three years

exactly three years ago i was diagnosed with my blood clot...

in romania. it was a traumatic experience for sure.

i think my favorite version of the whole ordeal is from robby, my field facilitator. i feel like my record glossed over the things that i didn't want to necessarily remember, and robby's doesn't. i often forget how scary it was. i think back and say to myself that was kind of crazy, but re-reading it makes me remember. remember that it was terrifying, remember how scared i was. looking back on the experience it was one filled with love and support from strangers turned into friends. one filled with miracles, absolute miracles.

read robby's account here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

romania

wanna go?? please say yes!



i just found out that they need 2-4 more students to go for this upcoming fall 2010
semester. it would be amazing... oh so amazing.

my time in romania proved to be an incredible spiritual experience. the perfect, Christ-like
love i felt for those children that i had just met was so real. my testimony of our Heavenly
Father's love for each and every one of his children grew so much. those children, in their
disabled bodies, have the most perfect spirits. it was incredible to feel of their spirits and to just
be completely dedicated to loving and serving them everyday. service is an amazing thing.

go! please go.

the culture, the service, the entire experience is just amazing.

contact maggie: byuromaniainternship[at]gmail.com
there will also be an info meeting on monday, april 12th at 11:00 am at the 257 HRCB
and you can go here for more info on the program.

Almost done!

I went to the doctor yesterday to figure out what to do with my trusty blood clot.

I wasn't sure how it would all go,

but...

My doctor was confident that we could take me off of the rat poison and that everything would be fine.

It is kind of nerve racking to just stop taking the medicine that saved my life almost a year and a half ago, especially if we aren't going to do an ultrasound to see what my veins are doing. But I have decided it is time to start trusting the doctor, something I haven't done for quite a while (evident in the post after my visit in July).

My left leg still fluctuates from being 1 to 2 centimeters bigger than my right leg, but I have been told from the beginning that my leg would probably be like that for the rest of my life. He didn't want to do an ultrasound on my leg because he said some doctors do them and some doctors don't and he is one of the doctors that doesn't (last July I got an ultrasound because I told him I wanted it). He also told me that usually people that have blood clots are only on anti-coagulants for six months and then they are fine. I have been on the medicine since October of 2008, and I am really ready to be done. We also discussed the "high risk" situations that I will have to be careful of in the future, so I think I am feeling good about all this.

Last night I figured out that if I stop taking rat poison that I will be saving over $30 a month in medical costs- pills and monthly blood work can really add up. It will be nice to have some extra money... maybe we can call it "Katie's Shopping Budget." I like the sound of that!

my pill taking days will soon be over! WOOHOO! I can't wait! There will have to be some sort of celebration for sure. I better start planning one...

Where this whole fiasco started:

me in the Bucharest, Romania hospital- 10.2008
wow... there were some tough days

Part 4

Robby's story ends with this...

"I need to do more homework and less blogging. Katie is home. That makes me happy and sad. Happy, because she is safe. Sad, because she added so much to our group and had a passion to do the work with a good attitude."

It can be found here.


I guess I will sum up the rest of the Adventures since Robby had homework.

I ended up having to stay in the Bucharest hospital for 3 days. I was blessed to have visitors with me for most of my time in the hospital. It was either President and Sora Lundberg, Robby, Dr. Hansen, or Dr. Brady. The insurance people kept telling me that they were going to fly me out that night, and that night came and they were going to fly me out the next morning. That morning came and they were going to fly me out that afternoon. It wasn't very fun. While I was in the hospital the Romanian nurses told me that I didn't need to take the shots that Dr. Brady prescribed me, but Dr. Brady told me I still needed to use them. Every morning and every night I would have to limp to the bathroom, dragging my IV pole behind me, hide in there and give myself a shot in my stomach of anticoagulant. Those hurt. My first day in the hospital, after my night of practically no sleep, was the Saturday of the October General Conference. I was missing it! Luckily, I got a weak internet connection and with Robby's help we were able to download a talk or two. One of the talks we downlaoded was "Come What May, and Love It" by Elder Wirthlin. If any of you thought that talk was written for you, I'm sorry, but that talk was written for me. It was just what I needed to renew my faith and hope. It was powerful! After Robby and I were uplifted, we noticed a professional socer game going on outside my hospital window. Robby watched, described it to me, and took pictures so I could see what I was missing. I thought it was pretty cool. My second day I was in the hospital, I finally saw a doctor. He looked at my leg, gave me some compression socks (I really hate compression socks!), and asked if I wanted to go to Vienna. I told him yes and he said he would tell the insurance and hopefully get me flown out of there soon. (It was a very legit procedure.) I was sure that I was going to be leaving that day, but they couldn't fly me out right away. We had to wait for a doctor to come from London and then he would check my records, my leg, my blood, and listen my story and then he would fly with me to Vienna. But he didn't come until the next day. When I came to understand that I would not get to see those kids in the orphanage or hospital again... my heart just broke. I felt like I had just gotten there. Four weeks of my internship in Iasi, Romania was just not enough. Since we knew I wasn't going to back to Iasi, two students from my group, Rhett and Rachel, packed up all of my stuff and took the 5 hour train ride to bring it to me. It was so nice to see more familar faces that morning. I also got a surprise call from Jeremy while I was staring at my breakfast food! He called Robby's cell phone and I got to finally talk to my fiance! It was so nice to hear his voice. I didn't get to talk to Jeremy for very long because some nurses came in and started yelling at me and rearranging the way my leg was propped up, so I told Jeremy that I had to go. I was so mad at that point. I was "eating" breakfast and I was on the phone and the nurses just didn't care. The nurses also kicked out my friends because there were too many people in the room. It was sad. I had to say good-bye to them and tell them to take good care of the kids that I had grown to love. Hugs were shared, tears were shed, and they were on their way back to Iasi. I think it was around noon when the doctor from London showed up. When he checked my blood he said that I had too much anticoagulant in my system and that I would have to wait another day to fly if the levels didn't come down that afternoon. I prayed so hard that my next blood tests would come back with the results I needed. Luckily, the next PTINR test was just under the number the doctor had said. YES! I was going to Vienna. But not right away because we had to make special travel arrangements for me to fly. My mom at this point had already arrived in Vienna and was waiting for me there. I had been laying in a bed for three days in the same clothes and I was determined to get up and shower before I flew. Robby told the nurses that I wanted to shower, I just wasn't that fluent in Romanian. After trying to tell the nurses over and over that I could shower by myself, I just gave up. There was a nurse about my age that helped me shower. That was super awkward. I swear the last time that I was naked in front of someone was when I was like 5. She held the water above my head while I lathered and rinsed my hair and body. I was grateful to be clean at the end of it all. I worked slowly on packing up my stuff to prepare to go to Vienna. I wasn't very mobile, but I wanted to organize my things. President and Sora Lundberg and their son came to visit me and say good-bye. They were such an incredible positive influence. Eventually the time came when the London doctor came back and assured me we were really going to leave and that the travel plans were all set. I couldn't believe it! The nurses wheeled me down the hall, into the scary elevator, and out to the ambulance. They even left the needle in my hand (ouch) for the IV- thanks guys. The next I know I am strapped on the stretcher in the ambulance and had to just grab Robby's hand and tell him good-bye. It all went by too quick. I didn't feel like I got to express how grateful I was for everything he did for me. So here you go Robby!

To Robby-

Thank you for helping through, hands down, one of the toughest times in my life. Thank you for humoring me by taking pictures of every thing that happened. Thank you for letting me talk to my family and fiance on your cell phone. Thank you for eating my gross hospital food so the nurses would think that I was eating. Thank you for telling the nurses that I wanted to take a shower after being in bed for three days. Thank you for letting me cry when I just couldn't take it anymore. Thank you for telling me that everything was going to be ok.

I was in need and you were willing to serve. I will be forever grateful to you!


-Katie

After we got to the airport, the London doctor took care of everything and just wheeled me around in my wheelchair. We were lucky enough to be given access to the business lounge! It was abounding in goodies- chocolate, chips, soda, pretzels, all sorts of stuff. Here is my post from the lounge. The plane ride luckily was uneventful. I sat at the back and used an empty chair to prop my leg up on. All the passengers watched me as I limped to the back of the plane with the help of an attendant and an big needle in the back of my hand. They were probably so curious. The doctor sat next to me and took my vitals every once in a while during the flight to make sure I wasn't about to keel over. We made it to Vienna and a stretcher and ambulance was waiting for me when I arrived. Great. haha! Well we made it to the hospital quick because they had the lights going. I had gone from everybody speaking Romanian around me, which I kind of knew, to having everybody speaking German! All I knew in German was thank you. Haha. I made it to the hospital and was so happy to see my mom. It was so wonderful! The London doctor gave my Vienna doctor the records and they talked for a bit and then he took of (back to London I assumed). We pretty much blogged religiously from there on out because we had continuous internet connection and not much to do since the nurses wouldn't allow me to leave my bed. So you can read about our time in Vienna by looking through these posts.

Well thanks for reading about my Blood Clot Adventures. I think this was more for me so I could make sure the experience was down in writing.

Have a wonderful day and continue to be grateful for all you and I have been blessed with!


P.S. Wasn't General Conference just great!

Part 3

Getting Katie to Vienna Part 3

We stayed the night in the Mission home. This is where we got to know Sora Lundberg, Pres. Lundberg and their son Joshua. As mentioned before, Joshua was born in Barlad, Romania, and was adopted by the Lundbergs about 5 or 6 years ago at the age of 3. Sora Lundberg saw Josh and fell in love with him and devoted the next few years of her life to the adoption process. I have a soft spot in my heart for those who adopt children from these places, except Angelina Jolie, I don't know about her.

I have a lot of good painful memories about this mission home. It was really weird being back there again. I'd been there 3 years ago, because Dorothy was well liked by President Ashby and was finishing her mission tour and they let us stay there before Andrew and I took the train to Iasi. There is a lot of ambivalence there for me. I was really excited and stressed to go back and see Alex then and I was in the honeymoon stage of a new relationship with lots of longing absences and missing and you know all those romantic things that consume you and you look back later and wonder why. I'm in a good place now, but it was mildly difficult to be in those locations again if I didn't focus on the tasks at hand. It was a symbol of an important period, and that's all.

I spent most of my time there out of the apartment. I was looking for a place to charge my cell phone and it turns out they don't make a charger anymore. That quest went in several different directions and I thought of the triumph of finding the blasted thing, but that never came. I got used to the subway system though and I brought home shwarma. I felt like it was a pretty big deal to stay connected with the school, but I never found the charger.

The calls continued through thursday and Friday. Thursday morning, we went to Dr. Hanson's office, where Dr. Brady gave us a prescription for more drugs and a little more advice for Katie. We went straight back to the mission home and I went out looking for a pharmacy after failing to get the Wii to work for Katie. The rest of that day isn't important, except that I started calling some of our emergency contacts again. Also after a frivolous search, I wish I would have stayed with her.

Friday is when things got real. Katie started hurting really bad. The pain and fear(?) got to her a couple times and I couldn't do anything but be there with her. We called the doctors and they came down a couple hours later. I called home (Iasi) and had Mario make sure two students came down with our passports, some clothes, the charger and all of Katie's things just in case we had to go to Vienna, Austria. I'd heard stories about how things went in the past and so I also knew where we could end up. Also, the doctors were informative about the care she needed.

Katie had a fever of 101 and the pain was spreading up her thigh. I was running up and down the stairs getting information to call SOS, our medical relief program and various errands for the doctors. I called Ashley and Landes and her parents called us. There were at least 3 phone calls going at a time. I started understanding the reason they called our insurance company HTH highway to hell. The delays started there as well. They didn't want to evacuate her without the approval of an approved doctor who would have to see her at Floreasca. Katie was pretty upset about that and I was dreading going back there.

We drove on significantly less crowded streets to the hospital around 11:30. Dr. Brady and Dr. Hanson and I and Sora Lundberg all went and waited for her to be seen. Dr. Brady started talking to the Emergency admittance doctors and giving them the diagnosis. They informed him that she needed to stay in the hospital. This process took several minutes of waiting that seemed much longer. They eventually kicked everyone out except Katie and Dr. Brady. Then they kicked Dr. Brady out. Eventually they put her in a wheelchair and took her to get her chest x-rayed for any signs of the clot moving that direction. Lungs = death.

Dr. Brady convinced them to get her a private room, which after passing by the normal rooms where 10-15 people on beds were lying in pain in the dark, we realized was a blessing from heaven. One of those deep fried chicken tender mercies. With bbq sauce. And honey mustard.

This room looked like America. I don't know if that makes sense, but it did. And the nurses seemed more cooperative and the harshness dr. that followed us left. We spent awhile with Katie and I figured out a plan for tomorrow. I think I was on the phone half the time. Dr. Brady would stay with her, while we went home and rested. He was flying home the next day after all and so he wouldn't be able to stay with her after 11:00AM, which would then be my turn.

Dr. Brady ensured her care would be better as he could spot the facade care vs. the necessary motions. They put an IV in her with saline water and gave her anti-inflammatories. I trusted her with Dr. Brady. He was smart, fiercely loyal, and defiant to the prevailing errors. I respect those things.

Katie is an amazing girl. She kept a level head through what most people would be freaking out about every 5 minutes. She kept her sense of humor and her faith. She took strength from the support of her family and fiance and the people around her. She even had fun.

I'll continue the last couple days in another post.

Original post here.

The story will finish up tomorrow!

Part 2

more of robby's words:

Getting Katie to Vienna part 2

Joseph Smith said something about starting right that I can't exactly remember. That was our big problem at Floreasca. I think we went in the wrong entrance and were looking for the wrong place. Find the Ecografie room and ask for an ecografie dopler. Easy enough right? We walked in and followed the sign to a dead end hallway and they all said it was closed. So we made our way to the emergency room. We stood outside for a minute and then realized we just need to walk in. A lady told us to go to the place that we had just gotten back from. I told her we were already there. She walked down with us to make sure and see if someone would let us in. She joked a little about Katie's limp and kind of urged her to go faster. We didn't really think it was funny. There was no one there. This person told us to go back to the Emergency room. So we did. They told us to get paperwork, so we did. They checked her vital signs and drew blood. I asked if they were doing a PTINR. They said no. I stabbed a bit with broken romanian but then I let them go ahead. They took the blood. They made an attempt at bedside manner. Smile, I said to Katie as they drew the needle, the nurse and I chuckled a little to ease the tension and then I translated. "Look, american blood!" the nurse mused to her colleagues. I told her to be careful, because it was precious. She probably thought I meant expensive though (it's the same word). If I would have done it again I would have said, "Hey look, it's red! What color is yours?" But I'm neither Ghandi nor Martin Luther King. I was also beginning to feel the angry guard dog emerge from me. That probably doesn't seem like me too often, but you don't eff with my interns... They are ineffable.

Eventually we got pointed to the radar... er ultrasound. I had to wait outside, but they spoke english so I felt a little better about her going with them. I sat for a minute and answered a few calls. There were phone calls going on between all of these events between me and either 1) Matt Brady, our doctor/vindicator of medical justice, 2) Sora Lundberg, our surrogate mother, and 3) Katie's real mother or father, duly distressed. I also started noticing the people around me. This is a difficult one for me to venture towards, because I can trivialize our experience or theirs. Ours is a shock, because it was deathly serious and the care was not particularly trustworthy (we were warned of this by Dr. Brady, and it was confirmed through some of our experience). The hard stuff to see on their side was the fact that if they didn't have money some things they needed would never be done. This was the best hospital in the entire city. Beyond reruns of ER and scrubs, this is the best they got. It was a hospital, but for some reason seemed a little more grave. Back to me: I came to a realization on a call with Dr. Hanson that there was pretty much no chance that we would make our train back. I was OK with that. I guess that's when we were introduced to Sora Lundberg (Sora means sister; she's the mission president's wife here).

She seemed a little overwhelmed by our request for some help finding a place to stay for a few days. I would find out later that their car was broken into a couple days before and that they frequently had missionaries in and out for health problems. Sora Lundberg is an amazing woman. She had been to Romania about 25 times for a couple days or weeks each time in the process of adopting their son Joshua (formerly Marian) from Barlad. It took 3 years and the starting of an NGO to place him in their family. Her NGO is called Bridge of Love. I recognized the organization, which was fun, I think I e-mailed her for help with Alex a couple years ago. Her story is incredible and she understood the pain and joy of loving these kids, which was a breath of fresh air for me.

We got the results from her test and this is where things began to change. I read the concluzie. I didn't need to be fluent in romanian or have a medical license to see that it said she had a big problem by the words intinsiv and thrombo in there. Well I had a doctor help me with that one before. We called Doctor Brady and he told us to go get the perscription filled. We would have gotten away too, but we thought we had to pay. We showed the results to the nurses. Everyone stopped joking around after that. They looked over it and told her to go to the emergency room emergency room across from the room we were in (the check you out and stuff emergency room). She got pulled into the room and it seemed like nobody really knew what to do with her, which kind of set me into let's get the f out of here mode. They eventually put her on a stretcher in a spot in the room and I was like showing people the prescription and I was like OK so are you going to give her this and they were like no, we don't have it. I told them we can go to the pharmacie and buy it and give it to her and that we don't need the hospital. They didn't really listen too hard. Then I was concerned, because the beuracracy smell was coming through. I stood next to her as one of the doctors asked her questions and then he told me I had to go sit beyond a curtain away from them. I couldn't hear, but I kept looking and Katie's body language and voice tone implied that she was resisting which relieved me. I don't know why, but the entire experience was comparable to being arrested and detained for several nights, although let's not get ahead of ourselves. When finally, after sitting for awhile and anxiety building sufficiently I lost my patience, I started making some noise. I didn't see that doctor which was good because then I wasn't worried at all about offending him. I started saying "Nu vrem sa asteptam, vrem- sa- PLECAM!" as if I was talking to a disobedient 5 year old (which is the demographic I'm most comfortable speaking to in romanian). Oh yeah that means, "We don't want to wait, we want- to- LEAVE!"

The doctor got defensive at that point and said OK, she has a blood clot, every step she takes puts her at risk for the clot to break off and move into her lung. We need to keep her here; she could die. This is nothing to smile about. This is nothing to laugh about. This is nothing to shout about (which he said as he looked at me). We were in the process of signing a paper in which we were instructed to write: I understand the risks of leaving this hospital. Doctors kept telling her more things to write afterwards which she scrawled quickly and haphazardly as additions and afterthoughts. Of my own will. Including the risk of death. "Any thing else?" we asked. This may have been where the laughing and smiling lecture came in, "Who was laughing when she led us to the radar and took her Sangele Americane?" I thought, but held my tongue. Then we left.

We asked some nurses where to pay. They told us it was free. We figured it was probably because they thought we were crazy for leaving the hospital. We walked to the Pharmacie. I kept hearing, "break off into the lung," in my head and saw a 3D animation from an episode of HOUSE. Too much walking. We went to 3 pharmacies before we found the medicine we needed. We took a half hour taxi back to the clinic.

I felt like we just outran the cops. I can't really emphasize enough how difficult it seemed to get in, get what we needed done and get out of there. We'll come back to the hospital in a later post though.

Katie got a crash course in the administration of the Romanian version of Lovenox, a blood thinner[meaning I had to learn to give myself shots in the stomach... yuck!]. Dr. Brady sobered us a little bit with the gravity of the situation. We were aware of the gravity, but sometimes we have to keep the laughing going. Sometimes I think we take pictures and document things to distance ourselves from the reality of the situation, by becoming spectators in our own lives. I'm starting to get epic thoughts like a stoner so it's probably getting late. We'll come back to this one.

See his original post here.

Blood Clot Adventures will return tomorrow!

In Robby's Words...

Exactly 1 year a go today, I was diagnosed with my blood clot. (so happy 1 year anniversary to me! I guess.) Robby was our field facilitator over in Romania and was with me for almost every part of the Blood Clot Adventures in Romania. He wrote on his blog, in great detail, about the whole experience. I thought it would be interesting to revisit his account. Since the posts are so long, I will be posting one a day until Sunday. Hope your okay with it Robby.

Robby's words...

Getting Katie to Vienna Part 1

It's been a stressful couple days. We didn't really take things seriously until we got here and it's been a difficult process. I got to be a real facilitator for a couple days I guess.

Katie's been complaining about her leg for awhile now. I feel bad that I haven't been more understanding in the past couple weeks; that I hadn't probed more. It took her parents calling me to realize that it was serious. On a leisurely walk to the orphanage is when things started for me. I guess it's been going for awhile for her with pain that no one besides Jesus really knows. Her mom called and told me to get her some medical attention, because there was talk from her doctor that she may have a blood clot. I came in to language a little late and asked Mario to see what I should do first to get medical examinations. She told me I should bring her in to see Dr. Pantezescu, the resident doctor at the orphanage. Dr. Pantezescu had Sera, the physical therapist look at her and he began giving her a massage which only made her hurt worse. He prescribed some lotion and aspirin (bad diagnosis #1). I spoke with Mario briefly and she seemed confident that it was nothing to worry about. Katie on the other hand was emotionally and physically hanging by a nerve. She tries to put on a happy face as much as possible, but every once in awhile she let out what was really going on. I think she was mostly frustrated that no one took it as seriously as it really was. After I sent her home in a taxi, I decided to go back and talk to Dr. Pantezescu. She didn't understand what I was trying to ask her about some medication Katie hadn't told me about until after we were outside. I remembered another Holly-ism or maybe Ashley said it, but I could hear someone's wiser than me voice say something to the effect of, "Cultural sensitivity is fine, but don't worry about stepping on people's toes when your personal safety or health is concerned." I was skeptical that it was a blood clot and I was easily appeased by the naysayers. We planned a trip to Bucuresti though. I went and bought train tickets and we were on a train by 5:30 the next morning with 7 hours planned before our return trip. Plenty of time I thought for the tests to come back negative and for us to get some medication or at least reassurance and come home.

Some of the time was an adventure. Some was mundane. Some was just waiting. Some was us laughing to make the situation seem less than too real.

We got in at 11:30 and I made her get shwarma, because I thought she was hungry and might really enjoy it (because it's like heaven in a burrito), but I think it just made her mad, because we had to walk a bit and it hurt her a lot to walk. Like she had a friggin' bloodclot, man! If she's reading this, I'm really sorry about that. [haha! I was so mad, but it's okay... the shwarma really was good!]

We took a taxi to Dr. Hansen's clinic in Sector 5 I think it was could be wrong. It was a long taxi ride (close to a half hour). They had a hard time finding the place. We saw a bunch of clinics on the side of the road that were built into old blocks. We thought it was most likely one of those. The taxi driver was pretty much ready to drop us off anywhere considering his job mostly done having gotten us into the general vicinity. We finally saw a little gated side street amongst some dirty auto shops and across the street from a couple clinics. When we pulled in and saw this...
...I was pretty sure we were in the right place.

A Dr. Brady who was finishing his residency at Iowa state and who once served a mission out here (96-98) was working as an intern with Dr. Hanson. He was young, tough, and well trained in modern medicine. He was an angel while we were crying frightened, river, dark, drowning.

He did some blood tests, but with a visual feeling and questioning, he said something to the effect of, "My money's on a clot." But to make sure we went to Floreasca [the hospital, pictured below] to get an ultrasound (which was the main reason we were in Bucuresti). He also sent us with a prescription for just in case things came out positive.

The quest for an ultrasound is another story completely and so I'll separate these and continue typing the story in another post.

See Robby's original post here.

The Blood Clot Adventures will continue tomorrow.

Lately...

I have been thinking about Romania.

I think it has been on my mind because last year I spent my birthday there. Sometimes I feel like I was just there and other times the experience feels so far away. I miss it sometimes. I miss giving myself to the children that needed so much. I miss feeling the love Heavenly Father feels for them. I especially miss the children. They have the sweetest spirits. The experience was amazing! The room that I worked in had little babies and also older children that were so disabled that they were left in cribs all day. I fed and cradled the little ones to my heart's content. Their little giggles and smiles were worth everything to me. I would also sit with the older children that couldn’t do much more than drool, and massage their joints and move their limbs to try and get some developmental progress. It was in those times when I would work with the older, more severally disabled children that I would see how whole and perfect their spirits were. I felt complete love for these children. They had so much to teach me. I feel like my time in Romania has become one of the things that defines me. Through service I learned more about myself and became closer to God.

Go serve someone... and improve yourself.

the weekend

we met up with family for conference weekend. i love seeing my family! my cousins came too! while the boys were at the priesthood session, we ate caramel popcorn and made fun crafts! we made earrings and flowered bobby pins (i got the idea for the flowers here).

don't worry, i won't wear both of the flowers at the same time. the crafts were fun, but the talks we heard throughout saturday and sunday were better. i just love conference! what a blessing! quick story...last october conference i was in romania (awesome!)... in the hospital (not so awesome). i couldn't watch conference, but i was able to download a couple talks on to my laptop and one of them was Elder Wirthlin's talk, "Come What May, and Love It". he must have given that talk just for me. it was incredible.

Today...

I'm missing Romania...

Finally...

Here are some pictures of the past few days...

i really might be going!

they keep telling me im leaving in 12-24 hours and they have been telling me this since friday night... i'm still in the hospital in bucharest, but i really think i might be going. it wont be until tomorrow night at 6:00. later than i expected, but at least we are seeing some sort of progress... i really want to see my mom. thank you for all of your prayers. i am grateful for all of the love and support!

more leg stuff...

the pain in my leg was moving up my thigh and my leg was getting more swollen. the doctors took a look at it last night and then told me we had to get to the hospital. my roommates packed all of my stuff and then rhett and rachel from the group took a train here over night and they brought all of my stuff to me.. thank you guys... i miss you all in iasi....i am currently in the hospital in bucharest and we got here last night. they do not have the capacity to treat me at this hospital or any hospital in romania, but they can stabilize me... i will be heading to vienna, austria soon for treatment and to monitor my leg. we are not sure when i will be going yet though because they have to have certain medicines when they take me on the flight and they might not be able to get them until monday. my mom is going to vienna and will get there sunday at 2:00... hopefully i will be there by then. we should know in about an hour or so about what is going on. life sure is full of surprises...

Another Adventure

So my left leg has been hurting for quite a while... well since last Tuesday and the pain has been getting more intense as the time has gone on. My leg hurts when I stand, when I sit, and when I walk, so basically all of the time. I kept thinking that it would go away, but then I really started to look like Quasimodo as I limped around Iasi. For the quick synopsis... I have two blood clots in my left leg. The official diagnosis is this for all ouy nurses and mediacl people that might be interested: Big Popliteal Clot and Superficial Saphenous Clot. True story! Robby (our field facilitator) and I are in Buchrest right now which is the capital of Romania and we got here yesterday morning. We are staying in the Mission President's home for at least until Monday and then depending how things are looking we might go back to Iasi. There is an American doctor here in Buchrest and there was even a member of the church that was here for only weeks that has been taking good care of me. We went to the clinic yesterday and then we had to go to the hospital to get the scan on my leg to confirm if I really had blood clots. That was an interesting experience and I am glad that I got out of there before they hooked me to an IV and made me stay for 5 days. Instead of the IV that the hospital wanted to put in me, I have to give my self shots of Enoxapurin in the stomach twice a day. Hopefully I wont have to do the shots for more than ten days. I am also taking these pills that are equivalent to the American Coumadin. These pills as well as the shots are supposed to be thinning my blood. I will probably have to take these pills for at least 3 to 6 months and possibly my whole life. That depends on genetic tests that will be run after I get back to the United States. I will have to have two blood tests a week for about a month to make sure that my blood levels are in the right places and to adjust the medicine if needed. After that we will be able to go to one blood test a week. The plan is to get the blood tests in Iasi and then call Dr. Hansen since Dr. Brady is returing to the States on Saturday and let him know what they are and then he will adjust my dosage. I am still in a considerable amount of pain and I kind of just hobble places. :) Luckily I don't have too many places to be now that I am in Bucharest. The Mission President and his wife have been amazing. I am so grateful that they are letting me stay here. It has been so incredible that things have gone so well considering that we are in Romania. I am very blessed and I know that my Heavenly Father is watching over me. Thank you for all those that have been praying for me. I will try to post pictures of this crazy adventure soon....the computer that I am using here at the Mission President's home doesn't have the right slot for my picture card.

We found the Romanian Walmart!

Today we ventured to Kaufland! Six of us went together and we took taxis there. I love taking taxis. I think it is just really exciting to see so many things in such a short amount of time when we are used to walking everywhere we go. Anyways…. Kaufland…. is just like a Super Walmart. They have way more stuff than the little G Market does. That is where we usually go shopping and it is much smaller. They had way more variety at Kaufland, too. At the G Market they have like 10 different cereals, but at Kaufland they had way more to pick from. I found a cereal that even looked like Coco Pebbles… hopefully it tastes just as good. We all spent tons of money and we hope to make it to Kaufland more often for the better prices. But we did have to pay for the plastic bags we used for our groceries. They were about 50 bani each which equals about 20 cents or so per bag. We were all packing our bags as full as we could. I’m glad we went; it was a fun Saturday adventure!

A Day at the Hospital

Here are some pictures from my day at the hospital. The hospital was really good today. I hung out with Kinsey and also with Rhett for part of the time. We were in charge of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors of the hospital. We visited and played with Marion first. He is such a cute little guy! He is actually from the orphanage and he’s been at the hospital for a couple of days now. I think he has some kidney problems, but I don’t know for sure. He is so cute and obviously a favorite of the nurses and even the other patients on the floor. Today this mom shared a little cookie with him. He was so happy!

After we played with the cutie for a while, we went and found this 6 year old girl named Alexandra. This was the first time I met Alexandra. She has some leg problems that are genetic, so she was stuck in a crib. We gave her 2 balloons (the first one was orange, but then she requested a pink one), 6 pink stickers she chose herself (we’re thinking that her favorite color is pink), some paper we all colored on, and lots of hugs. She kept asking us for hugs and she gave us kisses on the cheek when we left.

After playing with Alexandra we went and found little Pamela. She is 2 months old and I still don’t totally understand where her mother is. It is hard to figure out what’s going on or what happened to some of the patients because I’m not totally fluent with my Romanian… yet. Haha! I wonder if I will ever get close to that point with the language. But Pamela was adorable! We changed her and fed her today. Pamela wasn’t totally interested in the food in her bottle; she just wanted to suck on it. I hope she eats more later!

I really enjoy going and working at the hospital. We just get to spend our time playing with kids and holding babies! How fun! Its crazy how attached we get to the kids. We always want to go to the same floors to see our kids. Oh and an update on Fabion… I went to go see how he was doing yesterday and the nurses said that he had gone home. So I guess that’s good news, but I did really miss seeing him and spending time with the little guy.

Today is my special day!

It was my birthday today! YAY! I am now a big 20 year old. I'm no longer a teenager! Weird! We did so many fun things tonight… they all seem to revolve around food though! HaHa! We went and ate Chinese food tonight at La Cao and it was pretty good. We ordered a bunch of different things and then shared them. The Chinese here in Romania was pretty good, but it wasn’t very spicy. I can’t wait to go to Pei Wei when I get home! I love Pei Wei!

After the Chinese food, we went and got yummy Gelato! So good! The place we went to is across the street from where we live… How have we not seen it yet!!!?? I seriously might be going there like 3 times a week now. Its only 2 lei for a scoop of deliciousness, that’s like 80 cents. I got a scoop of caramel and a scoop of biscuit. It was really good and I can’t wait to try their other flavors!

After the gelato, we came back to my apartment and ate the cake that Rachel made today! Chocolate cake with whip cream. We even had 20 candles to put on top! Thanks for sending those mom! My group sang to me and everything. They are the best!

After the cake we played random card games and just talked and laughed. It has been a way fun birthday. I’m glad that I got to have a birthday here in Iasi, Romania. It was different, but way fun. I miss my family and I miss Jeremy like crazy right now. But I’m thankful that I am here. I have been able to experience so many amazing things already and I just got here!

What a good day!

I'm a happy girl!

Today, I got a package my mom sent me and a card from Riley today! I got home from the orphanage and Mario had come and left the package for me on my bed! Mario is a Romanain lady that is employed by BYU to make sure we are ok over here. I was so excited to open it… but I kind of wanted to save it so ate lunch first and then I opened it. Everything my mom put in it was so perfect! The frosting, the peanut butter, the fruit snacks, the suckers, the granola bars, the brownie and cake mixes, and the water bottle! Everything was just so perfect! My mom just knows me so well and she sent me the things that I have been missing the most (a quick fruit snack here or there, etc)! I seriously have the best mom ever! If there was some big competition for the best mom, then my mom would win for sure! I’m so grateful that she sent it! The package got here in just under two weeks and I got it right before my birthday which is tomorrow!! YAY! My mom is the best! I love her!
The orphanage was good today. The little babies slept most of the time that we were there, so I played with the bigger kids today and massaged their joints and tried to move their limbs around so that they will get stronger. I didn’t think that I would have as much fun with the bigger kids, because at first I was kind of scared of them. They have more severe disabilities and I wasn’t sure what I was allowed to do with them or if I would accidentally hurt them or something. They are also easy to ignore because they just sit there and rarely cry. But spending just 10 minutes with Monica totally changed how I felt. I really enjoyed spending time with her and then I realized that these bigger kids need just as much love and attention as the little babies do. It was so nice to spend some time with her and I was amazed at how quickly I came to really care for her. I am so excited to be working in the Isolation Room… the kids just need so much love.
The hospital today was so good. I was with Rhett and we were in charge of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. On the 3rd floor we found this boy that was about 5 years old without a mom. This little boy was so banged up! He had an IV in his hand and one in his foot, a tube up his nose, and he had a breathing mask on too. He had a splint on his right arm and gauze taped all over him, especially on his head and shoulder. He was covered with a big blanket, but he was shivering and he had sweat all over his face. It was so sad… Me and Rhett didn’t know what we could do at first. We sat next to him and I just lightly touched his face while Rhett rubbed his hand that was clenched in a fist. We just tried to talk to him a little bit and comfort him whenever he started to cry. He looked like he was in so much pain. I just wanted to pick him up and hold him close to me. He kept shivering and he would just cry so hard sometimes. It was so sad, but I was so glad that I could be there and offer him the little comfort and friendship that I could. I just sat there and prayed that he would be comforted and somehow know how much his Heavenly Father loved him. We stayed with him for about an hour and a half and it was so hard to leave him there without anyone to watch over him. But we went and checked our other floors we were in charge of. We found another boy on the 5th floor and he had something wrong with his back… that’s what the nurses told us...we think… they were speaking Romanian and we aren’t fluent yet. Ha! Anyways… Rhett and I played with him. He was 8 years old and he was so cute. We blew bubbles for a long time and then Kinsey came and joined us and we played with a balloon for a while. It was a lot of fun. We talked to him a little bit in our broken Romanian and found out that he likes to play tennis and he doesn’t like basketball. We stayed with him for the rest of the time and at 5 o’clock we all met on the 1st floor to come home.
On the way home, Rachel and I decided to make something good for dinner and so we made German Pancakes! They were so delicious! We even made our own syrup! I am going to come back from Romania and I will be all domesticated and such and I will know how to cook so many things! We are planning on cooking meals quite a bit as an apartment! Tomorrow though we are going to get Chinese food… because it’s my BIRTHDAY! YAY! and it’s a Friday! How perfect! I found out where a good Chinese food place was last night from someone in the ward, so I am really excited to go check it out!
So today was such a good day! I am so blessed to be able to have this type of experience. I am so lucky to be the one that gets to love these kids for even a short time. I hope that while I am working here that I can help these kids realize that they are children of God and that he knows them each individually and cares for each of them, too. They have such sweet spirits and I am excited to serve them and get to know them better. I feel like I really can’t explain how I happy I am to be doing this. I just get the most amazing feeling when I’m holding them. I know that Heavenly Father watches over them and I can feel the love He has for them. I am so blessed to be a part of their world!

A Little Bit of Iasi

Here is how we soften our butter without a microwave! It was totally my idea!

Here are the yummy donut things that we just can't get enough of. They are called Langosi and they are filled with different flavors like cherry and chocolate.

This is the Palace of Culture and its right down the street from us. It is a museum.

Here is a cool church that we went and checked out.

There are stray dogs everywhere here!

This is the Villa where we go to Church; the Church rents the 2nd floor. Alicia, Rachel, and Rhett from our group are in the picture.

We've been busy!

It has been a pretty busy week! We now have our room assignments at the orphanage and we have also been working in the hospital this week. I will be working in the Donald Duck Room (it is also called the Isolation room). This room is filled with the little babies (some with disabilities and some without) and also a few kids that are older but have severe disabilities and are very low functioning. I am really excited to be working with all the sweet babies. They just get so excited when we hold them! Rachel will be working with me in Donald Duck for the semester. We will work in the orphanage from 9-12 every morning and from 2-5 we will work in the hospital. The hospital is a pretty unique experience. We divide up into groups of two or three and we take different floors to go and play with the kids that don’t have moms. At the hospitals here, mom stays at the hospital with the baby if they are sick. We see lots of mothers in their pajamas because they have been there for quite a while. The moms really have to take care of their kids and the nurses just do medical stuff. So the children without the moms are often left in their cribs for long periods of time, so we come and change their diaper, leave a clean one for the nurse to use (or else they use cloth diapers), and then we hold the babies and play with the kids. Some of the children are really orphans and their moms abandoned them after having them. Others do have moms but they either don’t live close to the city, have too many kids at home to care for, or they can’t leave their jobs to stay with their baby. I hope this all makes sense. This is what we have been doing this week. It can be really tiring at times, but I really appreciate being able to sit down and just relax when I get home every day!