Just a Bump in the Road

Prior to this whole journey beginning, many of you know that Kim and I had been on a health journey that had taken us down many different roads. This journey is what greatly influenced our initial response to my diagnosis. After being diagnosed, we spent many hours researching possible treatments and, after fervent prayer and fasting, we decided to pursue treatment via the alternative route. While not a lot of people agreed with our decision, we felt good about it. That being said, I think we took our "feeling good" too far. As I've reflected on those initial days, I've come to realize that I took things too far and became, in a sense, arrogant. I wanted to prove people wrong, especially the medical industry. The first oncologist that I met with scoffed at the idea of anything but the drugs he had to offer helping me fight my cancer. I, however, knew better. If I could change one thing about those first several months, I would have kept in contact with an oncologist a...

So brain surgery was done on January 25th, 2019. I was discharged from the hospital on the 27th and, after a rough first week home, started to enjoy some increased energy and overall better health. Friday, February 8th was my best day. I was able to get some laundry done, clean up in the kitchen a bit, and go shopping with Kim for a little while. That evening, after eating dinner, we cut my hair and I showered. After I finished my shower, I bent over to turn off the water. Once I stood up, I was hit with excruciating pain in my upper middle back. This was the same area that I'd struggled with from sleeping on the wedge, so I didn't think much of it. However, as I tried to move, the pain just got worse. I had to holler for Kim to come in and help dry me off and get me halfway dressed. Kim was able to get me into bed, but that didn't help. The pain was so bad that I started to have a difficult time breathing. About five minutes after being placed in bed, I began losing the ab...

Well... It's time for a few updates. It's been a while since I've posted on here. Hopefully my excuses are acceptable. I'll be posting a handful of updates just to try and catch up. The first update is of my brain surgery, which took place on January 25th, 2019 at the University of Utah Hospital. Dr. Fultz was the surgeon. More on the surgery in a minute, but first I'd like to discuss some of the build up to the surgery. As many of you know, I chose to treat my cancer holistically. My wife and I had done quite a bit of research into the alternative treatments available and, after much discussion with each other and with the Lord, we decided to pursue alternative treatment. I want to make it clear that I do not and will not ever regret that decision. Nor have I turned my back on the alternative treatment world. It's amazing how sometimes the perfect storm can conspire to cause issues. In December 2018, I started receiving help from the White Sage Clinic in Wa...

So here's an update on the last few weeks... If you remember, back on Thanksgiving I decided to switch to juicing. That's still the case. We go up to Orem and Spanish Fork once a week to buy produce. We go to WinCo, Costco, and Good Earth to buy our produce. We go to three different places because we're trying to get the healthiest food we can. Each place carries some organic version of the fruits and vegetables we need, so we spread things around. It takes about 5 hours each round trip to get everything we need. It's not too bad. Every other week we have to exchange the kids in Payson with their dad, so we just get our shopping done then. The other weeks we go up on the weekend or Kim will go up on a week day that she has off. Along with the juicing, I still have some potatoes and toast in the evenings to help me with food. The juicing is still going well, but we are having to make some changes. We've also made some other changes to the daily protocol. For a wh...

It's been a little while, once again. It's been a busy time of year with the holidays and that's made it a little difficult for me to find the time and energy to post on here. However, I've had some thoughts stewing around in my mind and I thought I'd share my thoughts on perspective today. Now that Christmas is over...I finally have time. And thank heavens Christmas is over, right?! Christmas just isn't what it used to be. Christmas is filled with buying presents, running gifts, running to parties all over the place, all sorts of cooking...it's just too much and the season simply isn't enjoyable anymore. Well... Not in my opinion. I absolutely love Christmas and the season. However, I can't tell you how many times I heard a conversation go something like this in December... Person #1: "Are you ready for Christmas?" Person #2: "Uh yeah...ready for it to be over." Person #1: "Tell me about it." Let me pose this ques...

After Ryan's cancer diagnosis, I have progressively become more protective of him.  I know that if he pushes too hard, or if he were to slip and fall, that his recovery would lessen.  I want to give him the absolute best shot ever, and for that reason I have restricted him from climbing in trees and on the roof. For many years now, it has been Ryan's tradition to put lights on the house Thanksgiving day.  Well, this Thanksgiving, time and energy were lacking for all of us and the lights, well.....just didn't get done :( Two weeks before Christmas, I recognized that I was trying to protect Ryan physically, but I really wasn't taking very good care of his heart.  He genuinely was affected by having no lights up and said "It just doesn't feel like Christmas".....  I knew I needed to do something quickly, because we were running out of time. Very rarely, will I ask for help, but I this time I did.  I needed help, for Ryan.  I called some trust...