The McKell Spot

Updating Holly's Blog---

2012-02-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

This is Holly's sister Lisa. When Holly was ill she gave me her password for her Blog and I posted a few things when she passed. Her page views were 6,900 views. Since then, even though there have been no new posts her page views have gone up to 14,000. Obviously people continue to check in so I thought I'd say a great big THANK YOU AND LOVE YOU from Hollz. For those that live far away and have not been to visit the grave site here is her happy headstone. Unique, Happy and very "Holly".

Holly has so many friends. I knew she would want me to post something and tell you all to smile :)

2011-04-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

HOLLY SAUNDERS MCKELL

1974-2011

Holly, 37 passed away at home April 2, 2011 due to complications from complex congenital heart disease. She was born to Reed and Bobbi Saunders on April 8, 1974 with the probability of only living days. Defying the odds and pioneering a multitude of medical procedures, Holly amazed and taught us all by enduring 37 years of pure faith and strength.

Holly was radiant with happiness. She had a positive attitude, always looking for the best in others, never judgmental, or self-pitying. She brought sunshine to everyone she met. "Strangers are friends I haven't met yet." Heaven is happy Holly is home.

Born in California and growing up in the Cottonwood Heights area, Holly's deep love of the gospel of Jesus Christ influenced all who knew her. Her adventurous spirit took her to live in Arizona for 7 years where her love of life and friendships grew.
Moving back home to Utah, Holly met her sweetheart Quintin Thomas McKell. "It was truly my best moment when I met Quintin. I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for putting him in my life." They were married in the Jordan River Temple July 8th, 2006.
Together Quintin and Holly embarked on the greatest adventure of their lives, living in Australia for a year. There they adored the people, especially in their little branch, that loved them back. They cherished the birds, animals, and flowers of Cairns, Australia.
Survived by husband Quintin, parents Reed and Bobbi Saunders, sisters, Lisa (Greg) Lake, Shelly (Craig) Peters, Brother Danny Saunders, nieces and nephews. She loved Quintin's family and her constant friend Melanie Ledingham as well as hundreds of valued friends. Thank you to Holly's medical heroes; Primary Children’s Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Chicago Children’s Medical Center. A special thank you to the Lindon 13th ward.
Visitation/Viewing Thursday, April 7, 6:00-8:00 pm at River 6th Ward, 11473 S. Chapel Ridge Dr. (1080 W.) South Jordan, Utah 84095.

Funeral services will be held on her birthday, Friday April 8, 1:00 pm. South Jordan Utah River Stake Center, 1570 W. 11400 S. South Jordan, UT. A viewing will be held at 11:30 prior to the Funeral servic
"Tender mercies shall fall upon you like rain and wash away your tears"

Donations for Quintin at http://www.teamholly.blogspot.com/
Flowers SereniCare 12278 So. Lone Peak Parkway #103, Draper, UT 84020

Our beautiful Holly passed away 4-2-11 at 5:30 pm

2011-04-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

Heaven is a little brighter, a little more fun, a little happier today. By now our sweet, radiant Hollz has been embraced by a grandfather and uncles she longed to meet, grandparents and aunt. She loves and knows so many people on the earth and has more friends than anyone I know. How many friends is she reuniting with in the spirit world? She will be ready to meet us when it is our time to move on. We will again be greeted by that huge smile and laugh. For now we are cherishing the blessing she has been in each of our lives. Each of us is so much better for knowing her. Even if you didn't personally know her she loves you "A stranger is just a friend I haven't met"

We can each try to live life to the fullest as she did. We can each be a little less judgemental and a have a little more fun. We can practice a portion of the great faith she had and in some way follow her example.

She was not suppose to live more than 5 days but she did. She wasn't suppose to live past 2 but she did and on and on that way for 37 years. Not only did she live but she really chose to LIVE.

To her sweet mom and Dad and her loving Quintin may her happy sunshine continue to radiate in your lives. To all of Holly's wonderful friends she would want me to say Thank you and she loves you.

To Holly we say- Can't wait to see you again. WE LOVE YOU!
-Lisa

Finally a new post because Holly's friend Mel and sisters finally hacked in

2011-03-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

We have noticed many,many people have been checking Holly's blog and where are the new posts? Holly decided a few months ago that she didn't want to post anymore. Things were not changing. She didnt see the point of writing when the news wasnt good In fact things are not good right now. Our sweet Hollz is in her last days/week of her journey. Here are the new posts to follow on Holly:

www.Teamholly.blogspot.com

www.caringbridge.org/visit/hollymckell

You can contact sister Lisa on www.tempelakes.blogspot.com

One thing we all have in common WE LOVE OUR HOLLY!!!!

BTW........

2010-12-28T20:13:00.001-08:00

My new email address has changed to hollysmckell@gmail.com

Hello from Hospital

2010-12-23T13:59:00.000-08:00

I have saved this blog until after Christmas........

Man do I have a long story to tell. I choose to condense the whole story while still giving you all of the important info.

In November I started to get full of liquid in my abdomen...again.

I have been gaining and losing weight for the past couple of years, it became so frequent that I wouldn't really realize how big I was until people started to ask me when I was due. When I heard that I would call my Dr. So I went to visit a Liver disease Dr. because I have both heart and liver failure. The team there put me on major diuretics that made me lose the fluid. I then had a rough week and forgot to get my labs. I had my labs the next week and I got a phone call from my liver Dr. Starting out with her asking me "How do you feel?" that's never a good thing. I told her that I could taste ammonia and wasn't very clear in the head, I was confused more than usual (imagine that haha). She said she would call me back and when she did she suggested that I come into the ER to get my ammonia lowered.

I apparently had had so many diuretics that I had acute renal failure (kidney failure that could be reversed). I was less confused the next day and I was set free the next day in time for Thanksgiving.

I was backed way off of the diuretics and on new meds that would help my kidneys. I did well for a couple of weeks, weighing the lowest I'd ever been in five or so years I fit into my "skinny" clothes. I was too confident I guess. More diuretics were lowered and I started gaining fluid back into my belly. It was majorly frustrating to either compromise my liver and kidneys by taking diuretics or looking 9 months prego and feeling more and more uncomfortable and breathless. I called my liver Dr's to schedule a paracentisis, which is when they drain you with a needle. In the middle of that day I received a call from my cardiologist which is kinda a big deal because I usually just talk to the nurse. She asked me if I wanted to be aggressive with this problem. I thought she meant to get me in hospital and give me meds that will clear my confusion or to get the weight off of me, so I said yes. She told me that I would come into ICU and start an IV med and that side effects may include ventilation. I told her no I will not be ventilated.

My mom and my sister Shelly were in the room and when they heard the word "ventilation" their mouths dropped open so I hit the speaker phone. My Dr. said that my lifespan was shortening at which my sister asked what she meant like 6 months or what? The Dr said everyone is variable but she would say one week to 6 months. My mouth dropped open and I started to giggle until it was a full on head back laughter. It sounds demented I know but I really did think it was funny. I guess that is my way of coping. I'm weird.

I went into the hospital on a regular liver clinic visit and had 2 litres of fluid drained. I then went to speak to a nurse in cardio and received a confirmation that yes what my cardiologist said was true. So I went up to the support team I had been talking with for counseling, filled out and signed my advance directive (living will) and went home to go out with friends.

Yesterday I was huge again, very uncomfy and had a hard time breathing. I went into the RTU (Rapid treatment unit) to get another paracentisis. I saw my heart failure Dr while waiting to be popped and she talked with Quintin and I about the benefits and side effects of the IV med that my Cardiologist had previously spoken of. After a prayer and weighing my options, Quintin and I decided to go ahead and start the drug and take the risk that I will feel better and my heart function would improve. The med will not prolong my life but make me feel better in the meantime. I'm in the Cardiac ICU writing right now, so far so good, no bad reactions and they will be increasing the drug even more tomorrow. It feels weird to be an adult bored sitting around in an ICU surrounded by babies and not holding them or caring for them.

Most of you will be stunned by now but I want you all to know how much I love you, and If I haven't met you than you are a friend I haven't met yet. I don't believe in strangers. Safety Dog didn't teach me squat! I'm ok, I am very aware of where I'm going and how wonderful I will feel there. I'm not saying good bye right now so chin up! Im still in this fight and plan on being in until I'm called out of the ring.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

HOLLY

Long time, no write

2010-12-23T13:08:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

I never sent my Christmas cards and I am so sorry but a lot has been going on this last month.

So here is my official Christmas card......

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas is the most wonderful celebration

Because Jesus Christ was our most wonderful gift.

It is a time to thank our Heavenly Father for

His gift to us all......Jesus Christ, Our Savior.

Love Holly and Quintin McKell

Summa Summa Summa time

2010-10-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, that last post was so Debbie Downer (wa wa wa). Things have gone better lately. The first big news of the summer was that my niece Michelle had a little baby girl on July 16th when I was at the Mayo Clinic. She is darling and I love her so much. She brings such a wonderful spirit to our family.

Kaylie and me when she was about 2 months

Secondly my nephew Brandon got a mission call to Carlsbad Cali. Unfortunately he tore his ACL in the MTC and had to come back to AZ for surgery. He will be going to Cali in about 8 weeks.Third is great news for Q and I. We rented a basement apartment and it is wonderful! We have 2700 sq feet for a reasonable price. We even have a movie room and a backyard. YAY!! We found this place after given the word that I couldn't have a transplant. We were staying with my parents until we heard the word. Small problem, Q still hasn't found a job and worse yet, we are in Lindon. Yes that is right, we are in cougar town. The first thing we did was to go out and buy a U of U sticker to put on our car because we just had to represent!

My family had quite a shock about a month ago when we got the word that my brother, who is severely autistic, had a seizure. We thought that we were going to lose him that night. Seizures have killed alot of his autistic "friends" in the past. Luckily he pulled out OK with 2 days in a medically induced coma. The Dr's found out that he had hardly any sodium in his body and that can cause seizures. He had landed on his face and skinned his forehead and cheek, other than that he is doing well.

As for me I'm doing much better. I have come to peace with what life has handed me and I'm excited to live the rest of my life full of things that I want to do, call it a bucket list. I was given the number of a group that supports terminally ill kids and their families. It is a service through PCMC and I am the oldest patient that they have worked with. They have given me links and advice on how to best complete my list. One of the things that I want to do and have wanted to do since I was a teenager was to write my life story. This is your homework....because I've been so stressed I'm slowly losing my brain power, or at least I feel like it, I got lost going to my own church the other day! Its frustrating, so I want to ask you all to write to me at hollymckell@gmail.com, I would like memories, I've asked for this before and all I got were one or two worded lists. I need details now people! Please? Hey you might make the book. I just need help remembering things.

I have recently read the book Glimpses Beyond Death's Door, ya it sounds morbid but it has really changed my life. If you have someone worried about death or a close one who has passed away, I highly recommend this book! The message was to love better and learn more. It is better understood when you read the book.

I have been mourning lately but it isn't for a person, it is for a city called Cairns. We lived in this city for over a year in Australia, The people, the culture, the wildlife, the rainforest and the pristine beaches that we could walk to are all sadly in my past. I have had Q promise me that he will go back but I am jealous of him. The book referred to above was a huge help because I will go to rest in a more wonderful place than Cairns, but it is still a big part of my life and dreams, literally, I'm in Australia in every dream I have.

I was able to have my friend and previous beehive from Australia stay with us for one night when she and her family came up for General Conf. That was fun, then last night was a blast! My good friend from Aussieland met a guy in Genola, UT and was married yesterday. Q and I had so much fun at the reception because we were able to see heaps of people from our branch in Cairns. It was a lively mix of cultures, including a guy in a kilt (?).

This is my pretty bride friend Misty, she was a good friend in Cairns.
And these are her parents and Q and my surrogate Aussie parents, Rick and Gabrielle Lee
I have had a good friend open a cause for me on his new website. You can get a 50-90% deal off of various restaurants, spas and stores and until Oct 16th I will get 100% of the proceeds to help with my tremendous medical bills. www.dealsthatmatter.com/causes/10

So your homework is to sign up for this website and than PLEASE send me memories of us or just a memory of me that I may not remember. I want them even if they are bad memories.

Love you all,

Love better and Learn more

Holly :)

Like a ton of bricks...

2010-08-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

It is hitting me. The news that I'm not getting a new heart or lungs or liver and I will not get to take swing dancing lessons like I wanted to when I was healthy again or go back to the wonderful Australia.

I've got news for you.....

I do get depressed. I'm saying this because everybody asks why I'm so happy all of the time. Well I'm not ALL of the time. I have known that this would happen all of my life, that one day the Dr's wouldn't have answers for me anymore so I guess I have been prepared and I am happy most of the time.

Just not today.

Love Holly

Water Baby

2010-08-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

At the Mayo Clinic 3 weeks ago I had a heart catheterization and the week before I had a liver catheterization. With both of these procedures I received IV fluid. It seems that whenever I receive this fluid my body doesn't want to let it go. I disagree with my body when this happens. In Australia strangers were more bold and would ask me when I was due and if I knew what I was having. I would tell them that I wasn't pregnant and I have liver and heart disease. They would then apologize and make a very quick exit. I haven't had a lot of people ask me in Utah but they see my stomach and smile.

I can't see why people think I'm pregnant.....hmmm

I've gained at least 10 pounds

This has been very uncomfortable and despite an increase of diuretics, I haven't lost weight. I had an appointment for a paracentesis (fluid removal) today but my blood was still too thin so I would have bled more than usual. So frustrating but I hopefully will be able to have it done on Monday. I'm excited to get rid of this water baby. Moms I have such a great respect for you!!

The call

2010-08-10T17:27:00.000-07:00

Monday came and I didn't get a call from the Mayo. I called the Tx coordinator and she said that the surgeon hadn't come to the meeting to decide. The surgeon felt that he needed to discuss my case with another surgeon and I probably wouldn't be hearing from the Dr for 2 to three more days. Utter and complete frustration!!

Tuesday, no call. Wednesday, no call. These days seemed like years and the waiting was driving me insane! It reminded me of when Quintin was driving dangerous roads and wasn't calling me to let me know if he was ok and I didn't want to call him because I would seem too "eager" and "clingy". Waiting for this call was like waiting for Quintin to call except 100 times worse.

Thursday I finally called the Tx coordinator back to let her know that I had a new number at the mental institution, jk. She wasn't there so I left a message to tell the Dr's that they had tortured me enough and to just make a decision. She called me back and gently told me that the Mayo Clinic has turned me down for a transplant. I heard all of the reasons why it couldn't be done but I'm really glad that I had it on speaker phone and my sister was taking notes because after the initial "no" I didn't hear much. I hung up the phone and ran upstairs to my husband. I cried for about two minutes while he rubbed my back and then the conversation turned to auto insurance and I was fine again. I went downstairs and hugged my sister and my Dad, my mom came home crying but I was ok and felt somewhat at peace.

I had turned to the Savior in my time of need and with 5 rejections from Australia, IMC, PCMC (but only because of insurance) the U of U medical center and finally the Mayo Clinic, I had the answer I had been praying about. Not for, but about.

I received the rejection notifications in the mail along with all of the medical records that they did at the Mayo. It's hard to be rejected, I've had experience with rejection from potential jobs, roommates and boyfriends. But I've never had an official letter with words like "comorbidities" and a list of ways that would potentially be fatal if I had the surgery. I told my docs that I want to keep the original letter for the "scrapbook". I love when people look at me thinking "should I be laughing or is she serious?" that always makes my day.

Quintin and I were excited that we had a jumping off place and went the next day to rent a basement apartment. It is 2500 sq feet and they let us have our animals and it was really a dream come true. I knew that the Lord had a hand in this. Although it is in Lindon and I will have to gird up my loins, lose some pride and move to cougar town. I shiver just writing this.

Quintin is working on finding a job and hopefully it will fall in our lap like the rental did. I am happy. I have friends, family and animals who love me, I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and I'm living the best I know how. That sounds like a good life to me.

Love,

Holly

P.S. get ready to start the visits to Lindon, with Quintin working I will be bored.

Adventures at the Mayo (part 2)

2010-08-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

The second week was a bit rougher with the tests and on our morale.

We started out the week with a visit to the liver Dr again and we actually got good news! The paracentesis that I had had the previous week showed that the fluid in my belly is not from the liver but from the heart. So the Dr's wouldn't have to do a liver transplant just heart! I know that it still doesn't sound great but the liver with the heart would be extremely risky. On with the lung tests.

Tuesday I gave a lot of urine, went on a six minute walk while monitoring my oxygen and had the coolest chest x-ray I've ever had. I went up to the x-ray board and got in my usual position chest against the board, hands on hips and rolled in shoulders but the tech said that I didn't have to do that and to face her. Mega confusion. In walks a Dr and starts up this machine, it was than that I saw a TV on the side of me that was taking moving x-ray pictures of my heart and lungs, it was so cool that I saw my heart beating with all of my pacemaker wires moving around with every beat. That was cool but the second part was when the Dr said that he wanted me to lie on my back so I started to look around for the table to lie on when the x-ray board I was standing on started to tilt back, it was awesome, I love new technology.

Wednesday was full of tests starting with blood, everyday started with a blood test. The worst one was that day when the had to take an arterial blood gas sample, I remembered these so I asked for numbing, you know it is going to hurt when you get a shot before another shot.

This is after my arterial blood sample, it wasn't really that traumatic I was just posing.

I talked to a dietitian who basically said I need to start eating the food I hate and than I went to a renal function test, oh joy. It lasted 3 hours of peeing, blood sample, ultrasound of my bladder than an hour of rest (nap for me) then it would repeat. The nurse didn't believe me when my bladder was empty so she called in another nurse who tilted my bed feet up and than my bladder was empty. The fluid that they saw in my bladder was my stomach fluid over the bladder so they tipped me to slosh all of my ascites (fluid in the belly) towards my chest. I was so glad that that worked because they would have had to put in a catheter. Whew!

Thursday I had just the most fun CT scan ever (sarcasm) I found out the most painful place to put an IV ever and that is in the top of the foot. Wow if you can ever avoid an IV in the foot do it! I had to have another IV in my arm as well. This was an extremely fancy CT scan and 8 nurses and Dr's came to watch. I'm kind-of a big deal, I have many leather bound books (watch Anchorman and you will get that joke) I was given the IV contrast through those two Iv's and I felt like my foot was going to explode along with the rest of my leg as the contrast went through my vascular system. when I was done and the nurses came into take the IV's out I asked if I was supposed to be seeing stars. The took my O2 sats and I was at 77, that is bad. When I watched ER once the Dr's had to "crack" the chest because the patients O2 sats were 84. That is funny because 84 is my average. "Normal" people run about 98-100. That was not a fun CT.

Man I feel like such a complainer, I'm not. I joke with all the nurses and Dr's and I started to know everyone at the Mayo so I was sad to leave, a little bit.

Friday was the big long heart cath day. I was supposed to be the first cath so I was at the hospital at 6:30, I had a blood test and my blood was still to thin, increasing the chances of bleeding alot. I was mad because I had eaten a huge spinach salad the night before to thicken up my blood and it didn't work. I had to have an IV drip of Vitamin K to thicken my blood and around 2:30 that afternoon I was finally taken back for the cath. I hadn't had food or a drink of anything for 14 1/2 hours so I was beyond ready. I was kept awake during the cath which I wasn't happy with because I wanted to sleep. But I had the nicest anesthesiologist that tried to relax me by giving me a bit of versed and a head massage, I didn't want her to stop even after the cath was over. I big vein that was causing trouble was blocked off and my pressures were taken so it went well even though I wanted a lot more versed than I got and I had to put my arms up over my head for about an hour which was painful because my shoulder hasn't been the same since my motorcycle accident over a year ago in Australia.

I was done, done with the Mayo clinic and tests. I had had 19 tests and about 14 consultations with Dr's. I was so excited to just go home and have nothing to do except sleep and eat (I was sick of fasting every day for some kind of test). My main Dr that followed me the whole two weeks told me that the decision would be made on Monday the 26th when the Dr's would get together for the transplant meeting.

Adventures at the Mayo Clinic

2010-07-18T11:54:00.001-07:00

This is a statue titled "Man and Freedom" It is a symbol that the Mayo is known for and when I came to the Mayo before it was on the outside of the buiding, now it is in the main lobby.

This has been my third time to come to the Mayo Clinic. The first was in 1984 when I was 10, I was so excited! I would be traveling and I would be the center of attention, how fun! My cardiologist and a cardiac surgeon came to watch my surgery so they could start doing the fontan at PCMC. I had my original Fontan operation and than 3 days later I went back into surgery to have some veins closed that was mixing up my blue and red blood. I didn't like the Mayo anymore, a couple of boys that had had the fontan at the same time that I did both passed away. I was very confused and scared, I often think of that little girl as a different person and I want to help her from the pain that she went through.

The second time I came in 1988 when I was 13 years old, much less excited. I came for a fontan repair, my second repair. It was in January so it was very cold and miserable. after 5 1/2 weeks in the hosital I was very excited to return home.

It has been a week since Quintin my Mom and I flew into Minneapolis and drove to Rochester my third time. people always say to me that I'm a pro and It must be easier the more I do it. They could not be more wrong. It is so much harder because now I know what recovery and tests are like. However, it is much easier to understand the goodness of the Lord and to believe in miracles.

I couldn't believe the drive, it was all farmlands and corn fields as far as the eye could see, Americana at its best! We are staying at a family that shares our same religion so it is easier for them to understand the mormon "lingo". They are so kind and have the 3 cutest little girls. The father is a Dr so he understand the medical "lingo". They live on a beautiful 2 acre land that has cornfields and rolling green hills that you can see from their ginormous windows.

Monday was a 10 1/2 hour day full of the regular cardio tests, such as, blood tests, a chest x-ray, an ekg, an echocardiogram, an excercise test and in between all of that I saw the Tx cadiologist, a very cool and educated Dr. Clavell. He seemed very hopeful just from seeing my past tests and seeing me. However I still had many Dr's to see.

I always have to be silly, this is an Auguste Rodin statue and of course me being Holly.

Tuesday was a non-test day. I saw a wonderful, sweet Dr. Grogan who is a Adult Congenital cardiologist, the kind that usually specialize in my type of heart problem. We started to tell her what Dr. Clavell had told us the day before but she had already talked to him and to the GI Docs (liver). It is amazing how much they constantly are consulting with each other, that makes me more comfortable. One of appointments of the day was with the Tx surgeon. Surgeons are a different kind of people, usually they are very blunt and they don't have a great bedside manner. Dr Dearani was no different. He came in still dressed in his surgical gear and was checking his pager every couple of minutes. He basically said that it would be a good thing if the liver didn't need to be replaced but if there are a lot of extra veins (shunts) in my lungs than a lung translant would not be able to be done and my lungs may not be healthy enough to do just a heart transplant. That night was not a good night for us.

Wednesday was when I saw the liver Dr. His PA came in first, not a totally friendly guy but I still liked him, he drew pictures of a liver and what it consists of, the veins and what not. The Dr. came in and basically said the same thing. He said that they will use the rest of the week to do more liver testing (remember that my original appointments were for Monday and Tuesday only but we scheduled 10 a ten day trip because they like to test you head to toe). We then went to the transplant cardiologist again so he could tell us the same thing and that we might have to extend our trip even more than the original 10 days.

This is a view from the 18th floor of the Gonda Building looking out to Peace Plaza and a bit further out is a mall that has the Medical University of Minnesota on the top 2 floors of a 4 story building.

The Mayo consists of so many buildings I can't count them all unless I really sit down and think about it but my brain isn't funtioning very well so I won't count. When I say that I go from one appointment to the next usually that means two buildings down and 19 floors up or it could mean taking a shuttle out to St Marys Hospital about a mile away, or it could be the same building different floor. I am so thankful for a wheelchair. The main three buildings that are connected with pedestrian subways or skyways (for those cold months) are the Mayo, the Gonda, and the Rochester Methodist hospital (Charlton). I have seen so many different people, muslims, a sheik, a blind mentally disabled man playing the piano, bald cancer patients and that is just the doctors! (just kidding) It is such an amazing place filled with hope and a shared togetherness.

The history is amazing as well THE MAYO CLINIC was founded by a man in the civil war, his two sons and a nun. I get so excited when I find that the Dr that invented anticouagulants did it at the Mayo and he was William Mayo's PA. Just cool little things that make me feel so honored to be a part of this facility.

OK back to my schedule, Thursday I had to have a paracentisis, which is when they take fluid out of your abdomin. That hurt! They numbed me up but not all the way in, when they poked a straw through my muscle wall I shouted out and I felt dumb cause I have never done that. It was over really fast so I was glad to go onto the next event. I met with the sweet adult cardiologist again and she was telling me that their would be other options if I wasn't able to have a transplant, I scoffed in my head and thought what are you talking about woman, I will have this transplant. My Dad has tried to prepare me for what would happen if I couldn't have the Tx and believe me I have thought about it.....like 600 times a day but I'm trying to go by the words "Expect the worst and hope for the best" So no matter how things turn out it's better than the worse thing that could happen, right? I'm so rambling right now. Anyway, while we were leaving my mom asked what my chances of getting a tx were and the Dr said that it doesn't look promising. Pfft I'll show her.

Friday we woke up at 4:30 am so I could get to St. Marys by 5:30 for a liver catheterization and a liver biopsy. My nurses were the sweetest girls ever, actually I havn't found anyone that I haven't liked here.

My cute nurses on the day of my liver cath and biopsy

I went into surgery with just some Versed so that I would still be slightly awake. Versed is a wonderful drug that makes you sleepy relaxed and lets you forget everything that happened during surgery. I will just tell you what I do remember. I was wheeled in and started talking a lot like I do when I get nervous. They were going through my jugular and after about 5 minutes of prepping me my eyes started to blur a little and I knew they had given me the Versed. They built a little tent around my head to get to my neck and make it a bit more sterilized, I was talking to the nurse, felt a little sting of linocaine (numbing me up) and then I woke up in recovery.

My neck from 5 days after the liver cath, it really highlights my previous scars.

The Dr told me that he measured the pressures but couldn't get to the liver to do the biopsy because of all my weird squiggly veins. However he could do a regular liver biopsy straight to my liver through my side right now because they have a free lab handy. I was drugged up and I said yes, do it now. Melanie pointed out when I told her this story that he could have asked me "maam we have some free time so we would like to do an experimental brain surgery if that's ok?" and I still would have said Yes, let's do it! I remember pressure of the needle moving around but that's it. I went to my next appointment a couple of hours later with just two little regular sized bandages but ached all over.

I went downtown to visit the liver Dr. for the results, he did say that my fluid in my belly looked like it originated from my heart not my liver, that is good news, trust me. He would get the biopsy results in the next 24 hours. We than had to go on the shuttle to St Marys to see another Dr that is a pediatric cardiologist (he actually did a heart cath on me in 1988) He took the first ten minutes of the appointment reading my history while we just stared at him waiting for him to talk. Finally he did and said some of the things that my Dr had said before, things that they could do to sustain me if I can't have a tx. He said if needed he would do a heart cath next Friday.

So all of that weekend I rested, went rolling through a mall (wheelchair remember) and just tried to relax because the Dr's I had seen throughout the whole week were meeting at 7:00 Monday morning to let me know if they could do a tx.

I'm sorry that I haven't written more but all I do is 7-12 hour days at the hospital and then come home and sleep.

I will catch you all up on what is going on this week at a later time. Today I had 6 needles (one arterial, ouch and one that had to go "fishing") so I'm going to go lie on the couch and decompress.

LOVE YOU ALL!! Thanks for the prayers I feel them working and giving me more hope and faith.

Heavenly Father is a genius and I love Him!!

Holly

2 days to go

2010-07-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

I will be on the plane headed for Minnesota on Sunday. When I am there the first two days will be about 10 hours of tests and speaking to all of the Doctors on the Tx (transplant) team and the adult congenital heart team. Hopefully with all of this I will find out one of three things.

1. It will be determined that I will only have to have a heart Tx. (C'mon adult congenital docs!)

2. I will have to have both a heart and liver Tx.

3. The team of Docs will not be able to do the surgery because my anatomy is too complex and I will not be put on a Tx list.

We will be in Rochester for ten days, we added an extra week because I have a feeling that I will have to have more tests that the docs will order.

Hopefully I will finally get some answers, I have been going back and forth to diff docs for ten months without getting a real answer, So cross your fingers and fold your arms that I will Finally know what my next bit of future holds

Love you all
Holly

The Mayo clinic

2010-06-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

After my last appointment at the U of U (see last post), I was told that my records were sent to the Mayo Clinic and to my cardiologist that I saw in Chicago 9 years ago.
The Mayo Clinic said right away that they would see me, that they will call me when they had the appointments scheduled and that I should probably expect at least a week and a half of tests.

It has been a long few weeks of waiting to hear back from the Mayo. I called a few times with promises that they would get back to me soon. I had my phone with me constantly checking the mute button quite often. I was pretty much a basket case. Until today..

I woke up early and decided to have a more positive attitude, I tried to feed the tarantula (Quintin's birthday present) but the darn cricket jumped out of my hand and sent me on a giggling and screaming chase. I was in a good mood, ready for a shower.
I got out of the shower and checked my phone, THE MAYO had called! I asked Quintin why he hadn't answered it, IT WAS ON MUTE!!! No worries, I just called them back.

The Mayo transplant coordinator told me that I just need to come for two day consultations with the transplant cardiologist and the congenital cardiologist. I was confused so I asked her when I would see the liver doctor and she told me that that isn't on the schedule yet, the cardiologists want to see me first.

Frustrating, but I may have to go a couple of times before they fully decide to take me on as a patient. Just in case they decide to do more tests, we are going to go for 10 days and if they don't need to do anything else we might drive to Chicago and spend a few days there.

I still plan on having a good day today with the knowledge that I may have to buy lots of plane tickets to Minnesota, and that they still may turn me down for transplants, don't cha know.

HOLLY :)

New Development!

2010-05-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

When I was taking a shower this morning I was thinking and thinking about the Dr's appointment that I had later today. I was also thinking about LOST. I realized that going to the Dr so many times was like watching LOST, every week I go in I expect answers but the answers come a little here and there if they come at all. With the LOST finale this last week I wanted my back and forth transplant answers to have a finale. I got satisfactory answers today but there are still some unanswered, sound familiar (hint....LOST)

I went in for another clinic visit at the U of U. I went in first for a check-up because last Thursday I had very strange heart arrhythmia's that lasted for a couple of hours so I went into the ER. The conclusion to this ER visit was that I wasn't in any kind of tachycardia so I will just have to ignore this kind of heart rate because it isn't going anywhere until I get a new heart. The second reason that I went into the clinic was because the transplant team met with the other transplant docs from PCMC and had a plan for me.

The plan was good because I have a new starting place but bad for obvious reasons. I do indeed have cirrhosis of the liver and I will need to transplant both my heart and my liver. That is a huge blow in itself because in the last 20 years there have only been 78 done in America. That is scary because it is such a new surgery, plus my lungs may be too damaged to do that surgery. Another option, heart-liver-lung, but that is reaching and only 10 of those have been done.

The next big blow was that noone in Utah can do a heart-liver and so Quintin and I will have to move yet again. The #1 leader in heart-liver transplants is at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. I really don't want to go to MN!! It gets -40 degrees in the winter. However, they have done the most heart-liver transplants (15) and I want the best because I will need the best with my very complex anatomy.

The transplant coordinator has a packet that she has sent to my great surgeon in Chicago and to the Mayo Clinic. We will hear from them hopefully soon and then we can plan our move.....yikes.

Love you all,
Holly

Limbo anyone?

2010-05-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was quite a day, to say the least. The U of U hospital scheduled a 9 hour day for me to complete the pre-transplant tests that they needed to have before they put me on the transplant list. I brought home a nasty cold from Arizona and I felt like crap, so I really didn't want to go to the hospital all day.

I left at 7:00 am, with Quintin and my mom in tow as usual and got home around 6:00 pm. My first appointment was for a chest CT scan. The surgeon needed that to map out my heart and to see what they would need to do to connect a normal heart to my funky anatomy. The girl that did the CT had to put in an IV, I forgot to tell her that I was on coumadin that thins your blood until I felt the blood running down my arm. She cleaned me up and proceeded with the CT scan. I lay on a flat surface and got into a huge donut looking machine that scans my innards. When I was in the "donut" I was waiting for the contrast (iodine through the IV that highlights your insides). When they put the contrast in it is very uncomfortable, you feel like your insides are on fire and then you question whether you wet yourself or not. While I was waiting for the contrast I was taking a deep breath and thinking positive thoughts. I started to hear what sounded like someone peeing behind me. The girl came rushing in and saying "oh I forgot to connect you to the contrast". It had been squirting all over. I guess she was too busy cleaning up my blood to remember connecting me. The burning when she tried again was bad but not so bad because I was laughing in my head the whole time.

After the funny CT scan we met with the liver surgeon and he basically told us that I need a new liver and that a heart transplant wouldn't work unless I also got a new liver. He said that it shouldn't be too difficult, (they just will elbow each other out of the way). I began to think that a double transplant may not be so difficult. I asked how many had been done in Utah.....none...... my head was spinning.

Then we went for a carotid artery Doppler (in lay mans terms, that is a neck ultrasound of the arteries). They were very concerned that I had a blockage of my left artery until we explained that I had it severed when I was two and had a Blalock-Tausig Shunt.

After lunch we met with a transplant cardiologist who threw us a major blow! After examining me and speaking to us, he told me that with all of my complications, he did not feel that a transplant would be something they could offer me. It was very difficult news. After a brief emotional wait, we met with the surgeon.

The surgeon told us that surgeons have a different view point that the cardiologists have. Where cardiologists think about percentages of mortality and long term care, etc., surgeons are concerned that the patient survives that day. He then continued to talk to us about all of the issues that a transplant would mean for me. He drew a picture on the board of what a normal heart looks like and what mine looks like, then how they would have to insert a normal heart into me. He said that it would be a challenge but he thought it was doable; even though there would be challenges. Then he spoke of my bleeding risk. Because I have had so many heart surgeries and have so much scar tissue there would be a great risk of bleeding. (During my last surgery in 2001, it took them 8 hours just to get to my heart.) Next he spoke of my liver. If my liver is so badly damaged that it would not be able to produce the proteins needed for the blood to clot I could not make it through the surgery. He spoke of doing a test to see if my liver would clot when I am off Coumadin. I told him that I had recently gone off Coumadin during my heart cath and that my INR (a test to see how thin my blood is) went down to 1.4. He said that was really good!

Apparently the congenital heart doctors and the adult liver doctors do not agree on how important it would be for me to also have a liver transplant. Congenital heart doctors feel that if you fix the heart, the liver will repair itself. The adult doctors believe that I absolutely need a new liver. It depends on how seriously scarred it is. I was reassured when he told me that he had talked to my last cardiologist at PCMC before he met with me. They have scheduled a liver CT scan for Friday and want me to bring in the slides/info from Australia from when they did a liver biopsy. If my liver is too badly damaged then they would not do the heart transplant because it would be too risky to do both.

If, however, my liver isn't too bad, a heart transplant may be a possibility but he talked about my potential to bleed and the problem with my lungs. My lungs currently only have about 50% capacity with some scarring and they are used to the very different kind of blood flow. He said that my heart is also used to the high pressure in my lungs. If they put a normal heart in me, the high pressure in my lungs may cause the new heart to fail.

He then talked about some options such as giving me a large strong heart, or a heart of a smoker which would be used to the high pressures. One thought seemed very strange. They would put a heart into my stomach (I guess sort of piggy back with my old heart). He was busy thinking of creative things, I told him that I don't want to be an experiment and I would rather let another person have my donor heart if they weren't sure I would live. He told me that they don't play like that and if they can't do it they won't. He was very honest and I trusted and liked him.

Many doctors (including my friends at PCMC)are going to be talking about me over the next few days; next Tuesday they will all be meeting together to decide what to do.
They suggested that I may want to look at other centers throughout the country if it is decided that I needs both a heart and a liver.

If you have understood all of that please explain it to me, Everything is up in the air and our lives are in limbo. I hate limbo, I could never bend that low. But now is the time when I need to stretch more than I ever have had to. Patience is a virtue they say, sometimes it is my vice.

I will of course update when I know what has been decided.

Love
Holly

Good News

2010-05-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

I have good news! I received a call from Dr. Everitt after a very long and stressful weekend (I tried to chill out I really did). She told me that the surgeon, Dr Kaza, that I wanted to do my surgery could do it!! However, he could only do it at the U of U hospital and not IMC. I was disappointed to go to the U because although I am a Ute, I have heard bad things about the hospital. The IMC Dr's were hesitant of taking me on because of my complex congenital heart disease.

I made a couple of calls to people that I know that have had surgeries and a liver transplant at the U. They said very good things about the U so I promised myself to start from scratch and erase all of the years that I have avoided the U at all costs.

I was able to go visit the transplant team at the U and basically it was all of the same stuff I have heard at PCMC about transplant but it came out of different faces. They were very kind and friendly faces! I was relieved when I met them but nervous when I went to the lab and a student phlebotomist did a really awful job on my blood draw. Oh well, I guess there is good and bad care at every hospital on the planet.

I will need to have a few more tests (story of my life) and meet the surgeon at the U that will be consulting and handling my surgery with Dr. Kaza, then they will be (hopefully) taking my case to the transplant board and placing me on the "list" on the week of the 25th of May.

Since I have another week before my next appointment Quintin and I packed up and took off for Phoenix yesterday. We are staying for a week and just enjoying the warm weather and being away from all of the chaos for awhile. I am typing this from the Marriot (thanks Lisa), as I relax.

Love, Holly

Come, join me on my roller coaster

2010-04-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

Today was a crazy roller coaster of emotions at my visit to PCMC. I had an ultrasound of my liver with great news that my portal vein is free and clear of any blood clots. This is good because if it was clogged than I would probably have a procedure to open it and after tx my liver might not get better.

Trish, who does my pacer checks came in and after checking everything said that my pacer was functioning normally. That was great news because it was acting abnormal during my heart catheterization a couple of weeks ago.

Dr. Everitt who is my transplant cardiologist came in to check me. The second she put her stethoscope on my chest I began to have a fast heart rate, it slowed back to normal and than went fast again. She ordered a ECG and when the nurse hooked that to me, my heart went back into regular rhythm. I told the Dr. that I think I just got nervous when she came into the room, and I had every right to be nervous. She started to tell me that after the financial advisor did some research into my insurance provider, she found out that PCMC, the hospital that I had been going to for 33 years and trusted with all of my, er, um, heart, would not be covered one penny by my new insurance. I didn't think too much of it because I had been assured by my insurance broker that everything would be covered.

In came the financial advisor telling me that it was true, anything to do with a transplant wouldn't be covered. I calmly told them that I would transfer to IMC although I was really sad about it. When we reached the car I lost it. All of my trust and confidance has been put into this team of doctors and now I would have to meet and begin the whole trusting process again. I trust people easily but it is a bit different when my whole life is in thier hands.

I came home and I was intent on finding some way of getting back into the PCMC transplant system, most importantly to find some way of getting a certain Dr. Kaza that I have heard so many wonderful things about, to do my surgery. I made a few calls back to the hospital, to a couple of people that knew more of the details of both the PCMC and IMC transplant teams and a not so friendly message to the insurance broker that didn't research into my faulty insurance before it was too late.

I made one frazzled call to my friend Paul that has had 7 months with his new heart. He told me that I should get Dr. Kaza to do the surgery, then reasured me that there is a great Dr. at IMC that may be who I need for my situation (although I should still try my best to get Dr Kaza). The team at PCMC will be speaking to Dr. Kaza on Monday to figure out the best plan for me. They really do have my best interest at heart (no pun intended) but more importantly the Lord will lead me in the direction that I need to go. I calmed down a lot and then decided to just chill and trust in the Lord, doubt not, fear not.

Thanks to all that put up with me, mostly my family and the hospital staff.
Thanks Paul for pulling for me today, It means a lot to have you in my corner.

Holly

San Diego

2010-04-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo, we are back. We (my parents, Quintin and I) just got back from our trip to San Diego. We had a good time despite the cold and rain that we had for a couple of days. We happened to go the the Wildlife Park on the coldest day which was bad but it was the most fun day that we had, at least that I had. We rented a motorized chair for me. (like a jazzy) I had so much fun going in circles at top speed and weaving in and out of different objects (mostly my parents and Quintin). I think all that they remember from that day is me yelling "see ya suckas" and them trying to catch up. Balboa park, Sea Port Village, La Jolla beach, the Mormon Battalion and many mexican restaurants were the other places that we visited.

The vacation was fun but stressful, we were physically on a vacation but our minds were back here on the transplant process. Some of the time we were all out cranky but for the most part we had a lot of fun. Driving back home was a very long drive.

On Thursday I meet with the TX (transplant not texas) team to finalize everything before they go to the Tx board, probably next week. I will also be recieving an ultrasound of my liver to check to see if I have any blod clots that would inhibite my liver getting better even after tx.

Thanks for your prayers! Love you all!

Holly

Birthdays and Heart Caths

2010-04-16T11:55:00.001-07:00

I have been checking the poll results on the side of my page and it seems that most of all 5 of my readers want more updates and for some odd reason I hate updating! Maybe because I am not an articulate person, I don't like typing or because I don't like to re-hash all of my doctors visits. I don't know. Oh, for the one person that wants more pictures, until I get my comp back in working order I won't be posting any.....yet.

On April 7th I went with my parents and Quintin to a very full day of information overload. I saw the transplant nurse Emily, a pharmacist, a financial advisor, a dietitian and a social worker. They each had to talk to me and give me a list of what will happen during the wait and after the transplant. After 7 hours of the 411 and another half hour in the lab giving more blood, we were finally released and went straight to the Outback Steakhouse for my pre-birthday dinner and a little relaxing. It was very little relaxing because our heads were still buzzing. I was very overwhelmed that night (nothing new there).

The next morning I woke up and instantly started thinking of everything I was told again but thanks to cute Quintin that didn't last long. He told me to hurry up and get ready because my birthday day was about to start. He took me to IHop for breakfast and I had some delicious Swedish crepes, Yum. He than took me to Thanksgiving Point to the dino museum but there were so many little kids there that we didn't really want to be the only adults there with out a stroller or a kid on a leash, so we left and went to Boondocks HAHA. There we played arcade games, rode the go-karts, went on a roller coaster simulator twice and played mini golf. We had a good time but I was so tired that I wanted a nap. I didn't get one because after we ate at Taco Bell (my choice) we went to see the cute movie How to Train Your Dragon. I was extremely wiped after that so we went home instead of going to dinner and Quintin ordered a pizza for me :)

The next night my friend Mel threw a B-day party for me at Fat Cats. It was so fun to see my friends and some that I haven't seen for years. It was so much fun and I love all of my friends!! After a dinner of even more pizza (I love pizza), our fantastic waitress Vicky got us 2 free lanes and shoes for bowling. I think this oxygen gets me some fun stuff :) I was ok for the first game but during the second game the ball got heavier and heavier and my enthusiasm was lower and lower, I still beat all 5 of the other players though :) Thank you Mel, Neighbor Dustin, Quintin, Lindsy, Shane, Justin, Chelsea, Sam, Jeff, Becky, and Pete for making my party so great!

Back to the medical stuff, I was told that I needed to get a CT scan to check out the tumor in my back, and also to make sure all of my teeth were good (watching out for bacterias and infections). I went to the dentist thinking that my candy addiction must have ruined all of my teeth but it didn't I only had one cavity and one filling repair. I didn't need any injections (tender mercy).

I had my CT scan done with the results that I don't have a tumor (tender mercy)! I guess it is just fatty tissue and not anything serious, I hate to have fatty tissue anywhere on me but in this case it is good!

Yesterday was my cath. The night before I recieved the sweetest blessing from Quintin that I would be at peace amoungst other things and it worked all day yesterday I was feeling peaceful all day even in the cath lab (tender mercy)! We got up at 5am and the cath started at 8am. I talked to my doctors beforehand. Dr Book the gastroenterologist and Dr Cowley the cath Dr. Dr Book was going to do a GI scope to check the condition of my esophagus and stomach, so she briefly went over that and then Dr Cowley came in to talk about the cath but all that I could think about was that he looked like Matthew Broderick, I told him so and he said that people have said that before. My mind has a tendency to wander when I am talking to Drs. I went into the cath lab, they got me on the table and I noticed the peace come over me as I laid there talking to the nurses. They asked me about Australia and I started talking about the cockatoos and the wallabies and then I felt a buzzy buzz in my head, the anesthesiologist looked at me as I said "Hey you just gave me something didn't you." He just said yes and laughed. So I started to talk faster to the nurses "We were in the rain forest right next to the beach, I was able to rehabilitate and bottle feed baby joeys and bats and even....." that's all I remember.

I woke up to a camera in my face as Quintin documented my day. I will have to put up that video when my computer starts to work. My throat hurt and my back hurt. I was told by my parents that my pacemaker stopped working when I was put under but it was up and running again, that the GI scope found that I had a pretty funky esophagus the closer to my stomach they got, some enlarged veins and bleeding in my stomach. I thought "meh" and went back to sleep. Later when I was much more awake I learned that I also have a hiatal hernia and that the cath was not that invasive, Dr Cowley found a vein that bypassed my lungs but if he closed it off it would make me have higher pressure and get much worse so he left it. Luckily the bleeding stomach can be controlled with prilosec (tender mercy). Dr Everitt my transplant cardiologist came in later to discuss the GI findings and said that there looked like some pre-cancerous conditions in my esophagus, I have a weird sense of humor, I started laughing and said that it would be hilarious if I died of cancer. I guess you had to be there, or high like I still kinda was. They discounted that it was pre-cancerous (tender mercy). My liver however may not recover even after a heart transplant due due to the damage done to my liver and my age. I however have a tendency to prove Drs wrong so I hope that also happens in this case.

So here I sit with a huge bandaid on my leg and a holter moniter stuck to my chest making sure that my pacer is behaving itself. I get to take both bandaid and holter off in an hour, YAY!

I learned that I will have to be away from big public places when I go on the list, or at least when they aren't that busy. I had to turn down a calling for a primary teacher because kids are icky and germy. Also the worst news by far is that I can't go on any rides when I am in California so Disneyland is out :( boo hoo. We leave on Sunday for a week and then I will be going to another Dr. appointment when I get back to check my liver out more.

Love you all thanks for your prayers and support, you don't realize how much that lifts me up!

Holly

Catherization news

2010-04-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hey Peeps!!

Everyone I talk to wants an update and for awhile there was nothing to report because I was waiting for my doctors to schedule more doctor appointments and the heart catherization. After a few weeks (and a few calls by me) I finally got the day for the heart cath and it will be on the 15th of April. I have had so many caths that I lost count years ago, so even though it a regular thing for me when I typed it out my stomach turned a bit. Man, I need to toughen up a bit more.
So when I have the cath I will be put out (Hallelujah I used to stay awake for them) and I will have a Gastro intestinal scope done as well.

This Wednesday on the 7th of April, I will have a big day at Primary Childrens. I am going in to meet with the transplant team, a pharmacist, a dietitian, a social worker and a financial advisor. It will be like a school day because they even scheduled a lunch hour for me. Maybe I can talk them into a recess? Quintin and my parents are coming with me as well. It will be a big day of getting a lot of information and questions answered about this transplant train that I am about to board.

I had a few questions answered a few days ago when Paul and Lynette Cardall came over to see me. Paul had a heart transplant about 6 months ago and is doing great. He gave me some of his old meds that I will have to take (haha) and he and Lynette were able to lift all of our spirits with their story. It was great therapy to talk to them for my family and myself.

I had a bad day last week when I didn't think an insurance company would cover me and than my hard drive crashed and we lost everything on our computer, including all pictures and videos from Australia! So everybody remember to back-up your computer!! It is in a data recovery in Denver so there is still a small glimmer of hope that we will get some of our data and pics back.

After my cath we (my parents, Quintin and myself) are going to go to San Diego for a week. We figured that we should go before I am officially put on the transplant list because once I'm on the list I can't go anywhere. So April will be busy, first with necessary hospital stuff and then with fun in Cali! Oh ya and my birthday is on the
8th, so y'all mark it in your calanders!!

Love Y'ALL!!
Holly

A day at the hospital

2010-02-19T18:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the hospital with Quintin and my mom in tow. Originally I thought we would be there for about 2-3 hours but we were there for 8 hours!!

At 8:00 am we showed up at the hospital to get an Echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of my heart. As we were waiting for Dr. Yetman to discuss the results of the echo I really wasn't aware of what she had in store for me. First, My good friend Trish that I have known for more years than I remember came in to check my pacemaker, then Dr. Yetman's wonderful brilliant nurse Nancy (I know she reads these haha) came in and did the usual check along with Dr Yetman who came in and did much of the same. She than asked if I had the time to do a blood draw, a stress test and a chest X-ray.

I went to the lab and they drew 12 vials of blood!! My arm was all shriveled up at the end. After a very brief lunch I went to have a stress test which involves breathing tests and riding a stationary bike hooked up to a breathing tube that goes on your head like really large headgear, an ECG machine, an oxymeter that goes on my finger and than the technician would take my blood pressure every one minute that I was riding. I didn't go for very long, maybe 6 minutes. My chest was burning I was coughing and my legs were so weak that I couldn't pedal anymore. I had to be helped off of the bike. I rested for 10 minutes after and I needed it. The stress test worked......It totally stressed me out!!

Dr Yetman caught me in the hall and took me in a room to talk with her and the transplant cardiologist Dr Everitt. I expected to hear exactly what they told me. They will be recommending me to the transplant board for a heart transplant. I will be bottom on the list because I am not super critical yet but I am severe. The transplant has about a 10% mortality but I will be a bit higher than that because my other organs are jacked up. After my transplant I could be in the hospital for months. Before I can be officially on the list I will need to have a catherization and an upper GI scope, someone will be calling me within a couple of weeks to schedule that.

The over all feeling I had was of a bit of relief, I want this new heart and I want to do the things that I have only watched my friends do. Yes I am terrified of the waiting, the testing, the prodding and the recovery process will be a monster to deal with. But the hope I have for my future is strong, there is so much that I want to do in my life.

Sooooooooooo.................Here we go!!!!!!!!!

I told you I was sick!!

Back in the States

2010-02-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

Well, we are here in the pretty great state of Utah. It was a wild journey home but we made it.

About a month after I posted my last blog, we started selling our furniture and we sold our car. We had no idea that the stuff would sell so fast so we didn't have furniture for the last two weeks. We had very nice people in our branch that loaned us their air mattress that quickly popped and then we had a friend loan us a real mattress. In the middle of all of this selling and sleeping on the ground I got really sick, It was just a bad cold but it flattened me for a week or so. I had been so proud that I hadn't been sick in over a year and then I got sick.

This was a very high stressed time but everyone was so kind and supportive, the Cairns 1st branch is the best!! I had quit my job right after Christmas and Quintin quit school, luckily we will be getting money back from the school. Quintin took weeks to find a place to get the animals back home and he finally decided on which guy to help us.

The branch gave us a really fun McKell Farewell and I was surprised at how many people came in the middle of a possible cyclone! We had huge rain showers the last week we were there. All of the frogs and toads came out, birds were squawking and wallabies were eating in our back yard. It was heavenly!!

The morning that we left Cairns we had to take a taxi to the airport, Some of our closest neighbors came out to say goodbye, the guy came to pick up the animals, Rick was crying in his cage and as I closed the door to our home I started crying. The little girls next door starting wailing about how they will miss us which made me cry harder so we finally just got in the taxi. Crying all the way to the airport Quintin and I looked at the rain and the clouds on the lush rain-forest that we fell in love with.

After a two hour flight we landed in Sydney. I wanted to spend a bit of time in Sydney, it seemed weird to live in Australia for over a year and never visit Sydney, so we stayed there for a day. We went to dinner and straight to bed that day and then the next morning we took a double decker bus tour of downtown. However some streets were closed because it happened to be Australia day, which is like the 4th of July for Australia. The bus couldn't get to the Sydney Opera House or the Harbor bridge which is basically what you want to see if you go to Sydney. With one hour to go before we had to check out of the hotel and head to the airport. We very quickly took a city bus with the crowd gathering for a big Australia Day celebration, got off at the Opera house, ran to it (walked quickly) took a few photos and we made it back to the hotel with 10 mins to spare.
14 hours after we left Sydney we landed in LA, rented a van, picked up our kids, Tag, Rick and Casper and then we hit the road. We stayed at the legendary Virgin River Casino in Mesquite that night, mostly because it was pet friendly. We went on down the the Casino Chuck Wagon Restaurant and, not kidding, had the best meal we had had in a very long long time!
Pulling into the SL valley we were sad. It was gray and smoggy and cold. We couldn't even see the mountains!

After 3 weeks of being in Utah, being on oxygen 24/7 and many tears for the home in Cairns that we miss so much. It has been so nice to see friends and family. The first week I was here I found that I was covered by Medicare and that was truly a miracle. I had been told that it would take about 4-6 months and it didn't even take a month and a half!! So I'm headed to my first test tomorrow, just an echocardiogram but still I have emotions all over the place. I will also see Dr. Yetman, my cardiologist that has been going over my tests from Australia and urged me to think about the heart transplant.

So I will talk to you in the next few days about what is next for me

To be continued.... DUN DUN DUUUUNNNNN

Update!!

2009-12-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

Hello all ya'll!!

I have had more news and it may be good it may be bad, I can't figure it out yet. I left off when I was going to have a liver biopsy. I was nervous about this "procedure" because I am not familiar with liver biopsies, so I did my research and watched one done on you tube. Bad idea, I watched it 2 hours before I went into the medical centre and all that I could think of was that 5-6" needle that they stick in your side. When I actually got into the procedure room the Doc said that he had to go through my ribs because my liver is so large, yikes, I thought. Quintin was there and started to film it but stopped when the Dr was uncomfy with him doing that. The numbing needle went in and it was just a small sting, no biggie. The Dr inserted the straw needle that goes all the way into the liver and I didn't feel a thing. He proceeded to take 3 samples from different areas of my liver and I did feel when he moved the needle but it just kinda felt like a gas bubble. The whole thing was done in about 15 mins. I just had to stick around for 4 hours, no bleeding or anything. It couldn't have gone any better.

Q and I left the next morning to fly to Brisbane. We got to our hotel which we found was only about half a block from the temple, It was so great to see. Small problem, Quintin forgot his wallet, no temple recommend and a couple of days later when it opened I got dressed to go and it had closed at 2:00 and I went at 3! But it was pretty to look at. :)

We went to Sea World on the Gold coast and it was wonderful, I loved it but Quintin was a stick in the mud, bad mouthing Sea world because they were consumer oriented and not animal oriented. He kept saying that they were torturing the dolphins and so I had to ignore him the whole time. After we went down to Surfers Paradise and went to Hard Rock, a REAL restaurant, it was great.

We went to see the Adult CHD doctor and after a few tests he took us into his office and told me that my heart looks good and that it looks like I don't even need a heart transplant. My life kinda fell apart when he said that. You would think that I would be jumping up and down with excitement but I was the opposite and even more upset because I didn't understand why I wasn't excited. Quintin was so happy, this meant that we could stay in Australia and he could continue following his dream.

Quintin was able to go to a Pearl Jam concert (his early Christmas present) and we went to Steve Irwin's zoo.....meh. When we came back to Cairns I e-mailed my Dr in the states to ask what to do about all of this crazy talk going around that I didn't need a transplant. While I waited to hear back from Dr Yetman I talked to my Mom on skype to figure out while I wasn't happy at the thought of not having a transplant.

She asked three simple questions.

1. Are you disappointed because you want to come home? No because I can always come home to visit and when I feel the cold I will want to high tail it back to Cairns.

2. Is it because you want the Dr's and medical medicine in the USA? Well no because I can just see the Dr in Brisbane for check-ups

3. Is it because you want to have a healthy body? At this I broke down crying. ding ding she hit the nail on the head.

I realized that I was tired, tired of being sick and I wanted to know what it felt like to run and not be weary, to go to visit my sister in Park City and not get raging headaches, to take long walks with my dogs (and husband) and also to dance. It's hard to be a "trooper"

Quintin and I discussed staying or leaving, argued about what was best for us and prayed that we would know what we need to do. My Dr e-mailed me back the next week. She said that while my heart is stable, I do have severe liver dysfunction and that indeed it was best for me to have the transplant. I guess I felt relief, crazy that I felt good about it. However on the other side I do feel pain for Quintin, he loves Cairns so much and it is his greatest dream in life to live here and research and conserve the tropics. He wants to come back to Cairns one day and I told him that I can't promise that I will be on board with the idea. It is hard for me to make long range goals when I am using all of my energy to get through this surgery and recover fully.

Sorry if this is too much 411. I use this blog as my journal and my therapy time. Anyway, the plan now is to come back to Utah on January 26th. Dr Yetman tells me that she wants to do a cardiac catherization to map my heart and the blood flow to determine if I can be on the list. However, she can't do anything until I have medical coverage and Medicare will take 4-6 months to get. I can't do anything more about applying for Medicare until I am on US soil, so it is nerve racking to come home and not be covered for a few months.

I love you all, more updates on the way.

More tests!

2009-11-16T01:55:00.000-08:00

Hello!

I'm sorry it has been so long! My head has been overflowing with so many worries and thoughts and prayers that I have put off writing on my blog for a while now.

I have been having test mania lately, I have a Dr's appointment or a blood draw pretty much everyday as I continue to work, so at least I'm busy. My parents left to go back home to Utah a few weeks ago. They had a pretty good time despite having this news about a possible heart and liver transplant come while they were on vacation. In a way it was good though, Quintin and I needed the extra support and distractions. We did every possible touristy thing and it was a blast.

After they left I had to deal with the situation at hand. I wrote to my Dr in SLC that would be involved in the decision of what will happen to me, and where. She wrote me back with pretty good news. She said that determining on how well my other organs are, I might just be able to have a heart transplant instead of heart and liver. My liver would ultimately regenerate back to a healthy liver and I would be given a new chance at life. Problem, my lungs and kidneys are pretty nasty also. She gave me advise on what tests to take and when all of those results are back she would go to the transplant team weekly meeting, submit my name for eligibility and they will decide if I can have a heart transplant.

I ran out and as fast as I could to get all of the necessary tests, it took about 2 weeks to get all of the results back. I e-mailed to the Dr, who's name is Dr. Yetman by the way. I spent a couple of breath holding days checking my e-mail every moment that I could. The e-mail came. Dr. Yetman had taken my results to the transplant team meeting and it was decided that.................. I need more tests. I have done two so far and I am having a liver biopsy done on Friday. I'll have to tell you how that goes cause I'm a bit nervous about a straw being poked in my liver about 4-5 inches. Hopefully that will be it, then I will have the news that has been going over and over in my head every second of the day.

So I am a bit stressed, I have tried to have the best and purest faith that I can possibly have but there is still stress and a bit of depression that comes with all of this madness. Quintin was going through getting prepared to do finals during all of this and it proved to be impossible. So he is in the process of withdrawing from school and we are definitely moving back to Utah. If it goes well and I am proven eligible to have a heart transplant than I may be going back sooner than Quintin. We have a lot of things to tie up here in Cairns, a car, a scooter and a household full of furniture that we need to sell.

I am hopeful that I can get medicare in the states and that Quintin can find a good job. I am hopeful that I will get a new heart and be able to dance! I told Quintin that he will have to take swing dance lessons with me, and maybe ballroom? The possibilities are endless with a healthy body.

On a fun note, Quintin and I are going to Brisbane on Saturday for a bit of a vacation. It started out as a day or so in the hospital so that the Drs here could be familiar with me in case I needed help from them. We live so far away from advanced medicine that I would have to go 1000 miles away for any heart emergency that I might have. Anyway, I cancelled most of those tests because I will just have to re-do them in Utah. So we are going for fun now. We plan on going to Steve Irwins Zoo, Sea World, and Quintin has a ticket for Pearl Jam. We could only get one ticket, so that is his Christmas present.

I love you all, thanks so much for your support. I'm sorry that I don't answer everyone back but once again.........some people have a way with words.........some people..............not have way. I'm one of the people that not have way.

Loves and Hugs

Holly

Clifton Beach is paradise!!

2009-10-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

I was lying on the couch today trying to get a nap in but then I got this really cheesy song in my head by Men at work called I've got to keep on movin. I thought about it and I thought that I really do need to keep on movin while I can. I will be spending a lot of time in the hospital in cold Utah and I am in a tropical paradise now. So i got off of the couch grabbed the dogs and walked to the beach. I saw on my 2 block walk so many wonderful things and it filled my heart with joy that Quintin and I have had this opportunity to live in this beautiful part of God's green earth.

Here are some of the things I saw on my short walk:

Rainbow Bee-Eater

Australian Magpie

Agile Wallaby

Common Myna

Rainbow Lorikeet

Willy Wagtail

Sulfur Crested Cockatoo

I sat on the beach and played with my dogs throwing a log into the ocean while Tag ran after it. The log sank but Tag was persistent sticking his head all the way under the water blowing bubbles. I laughed at him while cuddling my little Rick. I have been blessed and no matter what happens I am grateful for this life that I have led, doing things that no one ever imagined that I would do.

Holly

PS. Still waiting for tests to come in, I will keep you posted.

So it begins....

2009-10-16T03:58:00.000-07:00

For years now I have known that it was a great possibility that I would have a heart transplant, the Dr's have always told me that it was about 10 to 12 years in the future. It was always this thing in the future, 10 - 12 years away. Well maybe those 10-12 years have really passed this time and it is closer than I have prepared for.

I have been bloated more than usual for a few years now and I would determine how bloated I was when people would ask me when I was due. When that happened more than twice a day I knew I should call the Dr and see what was going on. I had numerous tests done by the good Dr's at Primary Children's Medical Center and I was given an "Abnormal, but stable" bill of health, which in my world is as good as they come. So Quintin and I packed up, sold our house and cars and took off to live in the beautiful Cairns, Australia.

We have lived here in paradise for 9 1/2 months now and absolutely love it. However, I went to see the local cardiologist and he was AMAZED at the three page diagnosis that I brought to him. He was concerned that my eyes were a bit yellow and that I was very bloated. He wanted me to see a liver specialist. I went home and laughed with my mom and sisters on Skype because we had known the Dr's here would be scared of me and want to "crack me open" as soon as they saw my medical history. I knew I didn't have the best liver, no one that has had a Fontan (a heart surgery that I had at 10 years old) and had a good liver. So I told the Dr no thank you I am fine.

This all changed for me when Quintin and I were at our local zoo (we go there almost weekly). Quintin was, of course, teaching some random person standing near him about the standard Python. He started talking to this guy more and more and found out that he was a Dr visiting from Florida. He was in town for an ADULTS WITH CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE convention. The Lord wasn't very subtle with that one. I told him that I didn't trust these Dr's here because they want me to see a liver specialist, I waited for him to laugh at these silly Dr's but he said that the Dr's may have a point and that I should probably just go to a liver specialist just to check to see if everything is still good. I didn't want to hear that.

I went to see Dr Chin (gastroenterologist -liver guy) and he was very concerned, ordered an ultrasound, a few liver function tests, adjusted my medication for my bloating and sent me on my way. I had told him that my liver was fine just 8 months ago and that it is just a Fontan thing. The adjusting of the meds worked and I have a small belly now. I would say about 5 months pregnant instead of 9 1/2 months :) So I was in a good mood, very happy that my bod was looking better.

My biggest concern at this time was that I have a small tumor in my back that is mildly irritating and I didn't know how and where I would be getting that taken out. Little did I know that the little tumor was going to be the smallest thing I had to worry about.

I saw my friend at church (who happens to be married to my cardiologist) and she said that I should get into see her hubby. She was right, I did need to check with him if my meds were at a good level.

I went in to discuss my levels and medications but I was not expecting what he told me. He had been speaking to my liver doc and they agreed that my liver was so bad that they would like me to think about a liver transplant. However, my heart is so messed up that it wouldn't be able to handle the transplant so I would need a heart transplant as well. I kept it together but I couldn't help a few tears falling.

When I left his office the rivers came out. I called Quintin to tell him the news. I didn't want to think or talk so I went to an office staff dinner. I ended up telling a couple of them, I was not able to enjoy dinner and my face hurt from the fake smile on my face. I took a couple of breaks to go cry in the toilets but I ended up staying until the end. When the first person said they needed to go home I immediately offered to walk out with them. The whole time at dinner I was looking at everyone getting drunk and talking about the frivolous things in life, complaining about the dumbest things and all the while I was thinking about my own death. It is a valuable lesson about how to treat people better because you don't know the trials and pains that they are going through in their lives.

My parents came to visit me the next morning, they flew in and I was going to wait to tell them at a better time but my mom instantly asked me how the Cardiologist appointment went. I told her and we mulled it over in our heads. We decided to not think about it much until I saw the liver specialist again in a few days to read over my latest ultrasound.

I brought him the liver test results that I had gotten in the states but I had gotten worse since then, he went over the ultrasound and said that it was worse that the one I had gotten in May of this year. He agreed with my Cardiologist, Dr. Lim. I asked what I should do and he told me that if it was his choice he would send me to a transplant Dr in Brisbane to be put on a liver (and heart) transplant list. I told him that I would be returning to the US to have the operation. He said that he can keep me stable with medications but if I start to get unstable I will have to go back before I can't travel at all.

Talking with Quintin and my parents, I have decided to wait here in Cairns for a bit to see how I go. I am currently sending all reports and info to my Dr at PCMC and my Dr that operated on me in Chicago. They will determine what will have to happen next. They have told me that they will speak to colleagues about my anatomy and see if the double transplant is even possible with my stuffed up anatomy.

It tears me up inside to think of leaving Cairns, I have made a home and friends here, not to mention that I feel great! Which is another reason that I am not 100% confident in the Dr's that are giving me this terrible news. The sea level gives me more energy and I am happy. We have made the decision to move back to the US but I will be on O2 all the time and I will be cold :( I will miss walking two blocks to the beach and going to church with these amazingly humble wonderful Aussie's

So what do I do now? I continue with my Faith in Jesus Christ, I pray my hardest and ask others to do the same. My emotions are through the roof. Yesterday I cried a lot and was scared out of my mind. Today I have been giggly and making Quintin and my Dad really upset about planning songs for my funeral. Such as, Another One Bites the Dust, I'll Build You a Rainbow and Epinene's dying song in Les Miserables. Funny right? I laughed so hard.

I'm not planning on dying but I am realistic that this is a really really risky and difficult surgery that my Dr's aren't even sure that they can or will do because I also have kidney and lung problems. I will just be relying on the amazing Dr's that have recently saved my friend Paul with a heart transplant that went miraculously well and of course my loving and wonderful Heavenly Father that I know loves me and does not want me to be in this much turmoil. I love Him and I am so grateful to Him for my awesome life and my sweet and loving husband.

Now to all of you reading this, I am asking for your prayers. This will be the hardest thing that I will ever have to do and my love for my family, friends and church will strengthen me.

Oh by the way, when I come back to the US I won't have any insurance at all, no insurance company will touch me with a 10 foot pole and even if Quintin gets insurance with employment it will take a year to get pre-existing conditions covered. So...... I never thought I would say this but I am really praying that Obama's health plan goes through or I will be trying to come up with over a million dollars really quickly.

Love you all

MORE TO COME......

Hello! Update time!!

2009-09-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

Our lives have been pretty hectic lately, I have been busy with work, health stuff, being in the YW presidency and my new hobby (I will tell you about that later). Quintin has been in school and on a new health kick by walking and jogging for hours on the beach. (I keep telling him that skin cancer will be his new thing one of these days) Naughty boy.

First with my work it is going ok, I still have a hard time grasping these new medical concepts that the USA does not have and I'm also tired of being the new girl that everyone feels like they need to help. It is a great place to work and I made it through winter without getting the swine flu from all of our patients.

My health stuff is still on hold until I can get in to see an oncologist for my tumor, to hear back from my gastroenterologist and getting ready to go to Brisbane. We are going to Brisbane on Thanksgiving week (they don't celebrate it of course) I will be going to have a whole day of heart tests and CT scans and stress tests and holter monitors and whatever else they want to strap to me. We are also taking a few extra days to go to the temple, shopping (yay), to Steve Irwin's zoo and Quintin got the very last ticket to a Pearl Jam concert, we tried to get one for me but it was seriously the last ticket out of 45,000 sold!! Anyway, I am pretty stressed out, with the liver problems, the tumor and the heart of course. I had a breakdown at church yesterday and relief society sisters came out of the woodwork to comfort me. It was embarrassing but I felt the love :)

Speaking of church, I LOVE my calling as a YW counselor. The 6 regular girls that come are so cool, I just love them all. I went to girls camp (only 1 night here) the other day and it was only my second time I've ever been.

Next my new hobby is helping a wildlife carer once a week with the feeding and taking care of orphaned or disabled kangaroo and wallaby babies. I love doing this, they are the coolest animals and the sweetest little babies.

This is a sweet little baby pademelon, we were taking a break from feeding

notice the milk on her face

this poor little guy is named Harvey and he has a disease that

makes him scabby

I have always felt the need to help animals and this gives that need an outlet. LOVE IT

Big ole update!

2009-08-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

I have been busy lately and that is because I HAVE A JOB!!!!! Yay I finally got a job! I asked my district President whom is also a Dr. if he had any openings at his office and low and behold he did. I am now one of the receptionist at Omega Heath and Medical Centre. I really like it and I feel like I have more of a place now here in Australia. I like the people I work with also which is always a huge plus.

Now the other news, I think that I mentioned in a previous post how I was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Well things just keep getting better and better (intense sarcasm) I found out that I have ANOTHER tumor in my back and I need surgery to get that sucka out! But it will hopefully be a teeny little surgery and no big deal. A couple of weeks ago in 5 days time I had 4 Dr's appointments. I will be updating you on the status of my organs and tumors as I go on this little journey. Love you all, Holly

The many faces of CHD

2009-07-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

My Friend Paul Cardall has a CHD similar to mine and he is currently waiting for a heart transplant. He is an amazing artist and the creator of this video.

(I'm at 4:42)

4th of July in Australia!!

2009-07-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

This was a fun 4th of July because the USS Essex docked at Cairns for a week. There were Marines and Sailors everywhere! I just had fun going from officer to officer finding out where they were from. Quintin was quite embarrassed because I wanted my pic with all of them.

We met Madison, one of the laurels in our branch downtown and introduced her to her first 4th of July celebration. This pic is us with a bunch of drunk sailors in front of a well known bar in Cairns that we were walking past on the way to our car. The local news station filmed us singing the National Anthem with them (Madison just waved the flag) I had to do damage control at church the next day. I imagined that everyone would be asking me why I was with drunk sailors at a bar with the newest convert. They just all laughed and thought it was funny. Whew!

This was as good as the 8-10 minute firework display got. We are spoiled with fireworks in America.

A firework caught Quintin's attention as I tried to take a cute pic of us.

This is Madison and myself with Jill Wolff and 2 of her kids from our branch. (Jill is from Idaho)

trying to see the flag in my hair while pledging allegiance

SO not what we expected!

2009-07-02T22:54:00.000-07:00

Well the winter is here in Australia (so weird) and Quintin and I took a day off from searching for jobs a couple of days ago. We decided to drive up the coast north of Cairns to find some secret beaches that we can take our visitors to, call it research.

We first went to one that was incredible, soft sand and only two fisherman were there besides us. The waves were small and once we got in the water was perfect. However it made me a bit nervous because there was a river next to it that is known to have crocodiles, I kept asking Quintin, "Is that from a croc walking on the sand?" and he would say no, it is just a tire track.

We moved on up the coast. The second one was all pebbles and shells so we didn't even go onto that beach but we stared at the lake next to it for a long time because we overheard a little kid say that they saw a croc. Again we moved on.

The third was a bit of a walk down a hill but it was great, The sand again was soft, it was in a small bay so there weren't any waves at all and the water was a bit warmer, however, there were big rocks that we couldn't see under the water until we tripped on them or stepped on them. This also made for more fish swimming around my legs. I wouldn't have been so freaked out except that Q kept saying "look I just say a sting ray" or "I bet there are reef sharks out here" I'm not scared of either of them but the thing that freaked me out was to not be able to see anything under the water. It was just us also which was nice.

We moved on to get some food in Port Douglas since we were almost there anyway. It is a ritzy little beach town where the celebs go. The stupid movie Fools Gold was filmed there. WE walked around and found a mexican restaurant (really! they have one here!) We were leery of eating there because we knew that we would be let down and only talk about how we wish it was beto's or Cafe Rio. But we were only let down a little bit (which is really good for food here) and we will probably go to it again.

We were having such a fun day that we went home and ate dessert at a little german place by us. When we got home we realized that we had completely spaced going to YW and YM's mutual. We are so bad.

Today has been more of the usual, I dressed up all nice and what not and spent 3 hours driving around passing out my resumes and being ever so charming. However I think I lost my chance with a day spa that I went to. They weren't hiring (no surprise because I have not found one company hiring in the last 5 months) so when I was leaving I got my car stuck doing a 57 point turn in their itty bitty parking lot. The lady came out to guide me out of it and rolling here eyes several times she finally got me out of there, mush to both of our relief. So I don't think I'll be getting a call from her. All I thought was, Dang I just wasted a resume.

We have been here a total of 6 months on Thursday and it has not been like we expected at all. When we planned out our arrival in Australia we decided that we would find a little furnished house, Quintin would take a few classes while I got a part time job, then when his semester was over and his grades were fantastic he would be getting a part time job as well. We would have a little no gas car and a scooter and we would be integrated into the culture as those wonderful Americans next door.

What really happened was that we got here and the prices were so outrageous that we could only afford a big gas guzzling car (it was the cheapest we could find) and a scooter (double the price that we had planned). We weren't able to find a furnished house so we had to buy all new furniture and white goods and everything in a house. My job search went on and on to this very day where no on is hiring and I can't find anywhere to work at. I had 6 weeks out of the job search to recover from the accident. Meanwhile, Quintin's classes are way over his head and he failed a couple of them. He can't find a job and we are slowly but surely running out of money to live here.

So we have made new plans and hopefully these plans will work this time. Break lease and rent a smaller place that allows animals (the renting prices have gone way down!) Sell our V6 car and buy a 4 banger hatchback (auto preferred but I may have to learn manual even though I have flashbacks of getting yelled at every time I have tried to learn, you know who you are!) We are going to keep the death scooter for Quintin. I will go out daily and bring my A-game to find a job, and Quintin will maybe get sponsored and get a full time job taking the next semester off to fill up our bank account again. But if the sponsorship doesn't work (it appears not to be going places) then he will get a part-time job and go back and try school again.

Depression has been living in our house for the last few months but it is a new day and we plan to shake it off get into gear and go forward with faith. Plus we have 5 family members coming to stay with us in a week for 2 weeks so that will be a fun break from our stress.

PS. A branch member hired Quintin for a day job today YAY! we will be able to pay tithing for the first time in 6 months. Even if it was only one day it will feel good to do that.

PSS. A huge inspiration to us that has gotten our heads on straight is my friend Paul Cardall

that has an amazing blog about his journey through waiting for a heart transplant. His link is named Paul in my friends blogs list, go see it, he is incredible!

Random beauty in Australia

2009-06-30T05:37:00.001-07:00

I love going fishing with Quintin, just so I can read while sitting on the pier looking out at the peaceful ocean and beach

This is the beautiful paper-bark tree in front of our complex, it is huge and has rainbow lorikeet nests in it

This little guy was just chillin in our tree on our porch.

While fishing on the pier we saw this beautiful sunset

Quintin took this pic of these misty clouds settling over the hills in front of our house.

We love this place! It is beautiful and always interesting!

HIke with the Young Women

2009-06-29T23:31:00.000-07:00

The YW of the church were challenged recently to take a yellow flag of virtue and climb up a mountain to wave the flag to symbolize their commitment to being virtuous.

So we took that challenge in our branch. I only made it a third of the way up the hill but I tried, nonetheless.

Here are some of the girls setting up the brunch we had after in the courtyard of the church building.

Here I am with one of our laurels, Madison

The girls plus some random guy that was in the parking lot, I think his name is Henry?

Here we all are at the base of the hill, I love these girls!

KNOB BLOG

2009-06-29T23:12:00.001-07:00

This is the post that Melanie has been waiting for!

There is a little suburb here in Cairns called Yorkey's Knob, I guess it was named after some guy named Yorkey back in the day. Every year they have a festival and the name of said festival is, of course the......

It was a fun little festival with food and good folks playing some good ole country music

I even got to meet the King and Queen of the Knob!!

(notice the knobs on their crowns!)

I had a ball at the festival of the knob!!

The Accident part 3

2009-06-29T22:47:00.001-07:00

Woo Hoo all of my pains and afflictions from the accident are all better but let us go back shall we?

A week after the accident my foot got hugely swollen and painful, I went back into the hospital only to find that I had broken not only my collar bone......

but my foot as well.

The recovery sucked, Australia doesn't even know what Lortab is, and just like the food here the medicine is bland also, barely numbing the pain.

Anyway enough complaining. While in the midst of this recovery I went to see my cardiologist because Quintin and a few others had told me that my eyes look extra yellow. After a couple of blood tests and an ultrasound he comes to find that I have cirrhosis of the liver. Well, DUH! I told him that I had liver problems. So I'm changing Dr's because he makes me feel like I am going to fall over dead at anytime. Apparently I'm a complicated case. hee hee :)

After 6 weeks of recovery I finally felt well enough to get back on the job hunt, 30 plus resumes later I still can't find a job. Quintin also cannot find a job. We are hopeful and we are doing everything that we can but it is panic time because we can't live off of saving for too much longer.

But we are still having fun and we are hopeful that things will turn around soon. The next few posts won't be downers like this one. :)

The boys and the beach

2009-06-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

BFF's together at last

Rick's first beach experience. He went down to take a drink and was immersed in a wave

since then he still won't go into the water

3 of the 4 boys in my life

The old man and his tambourines

2009-06-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

This man is named Pierre, we first saw him at the esplanade, which is in downtown Cairns. He was playing with this band and I loved him. He is really feeling the music. A few weeks later I saw him in another location with a different band. I guess he just goes where the bands play and gets groovin. His beard isn't a braid it is a long dread.

I'm a slacker

2009-06-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

Two days before the accident (see below a few posts for that catastrophe) the long awaited day came that our animals arrived!! They were set free from the prison in Sydney that they were in for 30 days. Quintin and I went to the airport to pick them up and we were so anxious. I kept talking to the flight number on the screen trying to will it to say landed. I was saying over and over land, land, land. I think the people thought I was crazy. As soon as the status switched to landed I yelled "They landed!!" And jumped on Quintin's back. So we were a bit excited to say the least. They were the last things to come off of the plane so a half hour later they brought them out in their cages. When Rick recognized me he started whining so loud that the second that Quintin let Tag out of the cage he went straight to Rick to see if he was OK. People all throughout the airport must have been wondering who was torturing animals from all of the whining and yipping. It was a very happy night.

Rick and Tag loving their dad

Rick and Casper giving me loves (I think Rick is jet lagged in this pic)

Help for those with Infertile Friends or Family Members

2009-05-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

I found this on a random blog....

I know having a family member or a friend who is having infertility trials in their life can be a tricky situation. Below I have some tips that might help.

Do not [complain] about your pregnancy, some infertile women would die for that.

Ask before sending a baby shower invitation, some women can handle these occasions better than others.

Don't ask when someone is going to have children, no matter who it is. [If they want you to know, they will tell you.] You do not know whether someone is struggling with infertility or not, it's just better not to ask certain questions.

Here are some highlights (emphasis added) from an article by Ana Nelson Shaw, called “Being Sensitive to Couples without Children,” Ensign, Aug 2000, 61.

• Remember that decisions about building a family are between a husband and wife and the Lord. [Not the ward.]

• Recognize positive contributions that are not related to childbearing or rearing. Everyone needs to feel valuable, and this is sometimes hard—particularly in Latter-day Saint culture—when one cannot become a parent....... I had my feelings hurt one time in a lesson when it was implied that the only reason that women are on the earth was to have and raise children, I just dismissed her as being ignorant but it still hurt.

• Realize that infertile people can be sensitive to the undertones of your comments, and try to be careful about what you say. For example, saying “You’ll get pregnant if you just relax” implies that you think infertility is the couple’s own fault, when in reality it is usually a medical condition not caused by stress. “You’ll get pregnant as soon as you adopt” implies that you see adoption as merely a path to having a biological child, when it is actually just as valid a path to parenthood as pregnancy. Even reassurances such as “It will happen in the Lord’s time” can be painful for people who are preparing themselves for the possibility that they will not have biological children during this lifetime......which is the stage that I am at and I probably can't handle even adopting a child.

• Express your support and love with simple, positive, nonintrusive comments such as “I love you.” Your genuine care and concern are needed by those experiencing the trial of infertility.

Also, below are some highlights from an article called Infertility Etiquette.

Don't minimize their pain. Statements like "Just enjoy being able to sleep late . . . .travel . . etc.," do not offer comfort. Instead, these comments make infertile people feel like you are minimizing their pain.

Don't gossip about your friend's condition. Infertility treatments are very private and embarrassing, which is why many couples choose to undergo these treatments in secret. The gossipers are usually well-meaning people who are only trying to find out more about infertility so they can help their loved ones. Regardless of why you are sharing this information with someone else, it hurts and embarrasses your friend to find out that Madge the bank teller knows what your husband's sperm count is and when your next period is expected. Infertility is something that should be kept as private as your friend wants to keep it. Respect your friend's privacy, and don't share any information that your friend hasn't authorized.......usually I'm an open book but there is a level of information that I stop at. I tell people that I can't have kids but when they say there is always adoption I just nod and say yep, even though I won't be adopting.

And these are just some of my own:

If you're a mother, please don't complain about how you hate Mother's Day. I don't hate Mother's Day, it's just hard for me because I wish I could participate in it. If I'm absent that Sunday don't be too concerned, but if I'm strong enough to come to church that day I will take the flower/chocolate or whatever they hand out because I deserve free stuff just as much as any mother. :) Plus I know it's for "all women 18 years and older."

Please don't tell your infertile friend that because you are able to have children, it makes you "feel guilty" to hear about their struggle or be around them. If I hear that, it makes me feel worse. I carry enough guilt for myself, I don't want to think I inadvertently cause it for others.

Above all do not ask me if I'm pregnant!!!!! I know that only strangers do that to me but it should be a given to NEVER ask that to any woman EVER!! It is especially hurtful because I know I never will be pregnant. I usually put them in there place by saying the truth.

Them: "oh when are you due?"

Me: "I'm not pregnant I just have an enlarged hardened liver"

Them: nothing because that shut them up!! hahaha

The Accident part 2

2009-04-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

The past four days since the accident has been stressful and painful. I got out of the hospital the next day (Thursday) and was sent home with a sling and some meds that made me puke like nobody's business. I decided that pain was better than puking so I went off of the pain pills, which wasn't fun at all. Apparently Lortab (a fave of mine) isn't made in Australia and no one has heard of it! So during all of my pain, poor Quintin, who was my maid/nurse, started having pain in his gut and back, we didn't know what to do so we called people in the branch to take us to the ER. So long story short, Quintin has kidney stones on top of everything! I'm glad that it wasn't crash related but it still hurts him like a son of a biscuit. Luckily we have had our animals to keep us company and the branch has been so good to us, driving us places, bringing us meals and calling to see how we are doing. My bruises (I have discovered a lot more) are big and spreading. My mom says I look like a Holstein cow.

The accident

2009-04-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

this may be short because I find it hard to type with one hand. Two nights ago Quintin and I were driving home on his scooter (our car was in the shop) when some dumb teenager made a U-turn across our lane and obviously didn't see us. We braked hard and the next thing that I remember is sitting up in the middle of the road with people surrounding me telling me not to take my helmet off. Thank goodness that there were 10 or more witnesses. Quintin was sitting next to me and I kept asking him where we were and how long had we been in Australia? Apparently when we hit the car Quintin stayed on the bike but I flew over him and over the car landing on my shoulder and head. Thank goodness for helmets! Everyone always wear one! The ambulance came and checked me out saying that I had broken my collar bone, I was more scared that my memory was wiped out. I will tell more of the story later but here are some fun pics

I am so overwhelmed at how much my Heavenly Father loves Quintin and me, Quintin just got some scratches and sore chest from hitting the handlebars. My major worries were that I would have internal injuries or massive bleeding but I was spared and I feel so blessed!

2009-04-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

April 13, 2009

Sorry it has been so long since I updated all of our Australian goings on. First I was put into the Young Womens Presidency and I love it! The girls in this branch are awesome and such good girls. Quintin has been having such a hard time understanding his school work and I get frustrated because I want to help him but I don’t know a thing about Chemistry, Biology or Math. I have been looking desperately for a job with no luck, it is tough to find a job around this area and because I am not a resident of Australia.The good news is that Melanie Ledingham (my BFF) came to visit for a week! We had so much fun, most of the time Q was in school so Mel and I were able to do a ton of fun stuff together. When I went to pick her up from the airport it seemed like we hadn’t gone a day without seeing each other, it was great to see her. We went with Quintin and our friend Jonno out to the Great Barrier Reef the next day. We drove us to the beautiful Port Douglas to get on our huge Quicksilver boat. We picked the roof of the boat to travel on and thank goodness, we all took motion sickness pills that the crew was handing out. I say thank goodness because on the way out to the Reef we went through a bit of a storm so the boat rocked quite a bit. When we pulled into the Pontoon out on the Reef we weren’t thinking that stingers (jellyfish) weren’t going to be a problem until we saw everyone else renting out bright blue lycra suits.. Quintin was pretty sure that he wouldn’t need one but than he saw that he was the only person without one. All four of us put on these awful/wonderful blue suits that covered everything but or faces, which would be taken care of with our masks an snorkel gear. Mel and I were laughing so hard that just getting into the blue suits was well worth the money of coming out to the reef.

We all got in the water, Mel and I in life jackets. I swam out about 6 meters from the boat when I popped my head out of the water and panicked because I couldn’t breathe and I had no strength to get back to the boat. Luckily Mel was close and toted me back to the snorkel deck. I spent most of the time there. Looking under the water while clinging to the boat. Sometimes I forget that I have medical problems and realize it a little too late….like being in the middle of the ocean with large fish and sharks swimming around me going “Oh Ya, I shouldn’t probably be doing this!”

After a little while Q, Jonno and Mel came back on the boat and we ate lunch than took a little semi submersible submarine. It was so awesome! We saw turtles and blacktip reef sharks (not dangerous), large clams and yes, I found Nemo! After this I decided to try snorkeling again without the squeezing of the life vest. I grabbed a noodle and did a lot better! I dove and saw fun little fish and took a ride back to the boat via Quintin. The whole experience was well worth it and it just made me so much more grateful to a Heavenly Father that gives us so much joy through the beauty of the earth.

2009-03-26T17:12:00.000-07:00

The Australian Starburst Co. has very low self-esteem

More of our house!

2009-03-26T16:52:00.001-07:00

Our bedroom

Our bedroom and balcony

Our patio

Downstairs bathroom

Our Kitchen

Dining and kitchen

Man I love Australians!!

2009-03-22T05:04:00.001-07:00

For reasons like this......

There isn't anything like a good ole Golden Gaytime

2009-03-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

Five names you go by:
1. Holly
2. Hollz
3. Wally
4. Sister M-dawg (only by my YW)
5. Hollter top

Three things you are wearing right now:
1. shorts
2. t-shirt
3. a sassy red bra (over my g's which isn't so sassy:))

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. My animals to arrive in Aus safely
2. For Quintin to "get" his classes

Three people who might fill this out:
1. Michelle Ab-rock
2. Cousin Sara
3. Michelle G-raf

Two things you did last night:
1. watched Hotel Rwanda (single tear)
2. made corn on the cob

Two things you ate today:
1. starbursts
2. cheese queisidilla

Two people you last talked to on the phone:
1. Dad
2. James from International Pet Transport

Two things you are going to do tomorrow:
1. Read on the beach
2. go to YW

Two longest car rides:
1. Salt Lake to San Diego to Phoenix to Salt Lake
2. Phoenix to Salt LAke when Lisa's kids were young and ornery

Two of your favorite beverages:
1. Slurpees (RIP)
2. Diet Dr. Pepper (RIP)

Our Sunday walk

2009-03-11T00:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday night Quintin and I were bored and Quintin was stressed out about school. I decided we needed a little break and we went out for a walk around our neighborhood. We walked down the street and watched big cockatoos sitting in the tree talking to each other.

They are beautiful birds but they have the loudest most annoying voice. But when I hear them it still makes me happy. We walked to the end of the street which happens to be the Clifton Beach.

It was a bit stormy and darker than the pic above but same beach. We walked down the beach a bit and started heading back through the neighborhood. As we were walking down another street we started to hear Kookaburras!!

We saw these little guys talking in the trees and they were right above our heads! If you want to hear the awesome sounds they make go HERE.

I came home in shock and awe that we actually made it! We accomplished this HUGE goal that at times we almost gave up on and we basically live in paradise! I love it! I want to share this place with everyone and pics just don't do it justice.

Our Home

2009-03-07T23:29:00.001-08:00

Here is our front door and dining area

Our front room and stairs

Our Front room

I will add the kitchen and our bedroom when I make my bed

so don't expect them soon :)

2009-03-01T03:31:00.000-08:00

March 1, 2009

Hello mates! I hope that you are all doing well! This last week has been a fun one. Quintin and I went to the Cairns zoo that is just a couple of miles away from where we live. As you can tell from the pictures it was an extremely HOT day. My hair was completely soaked to the very ends. Gross, I know. But the great part was that I was able to hold a Koala (after they drugged her up on a bunch of eucalyptus) I held a crocodile (which was just about 2 feet long and had it’s mouth taped shut) and I pet a wombat. We watched a croc feed show and almost saw the croc eat the trainer, I guess that is part of the show but I would never do that in a million years. Quintin however would do it for free if they let him.

We were also able to go to the beach and lay out a bit. I don’t know why we laid out because I was so slathered in spf 30 and bug spray that there wasn’t even a slight bit of chance that I would get any sun at all. There are beautiful botanical gardens by our church so we went there next. I got all slathered again in bug spray and tracked through the rainforest path with Quintin. I never thought that I would be scared going through trees but it is what is in the trees that scares me. I had to duck under huge spider webs, but the land is so beautiful that it is worth it.

I have slathered on the bug spray lately because we were fortunate enough to come to Australia during it’s worst break out of Dengue Fever. I call it the Dang Fever using my Utah/Texan accent (thanks a lot Dustin). It is carried by mosquitoes or as the Aussies call them “mozzies”. It can be deadly and I hear that it is incredibly painful and barfalicious.
So now I smell like bug spray when I go out but hopefully the Dang Fever will go away soon.

Speaking of painful, Quintin called me yesterday returning from a hike with his friend Johnno. He was in so much pain that I could barely hear him between the moans and groans. He told me that he is in the car pulled over because he couldn’t move. I felt totally helpless because he had the car and was downtown while I sat at the house with no transport and about 20 mins from where he was at. I called Johnno and asked him if he could come get me. When we got to the 24 hour care that Q was at Johnno left and all of the sudden Quintin’s pain was gone. The Dr. said that it was probably a gas bubble and charged us $65 bucks. But the way that Quintin described it and the fact that he felt the same pain a little bit this morning points to kidney stones. We hope that he doesn’t have another one, it was pretty intense.

I was called to teach Gospel Doctrine this week and the next and I just wanted to curl up and die. The lesson today was pretty good, I guess, it’s hard to say when you are on the other side. But we had our branch pres and his counselor stop by today and I was given a real calling. I can’t say what it is yet but I’ve never had this position before and it made me really happy.

Mo lata mates!

A very hot day at the zoo

2009-02-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

Feeding Kangaroos

2009-02-22T02:14:00.000-08:00

Quintin and I went to the zoo the other day, it was awesome. These kangaroos were so sweet. They lick their arms to cool down, I have to admit that I tried it and it works! j/k

2009-02-18T02:45:00.000-08:00

We were walking down our street to the beach the other day when we saw this

Wallaby in someones front yard, so we had a stare down

We won
Gambling is legal in Australia so we had a go of it

We lost

This very mean mall merry-go-round horse challenged Quintin to a dual

IT was a tie

Update from down undah

2009-02-18T02:37:00.000-08:00

February 18, 2009

How you goin? I am loving Australia! We finally got the internet figured out and up and running so my life is much happier. All of our furniture is here and set up. I must say that we did a dang good job with it, our place is stylin. (pics will be coming soon) .

We have had a couple other adventures. We went up into the “mountain” area to a place called Kuranda. A man met us there that was going to sell us his mattress and led us to his home in the true outback. His name was Jeff and his little girl was named Hely. This guy was totally hardcore Australian. He had a 45 acre lot that he lived on with his family, horses, 3 huge dogs and his mom lived in a trailer on the lot as well. This guy was tan, sweaty, had only one lung and swore ALOT but he was the nicest man and showed Quintin around his land as I went to talk to his mother. She was just the opposite of her son, such a charming lady that offered me tea and spoke to me about literature. The little girl, Hely came with me and her g-ma gave her a spoonful of vegemite. Just the smell made me gag. I went to join Quintin and Jeff, while Hely walked with me. She looked at me and calmly said “Watch out for red backs we’ve got a lot of them round here” I freaked out in my head, red backs are one of the two most venomous spiders in Australia!! So I urged Quintin with my eyes and maybe a poke in the back to leave and leave now!! Just as we were saying goodbye I asked Jeff if he had had a chest tube with the removal of his lung and he had but then he told me the story about when he got home after surgery. He had slept on his side and woke up with a ton of fluid in his chest. So what did he do? He took a garden hose and a pair of scissors and put in his own chest tube!! I told you that this guy was hardcore. Needless to say Quintin had an instant friend and I’m sure that we will be talking to him often.

Almost everyone we meet is so friendly and invites us for tea. We always said no thank you for obvious reasons but then someone told us that tea means dinner! We kicked ourselves and promised to not turn down tea anymore. We have been invited by a couple of couples in the branch to dinner and we have really had fun with them. I have given a talk already and the next week Quintin gave a talk and taught priesthood. We still don’t have callings but we are definitely planting ourselves firmly in this branch.

Our IMAC come in the mail the other day and when we went to pick it up I saw it and yelled “There it is there is my baby!” I’m sure the postal worker thought I was insane but it was such a joy because all of my 7000 + pictures, 14,000 + songs and some DvD’s are were back with me. If I almost cried when my computer came, I will be a total mess when my animals come.
For the next week after getting my (our) computer we were on the phone with our Internet Provider, and the modem people trying to figure out why our internet didn’t work. After about 4-5 calls everyday with these people the internet miraculously turned on, So this is why you all have not been blessed by my blogs for 2 weeks.

This week has been orientation week for Quintin at JCU (James Cook University) I went with him the first day, mostly so I could smuggle myself into the library to use the internet. There were these 3 performance artists that went around the campus dressed and acting like sharks. They made me feel awkward. One sat next to Quintin and after we figured out that they didn’t talk Quintin did his usual dance (the sprinkler) and the shark joined him. Then when I was in the very quiet library talking to my nephew David on face book I realized that the shark people were behind me. It freaked me out a little which turned into laughter. I made the very quiet library not so quiet with my smokers laugh. I was still on the internet when a tour group came in and Quintin was in the group so I sidled up next to him and joined the library tour.
So I’m sitting here on my new couch, typing away on the laptop and watching TV with Quintin. I can truly say that I’m at home now, It took a long 6 weeks to feel this way but I like our new digs. All we need now is our animals and they will be here in April, then I will feel somewhat complete.

Any questions? Ask me in a comment or on face book and I will answer you to the best of my ability.

Love you all, Holly

2009-01-31T22:43:00.000-08:00

February 1, 2009

We have made it through our first 3 full weeks in Australia and I am starting to be a bit more relaxed. Last Monday was Australia day and we took it easy (we had to, everything was closed). We went first to a ward swimming party and met a lot of people and kids in our new ward. I love the laid back feel of Cairns, no one is in a rush and everyone that we have met has been really nice. Later that day we went swimming at the beach. It is a bit strange because you can’t just go swimming at any part of the beach, I guess you could but you don’t want to because of the jelly fish! They have specific swimming areas that are netted so the jellyfish can’t get to you. There aren’t any waves because the Reef blocks them and slows the flow. It's perf!

The next day we went into town and bought a car! Thankfully we returned our rental (it was a hollow box with wheels) I had to follow Quintin to return the rental and in the first 20 feet of driving out of the lot I almost got hit. I felt all of the salesman’s were probably laughing wildly at the silly American girl. We looked at more houses and were getting sick of it, so while we were considering this old ugly rental that was pink inside and out, (I named it the pink peppermint palace) I got a call from a realtor that told us that we got a townhouse that was brand new and so cute!! I was ecstatic, Quintin was less than thrilled because it doesn’t have a backyard. After I had a good talk with him he changed his mind. :)

For the last couple of days we have been running around trying to find furniture and household goods (I love that word, goods) We have found almost everything that we need except a refrigerator and a mattress, two really important things for a home. Thursday is when we can move in so we still have a few days to find those things. We are both feeling so blessed that everything has gone our way, although it was a slow start, we feel like we almost have everything for a good life here.

The branch here is awesome, the people are so friendly and have the most amazing testimonies. Today in church I met a few more people and got a few more numbers. Things are progressing and I love it.

There is a cyclone expected to hit shores tomorrow morning, and I don’t love that.

Love you all,

Holly

Here are a few quirks that I have noticed about Aussies:

-They like to cut words in half and ad an eee sound, like Breakfast is Brekky, Address is Addy, University is Uni and so on.

-They can all talk your ear off! When Quintin (a big talker) starts talking to an Aussie I know that I won’t be able to put a word in for about 30-40 mins.

-The food here is almost as good as American but never quite right. They don’t use any real spices except for curry (bleck!) I did find a good steak and Pizza Hut’s pasta is really good but that is about all I’ve found.

-A lot of the men and children go to the stores without shoes or shirts on, Apparently they never have gotten those signs that say ‘no shirt, no shoes no service‘.

-They don’t great you with a G’day like you would expect them to. They all say “How you goin?” I get thrown off by the grammar and usually say “I’m good?”

-Instead of dead racoons and deer at the side of the road, you see Wallabys (small kangaroos)

There is a big field close to our new place that is always filled with wallaby's. So cool!

A new CAR!! (said like Rod Roddy of the Price is Right

2009-01-31T00:11:00.000-08:00

Here is our new car!

We got a great deal and love it

The first time I drove on the other side of the road I almoost got hit. (Look the OTHER way)
It has pimpin 19" wheels and brand new sporty lights.

Adventures part 2

2009-01-24T22:43:00.001-08:00

January 25, 2009
I know I know it has been a long time since my first adventure update, but we have been really busy and stressed out. We moved into the student lodge next to Quintin’s school and I can say that it’s better but not quite where I want to spend the remainder of our time in Australia. We luckily have most of the place to ourselves but not for long, students will be coming in here by the truck loads next week. So you can see why we have been in a rush to find a home.
Two weeks of searching and no luck so far. We have come close twice to getting a furnished place but than the owner backs out when they get our pet info. We could get something easily if we weren’t so intent on bringing our animals but they are our children and they are the three most well-behaved animals I couldn’t imagine getting rid of them, they are so worth the problems finding a house and the money that shipping them will cost. Gosh I miss them.
We have been able to do a bit of sight seeing. We drove up one of the itty bitty mountains to a Rainforest town called Kuranda. Driving up I was recuperating from a really nasty bonk on the head, I had been watching where I was stepping while I was on the phone with my mom and ran smack into an air-conditioning unit. Quintin heard the bonk clear across the parking lot. Luckily I didn’t yell out obscenities because I was on the phone with my mom. Anyway, I got ice on it and with a nasty headache we drove up to Kuranda. This town is so beautiful but dang noisy, the bugs are so loud with their buzzing and chirping and what not. We walked up this little path and saw this beautiful waterfall called the Barren Falls. Then Quintin really wanted to take me on a little walk through the rainforest. I told him no way, it was too dark in there and I hate the bugs around here. They are like regular bugs on steroids. I decided I needed to be supportive since this rainforest is why we came here, so through the woods we went. As we were walking through the trees we saw these little chicks of a scrub turkey and I calmed down a bit after all the chicks were really cute! Further on down the path we saw a foot long Skink (lizard) and he was fairly cute and harmless. As I was telling Quintin that I wanted to head back I felt this pinch on my foot! Looking down I see a leech on my foot. I started to freak out and I picked it off of my foot just to have it clamp onto my finger. Yelling “Quintin get it off! Get it off!” I was flapping my hand around a million miles an hour and the leech finally flung off of my hand.
We have been renting a car for about a week and a half. We tried the bus thing for about 2-3 days but that required a lot of walking, in the heat and the humidity. I was afraid I was getting dehydrated so having a little dorky trash car has been nice to drive around. Yesterday we actually bought a car! It will be ready for us on Tuesday to pick up. It is a Commodore Holden (I know, I didn’t know what it was either) It has great tires and wheels on it and pretty low mileage (for a 98) It will be good for 3 years and it was the cheapest that we could find without getting a total dump of a car.
Tomorrow is Australia day, it is kind-of like our 4th of July so everything is closed tomorrow. I am excited though because the ward is having a swim party tomorrow and I need to feel included in something. The church here is a small branch but the people are so friendly and the youth of the ward are just amazing people. I hope to get a lot of friends soon, hopefully neighbors and friends in the ward. If only we could find a house. If only we didn’t love Tag so much this would be a lot easier to find a place and less expensive but for those who have met Tag, how could you not bring him along?
So we have a big check marked off, buying a car, but now we still need to find a house, possibly all new furniture and jobs. Please keep us in your prayers, I will keep you in mine! Love Holly

Pics

2009-01-16T00:23:00.001-08:00

My handsome husband on the beach at the end of the street that we are hoping to live on

Modeling our hot little rental car
I want a new car that looks like this bug!

Turn your head and take a look at this tired and hot couple

Sitting on the wall of the student lodge where we live temporarily

2009-01-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

At the airport saying goodbye to my Dad

And my Mom

Holding a toad
Posing in front of a beugenvilla(?) Bush

fighting the flooding and rain the first day in Cairns

Adeventures in Australia

2009-01-15T00:18:00.000-08:00

Our day leaving started busy, we were rushing around finishing packing, making phone calls and getting wonderful blessings from Dad. He cried through my blessing and that made me lose it as well as Mom and Quintin. We packed up Dad’s truck and after a final stop at Walmart we took our car and animals to Quintin’s mom, Ursula. I thought that it would be so hard to leave my boys but I was so stressed out that my brain didn’t give me time to be weepy. That would come later. My parents dropped us off at the airport and even Quintin’s dad came to see us off. We sat and prolonged the saying goodbye for as long as possible, but we had an airplane to catch so we finally said our goodbyes. Quintin’s dad took pictures of my puffy sad face. It was really hard for me to let go of my mom but we knew it had to happen and after lots of hugs and tears we were on our way.
After I walked away from my parents I kept looking back until they were out of sight and still sobbing I went through the security. Without thinking I walked through and beeped. I told the security that I had a pacemaker and they put me in this clear room to sit on a chair and have a large woman frisk me. So there I was, still sobbing with my arms extended in the air being frisked as people walked by staring at me probably thinking that I had done something terribly wrong.
I was OK from SLC to LA, I think I cried once flying over Provo, but than again Provo always makes me cry. When we landed in LA we thought it would take a long time to get our baggage and find the international terminal but it took us no time and was really easy. The airplane from LA to Auckland was so huge and because I had to have oxygen on the plane, we were the first ones on board and were already watching a movie by the time we took off. I took a sleeping pill and slept through half of the fight. The other half we were eating the most delicious airplane food I had ever had and watched movies.
We sat in the Auckland airport for about 5 hours and I was wide eyed the whole time, after all this was my first time out of the country. I noticed the green hills outside that were so lush, the newspaper read about the All Blacks (NZ rugby team) and we were the only American accents I heard. Once again we were on the plane to Cairns. I was on oxygen again, and couldn’t recline my seat and so it was a tougher flight. Quintin tried to sleep with a blanket over his head, we were right by the bathroom so everyone that came by was laughing at the big lump next to me.
When we landed my first impressions of Cairns was that is was really truly a rainforest!! So green and beautiful. Walking of off the ramp from the plane we saw a little gecko on the window and I knew I would love this place. Customs was super easy to go through, I didn’t need the piles of documents that I had with me, we just gave them our passports, a cute dog smelled our bags and they were x-rayed, done that fast. I had been wearing Ted hose the whole 28 hours of traveling so I wouldn’t get blood clots in my legs and I ripped those things off as soon as we landed. My feet were huge! They were so swollen and puffy but back to normal the next day.
We called a hotel from the airport and the driver that came to get us was this young German kid that was super stinky. He took us to the hotel and they couldn’t find our room. They realized that the phone lines at the airport had switched so we had to go to a different place. The stinky German came to get us again (not to mention our 4 giant suitcases) and took us to a hostel!! We paid for the private expensive $85 dollar a night “suite” but when we got to the room it was as big as the King size bed we paid for (which was really two twin beds pushed together with a king sized sheet over it. The bathroom smelled like a sewer and it was directly under the planes that landed. Super fun (sarcasm thick) I laid on the bed and lost it, crying and crying. Poor Quintin was second guessing everything. But then I looked around the room and started laughing hard. This was the majestic Australia that I have been dreaming of for a year and a half. After that I was good.
The first day after we arrived we decided to walk around town and get cell phones and hit up some realtors for a nice rental. We didn’t realize that the city was half closed because of flooding and it was going to rain all day long. We still dived in and walked around trying to find a phone store. We stumbled upon a magical land called a Mall!! I was so very happy I felt like I was home. We bought cell phones, YAY. As we were walking down the road Quintin told me to look up, so I did and what I thought was a big bird was a big BAT! I freaked inside a little bit when I saw that there were hundreds of them in the trees surrounding us. They are called flying foxes and are as big as a house cat with a huge wing span, harmless but still quite creepy.
More to come when my neck has uncramped………
By the way, if you have made it this far reading, you are a true mate!

Goodbye!!

2009-01-09T03:07:00.000-08:00

For maybe a week or less. Today we are flying out of America to the great Down Undah! We are packed, ready to go, but not ready to say goodbye to our boys (3 pets) We have had a heck of a time finding someone that will ship them to Australia and still haven't found a reasonably priced animal travel company. So that is the main stress, not knowing how long It will be until we see our boys. I want to say goodbye to ya'll and stress that we will need visitors! and often! So if you are our best friend or someone that I met in a line at Target, don't hesitate to come visit, we will have a room for you! I will be back on line in a few days so I will update you on our adventures then!! Love you all!!

Things are moving along!

2008-12-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

My surgery was successful, I didn't have to have a whole ovary taken out just an orange sized cyst. I can tell you though that laproscopic surgeries are soooo painful, or at least this one was and still is! I can't move with out feeling stabs or slices of pain but hopefully I will feel ok for Christmas.

On to the good news! Quintin and I were both approved on our visa's and we are definitely headed for Australia! We bought out tickets last night to leave on January 9th. We just are looking for tickets From SLC to LA and then we are off! Woo Hoo! (please don't say how sad you guys are to lose us because it is starting to get hard on me as it is)

Crazy life....

2008-12-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

My world has been kinda crazy lately, which I knew would happen the closer we were to moving but life has thrown in a few extra bumps to get over.

We are still waiting for my Visa to go through, it has taken longer because the Australian embassy needed further medical information about my heart, surprise surprise. We have been reasured that it is being proccesed and hopefuly we will hear about it this week.

>Our condo sold!! Yay! We are very excited about this because we now have money to move with! We will be moving out the 1st or 2nd of January. Don't forget to come to the going away party that Melanie and Dustin are giving us on the 3rd (see last post).

Monday I am having surgery, it is just a minor laproscopic surgery but even the tiniest surgery for me is kinda a big deal, so different doctors have been notified and will be there for my cardiac and anesthetic needs. Oh ya, the surgery....I have a huge ovarian cyst that they are going to be taking out. Good times.

Quintin had a scary incident this last week, he got really sick and went to urgent care after a whole night of puking and what not. It turns out that he got e coli from a hot dog he got at Marerick. Blah, never eat convienience store food!!

So that has been our crazy week, and I'm thinking every week for the next couple of months will be a bit Kah-RAZY! But we couldn't be more excited. :)

Good bye Party!!

2008-12-09T17:22:00.000-08:00

Bon Voyage Mates

Holly and Quintin are Moving Down Under!

Event Info
Host:	Melanie and Dustin
Type:	Party - Goodbye Party
Network:	Global

Time and Place
Date:	Saturday, January 3, 2009
Time:	7:00pm - 11:00pm
Location:	Waterside Condo's Club House
Street:	(Approximatly) 1200 East Waterside Cove (7265 South)
City/Town:	Midvale, UT
	View Map

I stole this from cute Kasey

2008-12-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

I thought this looked fun and it made me laugh, so bear with me!

1. My rock star name: "Percy Altima"{First pet and current car}

2. My gangsta name: "Butterfinger ginger"{Favorite candy bar and favorite cookie}

3. My detective name: "Blue Puppy"{Favorite color and favorite animal}

4. My Star Wars name: "McKho Lasix {First three letters of last name and first two letters of first name then the word "of" then a medication you are on}

5. My superhero name: "Yellow the water" I will never be a superhero just so I don't have that name {2nd favorite color and favorite drink with "The" in front}

6. My Nascar name: " Cary Iona Margaret" Awesome!! {First names of your grandmothers}

7. My "lover" name: "Happy Laffy Taffy"{Name of your favorite perfume/cologne and your favorite candy}

8. Witness-protection name: "Ann W" so mysterious! {Mother's and father's middle names}

Now anyone that wants to do this, just steal it and let me know you did it! I wanna read it!

Bangs Wins!!

2008-12-08T12:18:00.000-08:00

Survey Time

2008-12-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

I have decided that I want some sort of style to my hair but I don't want to cut it, so it has come down to the burning question.......

NO BANGS?

OR BANGS?

Things I am grateful for....

2008-11-27T20:26:00.001-08:00

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

My Eternal Marriage

My funky rock star husband

My Great Family

Tag

Casper and Rick

My crazy health problems

100 things you have done in your life.

2008-11-12T18:01:00.001-08:00

I stole this from Michelle's blog, the red is stuff that I have actually done.

It looks like I have much more to accomplish

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (does "playing" with most the band count?)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (with help)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo, when no one was home
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (my dogs are my children)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Hugged a goat
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (ha ha)
28. Ridden in a gondola
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (in an actual karaoke bar)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (they won't let me)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (and barfed)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (don't tell mom)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Book of Mormon or Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (no thanks)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life (tried but he died)
90. Had your heart stop
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone (der)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

My beautiful Condo

2008-11-05T17:26:00.001-08:00

I love my condo! I have lived in it for 8 years, with a little time out to live with Melanie. I had

three roommates in this place as well as a hubby, 2 dogs, 2 cats, a tarantula and for a short time a redtailed hawk and a snake. I will miss this place and all of the memories that I have had in both the condo and around in the complex. Yet a better place with a lot more potential awaits us. So once again if you now anyone who is looking for a great place to live, have them give me a call!

The Candidates

2008-11-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

No matter who wins, our country will be represented by someone with mad skillz!!

Flash back day

2008-11-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

These were my favorite muppets, I laughed hysterically when I

was 5-10 years old and when I just watched it I laughed

hysterically.

These guys will never get old.

Halloween

2008-11-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Zero effort went into our costumes this year. I had been so busy getting our house ready for selling, filling out forms and working that I didn't have any clue on what to do for Halloween. We both wanted to be grunge rock fans with Quintin being Eddie Vedder but I had no time to go to savers and no money to spend on frivolous things, such as flannels, shredded levis and old Converse shoes.

So I started to panic at 3:00 on Halloween and walking through Walmart I saw light up pumpkins. This is my actual thought "I think my head would fit in that" Not the first time I have thought those words but that is an entirely different story.

So behold the Pumpkin head McKells

Quintin wanted to be scary and he got his wish, a few kids cried when they saw him.

Closer and closer

2008-10-29T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today was a busy day!

First -I found out that we were approved for a student loan, Woo Hoo!! We will get in in two installments next year

Second- After several days of getting forms filled out and put together I sent our Visa's in.

Third- Quintin came home a bit early and we voted. Whew that's done

Fourth- I got my yearly flu shot, my arm is hurting while I write this

So step by step things are coming together. The next thing on the list is to sell our condo! Does anyone know of someone who's looking?

That was then.....

2008-10-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a flashback picture in a while so I thought I would show you all this little dandy of a picture I found taken by my sister Lisa when I was 8. I was giving my best Scarlet O'Hara look.

Super Sassy Holly

Ben's Birthday

2008-10-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

It was my cute nephew's birthday on Sunday He turned 6! So we went to Park City to have some cake and ice cream with our little Ben

The Daves

2008-10-12T20:29:00.000-07:00

I was so happy to hang out Friday with both of my friends Dave. Dave Allen and Dave Filhart. These are 2 of my buddies that I met in Arizona and have been true friends for years! Quintin and I were so happy last week when Dave A. called us and offered us two extra tickets to the Angels And Airwaves and Weezer Concert. We had a blast and I definately felt 10 years younger as I whooped it up and cheered as Quintin and I danced and sang. Then we were fortunate enough to have the Filharts come to Utah on Friday and we all got together and went to dinner and our other friend Johns art show.

This is Dave F's hot wife Becky and their daughter Mia who happens to be the HAPPIEST baby I have ever met, she was constantly kicking and laughing even when no one was looking at her :)

This is the mighty Filhart family
Dave A and his woman Ally
Good times

I'm happy and relaxed! For now.....

2008-10-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well we got the loan and paid for Quintin's tuition for the first semester (I almost typed trimester, which just shows you that I'm at work a lot). I have given over all of the stuff and stress of getting our animals ready to move over there and putting them in a quarantine station for a month in Sydney to Quintin. That is a major stress that I don't have to worry about! Yay! So I'm feeling pretty A-OK for the next little while or at least until I receive more instructions from the school.

Did I mention we will be living
here?

with beautiful visions of loveliness like this?

In case you don't know where cairns is, this map shows you where we will be living and also how far away our animals will be from us for a month :(

Australia...for real?

2008-09-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't posted in a few, you know how I hate to dissappoint my fans, so please forgive me.

Quintin and I are waiting to hear about our loan status today and at that point we can pay for school and apply for our Visas. Wow...I guess dreams can come true if you want them badly enough. There are still worries about my health insurance coverage and if I'm too "sick" to qualify for a Visa, but we are still optimistic and hoping (and praying really hard) that there isn't anything that keeps us from going.

It is still hard to imagine that I will be leaving Utah and everyone that I know. My Dr.'s don't like me living at the Utah altitude so when we come back to the states we won't be coming back to Utah. I'm good if I never have to see snow again but tears still come when I think of not being around family and my friends. It will be an adjustment but I never have had a "stupor" of thought and when I think about it I feel like I'm going to burst because I am so excited to live at sea level, not to mention living in the RAINFOREST and on a BEACH!

So because I will be leaving my work, Fetal Fotos, is looking to hire a part time tech. They train you at the store and it is the best job I have ever had! Just another thing to be sad about leaving. Let me know if you or anyone that you know would be interested in the tech job.

FIESTA!!

2008-09-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

It was neighbor Dustin's b-day last week so we celebrated with a fiesta Monday night, here are some of the shots..

Shag wins...with me :)

2008-09-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I asked you all if you liked Quintin with Short hair or shaggy hair and the majority of you voted short. But guess what suckas? I love his shag so I win!! Plus he likes it too because it fits his personality and outdoorsy lifestyle.

He just got out of the shower here so it's a bit "fluffy"

Tagged

2008-09-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Rules: Respond to each question using one word and than tag 4 other people.
1. Where is your cell phone? kitchen
2. Your significant other? hiking
3. Your hair? messy
4. Your mother? Charitable
5. Your father? Funny
6. Your favorite thing? Hope
7. Your dream last night? High School
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream/goal? Australia
10. The room you’re in? Bedroom
11. Your hobby? reading
12. Your fear? Unhappiness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? California
14. What you’re not? Quiet
15. Muffins? Lemon
16. One of your wish list items? Travel
17. Where you grew up? SLC
18. The last thing you did? dinner
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Favorite gadget? internet
21. Your pets? Lovable
22. Your computer? mac
23. Your mood? happy
24. Missing someone? no
25. Your car? Altima
26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes
27. Favorite store? Target
28. Like someone? many
29. Your favorite color? blue
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? yesterday

I am so brave

2008-08-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

For all of you who know me well you know that I HATE sea food. I always have. I have tried it all but have never really liked it. I have decided that since I am moving to the Great Barrior Reef, Sea Food country, that I will try sea food again and get over my loathing of it.

So Quintin and I went to a fancy sea food place and I ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna figuring that anything that is over $17 has to be good.

Here I am going for the bite...

Biting fearfully..

And finding that it wasn't that bad, but I still had the mental image of what I was eating.

I couldn't get over that I was eating this horribly gross thing.

So I think I will stick to this scrumptious little beast....mmmmmmmm!

George W Bush

2008-08-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

Alot of people these days really don't like Dubya and I am amongst them but here is my reason why..........

HE EATS KITTENS!!!

So not cool George, so not cool

Quintin is cool.....

2008-08-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Because he is just as goofy as I am!!

I tried to find a funny pic of us for the header of my blog and here were some runners up...

R.I.P. Ping Ping

2008-08-18T14:29:00.001-07:00

My parents ridiculously cute dog Ping died this morning from Rat poisoning. We don't know where she got it but we are a very sad family today.

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY BRANDON!!

2008-08-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

This is my totally RAD (yes I said Rad) Nephew Brandon, He just turned 17 last week!

He is so cool, I can't even handle how cool he is.

Our date with Melanie

2008-08-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

Quintin and I went out on a date with Melanie cause we both love her so much (but she's mine Quintin!!) Anyway we went to her lush downtown apartment and walked to dinner and all over downtown SLC

This is Quintin trying to be sexy or sneaky I'm not exactly sure what he is doing

Here is Mel and I striking a pose in front of the symphony building water fountains
another graceful pose
Not quite sure again what Q is doing over that fountain , I guess he didn't remember that they get bigger because he was on it a little too long and...
this happened.
Mel always trys to be the center of attention
posing for the Ensign cover, cross your fingers that we get it!
It was all fun and games until Q fell into the river scraping 6 inches of skin off of his shin.
We had so much fun on our date with Mel but the doorstep scene was a little awkward.

Our Cute Nieces

2008-08-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is Amanda and Heather our nieces that stayed with us last weekend.They are both AWESOME girls and we love them to death!
Quintin with his sister Jennifer

Our neighbors

2008-08-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

Quintin found these cute little guys in our dumpster the other day scared out of there little heads. (it probably didn't help that Tag was barking and trying to dig at them through the dumpster) Q put in a long stick so they were able to escape. Who could hurt these guys? Their little faces are adorable.

Memories

2008-07-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

I stole this from another blog cuz it's a cute idea.

Directions: Leave a comment on my blog about a memory of you and I together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, just whatever you remember.

Then repost this on your blog to see who leaves comments for you!

Could be fun, right?

Back into the swing of things

2008-07-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

Although the doctors don't suggest I swing anything for at least a month.

Finally out of the hospital last Friday and back to work on Monday I am feeling great and ready to go forward without any other health issues for a while (cross your fingers) I really love you all and appreciate your prayers, without the people that have cared about me I wouldn't be here!!

Here is my nurse Paul and I contimplating my fluid filled swollon belly and

my surgical site (one of them)

UPDATE!!

2008-07-22T10:39:00.001-07:00

Hey Ya'll My surgery was yesterday and it went great!! There was a small chance that I would have to have a full blown open chest thorasic surgery but when they were in there they found out that everything looked good and they would only have to replace my pacemaker and block some veins that were going around my lungs making me not breath so well.

So I woke up to my parents and my wonderful husband standing over me and telling me the good news. I had to stay flat for 6 hours and I think that was worse than the actual surgery! When I could finally move I thought I would feel some pain but now on day 2 I still haven't felt any pain!! Thanks to you all and the prayers you sent my way I am on the fast track to recovery. I haven't even needed any pain killers! Heavenly Father is a really nice man. Sorry if some of this doesn't make sense the hospital comp has some keys that stick. I will be in PCMC until at least Friday, they are watching me on some new medication and making sure my blood is at a good level.

I love you all and I am so very grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and some great loving friends!!

In the hospital

2008-07-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this really fast because I'm on the hospital computer. I went in last night to the ER for a high heart rate and my pacemaker had been reset and is almost out of batteries so I was admitted and will be having surgery tomorrow and a catherization on Monday. I'm at Prinary Childrens....I'll update when I can. Love you all Hollz

The NIENS reunion tour!

2008-07-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

We totally Rock.

UPDATE

2008-07-10T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks!

So I had my pulmonary tests and a CT scan (cat scan) I am waiting for those results but it was decided that I will have a Catherization on Aug 12 at Primary Childrens.

I know I'm old but that is where the best Dr's are for the congenital heart disease that I have.

I'm not to happy about it because I will have to deal with clowns but the good thing is that they do have a ton of video games.

2008-07-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

I am: a stressed out chick
I think: about Australia all the time
I know: The my husband is the kindest man in the world
I want: a healthy body
I have: the best pets anyone could ever have
I wish: I had more patience
I hate: The F word more than anything
I miss: my sisters
I fear: leaving Quintin (by dying)
I feel: pretty good, thank you
I hear: The whistle of my oxygen flowing into my nostrils
I smell: Rick's clean shampooed fur
I crave: a carmel apple
I search: for Australian homes daily
I wonder: what we will be doing in a year
I regret: not being a better friend to my niece and nephews
I love: back rubs and my family
I care: about if my animals love me as much as I love them
I always: worry too much
I am not: a patient person
I believe: in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
I dance: when I feel silly
I sing: Whenever I play Rock Band
I dont always: stay calm
I fight: with Quintin about guns
I write: on my blog instead of in my journal
I lose: my temper when I'm too frustrated
I win: when I play Boxers or Briefs
I never: have liked ice cream or cookies much
I listen: to the chunga show every morning
I can usually be found: on the computer
I am scared: that Dr's will tell me bad news
I need: a nap
I am happy about: my friends being so awesome
I tag: anyone who wants to play

My sexy Doctors appointment

2008-07-04T11:31:00.001-07:00

Ok it wasn't all that sexy but the gown was pretty skimpy. I was at the hospital for 5 1/2 hours, for one visit!! The Dr's kept adding new tests. So drumroll.. here are the results.

Ultrasound- Excellent, my Dr said that it is better than my last one.

EKG- Good, my pacer is working and I had minimal arythmia's

Pulmonary- Poor, I have to see a Pulmonologist and I am on Oxygen whenever I'm at home, not just at nights. I could have asthma or something else besides my damaged lungs.

Stress Test-Poor, My heart rate refuses to go up when I am active so I am going on a new drug and getting a new all improved Pacer.

Blood test- I haven't heard yet.

Conclusion....My Heart is good but my lungs suck...literally HaHa. I will be having a little hospital stay to start on my new medicine and to replace my pacer. AND depending on what the pulmonologist says a catherization.

if any of these words confuse you just ask in a comment and I will tell you. :)

LOVE YOU ALL thanks for the prayers

Quintin's B-day loot

2008-06-12T21:35:00.000-07:00