What a Weekend!!!

I wrote this letter to my brother Scott who is on a mission, so instead of telling the story twice, I'll just let you read his letter.

Well it has for sure been a crazy weekend. Saturday we woke up planning on having a day of cleaning and fun. Clint's mom called us around 12 really worried about Clint's dad. So Clint asked his mom if she would like us to come up, she did. We took some time getting ready and left our house around 2. We thought we would be good and take trax up to the UofU to save gas. Bad idea. We didn't get there till 4, and the Trax cars really stink. Plus when we needed to leave latter, we had to find a ride down to our car. I'll fill you in on that latter.

Anyway we got up there and Jim wasn't doing well at all. The doctor was VERY concerned! He was in critical condition. His blood pressure was so low and they knew he was bleeding internally somewhere, but they couldn't take him to do a scan because he wasn't stable enough. They had his meds maxed out and said that they couldn't leave him on these meds too long or it would do more damage.

Patti had asked the doctor if she should get the other children up there and he told her it would be a very good idea, he wasn't sure if he would make it through the night.

Jim has a "trach" so he can't talk, he can only mouth things which makes it very hard to read his lips and he is so doped up on Meds that he doesn't really make sense. He kept mouthing, "No more medicine!" Clint asked him if he was ready to go back to Heavenly Father and he just rolled his eyes and said, "no, I have more of a mission." But at the same time he didn't want any more medicine.

Just in case something happened in the night, Clint and I went home to get Clay, Makell and Coleton around 7. Our car was still at the Trax station in Sandy, so we had to get a ride with Clint's cousin. But first we had to pick up her car at her parents in Holiday, have her follow us to Mariah and Enrique's house in Lehi to pick up car seats, and then head to the Meeks. It took us 2 hours just to do that. It didn't help that the wind was blowing so much that we had to drive less than 65 mph.

Anyway, after we dropped a key off at mom and dad's so they could pick up Jax, and picked up the 3 kids, we got back to the hospital around 10. Pattie had the whole family came in, (usually they only allow 2 people at a time) and we had some good family times, you know just telling Jim that we love him and Patti told Jim that she was releasing him to go home if he needed to. We pretty much were saying our goodbyes. It was very emotional!

All but one of Jim's siblings came up to say goodbye and they stayed till about 1:00am. Around 2 things had pretty much stayed the same, so we all tried to get some sleep. I tried to sleep on the hard floor, but the lights were on all night, and it was too noisy. I got maybe a combination on 1 hour sleep. I don't do well with no sleep. Patti stayed with Jim the whole night and Clint spent most of the night in there.

Sunday morning came and things were still pretty much the same. Clint and I decided to go home and shower and get a little more sleep. On our way home Mariah called and said that they were able to do a CAT Scan and found where he was bleeding. The surgeon decided that they better operate to stop the bleeding and see if the infection he had was in his chest. The Doctor cauterized about 50 capillaries which stopped the bleeding. The doctor said that his lungs look really good. Usually after a surgery like this the lungs are purple and discolored, but Jim's looked pink and healthy.

Clint and I finally made it back to the U around 6pm (we made it to Sandy only to find out we had to turn around and go back to Lindon to get some keys). Anyway, we went in to see him and he looked 10 times better. His blood pressure was higher than it has been since the lung surgery, his temperature had gone down and a lot more of the problems they had been dealing with were improving.

Clint stayed the night with his dad so his mom could get some sleep. I got to mom and dad's house around 10:45 and just slept there so I wouldn't have to come all the way back to Lindon for work the next day.

I just talked to Clint a while ago and he said that his dad is doing so well. They have taken him off 2 of the 4 meds and think that by the end of the day, he should be able to be off all of them. They have also lowered the ventilator so he is breathing more on his own.

It's so amazing thinking that 2 days ago we thought we were going to loose him and now we will have more time with him. He's still not out of the woods by any means, he still has the cancer he has to deal with. But it just isn't his time now. The Bishop had come up Saturday to give him a blessing and he told Mariah and Clint that he has people waiting for him on the other side, but neither sides know what will happen.

He also said that he feels like his time to go is soon he's not sure if that will be in a couple days or months but just that it is coming. We'll see what happens. Well sorry to bore you so much, we just had a very emotional week and I needed to write it down before I forget.

Oh one more bit of news, Clint got his first acceptance letter for law school. It is to Akron Ohio which is 35 minutes south of Cleveland and about 45 minutes away from Kirkland. I'm really excited about this school. He got a scholarship that would pay for all of tuition so we would only have to go in debt for cost of living expenses. We're going to go to Ohio in a couple weeks to check out the school and the areal. It's the only school that we've heard back from, but it's such a great opportunity, that we're having a hard time saying no to it. I guess we'll see what happens.

As far as Clint and his dad goes, Clint is doing very well under the circumstances. He is such a great son, brother and husband. He's so strong. We all love his so much. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and concerns. We'll keep you posted.