Dear loved ones,
I don't even know where to begin. This is not the week we expected it to be, but we are not always in control of what life has in store for us. One thing we have learned for certain is that we are loved (and we love you all very much), God answers prayers (and sometimes it is just with an abundance of comfort and peace), and that come what may, we are in the Lord's hands.
I think taking pictures and blogging is my way of finding happiness and of course recording this time in our lives. I don't know who all actually reads the blog, but it will always be here for us to look back at our time in Thailand. Hopefully this week will soon be a memory of a rough week that we survived.
I took a handful of pictures this week, and so I will go on, as I always do, through the pictures and try to tell the story in that manner.
Thank you again for the kind words, love, messages, virtual hugs, and prayers. We love you and are grateful to count you as our family and friends.
Love,
Elder and Sister Brady (mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, John and Shelly, and so on)
Last Saturday, we went to the hospital to go to Urgent Care. John had been experiencing abdominal pain since Tuesday evening. The pain wasn't debilitating, so we kept going on about our mission business. But if you go back to last week's blog, you might notice on Friday, John did not have any lunch. We were at Pepper Lunch - one of our FAVORITES - and he could just not eat. The pain was getting greater. On Saturday morning we cancelled our plans to go to Rayong with the Calls, the other Senior couple in our office. (We had a fun weekend planned with them including a hike at a national park, a house inspection, a beach baptism, and so on). John's stomach was hurting enough that we felt he should go to the doctors. In this photo, we are on our way upstairs to a room. John had seen the doctor who wanted to get a CT scan as soon as possible and also thought he needed to be admitted to the hospital.
I walked home to get a few things and so I took a few pictures on my walk.
This walk along the klong has been my exercise and a place to unwind each day.
I love this tree and how it makes a little canopy and offers some shade!
All checked into a room and still smiling, despite the pain.
Another walk to the hospital Sunday morning.
Sunday morning, the pain continued to get worse. Here we are in the hospital waiting for a CT scan spot to open up. John was put in a shared room the first night and unfortunately it was very difficult to sleep for him. You know how nurses are coming in all night to take your vitals and that keeps you from sleeping? Times that by two. And the lights were left on. And the patient next door was very nice but had a lot of phone calls and visitors. Side note, it turns out when about 10 visitors came pouring in to the room, we recognized some of them from the Bangkok International Ward! The patient next door was a member of the church. The visitors were there to visit the man next door and give him a blessing. They offered to give John a blessing too. And he accepted. We were grateful for that tender mercy.
The hospital is freezing cold inside! Sometimes I have to get up and walk around and go outside to warm up! Outside is burning hot. So I warm up quickly! I walked around and found these beautiful flowers.
And these water lilies.
And this beautiful shrine.
And just look at this lovely giant planter.
Since John could not sleep at all with the extra noise, we checked with our mission nurse, who checked with our insurance, and thankfully our insurance approved a private room for John. We got a new room. This is the lovely view of the skyline.
Sunday evening, after getting the CT scan, we got John settled into his new private room. The doctors came in after we were settled and let John know that he had multiple blood clots in his abdomen. They needed to start him on Heparin (a blood thinner) right away. There was a nice sofa/bed that I could sleep on if I spent the night. So I did. I only slept about 3 and 1/2 hours.
Monday morning early, John had a bleeding scare. So, they stopped the heparin and took him to the ICU. Above, he is on his way to the ICU.
I am so tired. And cold. I asked for a blanket. This has been my blanket all week.
A view from the windows by the elevator.
Monday in the ICU.
The Calls (the other Senior couple in our office) have offered to walk me home every night so I don't have to walk home in the dark. I am so grateful for this kind act of love and service. The walk is so good to clear my mind and I can tell them about our day. It's exercise and therapy combined. So many people have offered to help, but there really isn't much anyone can do except pray. The hands on things like this walk home each night have been very touching. I am beyond grateful.
Tuesday morning, I met up with Sister Harper. She is the MTC President's wife. Last week, Elder Brady gave a Patriarchal Blessing to one of the missionaries in the MTC. I needed to get the printed copy to him. I was able to give it Sister Harper and she ended up walking me to the hospital Tuesday morning. It was good to walk and talk with her. She is a dear woman and I am glad to have her as a friend.
The week before, the office ladies (West and East mission) had made plans to go to lunch together. These dear sisters made the walk to the hospital to have lunch with me. At this point, John was spending most of the day sleeping, and I needed to eat, so this was a lovely break. For me, girl time is essential. Sisters Meeker (who is heading back to Washington state at the end of April), Call (my office partner), me, and Sister Justensen (the new west mission office missionary). It was Sister Justensen's birthday too!
We ate SALADS! I never eat salads in Thailand because you have to wash everything so carefully and I am lazy. I love salads and I miss them. My veggie intake in Thailand is usually carrots and cucumbers which I can peel. So this was such a great treat. And the watermelon smoothie was refreshing.
I liked how the purple lights made Sister Meeker and Sister Call's hair PURPLE! :)
More buildings and flowers.
Thai Orchids are so beautiful.
Wednesday - April Fools Day! I wish this was an April Fools day joke, but it is not. Happy Engagiversary! 42 years ago, John proposed to me! And 5 weeks later we were married in the Seattle temple! There is a story . . . but IYKYK!
Wednesday night in the lobby of the hotel. I love this flower arrangement.
Wednesday night view of the hospital.
Wednesday night view of the Moon!
Thursday morning walk to the hospital!
I heard a rustling in the debris to the side of the walk way and saw a giant water monitor!
Sweet Caroline (former Sister Bunker from the West mission) and her mama, Katie Bunker came to the hospital and took me to lunch. I was so happy to eat another salad and to spend some time with friends!
Caroline just got back from Irish cooking school (she went right after her mission was finished) and she learned some amazing chef skills! She baked a cake for her brother's birthday the night before. They had invited us to the celebration, but we couldn't make it.
So they brought me some of Caroline's amazing CHOCOLATE CAKE! I don't even know what it was called, but it was the best thing ever!
Amazing!!!
John is still in the ICU, but he was in a chair when I arrived doing some reading. We sat and read together. He said he was feeling a little better. But as the day went on it was more of the same. Pain and a lot of waiting for something to change.
Sweet Kaitlyn came to visit today. (Kaitlyn and Jessica come to movie nights at our place on occasion.) John can't have visitors yet and doesn't really feel up to any visitors anyway. But I needed to eat, and it was so kind of Kaitlyn to take me to lunch. Yay for salads! Kaitlyn had some sad news today and we had each other's shoulders to cry on.
Kaitlyn also brought us these beautiful roses.
And that wraps up this week.
Earlier this week while John was quiet (which has actually been most of the week),
I asked him what he was thinking about.
He said he was thinking about how this was Holy Week, the week before Easter Sunday.
And then he said, "Maybe it's a week to help me better appreciate what the Savior went through."
That is a beautiful thought.
Thank you again for all of your love, thoughts, kind words, and prayers.
We love you.
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