C is for..... cookie. Please!

 

“Today I will live in the moment, unless it is unpleasant.  In which case I will eat a cookie!”

~Cookie Monster

 

Those fun careless days of youth, when you would sit and watch Sesame Street with your sister and could not wait until Cookie Monster showed up.  As I have grown up, I have come to love him for more than a monster with an unending and unhealthy appetite for cookies, but also for his wisdom.

For example, there’s the look at the bright side of things quote;

“No cry because Cookie is finished.  Smile because Cookie happened.”

Or there's the kind quote;

“Sometimes me think, what is friend? And then me say, Friend is someone to share last cookie with!”

The ever laughable and relatable,

“Om, nom, nom, nom, nom.”

 But today, I reflect on the one phrase that Cookie Monster is known world over for…

“C is for Cookie – and that’s good enough for me!”

I want to say that phrase today with all the gut wrenching desire of my heart, sing it even… but I cannot.  It is unfortunate that for that last few weeks, C is not for cookie.  It has been for something much more sinister.  So, per Cookie Monsters quote above; Can someone get me a cookie!!!

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I last posted on this here blog in November 2014.  That was almost 7 years ago.  Tiffany did a single post update 5 years ago.  You should go read her post.  And then read on.

What has transpired with Tiffany and the family the last 7 years?

Life.  Life is what happened.  And a good one.  Sure, there are trials and struggles and stresses and pains and chaos.  But was also is full of fun, friends, family, parties, laughing, vacations, learning, hope, faith, and most of all... Tiffany.  As I start up this here blog, let me catch you up:

Porter went from being a 1^st grader to a teenage boy in 8^th grade.

Logan went from being in the 4^rd grade to being a Junior in High School

Emma was in elementary school, now graduating high school just 5 months ago.

And Dallin, an 8^th grader at the time, now a month and a half shy from ending two years on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Romania.

Me – not much but changed jobs, took on responsibilities in my church, and started a masters program.

Tiffany.  Well.  Let me tell you about our Tiffany.  

I won’t go into details but, suffice it to say, when I last posted, she ended back in the hospital for almost 7 weeks as she fought graft vs host disease - the disease that is caused when ones own body (host) fights against the donor (graft) cells.  It blew up and caused us to enjoy Thanksgiving and our 15th anniversary together in a room at Huntsman.  She surprised the kids by coming home on Christmas Eve with a special note to them and to her parents that she was cancer free!  However, that graft vs. host disease continued to attack her body.  It basically is an autoimmune disease that she constantly fights.  Accordingly, she has gone through the following.  Perhaps one day I will write a book about some of this because I won’t lie, some of it is hilarious.  I can say that now because she’s still with us, but some of the incidences took us for a scary loop.

Tiffany has:

• ·       Broken her arm which never really healed completely – took about two years to eventually get better thanks in part to some young doctors developing a new 3D printing casting technology that Tiffany got to try.
• ·       Had multiple falls, one of which is a funny story while taking Dallin out to lunch at Wendy’s after he had ACL surgery.
• ·       She had cataract surgery in both eyes.
• ·       Replaced her right hip.  The titanium one does a pretty good job.  (And it’s a modern-day miracle when she gets out of bed and walks 4 hours after the replacement – modern medical technology is amazing!)
• ·       She had a blood clot causing her to take blood thinners and making her into my ripe Chiquita banana!
• ·       I had to rush home from a business trip as she was sent to the hospital due to pneumonia.  I arrived to find she and her siblings telling stories in the ICU.  For better or worse, she was doing better by the time I had arrived and most of them were laughing at their memories of their childhood.
• ·     We celebrated our 20^th anniversary with a two-week trip to Hawaii.  Enjoyed the beach, the food, the weather, and the sights, including a doors-off helicopter ride to view the NaPali Coast.  The last couple of days of the trip she started to come down with some sickness.  Upon arriving home she ended up in the hospital and helped prepare the nurses for covid as they worried that she came down with Tuberculosis.  It was kind of a crazy as no hospital wanted her with that disease.  Her doctor ended up making a call or two and essentially getting after somebody saying, “she’s sick and needs to be in a hospital!”.  Hazmat suits became common place for a few days as doctors and nurses had to get fully suited up before they would come and treat her.  It ended up being just another pneumonia scare and came home a week later after working through some of the infection.  Note: the doctor didn’t say anything about going back to Hawaii… so maybe we will try that again sometime before the next 20 years – hopefully without getting an infection!
• ·       She had kidney failure causing another week in the hospital as we tried to figure out what happened.  It started with a text from Logan to me saying: “mom’s loopy and is trying to text and call me [at school].  Is she ok?”  We got things figured out after a scary trip to the ER in Layton and then being transported by ambulance, first to Mackay Dee Hospital in Ogden and then a couple days later ambulanced again to The Huntsman Cancer Hospital in Salt Lake City.  She literally arrived home the day Covid broke wide open.
• ·       Both legs have skin ulcers/lesions that took literally 3-4 years to heal including periods of daily treatments in a hyperbaric chamber, some amniotic sac membrane, and tons and tons of gauze pads and ointments.
• ·       There are untold hour-long trips to The Huntsman for tests and treatments.  Early on she had many treatments to try to help the newly placed graft cells could get along with her host body.  Over time the battle between graft vs. host got a little tired and while it is still there and causes many problems, some of the special treatments for it has ended. 
• ·       She still takes a boatload of pills morning, noon and night.  Well, morning and night.  Perhaps in some cases she should do better taking some at noon, but over time she has figured out a rhythm that seems to work.
• ·       She continues to weaken in muscle and bone and we continue to have to watch her and be careful with her. 

 

But she is here. 

And she has got to raise her kids for 7 years when there were times she didn’t know if she would get that chance. So, while it hasn’t been easy, or fun at times, she was able to see her daughter swim at state competitions.  She was able to watch her oldest play organized Ultimate Frisbee.  She has seen robotics competitions and tennis lessons.  She witnessed Dallin open mission papers and enjoy talking with him while he’s been serving in Romania.  She plays video games with Porter and lets him win a time or two.  She has gone dress shopping with Emma, helping her get dolled up for dances and enjoys hitting Café Rio while Emma and Logan (and at one point, Dallin – it’s a family tradition) are working and snag a discounted (or sometimes free) meal from time to time.  And, well, I won’t bore you with more, but you get the picture.  She was there for all of that and more.

And she will ever be grateful for that.  But she isn’t satisfied.  She wants more (she’s greedy that way).

But in the end, that was seven years rolled up into 5 minutes of synopsis.  I recognize we all have busy wild rides.  I just wish that sometimes they were of our own choosing.  That brings us to the summer of 2021.  

However, before I go on, take advice from Cookie Monsters quote above; Go get you some cookies!

End Part I  

(Part II will be posted soon, I promise)