Dear Kids,
I just saw, from a link on facebook, that Jimmy Gibbens died on Monday. There’s an obituary in the Trib, and you can express condolences online. I don’t know how he died, and it doesn’t say.
It was fun seeing so many of you at the cabin Sunday afternoon! Sorry I was so out-of-it. I could hardly breathe, so I hung out upstairs in the glacier bedroom and listened on the radio. Dad and I had to go to my mission reunion after that, because I was partly in charge of it, but afterward we went to instacare. It had just closed, 30 seconds earlier, which was probably better, because I just waited and saw Dr. Newbold on Monday. I was sure I had pneumonia, but he said it’s COPD, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. Your lungs are full of trapped air and they can’t push it out, so you can’t breathe in. My chest x-ray showed that my lungs are “hyperinflated.” Right now I’m on 2 inhalers, an antibiotic, and prednisone. I thought that the prednisone would get me going really fast, that in a couple of days I’d be like superman, racing around on my bike and taking nice big deep breaths of air, but it doesn’t seem to be helping very much, yet. I read about COPD on Wikipedia, and it doesn’t sound pleasant. It’s “poorly reversible,” and is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. (So how come I never heard of it before?) Needless to say, I would really appreciate all your prayers on my behalf. This morning Dad and I are going to visit Grandma and Grandpa Allen, so I’m going to have Grandpa and Dad give me a blessing. That’s my best hope right now.
Dad has been on vacation all week, but we weren’t able to go anywhere exciting, because of my lungs. Instead, Dad cleaned out the rain gutters, fixed the sliding screen door, got the truck safety inspected, cleaned out some of his papers in the hall closet, tried to get Windows 7 printer drivers for our HP laserjet 1012 (anybody want it?) and had a dental appointment.
I hope you’re all doin’ great and lovin’ it.
Sincerely, your poor out-of-breath Mom
