Scarey Times

To give a bit of back ground: Edward came down with a nasty cold after the football game in the rain on Friday, November 4th. He ended up with flu-like symptoms on Sunday and stayed home from church. He did drag himself out of bed to attend seminary on Monday (he had perfect attendance for the 3 years so far), but didn't feel well enough to go to school. He was worried though about missing football practice so after sleeping most of the day, he went there also. Tuesday he still felt lousy, but managed to make it to seminary, his classes, and to football. Wednesday morning after seminary I receive a text message from him telling me that he doesn't feel good, that he wants to go to the doctor's. I replied and said I would be right down to the school to pick him up. (I did stop to get dressed and put gasoline in the car, figuring I was going to have to drive him up to Salmon Creek Urgent care.)

By the time I got to the school he was in a panic. I went to check him out of his home building only to find out he was in the 300 building with the school nurse. When I finally arrived she said Edward was having chest pains and that she almost called for an ambulance. I drove him quickly to SW Medical Hospital where they quickly took him into the back room and put him on a heart monitor and did some blood work. The doctor thought it might be inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart, but after an EKG and an Echocardiogram it was determined that the inflammation wasn't the sac, but the heart muscle itself. They gave him some pain killers and an asprin, and then said they would redo the blood work in six hours. We were then moved upstairs to the Clinical Decision Unit (CDU) to wait.

The heart produces an enzeme when it is under stress. The normal range is 0.0>0.04. When Edward came into the hospital it was at 6.something. Later, when they did the blood work again, it had climbed to 15.something else. They told me that they wouldn't start to be real concerned until it reached 20. It was then that they decided to keep him over night and test his blood levels again in the morning. At 8:30 in the morning we finally got the news that the levels had dropped to 3.9! He could go home.

Edward will be taking Ibuprofen for the next 4 weeks until we see the cardiologist again. In the meantime, he is off all physical activity other than walking. This means no more football. He was crushed. The team went to Kent, Washington this Friday to play the Kentlake Falcons and Edward really wanted to go and at least be on the sidelines. Coach Piland agreed to let him go only because he wasn't contagious. He was there to cheer his teammates on as they beat the #6 team in the state 31-7. Next week they'll play up in Woodenville, Washington.

Keep Edward in your prayers.

The Latest News

Things have been happening in the Mueller Household. Jennifer applied and was accepted to the Disney College Program and will leave for Disney World in January. She will work there for almost 8 months, as she finishes up the first part of August. She'll come home and then head directly back to BYU-Idaho. I guess this will just prepare me for when I can't see or talk to Edward as he will be heading out on a mission here in a short 2.5 years. We've been talking about going down to Orlando as a family while Jennifer is there, as she will be able to get 3 of us in for free. Unfortunately, there seems to be forces working against this plan.

Which brings me to yesterday. I had driven the van to pick up Aaron from his homeschool classes in Battle Ground when we discovered that the front driver's side tire was a little low. When we got home Aaron put some more air in it. Later I drove it over to take dinner to a family in the ward only to have it go completely flat as I drove home. I tried to limp to the church parking lot (only a few blocks away), but alas, the tire had different plans. The tire decided to come completely off the rim. When I pulled over to change it I discovered that the proper tools were not put back into my van after the brakes were fixed. Luckily a gentleman across the street where I stopped came over and helped me until Brother Nuffer and Ed came to the rescue. The van needs 4 new tires (by law you can't replace only 1 due to the fact that it is an all wheel drive). Let's talk costly! [I am very thankful that it decided to go flat when it did instead of somewhere on the freeway driving 55 mph when Ed drove youth to the temple on Friday night. If that doesn't make you a believer in prayers said before road trips, I don't know what will.]

Next, way back in July as Edward was driving back from his allergy appointment over in Portland, I accidentally had him heading to Emanuel Hospital instead of Providence. As he was driving down an unfamiliar McLoughlin road the lane he was in turned into an exit only lane. As we didn't want to go across the Ross Island Bridge he needed to get over. Unfortunately there was a semi along side of him. I told him to speed up so he could pass it before the lane exited. That's when the Photo Radar Camera caught him. Well, we just received a notice in the mail Saturday that said we had failed to appear for our court date and thus a quilty plea had been entered for us and a fine of $251.00 had been assessed. I called yesterday to tell them that it wasn't Edward J. Mueller driving the vehicle (as the citation states) and that we never received the original citation, but they didn't really care.

On a happier note, yesterday's JV football game was at McKenzie Stadium against Battle Ground and a) no one got hurt so no ambulance was needed, b) Edward got to play, and c) while the defense didn't play well and allowed Battle Ground to score the go ahead touch down with only 15 seconds left in the game, the offense came through and our QB managed to scramble out of two sacks to throw the football 40 yards to a wide open receiver who ran it in for a touch down as time expired! What a game!!!

I LOVE Football Season!

Edward and Andrew are both playing Titan Football this year! Edward plays Tight End and Safety and is a starter on the JV team and has been able to have some playing time with the Varsity team. Andrew is on the Freshman team and plays Running Back and Line Backer. Both are having a great time, and so are we. This year we get to go to 3, count them - 3, games per week. The JV teams normally plays on Mondays, the Freshmen on Thursdays, and the Varsity on Fridays.

Last night's game against Westview (from Beaverton, Oregon) was one of the best. You could feel and smell football in the air. The weather had become cooler (and it even sprinkled) and there was excitement all around as we held our first home varsity game this season. We won 41 to 14, after going to a running clock after we scored the first 41 points in the game early in the 3rd quarter. Tonight we head over to Westview for the Freshmen team to play their team, and then their JV team comes back over here on Saturday. Hey! that means that we get 4 games this week. Awesome!

LET'S GO TITANS!

Katie Barber - We'll Miss You

At 10:52 this morning Ma passed over to the other side of the veil. She waited until her big brother could be up there with her. Her breathing eased up and slowed down as he sat next to her and talked to her. When it came time he turn to Karen and she whispered something to Ma who cried one final tear, took her last breath, and left this world to meet her Heavenly Father, her Saviour, and her husband Al. She is at peace now.

The Catholic priest showed up later and quickly gave her a blessing, said a few rote prayers and left. Shortly afterwards friends of ours came from our Stake Presidency and asked if they could offer up a prayer with the family. What a difference! You could feel the spirit in the room it was so tangible. I am so glad to have the true gospel in my life.

God be with you until we meet again Ma. I love you!!!

The End is Near

Well, Ma's condition has declined rapidly in the last few hours. It all started 3 weeks ago as I was at church. Jim, Ed's younger brother, had come to sit with Ma and they couldn't get her pain under control. Ma decided she needed to go back to Providence and be seen in the ER. There they took a CT Scan of her neck and realized it had another compression fracture. They admitted her to the hospital and put her on a morphine drip to control the pain. All was well for 3 days as they tried to determine if they were going to do another surgery or not (the surgeon was out of town). Wednesday night the doctors decided to take her off the morphine drip as she could not go home on that. Big mistake. The other drugs didn't do as well and also caused her to really be out of it mentally. By the Sunday they had gotten the loopiness under control and the surgeon had gotten back from vacation. He decided there was nothing he could do for Ma, her condition was that she would not survive a surgery. Ma had not been eating well the week prior to all of this and still was not eating. She was now down to 82 lbs!

Sunday and Monday nights during our visits with her the pain had gotten unbearable again. It was heart wrenching to see her in such pain. She would call out to Ed to make it stop. She didn't want to do this any more. Then on Tuesday morning she had 2 seizures, after which she was comotoise for about 6 hours. The neurologist was giving her a sternum massage trying to get some sort of response out of her - nothing. We really thought we were going to lose her that day. A CT Scan, an EEG, and a lumbar puncture later they still didn't know why she had the seizures, but she was finally responding to verbal commands. She was still in pain, so they put her back on the morphine drip. The doctor told us that she probably wouldn't last for more than 2-3 weeks, and so we were asked to come up with some sort of a discharge plan.

Needless to say, we stalled as long as possible because by Wednesday she was talking to us again and her pain was once again under control. It was decided that because we wanted her kept on the morphine drip she would enter hospice care. After discussing the situation with our children we decided that we would rather have Grandma spend her final days somewhere other than our home. We didn't want her room of the house to always be a reminder of that's where Grandma died. Providence suggested the Ray Hickey Hospice House here in Vancouver. I drove by and did a quick tour by myself and decided it was perfect. Very clean, modern, and beautiful.

Last Sunday Ma was moved to Ray Hickey. She was alert and talking, but still a bit confused at times. So much better than the previous week. She would not believe that she had just spent two weeks in the hospital. We tried to get her to eat, but she wouldn't. This last week I have spent a lot of time down at Ray Hickey House with Ma. We talked, watched tv, or she slept. Towards the end of the week, she mainly slept, although Friday she was carrying on conversations with her brother Danny and I for a good part of the morning. Family came from all around to say their good-byes as we knew her time was winding down.

Yesterday Ed and I stopped by in the morning prior to going to the Portland Temple for a wedding and she was awake, chatty, and a bit fiesty (she had not been in the hospital for 2 weeks and she had been eating). Karen and her family came and spent the day with her and had just started heading home at 6 when they got a call from Ray Hickey House telling her that Ma's condition had drastically changed and that she might want to come back. Ed and I came back after we finished up with an endowment session we attended with soon-to-be-Elder Jacob Hullinger and family.

As of this morning Ma is still "enduring" to the end. Her breathing is really labored. We'll head back down after church this morning. I texted Karen this morning and told her to ask the nurses if a priest would be coming in today, as maybe Ma is waiting for her "last rites". I know that Ma believes in the gospel plan and the things we have taught her in these last 5 months, but I guess it is hard not to fully let go of her past teachings and trust in the Lord.

When she and I were talking earlier this week we spoke about what things were going to be like when her death came. I told her that those of us left behind would weep and be sad, but those who have already gone ahead will be shouting with joy. Her response to me was, "Because you say it, I know it is true." I told her it was going to be a very joyous reunion going on up there, and once she is done saying hi to all of her family to look over in the corner and you will see some people who are standing off waiting for the chance to introduce themselves to you and also welcome you home. It will be my family, my mom, dad, brother, and grandparents. She smiled and nodded.

Several months ago as we were discussing Mormon doctrine and the temple ordinances of sealing eternal families, she said, "I want to be sealed to Al." We told her that we would take care of that for her. She also asked Ed once, "Do even 71 year old sick ladies need to be baptized?" When he told her yes, she gave us one of her frowns to which Ed said, "Ma, you needn't worry about it. We'll take care of it for you."

I am so thankful for the past 5 months and being able to care for my mother-in-law here in our home. I am thankful to her for raising such a wonderful man that is my eternal companion. She will be missed, but never forgotten. Love you Ma!

Edward becomes a Priest

Edward's 16th birthday was actually a few weeks ago, but because Ed was out of town on the 23rd and then it was 5th Sunday last week, he wasn't ordained until today. It is hard to believe that time is passing so quickly. I'm not surprised that Edward is now old enough to be a priest, because he has always been so mature. What is sometimes hard to comprehend is that fact that in just 3 years he will be ready for his mission. Wow!

Cub Camp 2011

This year when deciding where to go for Cub Day Camp (either Camp Discovery or Camp Lewis), my husband asked me just what we got for $90/boy or $1700/ward? My response was, "Two days of Archery and two days of BB Guns." To which he responded, "Could you do it yourself cheaper?" Heck, yes! So it was decided that we would offer our own Cub Day Camp to be held up at Camp Currie, run by our Young Men, with me in charge. Now every Cub Scout knows that if Sister Mueller is involved things usually don't work out quite to plan. I must say that didn't happen this time. YEAH!

I was worried two weeks ago that I wasn't going to have enough Young Men to staff the 5 classes we were offering each day. But by last week, I knew I would have plenty. Towards the end of the week I had Young Men coming out of the woodwork asking, "Sister Mueller, do you still need me? Can I come and help?" I wasn't going to turn any of them down. So by Friday I had a surplus of Young Men, which was all good. I think I counted 28 Young Men that helped in some way this week, even if they came for only one day.

We had 18 of our Cub Scouts attend, and there were 22 from the Prune Hill ward. Sister Southerland and I met at Roundtable and over the last two years have become friends. When she heard that our ward was going to do our own camp, she asked if her ward could join? She and her assistant were a Godsend! I don't think I could have done it without them. I heard a lot of compliments from the adult leaders/parents, especially from Prune Hill. They were impressed that we could get 28 Young Men to give up a week of their time to help run a Cub Scout Camp. They were impressed that they all wore their Class A Uniform all week. They were impressed by their conduct and how the Cub Scouts just loved them. I must say that the Evergreen ward does have some very outstanding young men. Koodos to their parents and the Young Men's Program.

As it turned out, we had each Cub Scout pay only $45 instead of the $90. For this fee, they got 3 days of Archery, 3 days of BB Guns, a legitimate wooden tool box that they got to make, a wonderful Knot Board with samples of the various knots they learned to tie, a cool secret decoder, serveral chances to run across the rope monkey bridge, Bottle Rockets, Stomp Rockets, Stretcher races, a First Aid kit, a Solar System mobile, and a kite. It was a lot of fun. The boys also passed off a ton of things, and I know that they will remember this camp for a long time.

I will try to figure out how to post a slide show of pictures.