Kidney Stone??? Waaaat???

March 2015 -
The night after I returned from Hong Kong I started feeling terrible.  By terrible I mean that I had the most terrible pain in my left lower back that I've ever had in my life.  I was also feeling like I was getting a urinary tract infection.  By 5 o'clock Monday morning I was ready to go into the ER, because the pain was so bad.  I was convinced that I had a kidney infection.

The doctor sent me home with antibiotics and nurofen for pain (basically ibuprofen).  All day Monday turned out to be awful.  Such bad pain all day with my neighbor, April, bringing me pain
meds leftover from her daughter's cancer.  I took oxycodone and it didn't even help with the pain.  (To give you an idea of how bad the pain was...I actually said a swear word that I've never even said during childbirth.  Freaking major pain!)

By Monday afternoon April convinced me that I needed to go back to the ER.  My friend Carrie drove me and I was admitted this time and put on morphine for the pain.  Then I was taken off to get x-rays.  That's when the vomiting started.  Actually, the vomiting started earlier in the day.  I vomited 3 times at home before going into the ER.

I was given a medication (not sure of name) that helps move kidney stones.  It forces them out.  So all night I was up going to the bathroom every few hours checking the toilet and hoping that the thing would come out.  If it didn't come out during the night then a specialist would come by in the morning and use a tool to blast the stone into thousands of pieces to make it come out easier.  Mike slept in the hospital room with me so when I went to the bathroom early in the morning I saw something at the bottom of the toilet.  It looked like a little black rock so I asked Mike if he could check and see if it was a stone.  I actually thought that the bottom of the toilet was just stained black but I was still hopeful that it could be the kidney stone.  Well, Mike reached down into the toilet and retrieved it and it was the kidney stone!  Crazy!  We put it on a paper towel and I couldn't believe it was black.  Gross?!  I thought that kidney stones were clear, crystal looking stones.  However, this looked like a stone you would find at the beach.  When the specialist doctor came in at 7:00am he was surprised to see that we had the stone.  He even took photos of it.

The only good part of this experience was when my sweet friend Sarah Nelson dropped by with a phone charger for me, some socks for my freezing cold hospital feet and my very favorite Easter candy - Cadbury chocolates.

I really hope I don't have to go through this ordeal again.  I'm grateful for good friends who helped me through this.  Kidney stones are no joke!

(March 2015)

Sports Report

Carson had 2 rugby games on Saturday.  Both vs. Temecula.  In the first game Carson scored 2 tries. His first tri was a return run after a kick-off.  The second was a pass from a teammate and he scored in the corner.  He also had one awesome "low" tackle and sent a kid on the other team into outer space.

Jack had his first baseball scrimmage Sat night.  He's on the Pittsburg Pirates.  He had so much fun. He had 2 walks and one strikeout.

Bailey got hurt in her soccer game (Sage Creek JV team) a week or so ago and has a terrible ankle sprain.  She's in sort of a boot/cast thing.  So, she missed her last 3 JV games and can't play CIF. She's pretty bummed about that.  However, she's playing lacrosse next season so she's pretty psyched about that.  Hope she can get better soon so she can play!

Skylar is in a ballet class and seems to be liking that a lot!

Mike spends his mornings surfing or at Crossfit.

I'm still running a couple days a week and doing yoga one day per week.

Busy, busy!

Sky is hilarious - part 2

Skylar loves the primary song: Gethsemane!  She is singing it all the time.  Today Bailey and I snuck up on her outside in our front yard singing it so loudly.  It was so cute!  I just love her!!!

Skylar is hilarious!

I have a terrible memory so it's hard for me to remember the funny stuff that Skylar says everyday. Then, there's trying to document it.  That's another story!  Anyway, the other day when we were driving along she said, "mommy, do you care if you run over an ant? "  As I was contemplating this very important question she said, "I want you to run over the red ones."  What a character!  I'll write more Skylarism's as I hear them, I promise!

Skylar

Sky was just watching the new American girl movie, "Grace." Part of it takes place in Paris and when she saw the Eiffel Tower she said to Jack and Carson, "Guys!  Come see the Tokyo Tower!"  We were all cracking up and so happy that she remembers our last family vacation in Asia!

Carson aka "Mr. Celiac"

April 2015

So after some blood tests came back positive for celiac we had a scope done on Carson at NUH here in Singapore.  The tests confirmed that Carson is celiac.  He has handled this trial like a champ!  I'm so proud of him!

My favorite celiac experience so far is the following:  Our bishop arranged for our entire ward to eat Carson's special gluten free cracker for sacrament meeting one Sunday.  He noticed that we were bringing a gluten free cracker just for Carson to take for the sacrament.  So, he decided to have a "celiac awareness" sacrament meeting where everyone took the crackers for the sacrament.  Our bishop (Bishop Quinton) explained Carson's situation and explained that because we all love Carson (and the Daynes family) that they would all "bear our burdens" and empathize with Carson for one Sunday.  This sweet gesture gave me chills.  I brought enough crackers for the entire ward that day and it was fun to hear everyone crunching down on their cracker and seeing all the smiles.

I never want to forget this sweet gesture of love toward Carson and my family!

Bailey's School Trip to Myanmar

This year I had the opportunity to visit the country of Myanmar on my freshman interim trip. When I first chose where I wanted to go, months before the actual trip, I had the idea of travelling to Burma/Myanmar because I had heard of how cultural as well as beautiful the place was. My dad also happened to be in Myanmar at the time of my interim pick, and fully supported the idea, making me more and more excited to travel there. Obviously, I had never been to the country before but indeed had been to surrounding areas such as Thailand, Cambodia, and China; But Burma is a completely different place with a different religion, culture, and overall feel so I had absolutely no idea what to expect, besides what I had researched, leaving me anxious for the experience.

On the first day of the journey, we woke up early and flew to Yangon, a well-known, busy city in Myanmar. We spent that day touring the country, studying Burmese politics and significant destinations in which we visited. The sudden realization of differences between third world countries and first world countries first hit me on that day, when we went to a local restaurant. We were all shocked after noticing that the people serving us were quite small. None of us exactly knew why, we just assumed that these young boys were either small for their age or were actually younger than us. Our tour guide, Myint Zaw, then informed us that boys such as these are usually forced to leave their families to work and earn money which eventually is sent back to where they came from. These boys earn less than $80 USD per month and are only given a day off twice a month! After witnessing this, it’s less hard to remember that the life I live is almost the complete opposite of the lives of thousands of 14 year-olds in countries around the world.


Another huge part of the trip was visiting and learning about Burmese culture, as it is a “Global Studies” interim trip, but most memorable, the beautiful Buddhist temples. The first temple we toured was the Shwedagon Pagoda, a fascinating as well as extremely large temple filled with tourists as well as different ethnic minorities that all wanted to visit the Shwedagon before death. It was interesting that we were able to feel so connected with the people we met and culture we discovered as the week went on because I especially felt like we were a real part of the everyday Burmese life.

Overall, my trip to Myanmar really was a special one. Even simple things such as sitting on the floor at lunch, shopping in local markets, visiting the homes of past leaders, catching the sunset from tops of temples, and even riding oxen across an island made my experience that more exciting. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities I receive to travel around the globe and will forever remember how I felt as I travelled through Myanmar.