2020, a year from where?

2020, What a year this has been!

In January Elma Lynne was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer, adenocarcinoma, the bad kind.  Fortunately it was caught quickly.  They discovered a tumor the size of a marble in the head of the pancreas.  Usually Pancreatic Cancer doesn't have many recognizable symptoms until it is well progressed.  Fortunately this cancer grew right next to the bile duct and closed it off, causing very light colored, nearly white, stools, which was a cause for concern.  A CT Scan revealed the bile duct blockage and small growth. A procedure opened the bile duct with a stent, then a biopsy confirmed the tumor was cancer.

Surgery was scheduled in Salt Lake at the IHC Murray Campus for the end of February.  Doctor Mark J. Ott was the surgeon and he is fabulous.  Surgery went well and Dr. Ott was confident he had removed all the cancer and also removed a bunch of nearby lymph nodes and biopsy showed the cancer had not spread there.  He visited every day for the entire length of the stay in the hospital, often twice a day.

Recovery was a long slow process,  I stayed right at the hospital, crashing every night on the couch in the room which made into a small bed.  The hospital staff was wonderful but after a while it got very tiresome.  Elma Lynne's digestive system had a hard time getting re-started and it was hard seeing her go through all the procedures and tests over and over again. 

About mid March the Covid 19 pandemic started to be a real concern at the hospital.  I didn't leave the hospital much but when I did I had to take precautions and they threatened to make me find other accommodations but decided since I had been there all along and it was almost release time they let me stay.    Just a few days before release we were walking the halls of the tenth floor where our room was when an earthquake hit.  It really shook the building and we could feel it swaying for quite a while after. Finally after 21 days Elma Lynne was released to go home.

Of course there was much more recovery once home. Things went along pretty well for a few weeks and then chemotherapy started. The first round went well until time for the third infusion and Elma Lynne was so sick there was no way .  She had diarrhea so bad that everything was going right through her.  They finally sent a home health nurse to take a blood sample which revealed her potassium was dangerously low so she spent four more days in the hospital, this time in Saint George.  We learned a lot about how to control the diarrhea and they cut the chemo treatments by 20% and after that things went much better.

Chemo lasted for six months with the last treatment being November 11th. It was great to see her ring the bell at the chemo lab, and great to get the results of the latest scan showing no cancer.  She was officially in remission. Dr. Gilbert will continue to monitor her condition about every three months for the next while to make sure the cancer doesn't return.

                                                  Elma Lynne ringing the bell at the end of Chemo

Through all this the pandemic was ravaging the world and the presidential race and a movement called Black Lives Matter (BLM) among other things were causing a lot of ugly contention and division in the nation.  There were race riots in many large cities, including Salt Lake, supposedly triggered by the death of a black man while being arrested by white police somewhere in the Midwest. As in many protests, things turn violent and many just use the excuse to vent their anger and loot and burn. Things seemed pretty grim for a while but after the election things calmed down and things seem to be at a simmering truce for now.

Because of the pandemic and our "high risk" status we haven't seen much of the family this year.  We did attend Ashlyn's wedding in Rexburg in July, and Jillyn's family came during the summer for a few days and then again at Thanksgiving.  They have all had the Covid-19 virus so we figured they probably wouldn't spread it to us once they were over it.  Joel came for the deer hunt and we enjoyed a few days chasing around in the hills without ever chambering a round. We did see some bucks we could have taken but we were looking for that monster trophy and he wasn't around this year.

                   Ashlynn & Mason's Wedding                                                       Caden mastering the lawnmower

In addition I got a bit of a scare when my doctor did my wellness check in September he sent me for lab work and diagnosed dome irregularities in my blood.  When I looked it up I found out that I had symptoms that could indicate Multiple Myeloma, a rare cancer of the blood.  I saw the same oncologist that Elma Lynne was seeing, Dr. Heather Gilbert, and after more tests she determined that I have a condition called MGUS, which stands for Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance. It is considered to not be serious and very rarely leads to MM, so that was a relief to get past that.

As we approach the Christmas season we are sick and tired of the isolation, mask-wearing and restrictions brought on by the pandemic, but are dutifully doing our best to keep from contacting the virus and staying as healthy as possible.  A few weeks ago President Russell M. Nelson encouraged everyone to show our gratitude which I think was an inspired message in the mist of all the turmoil. We are truly grateful to our God and our Savior for all the blessings we have seen, and continue to see, while going through the trials and problems of this crazy year.