Dear Kids,
Happy Birthday to Dad and Dallin! We’re looking forward to seeing a lot of you at the party this evening. It’s supposed to rain around noon, but it’s also supposed to clear out by early evening. We can have a lot of fun whatever. Thanks to all of you who went in on Dad’s present! He already knows about it; in fact, it’s in our garage right now. He goes out and visits it several times a day. Thanks to Bevan for finding it!
Our medical news is getting better. Dad’s neck has nearly stopped bleeding, and it’s mostly closed up. I’m doing a little better, too. I’m feeling a little less pain, and Dad says my incision is starting to heal. (I can’t see it myself, so he gives me regular reports.) I’m grateful for any progress at all, and I thank you for all of your prayers. I know that’s helped. My troubles have gone on for a long time, but your prayers have helped me feel better about my whole situation. I talked to my radiation doctor a couple of weeks ago, and he said that when I’m all healed up, I should meet with a medical oncologist and have him look at my films–something about the nerve endings being close to my tumor, and evaluating the “pathology” of it all. I didn’t quite follow. He said they might recommend a “little bit” of chemo. I hope they won’t find anything more. I don’t want to cross any more bridges when I come to them.
We’ve had beautiful weather this week, and on Friday Dad and I turned on our sprinklers. We only had a couple of breaks in our drip lines, but nothing major. It was just fun to be outside working in the yard again. Yesterday I spent about half an hour raking dirt, and I’m hoping to be able to handle more as the days go on. It’s funny–I’m OK moving around, but if I stand or sit, I’m in a lot of pain. So church is a problem. Last week I went to the first part of sacrament meeting (in Francis 2nd ward, because my beloved Spanish branch has been dissolved) but I had to leave right after the sacrament. It was too hard to sit. Today I’m hoping to make it longer.
It’s hard to believe summer is here! It’s time to think about summer fun. The big Allen family reunion at Riverwoods park is July 28th, and Lucy’s baptism will be that evening, in the Provo River. I hope it’s a nice hot day. At least Seth won’t have to cut through any ice, like some people have done to be baptized.
Then, August 2-4 is our Ackerson family reunion. (Or will it start on the evening of the 1st?) I’m excited about Pineview. We’ll have a wonderful time, like we always do.
Lots of love, Mom
