Family News

Our family has been in a tailspin for the last few weeks.  Kaci has experienced a rapid degeneration of her vision since the Christmas Holidays.  She has been working a trial and error process with her family physician, and endocrinologist and finally a Graves Disease Ophthalmology surgeon. Kaci recognized that her vision was slipping away rapidly and put the doctors on a fast track to preserve her vision. That brings us to the following emails to our family.

March 16, 2014

Family,

As you all know Kaci has been diagnosed with a very advanced case of Graves Disease.  Once again we seem to be one of the exceptions to statistics.  Her AZ doctor and the Moran Eye center in SLC agree this is a very unusual circumstance. Kaci is scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday, March 18 (our 46th wedding anniversary) at 7:30 AM AZ time.  That is the same as Pacific Time now that Daylight saving time has started.  She hopes to be able to go home Tuesday night with Home/Hospital care to recover.  She will be able to spend their 20th wedding anniversary (March 19) in the comfort of her own bed recovering from a very unusual surgery on her eyes.  This will certainly be one to remember.

I would like to invite each of you to join our family in a 24 hour fast for Kaci and Bill and those doctors that will be attending and facilitating this surgery.  Karli, Rex and Livi are on spring break this week and have committed to take extra good care of their mom.  That would include hand and foot service when she rings her bell.  I recommend that we all begin our fast Monday night with a prayer then fast on Tuesday while Kaci in undergoing this procedure, break our fast on Tuesday evening with dinner.  In China that will be on Wednesday but we will adjust to be able to feel the strength of your faith and prayers together.  Please talk to your children who are included on this email and determine what will work best for each in your own family.  

We have felt the strength and power of faith in a family fast before, I know that the Lord hears and answers prayers. It is very difficult for me to have this going on a be so far away.  However I know that I can depend on each of you to become the tool in the Lord's hand to do what needs to be done for our family.  I love and appreciate each one of you. I feel so blessed to be your mother and grandmother and stand with you as a family to fast and pray together.  

When you were all little we used to tell each other to "be brave."  I think this applies to all of us this week.  

I love you,

Mom

March 20, 2014

All,

Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts for Kaci and her surgery today. We so appreciate your love and support as we move through this ordeal.  It has put us in a bit of a tailspin.

I was just able to talk to Bill and see Kaci in recovery.  Turns out Livi is a pretty great "slave" under stress.  Kaci was in surgery this morning for three hours.  They were only able to do the right eye today and hope to do the left eye next Tuesday. They went in next to the temple and extracted the bone from the eye socket on that side of her eye, then moved over by the nose to extract bone from that area to allow the swelling of the eye muscles an area to expand into the new cavities they created without severing the optic nerve.  The Dr. reported to Bill that the surgery went as well as could be expected. Kaci's eyes both got very dry with the three-hour surgery so both eyes now have cornea abrasion that feels like having glass in your eyes.  That will hopefully heal in 24 very painful hours.

It sounds like the road to recovery will be a long one.  Next Tuesday this surgery will be repeated on the left eye. Kaci will have double vision after both eyes have healed from this surgery and the double vision will require yet another surgery to correct double vision.  The good news is double vision surgery is not an uncommon surgery and can be done after the healing process.  The Thyroid issue is still to be dealt with.  The surgeon today said radiation is not an option with her eyes in the situation they are in so removing the thyroid surgically is the only option at this point.  That surgery will need to be done as soon as Kaci is able to handle more surgery to stop the swelling she is suffering from.  She has steroids in her IV to help with the swelling. Kaci will go in tomorrow for a check of her vision levels to see if that has made any difference in the swelling.  

The good news is that Kaci is at home recovering with a home/hospital nurse working the IV set up.  We were able to say a quick hello, she is awake but her eyes are so swollen she can't open her eyes. Bill said she was able to eat some eggs this evening.  

I am thankful we have started down this path to get this resolved.  It has been a frustrating few weeks to get to this point.  It will undoubtedly be a long path with complications we don't understand at this point.  Thank you again for your support, it seems we are all sharing this gene pool never knowing what will come up next. I will send you updates as I get them.

I love you

Mom

Kaci is healing well from the first surgery and is preparing for round two on the left on Tuesday, March 25.