April/May - I "injured" my knee (the "good" one). I was training for another 1/2 marathon walk when my knee began to hurt. Suddenly something felt like it popped and then I couldn't put my weight on it. Thru a long process I finally had an MRI which showed a "big" tear in the meniscus. I had surgery on May 4th and they couldn't find any tear.
May 26th - Josh married Staci. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful ceremony and reception here at the house. We LOVE Staci. The 2 of them are back at BYU going to school. We got to have them live with us for the summer as they both worked here!!
June 1 - Reed ended up in the hospital. He had felt that something was wrong and decided to pursue testing of his prostate. He had had a PCA-3 test which is a little more advanced than a PSA test. A normal level is 30 or below and his was over 100. He went ahead with a biopsy. Unfortunately things went "bad". Routine procedures weren't followed and Reed became septic. That means an infection had entered his blood stream. His fever shot up to 106.6 and miraculously I remained calm and informed him that we were going to the hospital. I felt bad for Josh and Staci who had just returned from their honeymoon and I had to wake them in the middle of the night to tell them we were going to the ER. Reed recovered after about 4 days in the hospital. By then we had a diagnosis of prostate cancer. We then helped Jackie and Jessica move as they pooled their resources and rented a house together.
July - Reed and I took a cruise to Alaska with Reed's sisters and their spouses. It was a beautiful and unique trip which we really enjoyed. My knee wasn't doing so well so we made plans to travel back east to visit Reed's old college roommate who is an orthopedic surgeon. He administered a PRP injection. That stands for a Platelet Rich Plasma injection. They use my own blood and spin it down and then re-inject it into my knee. It helped with pain and swelling and then I returned to doing physical therapy to try and get movement back.
August - We took our annual vacation back to the beach. This year Reed drove back with Jackie and her boys visiting Yellowstone, Nauvoo and other places as they traveled. The boys had such a good time and were so good. The rest of us flew back and we all enjoyed a long week at the beach minus Zach and Jayme who were busy with school.
September - Reed had surgery to remove his prostate. We found a doctor in Portland whom we really liked. We discovered he was a member of our church as we did research on him and his qualifications. Funny thing was that when the surgeon came in to talk to me after surgery he kept looking at Jackie strangely. After I introduced her and Jayme to him he stopped and simply said "nice talk on Sunday Jackie"!! He is a member of Jackie's ward!!
Since then we have been helping Reed recover, making trips to visit the doctor in Portland and gearing up for this year's Nativity Festival.
