaiting us. Truly we have been so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. If Larry's healing was only conditional upon people's love and concern for him and our family, complete healing would have happened a long time ago.
After a two hour drive this morning, we arrived at Larry's appointment to have his biliary tube changed and have the long awaited biopsy performed. We even wore our matching, newly purchased "Pancreatitis Warrior" t-shirts (be sure and enlarge the picture and you will see a perfect description of life with pancreatitis). Somebody put a link for this on the pancreatic facebook page that I am a part of and I just had to order them as they represent my family so well. Do you know how many times my boys and Larry have said, "I'm Fine" when they are critically injured or on their death bed? Just recently when Enoch had the emergency eye surgery for his accident the first words he said after coming out of anesthesia were, "I'm Fine!" as he immediately conked back out on his pillow. Before Larry left for the procedures it broke my heart when he said, "You know if they find cancer, it is pretty much a death sentence." This is something we have mostly avoided talking about through this whole process. What we did learn today is that the growth on Larry's liver is not an abscess and we will not have the results as to whether or not it is cancerous until Wednesday. I am still holding out hope that it is a benign growth which can be a consequence of having pancreatitis. Maybe everything won't be fine in the way that we want it to be, but because of the gospel of Jesus Christ everything will turn out fine in the end.
Today was Nate's 8th birthday! It was certainly not my vote to have this procedure on his special day, but I am so grateful to my good friend Talina, who took him under her wing and helped make it such a fun day for him! Honestly, I'm not even sure that he missed us or noticed that we weren't there because he had such a fun filled day and she even helped him make his own birthday cake!!! In light of other good news, Nate's cousin, Jessica, had her baby today (on Nate's birthday). I sent a picture of the baby to Talina to share the good news with him. Nate's response was, "Awe, I have a twin! He then turned to his friends and said, "Hey guys, guess what I got for my birthday!?"💙 We were released from the hospital at 1:30 and the plan was for us to do some shopping on the way home and have pizza, cake, and presents when we got home. Like Dr. Ott commented at the hospital, Larry's case is an anomaly and the events that took place on our trip home would help support that narrative.
After leaving the hospital I ask Larry what he thought we should get Nate for his birthday. After about a half hour he commented that we should buy him a high quality BB gun. He had received a cheap daisy BB gun for Christmas and it broke in half after just a few uses. Larry mustered up his remaining energy for the day and spent a good half hour shopping for the perfect gun for his boy. I then made a trip into Walmart when we got to Brigham City to buy wrapping paper and pizzas for our party. Upon returning to the car I became very concerned about Larry. He was shaking uncontrollably, had turned off the a/c in the 100+ degree car, and he felt like he had a fever. I called Dr. Ott and he told me to drive to Logan and take him to the ER as sometimes people have reactions to the procedure that he had just received.
After dropping Larry off at the ER, I called a friend and was able to take my refrigerated food to her house so it wouldn't spoil in the heat. I then returned to the ER where they ran more tests on Larry and performed another CT (ugh!) on him. After a bag of fluids, and receiving all of the test results back, he was cleared to go home as everything had returned to normal. We arrived home at about 10:00--just in time to get his feeding bag ready again and spend some time with the children before putting them to bed. I think we will sleep very well tonight (or at least I will, Larry is still struggling to get his pain under control😓).
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