What Happened to the Rest of the Year?

Where to start?! When last I wrote I was removing strange unwanted pets from the house. No new pets to report but life and it's challenges just keep coming. The first week of October I got put back into the working world. Tom's company had finally started landing all the "next big jobs" all at once, so I was recruited to count toilets, doors, windows, sinks, refridgerators, square footages, signs, and flooring types off of blue prints. I was also put in charge of Tom's travel scheduling and hotel booking. It's nice to have adult conversations but now the finish unpacking the house is going really slow. I have however hung a few pictures, rearranged some furniture and was grateful that Tom said buy the Halloween costumes this year. Katelyn went as Tinkerbell, Clairese had to be Daphne from Scooby Doo, and Amber went as Ballerina Snow White. This worked well since our school principal decided that if the kids wore costumes that day they had to be literary characters! The kids had a great time trick or treating mainly because one of our neighbors clued us in to a trunk or treat held by one of the wards in the stake. Tom had walked with the girls down our block and most of the houses weren't participating. So our friends and us packed the kids and candy into our cars and set up at the other ward's building! They got more candy there and I didn't feel guilty because we gave away most of ours to the other families.



November came with the knowlege that we would get to go "home" for Thanksgiving. Tom and I had put in lots of hours so we were taking the week of Thanksgiving off - sort of- and spending it in Utah. We did our civic duty and made sure to vote making us feel real good when Proposition 102 passed with a good majority here in AZ. Between school, work, Tom's travel, and an assorted number of minor illnesses we made it to Utah and Tom did get to hunt as well as work for part of the trip. I was grateful that we spent the first 4 days at my mom's since December turned out to be a test of faith and many extreme blessings. We had a great Thanksgiving Dinner at my mother in laws and stayed with her until time to come home.



December started out with the normal making of lists of what to pack for Utah, what to buy ahead of Christmas and what to wait to buy when we got to Utah on the 20th. Santa had been informed we would be in Orem at my sister's on Christmas morning and all was going as planned until the 12th. Tom had gone to Safford, which is about 3 hours south east of Mesa, to do some work and was driving back into town. He had called me just before 4 pm to let me know he was almost home and needed to call his partner since he had picked up a check from the client. He called Trent and while talking to him said he wasn't feeling good and was going to pull over. Trent thought that was the end of the call and hung up. Tom had gotten to the right side of the road but passed out before he could put the car in park. The car then drifted back across 2 lanes of traffic and came to a stop in the center median against the cables that are supposed to keep you from going in to on coming traffic. The car was going slow enough that the air bags did not even deploy. A very brave good samaritan who had seen the car drift, pulled over and tried to rouse Tom but could not. This kind person broke out the rear right passenger window and unlocked the car and was able to bring Tom to and call 911. Tom thinks it was only about 3 minutes before the paramedics arrived that he was brought around. By now he was able to express to the EMT's that he was having extreme abdominal pain and was transferred to the closest hospital. It just happened to be the one that his cousin Jenny had given birth at very early that morning. Two hours after the "accident" Tom texts me on my cell. That was the first that I knew anything was wrong. He tells me to bring the girls with me to the ER. The hospital he was at was the one closest to our old house and when I could see that there was going to be quite a wait I called a friend from our old ward and took the girls over to her house. In the mean time Tom had been given a blessing by his uncle Ken and Trent. They had both left the hospital before I got back but I was not too concerned at that point. The ER doc said that there was an unusuale amount of liquid in his abdominal cavitiy and they were not equiped to deal with that type of situation and would be transferring him to a Trauma hospital about a 30 minute drive from there. The Doc walked out of the room and things went from bad to worse in a hurry. Tom had an extrenme amount of pain and passed out. I hung up 2 cell phones and rang the nurses station repeatedly until some one came. The nurse who came in called for extra help and I left the room as at least 5 others were running in. The doc had just changed his mind about the ambulance to sending him air vac when this had happened. Luckily there was a chopper only moments away and he was taken to one of the best trauma centers in Phoenix. I called Trent to alert him and he left immediately for the hospital. He was already at his house so it only took him 15 minutes to get there. I was coming from the far east valley but my mom reminded me to take time to receive a blessing for myself. I called the counsler in our Bishopric who lives 3 houses away from us and asked him to meet me at the house since it was on the way to the trauma center. My entire Bishopric met me and gave me a blessing. Oh the peace that the Spirit brings in times of crisis!!
I got to the hospital and they took myself and Trent into a briefing room. They told me that Tom's spleen had fully ruptured and had caused the internal bleeding that had made him pass out. It probably ruptured slowly and that is why he was able to pull over and make it to the hospital. He was now stable and the surgeon was just finishing and would come out and talk to me in the OR waiting area. My bishop had arrived at the hospital to be with me and the girls were at Trent's house with his wife Kelly and their kids. I was calm because of the Lord's reassurance that all would be well. TO make the rest of this long story shorter, Tom had to be given 6 units of blood and had been given paralizing medicine at the first hospital so he wouldn't pull out breathing tubes and IVs but not any sedation medication. He had to endure the pain of the flight to the trauma center, the insertion of a central IV line, and the surgeon cutting him open before he was sedated! In the blessing he had recieved from the Lord through Trent and Ken he had been told that "he would be comforted through all the procedures the physcians had to do to take care of him." Little did he know when given that blessing that it would mean he could endure pain that not many have to go through. The Lord was there every step of the way. HE made sure that someone would stop when Tom passed out. HE made sure that the ambulance and EMTs were close by. HE made sure that the ER docs ran the right tests to find the abdominal fluid. He made sure that the helicopter was within 5 minutes of the first hospital and had a clear flight pattern to the trauma center. HE was there to comfort Tom when he had to endure unimanigable pain and know that all would be well. HE made sure that one of the best surgeons in Phoenix was on that night to locate the source of bleeding and be able to stop it quickly. HE was there to comfort me and all the family members that we had contacted to help us get through the night. HE has been with us every step of the way during a realitively speedy recovery. The 12th was a Friday. Tom was out of ICU by Sunday evening. Monday the Anesthisiologist came in and told Tom that had he been given any sedative or pain medicine before they had cut him open he would have died. His body's natural adrenaline and the pressure building up inside him was the only thing keeping him alive. The Gospel is True and Priesthood Blessings come straight from our Heavenly Father! Tuesday the 16th he came home and had his staples from his incision removed on the 23rd. There was a total of 27 staples holding his incision together. The girls wanted to look at first but after being shown them they want dad to keep his shirt on! Christmas was especially wonderful this year because we still had Tom with us. Both his mother and mine forbade him from setting foot in the state of Utah until he is fully recovered. He is working half days between home and the office. We spent New Year's Eve at home with the girls playing board games and WII. Grandma Pritchett, Santa, Tom, and I had coordinated getting WII for Christmas and it is fun for the whole family. At midnight we went out in the back yard and let off poppers that sent little streamers of paper out. The dog didn't like the sound, not so much from us but the neighbors that were letting off illegal fireworks! Everyone went to bed and slept in til 10 am. I think that is a record for my girls.

January is starting off calm as compared to the last month and I hope it continues until I can recuperate from taking care of so many things and loved ones! TO all have a Happy New Year and remember that the Lord loves us all!