Friday, July 20th My Mom wanted all of her grandkids to have a "camp out" sleep over. It was planned before we knew of Cancer. We saw the Pioneer Parade and the "highlight" 2,060 Stripling Warriors! We didn't have the energy to put up tents, we finally all crashed at 11pm (2-two-year olds don't go to sleep easily not in their own beds) and slept horribly! But we did what was planned and we'll remember it. Making Memories Matters!

This photo is by C. Spencer Reynolds

Yesterday, July 25, 2012 Karen had her biopsy done on her iliac bone. We hope to have the results by the end of next week! She said it wasn't that bad at all but then, "Maybe it was the percocet, ha ha". UofU Hospital gave her 1 percocet to take home, Karen took only 1/2 of the pill. :) My Mom also mentioned that the nurse told her, "If you don't want the pill I'm sure you can sell it to someone who will buy it from you." HA! She said the nurse that helped her yesterday was the nicest person yet.
I went over later that afternoon when she got home and she was up the rest of the day and evening and felt good. She tried to stay reclined to keep an ice pack on the gauze pad. On other days managing the pain seems to be the tricky part. Needing pain killers in the middle of the night, and having to eat food with it when she doesn't feel like it is hard. If she's in pain she can't sleep, which in turn makes her weepy and emotional the next day for good reason.
My Mom read me her journal entries from the time she found out about this, beginning of July up to now. We both cried. If I get a chance to take it sometime I may share the parts that would help anyone in life, insights she has learned in this short time. (hint, hint-Mom)

--The Lord will either calm your storm OR allow it to rage while He calms you.

--Do not be afraid of tomorrow; for God is already there.  ~Author Unknown

If I post something that doesn't seem relevant to this blog it is because this blog is for my Mom. Even if she is the only one to understand what is posted, I hope no one will mind. Another note I don't want to forget to mention, is There IS strength in numbers. A hard part of my Mom telling us she said her doctor thinks she had cancer was that she didn't know for sure yet and didn't have any information or news she could tell us. We got it out of her and then we had part of the burden of the unknown, fear and the great desire and need to share and TELL the world about this. Well, maybe not the world, but everyone who knows Karen, our Mom. We wanted everyone to know only for the fact that we had Faith that more prayers would help carry our Mom through this trial. So as soon as she gave the "okay" to tell anyone we shared it when we felt ready. Last night my Mom told me that she went on with life and pain and as soon as we had told everyone she could feel the prayers of all those who knew and were praying for her and putting her name (and ours) in the Temple. That was so amazing to me and realized that I have felt them, too. So now, when I read on someone's blog, "Thank you for love, concern and your prayers" I really really know now what that truly means. So, in behalf of all of her family, "Thank You" with tears in my eyes, a lump in my throat and a full heart, for Praying for Karen, our Sister, our Wife, our Mom, our Grandma.

Adversity

A Youth one day in idle play

Saw on a leaf a cocoon lay,

And within, struggling in its birth

A Butterly of wondrous worth

Was fighting for its destiny.

And with compassion in his heart

He tore its prison walls apart

To let the lovely creature free

From all its toil and misery

That it might spread its wings in flight.

But as he watched with loving eyes,

The newborn creature did not rise,

Nor did its fragile wings it spread

But lifeless lay--its spirit fled,

Its hopes and aspirations dead.

A man who does not have to fight

For home, and love, and strength, and light,

Never in the eternal plan

Rises to become a man,

But lives and dies as he began.

This is the law of adversity,

The fiercer the wind, the stronger the tree,

The harder the toil, the greater the reward,

The truer the steel, the sharper the sword,

The higher the climb, the farther the view,

Till lo, all eternity lies before you.