Back to work - 11/19/12

The days have been pretty long. I spent most of last week in bed, but on Friday, we kicked out the mini missionaries and Elder "A" and I went back to work. I probably would have liked to sleep a little bit longer, but I could tell my companion was getting a bit irritated at our helpers. I really liked having them around, to be honest. Except for the fact that they helped themselves to our food. We took them to the store and they bought their own groceries, but one of the Elders has never lived on his own before. He's used to helping himself to anything his parents buy. So we weren't quite all on the same page in that regard. In any case, they got a decent amount of missionary work done. I'm quite glad that the work was able to keep moving while I was down for the count.

At this very moment, I kind of wish I was still in bed. I still hurt sometimes, especially when the pain medication starts to wear off. I'm not quite at 100%. My companion is convinced that President Smart will be moving me when transfers roll around on Monday, but I kind of hope he lets me recover some more. I am not feeling like a real missionary just yet. The ward mission leader seems to agree with me, but we never know what's going through the mission president's head.

We have a lunch appointment and a dinner appointment for Thanksgiving. We aren't supposed to proselyte that day, but it looks like we will have members to hang out with most of the day. The ward has been taking extra good care of us since they found out about my surgery,. It's so nice to be loved. It's actually kind of hard for me to accept all the free stuff that people want to give us, but I'm learning to swallow my pride. I should accept their kindness so they can be blessed as well.

My blood has thinned out significantly from the hot sunny summer I just endured. It's not even that cold, but I always wake up freezing. Maybe I'll invest in some thermal underwear.

I'm so excited that "T" got baptized! Although her family is being really mean to her now. She spent the night with her friends because her family was giving her grief and stressing her out. And there were two different people that gave her quad scriptures at her baptism, but her parents hid them from her while she was asleep. I think it's so sad how people can be so against the church! I hope that things work out for her soon.

I love you all, and am looking forward to seeing you again someday! Keep your covenants and you will be blessed.

I did it! - 11/13/12

Since last Monday was Tyler's surgery, we did not receive an e-mail from him.  Here is the latest about his surgery straight from his mouth:

I had my surgery and I'm alive enough to email at the library a week later. Fun stuff!

Today I had my follow-up visit with the surgeon, and it seems that all the symptoms that I worried about were perfectly normal. For example, nobody told me that my pain meds would make me constipated. But with the help of a lot of fiber, I am having bowel movements almost like normal again! The pain and swelling in my abdomen are still present, but at least I know that they are on the decline. I was also given another prescription for some more pain medication, so I will be a little bit loopy for another week. Hopefully I will be functional as a missionary by the end of this week!

The actual surgery last week was pretty miraculous. Even though it took the poor nurse two tries to get an IV stuck in my arm, I was brave and didn't cry, pass out, or throw up (all three were things I was scared of doing). After the IV was in my arm it was all fun and games. Elder Alvarez and I did our best to joke about everything that went on pre-operation, including my backless gown, the wheels on my bed, and the classy blue shower cap that I was wearing. One of the nurses said I could have one of the caps to take home, but I never found one in my stuff when it was time to go home. Sad day.

I remember being wheeled into the operating room and hearing the surgeon's music playing. I asked the anesthesiologist if he was going to give me something to relax, and that's the last thing I remember seeing, was him talking to me while he put medication into my IV. I don't remember being asked to count backwards or anything; I was out like a light.

My first memory after the surgery is of greeting my companion with a very goofy salutation. I didn't recognize the mission nurse at first, but when I did, I pulled my gown off to show her my incisions. My companion turned bright red at that point. But Sister Van Vleet has been a nurse for 40 years, I am sure she's seen it all before.

Details that I found out today: my polypropylene surgical mesh will be with me forever. The tacks and the suture that they used to attach it to me and seal me up will biodegrade and be absorbed by my body. The three little incisions under my bellybutton were glued together with cyanocrylate adhesive. I actually had a small hernia on the right side of my groin in addition to the left, so Dr. Hou patched me up on both sides. I must be one hard-working missionary to get two hernias in the first six months of my mission!

I haven't really done a whole lot of work this week, though. I got to leave the house only a couple of times last week. Instead, Elder Wolf and Elder Coleman, our two mini-missionaries from Yucaipa, have been going out with Elder Alvarez to talk to everybody. Our new tracting approach, shared with us at our multizone conference on Friday, is to announce to people that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and that we've come to leave a blessing on their home. Hopefully we get in the door, write down the names of their families and friends, their trials, and then bless them and their homes through the priesthood. Then we ask if they want to be baptized, if we can teach them, and if we can come back to follow up on the blessing. It seems really cool, and has brought lots of success to other missions.

Well I love you all tons! Thanks for your prayers and support. I'm going to go lay down and take a nap now.

The flood - 10/29/12

I have been flooded with well wishes recently! But first things first: my surgery will be at Riverside Community Hospital on 5 November 2012. I'm still not sure if it's Dr. Hou, Dr. Lara, or Dr. Nurick that will actually be cutting on me, but it's somebody from their office. The surgery will be done laproscopically, which means I'll have a few small incisions on my stomach for them to insert their little cameras and instruments inside of me instead of one big cut. I won't be staying overnight, but I will be recovering in bed for a week or two, most likely. The ward has offered lots of help to keep me comfortable and to help Elder "A" continue working while I'm lying in bed all day long. I'm sure we would go completely crazy if both of us had to stay in the apartment watching the bugs crawl around and the paint peel off the walls.

Now our friend that we just baptized used to be a RN and is now working on becoming a nurse anesthetist, so she has been filling me in on every gruesome detail of what's going to happen to me. For a laproscopic surgery, my stomach will be inflated with air in order for them to have a space to work their little robotic arms in. That sometimes results in a diffuse pain in the shoulders after they deflate me and I wake up, so I shouldn't mistake that feeling for a heart attack. My throat will be sore from being intubated. That's just common to any general anesthesia, because they have to make sure I keep breathing. The whole point of general anesthesia is to get me as close to dead as possible and then bring me back to normal. My heart rate and blood pressure need to be low, my breathing will be much slower, and the drugs are designed to keep me from remembering anything, even if I happen to wake up in the middle of it.

Oh, and they'll be putting a mesh inside of me to patch up the inside of my abdominal wall. Sometimes people strain hard enough to pop through those things, so there is a small chance of the hernia recurring. There's an even smaller chance that they could nick something vital on accident and I would go from having two functional testes to only one. But that's not a super big deal, because as long as I've got one I can still have kids and function as normal.

Sorry if that's a little gruesome, but I find these things fascinating. In any case, I'm sure everything will work out exactly the way God planned for them to work out. I'm still stoked that I get to stay here in the mission and not have to interrupt my service with a long flight to South Carolina and the distractions that would come along with that sort of recovery. But y'know, it all comes down to your faith in the end. I have faith that despite my fears, God's love and the power of Jesus' infinite and eternal sacrifice will be enough for my misgivings and weaknesses.

I think the highest compliment that I've received recently came in a letter from a friend at home who heard about my medical misadventures. She said: "I know that you know the power of the Atonement because you have strengthened my testimony with yours many times. Rely on it now. And as always  you are in my prayers." I look up to this person as a returned missionary and a spiritual strength, so hearing that from her made me feel very special indeed.

The letters finally came, and it was so glorious to see a stack of letters after two weeks of no mail. Now I have over a dozen people that I need to write letters to, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to do so in the not-too-distant future. I don't know what I'll read. Maybe I will start the Old Testament. I'm probably going to finish the Book of Mormon before the surgery, and I've already read Jesus the Christ, Our Search For Happiness, Our Heritage, and True to the Faith since being on the mission.

Well everybody, keep on sending me your prayers and good vibes. I'm going to keep on relying on the Lord's promises and smiling and testifying while I have the strength to stand. Don't forget to look for the rainbows in life. God has promised us that he will never destroy everything when he sends the rain.

Elder Hansen