There's a bit that has happened this last month that those around here know about, but we might as well catch everyone else up. June 3rd was our 9 year anniversary. We had reservations at the Anniversary Inn (for the pirate ship room) and at a yummy restaurant in Salt Lake. Seth's sister Hillory was babysitting overnight and we were set, except... Karalenn's left leg kept bothering her. It had been hurting for two days and it got the the point that it seized up on her and she couldn't walk. She called her doctor and described the pain and explained that it was swollen and purple. She was sent immediately to the E.R. because she had the symptoms of a blood clot.



Sure enough, the blood clot was enormous and filled the entire main artery of her left leg from her foot up to her thigh. The baby is okay. It was amazing that it hadn't dislodged and gone into her heart or lungs with how long it had been there (considering all the walking around without going to get it checked out). She was stubbornly trying to get through the anniversary celebrations and was a bit irrational with pregnancy-brain, thinking it was some side effect to anti-nausea medicine. :) In fact, while in the E.R., after giving her a shot of blood thinner and pain killer she wanted to hurry and get out of there so they could still celebrate. Much to her dismay she was admitted to the hospital to stay for two more days. Part of the reason for the two day stay was for dehydration. She had lost a lot of weight and was so sick she couldn't keep anything down for weeks before it all came to a head. She was hooked up to an i.v. to help bring back some nourishment and was instructed how to give herself blood thinner shots twice a day (which she will have to do for 6 more months and then after the baby comes she can take pills).

So instead of this...

We had a special room like this for our anniversary. We called it our "hospital themed room", but Seth did draw an excellent pirate ship on the white board across from the bed. :)

...and instead of dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant we had this. :) YUM!

We returned home on Thursday, but had to go back in on Friday because the blood clot had spread to her pelvis and abdomen. She was sent home with strict orders to stay in bed and not go down the stairs. A nurse began coming every couple of days to change her i.v. and Karalenn stayed in bed while sugar water pumped into her for a while. Our community here chipped in like we've never seen. Friends came early in the morning to help our girls get dressed and fed and took them for the day until Seth got home from work. People dropped in every hour and a half to bring up more snacks for Karalenn to her bed and change her throw up pan (yuck!!!!!!). People have sneaked into our house and cleaned it, mowed our lawn, weeded our flower beds, and brought books and movies. Makenzie and Kendyl have been in heaven playing with their friends every day and can't wait to hear who they go to each day. What a blessing to have them not stressed out along with us. :) We can't describe how amazed and humbled and grateful we are! It has been an especially enormous blessing to have family close bringing in meals and helping. Karalenn's parents came this last week and just left today. It was so wonderful having them here as they helped in only the ways that parents know how.



Every week gets better. Kare can go down the stairs now and wander into her garden outside. It doesn't scare her to give herself shots in the stomach anymore. In fact, it's quite the highlight for Makenzie and Kendyl to watch it happen every morning and night. We have been so blessed to see the blood clot ease as quickly as it has. She can still only walk for a few minutes, but that's amazing for how long she was suppose to be on bed rest. She is learning to not push it. :) Which, if you know her, is extremely hard to balance and a bit frustrating. The more circulation and activity she can get the better the clot can break up. She hopes that within a few months she can join her walking group in the morning again. What we are most grateful for is the blessing of the morning sickness decreasing so much that she could take her i.v. out (literally- she got fed up and pulled it out after the nurse took an hour and a half looking for a vein that would work):) and it is still decreasing to where most of the day she is well. This is such a miracle!!! Her other pregnancies she has been sick about 8 months of them. That is what we were expecting this time, but hoping and praying for less. We have been grateful for your prayers and she has received many priesthood blessings to get through this time. It's wonderful to see miracles in our lives.


She went for a check up on Friday and the baby is still doing well. We were excited to find out that we get to find out the gender in a week and a half (July 8th). Some of her blood tests have come back and we've discovered that she has a condition called (get ready- it's long) Methylenetetrahydofolate Reductase Deficiency or MTHFR with the c6777 mutation and A1298c mutation. That clears things up right? :) Now we don't quite understand it ourselves, but the best we could gather from her specific type is that it is very rare and comes from a gene mutation that she gets from both sides of her family and makes her prone to heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. Pregnancy and birth control can trigger it more easily. Isn't that exciting? It's okay though. We aren't scared or sad or anything like that. We wouldn't have even been able to discover it had she not been pregnant and got the blood clot. Now we know that she just needs to be on blood thinners the rest of her life. This could be as simple as baby aspirin (hopefully not shots), and it will protect her better than had we never found out. The doctor called the conditions for discovering it "the perfect storm", so we are grateful for the blood clot while being pregnant after all so that she could take the right blood tests to discover it. There isn't a lot known about it and it's pretty rare, but we feel we are in good hands.

We would still appreciate your prayers and thank you for those offered already. I'd like to take this time to sing you all a song that sums things up pretty well...

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have the facts of life, the facts of life.

(I've just read through this and think that I should mention that Seth has an odd sense of humor of writing things that don't sound like jokes, and most people don't understand that he is being funny- refering to his "Facts of Life" theme song above. This tendancy in him makes it a little embarrassing when he writes on our family Christmas cards. :) But you gotta love him. ~Karalenn)

That's it for now. We'll talk to you again soon and let you know if it's a boy or a girl when we find out.