Who needs the mountains to make s'mores?

So because Dallin is going to turn 11 in a couple of weeks.....and because he needed to pass off "having a campfire and making something" (or something like that).....and because Todd has been out of commission for pretty much the whole summer.....we decided to build our own fire in our own backyard and pass off one of Dallin's requirements......so he can get his Arrow of Light.

Todd is still recovering, but he said to me, "Of course, the boys can help build a fire." When we asked the older kids if they could help build a fire, none of them seemed to know what to do. That was interesting. We have 5 boys and several of them have been on many, many campouts in which they have made many, many fires.....in theory anyway.

In the end, we (and by "we" I mean "they") built a decent fire in our store-bought firepit. It was actually really fun. And we made smores.

Gathering sticks....

Marshmallow on fire.....Yum!

Dallin thoroughly enjoying himself.......as you can see.

Jacob thoroughly enjoying himself.....for real!

Even Todd got to roast a marshmallow. We brought out a kitchen chair with a pillow and he survivied just fine.

Yes, I was there as well. Since I take all of the pictures in the family, no one ever gets a shot of me in action......but for the record, I DID have a s'more and it was delicious. But here I am all cleaned up....

And here are the kids tormenting the dog with their roaster sticks. It just wouldn't be the same without that.

Even Eric seemed to enjoy himself.

And here's Brandon and Kyle. A fun time by all.....

The evening was a success and a fun family night. It was REALLY hot, but we still had a good time.

And a quick update on Todd:

He is improving more each day. The nurse came today and showed us the infection numbers. One of the numbers is in the normal range (barely), but still normal. The other number is still high, but about 1/3 of what it was before the surgery. So the antibiotic is working. Yeah!

We got an appointment with a really good orthopedic surgeon in October, so we'll see what he says then. They can't do anything permanent for at least 6 months until after the infection is completely gone, so Todd will have to live with the pain of "bone-on-bone" at least until then. We're still hoping it will be livable for awhile, but we'll just have to see.

Todd still can't drive or put much weight on his right leg. His muscles are weak and he doesn't have the strength to lift that leg much yet. We're hoping as time goes by, that will improve as well.

He went to church all three hours on Sunday and it was so great. He came home to do his antibiotic, then even went back for a couple of hours. He was tired, but did well and it was a good day. We are continually thankful for his recovery and hope that things will continue that way. We have an appointment next Tuesday with the surgeon and we're hoping Todd will get the "okay" to return to work. He's planning on starting back after Labor Day.

Well, that's the report for now. Thanks again for all your prayers and concern for our family. They have meant more than you'll ever know.

Todd's First Post

Here is an email written by Todd to his family a couple of days ago. I thought I'd post it here.....

Thought I would take a minute and send an update on my condition. I'm feeling better each day and needing less medication to manage my pain. Transitional moves (i.e. getting in and out of bed/car/shower etc.) are still tough but getting a little easier with time. I've essentially been living in the recliner in our living room. I sleep in it at night and spend most of the day in it as well. Don't know what we would have done without it, but I'm hoping to get back to a real bed pretty soon.

I get around the house pretty well on crutches and I'm even doing better with "occupational" tasks like getting dressed, picking things up, etc. The secret to my success? I'm a certified owner of the Deluxe Gopher Pick Up and Reaching Tool (As Seen on TV). That's what I'm talking about!

I can pick up things without bending and it's also great for tormenting kids and dogs.

The home health care nurse comes about twice a week to check blood levels and change the PICC line dressing. The trends in my lab results generally indicate that the level of infection is dropping. So we're happy about that. We had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday. He removed my stitches and took a couple of x-rays. He showed us the healthy hip first. You can see a clearly defined spaced filled with cartilage and lubricating fluid in the joint where the ball and socket come together. Then we looked at the other hip. There is no space whatsoever. All of the cartilage in the joint is gone and you just see bone on bone.

We weren't really prepared for that piece of news. I expected to have a simple follow-up visit and get my stitches out. I assumed that we would have to complete the 6-8 weeks of IV antibiotics before we'd really know the ultimate condition of my hip. So it was a tough day, but now that we've had some time to process the information we're feeling OK about things. There are options, such as fusion or total hip replacement and we'll cross those bridges when we come to them. Right now, we're focused on finishing the IV treatment and clearing out the infection. I don't know that we will really know how much pain or discomfort I'll be left with until the infection is completely gone.

This morning I was reading the Book of Mormon and I was struck by the number of times that the word "patience" is used in connection with the word "affliction." For some reason, the Lord has seen fit to try our patience and our faith. We're doing our best to "cheerfully" submit to His will and learn the things that we can from this experience. It has been hard--harder than I would ever have imagined, but I take great comfort in the doctrines of the gospel. I feel so blessed to have Melissa by my side. She does so much for me that I can't imagine going through this without her--she is so incredible!

Okay, this is Melissa now. I just had to post all that great stuff about me that he wrote.....If I were him, I personally would have said more about my "charitable actions and services," but I'll take whatever I can get. Hee, hee....just kidding, honey.

So this is where we are now. We plan to see another doctor in the next couple of months and see what our options are for Todd's future. We do feel so blessed to live in a time where there ARE options. But life is so unpredictable, isn't it? You never know when trials will come, and it's so hard not knowing the outcome of those trials.....but we just have to learn to trust in our Heavenly Father and know that He has a plan for each of us. It's so hard to have faith sometimes. And that's the honest-to-goodness truth!

On a lighter note, here is a picture of a gift basket that Todd's work brought to him. It was filled with all the yummy treats that they share at work.....it was so sweet of them and it made his day. The card says, "To Todd Jones Our Beloved Boss." And the inside was filled with words of kindness and encouragement. Thanks to them!

We'll try and update as time goes on. It's been two weeks since the surgery. He's definitely improving little by little. We're just trying to take it one day at a time.....that's really all we can do.

A Turn of Events

Disclaimer: Some parts of this blog entry sound really, really dire as I have re-read what I've written. Please know ahead of time that Todd is okay.....and will be okay! It's just going to take time.....



I've been meaning to update this blog for over a week, but haven't had time. We've had a turn of events concerning Todd's condition. I'm not even sure where to begin. Here's the story....

Last time I posted, Todd seemed to be slowly improving from his sacral fracture. However he still had a tremendous amount of hip pain and we couldn't figure out why. As you know, we had an appointment on Thursday, July 29th and that's where I left off.

Late Tuesday night (in the middle of the night and the day I posted the last entry), Todd woke up at around 5 am in worse pain than before. We thought at the time that he had just "slept weird." Wednesday was a really horrible day. The pain was very intense and excruciating. We knew he had an appt on Thursday, so we hoped we'd get more answers to the reason for his hip pain.

Todd's parents took him to the appointment. It was at 11:00 am. During the exam, the PA (physician's assistant) took more x-rays and looked at his MRI from 3 weeks earlier. When she looked at the films and saw how much pain he was in, she said to Todd, "Your pain is extremely disproportionate to what I see on this MRI. I think you have a hip infection." She told him he needed to go to the hospital immediately to have an "aspiration" done, which is where they draw fluid from the hip to determine whether or not there is infection. She said that if there was, they would need to do surgery right away to clean it out. This is called a "flush."

So, Todd and his parents headed to the hospital and had the test done (around 1:30 pm), which definitely indicated infection. So we knew he would need surgery right away. For some reason, the PA didn't have any luck contacting the surgeon directly for a smoother admit to the hospital, so they had to admit him through the ER. They did a CAT scan and took more x-rays while there. I contacted our home teacher and asked him to come up and give Todd a blessing before he went into surgery. He and Todd's Dad administered to him. It was a beautiful blessing. After that, Todd's Dad asked if I wanted one. For a split second, I started to deny the need for a blessing, but immediately broke down and humbly admitted that, yes, I would very much appreciate one. I couldn't even talk. I was vey choked up. It was also beauiful and a huge comfort to me. That blessing stayed with me for the many, hard days that followed.

The surgeon talked to us briefly before the surgery and said that it was quite possible he'd had the infection for most of July, and that if that was the case, probably a lot of damage had been done to his hip. This was not good news. Of course, they wouldn't know for sure just how much until they got in there.

Finally at 9:50 pm they took him into surgery. Todd's parents and my mom stayed with me the entire time. I will never forget their support. And I couldn't have done it without them. At roughly 11:45 pm, the surgeon came to report how the surgery went and the extent of his damage. It wasn't great news. Though the infection didn't seem to be in his bone, it did appear to have effected his cartilage. The surgery went well, but it was unclear at that time whether or not enough of the infection was cleaned out to make it a success. If not, there was a chance they would have to repeat the "flush." There was nothing to do but wait and see.

Todd was in the hospital for 4 days and progress was slow. His hip was still in tons of pain. He still had a fever off and on, but that was to be expected. The treatment for this infection didn't sound fun either. We were told that he would be on IV antibiotics for at least 6 weeks, every 8 hours through a picc line. These, we were told, would be administered by Todd himself, with my help. SCARY!! We were practically threatened to not miss a dose! We were told that Home Health Care would come to our house the first night and teach us how to do it, then for the next 6 weeks to draw blood, change dressings on the picc line, and monitor his condition. It was all very overwhelming and scary to us.

During the hospital stay, they ran tests on the bacteria. They determined it was a staph infection, but eventually verified it to be a "sensitive" bacteria. That was VERY GOOD news. That meant it was treatable and the success rate was high of getting rid of it.

Todd came home on Monday afternoon. Since then we have had 4 visits from the nurse (Home Health Care), a doctor's appt (that was today) and many, many doses of strong narcotics and IV antibiotics. Todd is still experiencing quite a bit of pain, but mostly from transitions. He has a hard time getting up and down from any given chair, but especially from the bed. That is the hardest transition for him.


This was a very serious infection (and still is) and roughly 50 % of people who have this type of infection do not survive in the beginning. The longer you wait to get it cleaned, the more critical it becomes. We are still very unclear how the infection started and there are a lot of unanswered questions. The possibility that Todd had this brewing for nearly a month is a testament that he is one lucky guy!

So these are the facts, pretty plain and simple. And this is where we are today. But here comes the emotional side of it all.

I'm not sure I can explain the fear that I had during the last week and a half (and still have on occasion). Coming home to an empty bedroom without the physical closeness of your spouse is a very strange and awful feeling. It is emotionally draining and lonely. I have never experienced this type of fear before. I have seen people around me suffer, yes. Even family close to me. But never my husband. I have not personally felt so alone in my life. The kind of loneliness you feel when you don't know if you can do it. You feel crushed, weighted down. Your whole soul aches to have peace and comfort. You don't know if you can wake up the next morning and face another day.

At times, I felt that despair very clearly and distinctly. It was during those times, I knelt in prayer and poured out my heart to my Heavenly Father. I begged for peace. I begged for the comfort I needed. One particular night when Todd was in the hospital, I literally sobbed on my knees for a long time. I poured out my fear and loneliness.

Eventually, I DID feel the comfort of the Holy Ghost and the loving arms of my Heavenly Father wrap me in His love. I DID feel peace, but I've got to admit, it was still so scary to trust. How was I going to endure these days while he was in the hopsital and be strong for my children? How was I going to do this alone? And was Todd really going to be okay? I was falling apart about every other day....

I've realized something more strongly than I've ever known before. I've always known that Heavenly Father is real. I've always known that He is there for us when we need Him. I've always known that our Savior is our eternal brother and friend, and that He guides us everyday. I've always known that we're not really ever alone.....But I can say now, even more determinedly, that we CAN'T survive this life on our own. We CAN'T do it alone. And we don't have to. Even though at times we feel VERY lonely, we do have help. Sometimes I think we think we are strong, but we are not strong by ourselves. The Lord makes us strong and helps us cope with hard things. He is the driving force behind our strength. He is the one who carries us when we cannot walk. When we cannot take one more step. He lifts us and holds us and gives us the power to carry on and survive.

He also places people in our lives who uplift and comfort us. Our family has been recipients of amazing service by loving, caring people who have made it clear to us that we are not alone! And that we don't have to do it alone. Nobody expects us to. And others are willing to help. I will never be able to give back to the people in my ward and our family enough to repay them for what they've done for us. On Sunday they held a special fast for my husband and our family. I have personally felt the prayers and concern in our behalf. I have been uplifted by their faith. Their strength has helped carry me and they have been powerful instruments in the Lord's hands. I will never forget their kindness and thoughtfulness. I can't put into words what they have done for our family and for me personally. I can only give back by serving others in return. And isn't that what it's all about?

Okay, this is getting really long....sorry. I've wanted to write down my feelings for a long time. Our trial is not over. Todd still has a rocky road of recovery ahead of him. Many things are uncertain for his future. If the antibiotic works well and is able to get rid of the infection (which we anticipate fully), it is still unclear what long-term damage he will have to his hip in his future. Worse case scenerio is a hip replacement down the road. Best case scenerio is he has no long-lasting effects and in this case we will have witnessed a miracle. But even so, I believe we've already been witness to a miracle. We finally found out about the infection, he came through the surgery, and is slowly progressing. That is a miracle in and of itself.

But here's another thing. Everyone experiences trials. No one is exempt from them. That's one thing we all have in common. They aren't all the same, but everyone knows heartache and fear. Everyone knows hardship. I have been extremely humbled by this experience and will forever be grateful, actually, for the perspective I've been given. Life is fragile and it's hard! It's meant to be lived and enjoyed and shared. But it isn't easy. There are no guarantees.....except for the BIG one. The one that we're promised if we live righteously. The one that changes lives. The one of eternal life. The atonement of Jesus Christ. That's the guarantee we have. Isn't it amazing and powerful?

Well, to make a long story short....HA! Here are a few pictures of what we've been seeing a lot of lately......

Supplies....


More supplies.....


Sodium Chloride. Todd has to use one of these before every antibiotic administration. It flushes the line....He also uses one after the antibiotic is over.....

Heparin flush. Todd uses this at the very end of the antibiotic administration....

The antibiotic. These are stored in our refrigerator.....we have roughly 40 of them right now in our fridge. When we first got them, Brandon looked in the fridge and said, "What are all those little water bottles for?" It was funny. "DON'T DRINK THEM!"

Close up of one of the antibiotic balls.....not sure of the correct medical term....

And finally, my sweetheart! Smiling for the camera because I made him. Probably not feeling like doing it, but glad he did.....for me. He's hooked up to the antibiotic in this picture.

I'll try to update little things here and there more frequently. If anything, just to have a record of events and feelings during this time.

We are okay! And Todd is making slow progress. He will heal and then we'll see what real damage has been done. Some days are harder than others. But we are optimistic. We know we are loved and we have felt many, many prayers from others. Our names have been in many, many temples throughout the state, and in some cases, out of state. We are thankful and grateful for the outpouring of love from countless friends and family. We have much to rejoice for. And many thanks to give.

This does not do justice for how we feel, but, once again.....thank you. thank you. thank you.

My Husband, the Injured

Well, it's been a little over 3 weeks since my husband was injured. It has been a loooong 3 weeks. Things aren't perfect, but he is slowly improving. He can sit comfortably most of the day without much pain.....unless he tries to move or get up, then it hurts pretty badly. Mornings are the worst and getting in and out of bed is still really painful. Plus, he stiffens up over night, so it's hard to get moving.

All of the swelling in his hands and feet are mostly gone.....except for one of his ankles. We're unclear why it's still swollen, but it does appear to be going down.....slowly!

We have attempted to get into another specialist for a second opinion and to get advice for the swollen foot, but we have had very little success. It's been amazing the reasons we've not been able to get into an orthopedic surgeon.....such as:

1. "I'm sorry, this doctor only does surgery."

2. "I'm sorry, this doctor only does hips and knees."

3. "I'm sorry, this doctor doesn't treat the lower spine."

4. "I'm sorry, but we don't have an available appointment for 2 weeks" (3 weeks, 4 weeks, you name it)....

5. "I'm sorry, this doctor doesn't do fractures."

And my personal favorite?

6. "I'm sorry, this doctor doesn't do second opinions."

CRAZY! It has been a whirlwind of attempts. We finally got an appt. with a PA (Physician's Assistant) on Thursday.....we'll see how it goes and if we get any more answers.

This has been the weirdest thing ever. Freaky really. Who breaks their sacrum bone anyway? Todd is the first patient of such an injury for our orthopedic surgeon. Nice! Let's be guinea pigs for the medical field....fun!

BUT, the people in our ward have been soooo amazing! They have brought us treats, dinners, cards, mowed our lawn, made repairs, brought more treats, more dinners, and more cards.....and so many have told us we are in their prayers. It has been quite humbling and we are so grateful! I don't know what we would do without the love and support of all of them.

I know it's helping me not to have a nervous breakdown every other day. :) In the beginning I was so worried. Todd was so pale and swollen and in agony....it was so hard to watch. He couldn't read a book or watch a movie because the pain was too awful to concentrate or sit in one position.

But now he can sit in the recliner (which is where he spends most of his day) and read a book and I'll say to him, "Hey, I wish I could sit and read a book.....I guess I'll go mop the floor instead." And I'm not usually smiling when I say that. (Because mopping the floor is not my favorite thing to do.....) I'm trying to be more cheerful.

One of the coolest things that has come out of this though is that Eric got to give Todd the sacrament on Sunday all by himself. Apparently if the Bishop approves it (which Todd did), then a Priest can give both prayers. We gathered our family together in our living room while Eric administered it and it was a very awesome experience for me. One I don't think I'll forget.

In other news....

Eric got his driver's license today. His real driver's license. I still don't think he's quite ready to go and drive by himself, so there will be more practice runs for him. But that's okay....practice makes perfect, right?

Well, I feel like a broken record, but thank you, thank you for all your prayers and concern. We feel them everyday. And I know they are being heard and answered. You're all wonderful!

Self-Proclaimed Nurse (but not aspiring)

I'm not sure how to begin this post. We are having a mini-crisis at our house.....well, a little bit more than mini.....here's the story.

Several months ago, Todd started training for the Wasatch Back Relay. (Like way back around Christmas). It was scheduled for June 18th and 19th. He worked hard to build up his strength and stamina for this race. He looked forward to it immensely. He was careful and listened to his body when he thought he had overdone it. Things were going well.....until about a month before the race.

It started with low back pain. He went to see a chiropractor for a couple of visits and then decided to see a physical therapist a week later. The visits were going well and his back pain was improving. But he stopped running and unfortunately felt that he had to drop out a week before the race. It was very sad and depressing. But he was improving, so that was encouraging.

On July 1st, he had his last visit with the physical therapist. During the visit he mentioned that his hip was bothering him slightly. And here's the part where it gets really frustrating. The physical therapist put Todd in some sort of traction and while it hurt at the time, it wasn't extremely painful. But the next morning he woke up at around 5 am and could hardly walk. He struggled to get ready for work, and somehow made it in. By 11:00, he could no longer stand the pain, and he came home. This was on Friday (July 2nd).....and 4th of July weekend.

At the time, we figured the physical therapist did a number on his hip and that probably it would heal in the next few days. But because the pain was so bad, we took him into our regular doctor to get some medication to help through the weekend.

All through the next few days, he was in excruciating, agonizing pain. His hip was killing him and any movement just about put him over the edge. By Monday it wasn't much better, but we were able to attend a get-together with his family, where he literally just sat himself down in the recliner the entire time.

We knew something was terribly wrong and on Tuesday we went to see an orthopedic surgeon. Todd was very uncomfortable on the examing table and would hardly let the doctor do an exam.....it was too painful. So they took x-rays and the doctor thought that he had a labral tear in his right hip, but felt that an MRI was necessary to confirm it.

On Thursday afternoon he had an MRI with Arthrogram, which is when they inject a bunch of dye directly into the hip before they do the actual test. It was very painful for Todd and his back started to cramp up and he couldn't lay flat. They had to give him valium to ease the pain enough for the MRI.

Late Thursday afternoon, we got a call from the orthopedic doctor. He said the radiology report said that he did not have a labral tear.....but instead a fractured sacrum. The sacrum is the bone that connects to the pelvis, in the middle. We were all shocked, even the doctor.

We asked ourselves many questions surrounding this injury. Was his running the cause? Did the physical therapist literally break his bone when she pulled on his leg? These are still unanswered questions. The orthopedist said that he's calling this a stress fracture, which was most-likely caused by the running. But we think it was probably a combination of the two.....the running AND the physical therapist. Either way, it's very frustrating! And we'll probably never really know for sure what caused the actual fracture.

So, this is where we are. This is the diagnosis. Recovery time is 6 to 8 weeks of non-bearing weight. It is a bone that fortunately has a good healing success rate on its own. We have been grateful that it wasn't something that required surgery or that he hasn't been hospital bound.

However, the past couple of days, we think he has been having an allergic reaction to one of his medications. He has had a fever off and on for several days, a rash here and there, total stiffness in his upper body, and now last night, his hands and ankles are swollen. And all we can do is wait to see if it gets better......hopefully not worse. He also had a severe sore throat on Monday, so we took him to the doctor to see if he had Strep, but it came back negative. So we continue to wait....and wait.....and wait. (not one of my strengths.....)

The positive? His hip pain is lessening and he's finally to the point where he can lay in one position comfortably.....and that is HUGE! Also, so far his drug reaction (or whatever weird thing is going on) is not effecting his breathing or his mouth......hopefully it will not reach to that point. Or we will be heading to the ER. Today his throat feels much better, (which is why we think he's having a drug reaction now).

Last Friday we gathered our children together for a family council. We explained Dad's injury and the effects it would have on us this summer. There would be no hikes, no Lagoon, no Fathers and Sons, and various other outdoor activities that we had planned. A couple of the kids asked about Dad's job and what would happen with that. We took this great opportunity to explain that luckily Dad has a good job and good benefits and it will be okay for him to take some time off to heal and recover. We also talked about the importance of getting a good education and that some people aren't as fortunate as we are. Some people have to quit their jobs or they get fired because they can't go in. We talked about the importance of preparing fincancially for emergencies and that we have done that for our family. It was a really good conversation and one I will always remember.

While things seem bleak at the moment, I am grateful that it's not worse. I'm thankful we're not facing surgery and that for now, at least, Todd is home. It has been so hard to watch him day in and day out suffer and be in pain, but I have felt the wonderful peace from the Spirit and I have seen the hand of the Lord in our lives. I know the power of the priesthood is real and I am thankful for the blessings that Todd has received. I am forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support from family and friends who have reached out and who are praying for us in our behalf. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

We will take this one day at a time for now. Please keep us in your prayers.