I'm Battery Operated

I've been in the hospital. I now have a pacemaker inserted in my heart. For about three days before Thanksgiving every time I stood up I would get really light headed. Even so I managed to help distribute the turkey dinners for the needy in the ward, wrap my kids gifts, and fix dinner for Thanksgiving. Tim did offer to bring me a stool to do all the work while sitting, but I said I would rather have help, so he peeled 4 potatoes. Amber helped whip them and made the stuffing and set the table, etc.

After dinner I could hardly walk to the bathroom without holding onto the wall. I felt like this lifestyle was just not going to work out for me so asked Tim to take me to Kahuku Hospital to see what the trouble was.

My pulse was 34 although blood pressure and everything else was OK they transferred me by ambulance to Castle. (They told your dad he couldn't drive me because the top and bottom halves of my heart were firing irregularly. It was a complete electrical blockage (not a heart attack or stroke. They told daddy if they both happened to fire at the same time it would be very bad)

At Castle it didn't take long to determine that I needed a Pacemaker put in my heart. They put in a temporary one very soon. A wire was threaded through the vein in my neck down to my heart and electrical pulses were applied with plans to put in a permanent one on Saturday. Unfortunately the temporary one wasn't so good so it often stopped catching and by Saturday after it had stopped about 6 times and so my diaphragm had started trying top create a pulse making me look like a serious hiccup case they zipped me into surgery for the internal pacemaker.

A small incision mas made in my left upper chest and the pacemaker inserted. Only local anesthesia is used. I will wear a sling for two or three days so that I don't move my left arm too soon and dislodge the thing and die on the spot. "Yes, I am 99% dependent on this little pacemaker in order to stay alive."If I need to talk to a doctor I can just call in, hold the receiver to my chest at the equipment site and it will transmit directly to him the battery life and status of my pacemaker and situation.

I should be able to go home tomorrow and as long as I keep my energizer bunny current I can just keep going, and going, and going, through the millennium I suppose.

l

Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in the admonition of the Lord. I am grateful. I love all four from the depths of my very being. They have all married wonderful chosen spouses whom they love and whom I love too, and my grandchildren are a delight in my "old" age.

I am grateful that like Nephi I was born of goodly parents, reared in the church, and taught the ways of the Lord and loved by a mother and father and sisters. I miss my parents but their example and teachings guides my footsteps today. I am thankful for sisters and a stepmom who give me a family to belong to and love to share throughout my life.

A wonderful and loving husband shares my journey onward through whatever joys and challenges we may face. I know he loves me and he leads and blesses me by priesthood power. His kindness and patience sustain and fortify our marriage for eternity.

Many times I have rued the day computers came into my life because they seem so complicated, but today I am grateful that they have made genealogical research so much easier. In the last week I was able to have 48 baptisms and confirmations done and 15 sealings for my ancestors because of the greater ease in finding what needs to be done through the church's new Family Search program. Though much work remains, I am grateful to be trusted with this awesome responsibility.

This Thanksgiving is the 85th birthday of my mother-in-law. I would like to say I am thankful for her and the patience and loves she gives to me. She is a great example of all the good things I hope I can learn to be. She must have been a great mother as she raised 10 children who all remain true and faithful. Her son, my husband is so like his mother in many aspects and they both continue to bless my life with a better vision and greater understanding of how to become Christlike. I love you Mom!

Polynesian Cultural Center Still #1

Friday and Saturday we went to the Polynesian Culture Center with a couple that is being interviewed for a job at BYUH. Tim is the head of the hiring committee for this particular position so we were kind of responsible for showing them around a bit. Anyway, we hadn't been for awhile and were anxious to see the new shows and updated features. You'll be happy to know that the Poynesian Culture Center is still the number one tourist attraction in Hawaii, although the down turn in tourism is certainly obvious during these economically stressed times.

A couple of changes to the place include an updated night show and a new section about the Iosepa,the boat built as a replica of the early sailing vessels of how the Polynesians first came to Hawaii. "Iosepa" is the Hawaiian word for Joseph. Several million dollars were spent on the A-frame shelter that the boat is stored in let alone the cost of building the boat itself. When in the ocean they often anchor the Iosepa by Hukilau beach area and have classes on board. The new presentation at the PCC tells in Hawaiian chant and dance the story of the coming of the early peoples to Hawaii. It is very well done and interesting.

Another change is that the island of Marquesas no longer has a show, which used to be a "pig hunt" because all the students from Marquesas have graduated and there are no new ones here right now. This village is now just an exhibit, which is a loss, I think.

One of my favorite villages has always been the Samoan one where they climb the palm tree, make fire by rubbing sticks, and crack the coconut with one blow and make coconut milk by shredding the meat and gathering it into coconut fibers and squeezing it. The leader of this village is an excellent comedian so the whole show is great fun. The new addition is a side show of this village where students and younger children explain the weapons used in early Samoa and show the fire dances that they are learning to some day be prepared for the big performance at the night show. It was a good close up of the practice and so interesting to watch. I shall attempt to include some videos with this blog of that practice.