Tietjens Down Under

Thursday April 5, 2012 Elder Tietjen developed stomach pains after eating lunch.  

He waited it out until 11 pm and decided that he was in too much pain and it was not going away. 

 I drove him to the hospital as he made sure early in our mission that I knew the way there (just incase).    He thought maybe it was his appendix.   After taking x-rays and other tests, they determined that it probably was not but they kept him overnight.   

The next day  the Doctor did a scan on his abdomin to see what they could figure out.  

All the time Elder Tietjen was on morphine to relieve the pain.  

The scan did not show any problems with his appendix either, but there was a lot of liquid around it.   The Doctor decided to do a small incision scope surgery and not finding anything decided that they needed to cut him opened.    Elder Tietjen had given that permission.   

The Doctor found 50% of his Portal Vein full of blood clots which blocks the flow of blood to the bowels.    He also found about a foot of his bowel was not working.   

He said the bowel looked healthy enough so he opted not to remove it and sewed him back up.   

He was then put on a blood thinner to hopefully help the blood flowing again.   

His bowels finally started to work again on Friday April 11.      

Tues April 17 the PICC line was removed from his arm. 

They did not want to release him until they got the amount of

warfarin (the blood thinner) regulated just right for him.  

He had at least 1 visitor from the branch each day.  

Mission Pres. Simmons came to see him from Sydney

and the South Pacific Mission Doctor kept track of him and reported his progress to Salt Lake.  

The hospital is very modern and just opened new 1 year ago.  

There is a garden in the middle of the section that we were in.  

It is surrounded by large windows and the sun shone in very bright.  

Elder Tietjen was able to walkclear around the hallway.  

We called it walking around the block.  

It is such a lovely view

He was in a room shared by 3 other men. 

They came and went during the 2 weeks Ron was there keeping the beds filled.  

There was only 1 day the beds were all empty giving him his own private room.   

It was very nice.     

 Ron's bed was the one in the left hand corner closest to the window.  

He had a beautiful view of the golf course. 

Right now Autumn is upon us and the leaves are falling.  

So there are lots of pretty colors all around. 

He was released from the Hospital Thursday April 19.  

Making it exactly 2 weeks from the time he went in.

Some of you have asked how I was holding up.  

Sister James brought me some blue and orange yarn

and a crochet hook to keep me occupied.   

I did not know what to make. 

I had brought some variegated, pastel colored, baby yarn from Rexburg.  

I also brought my crochet hook that I am used too.  

I set out making a doll bed/purse like the ones my mother  

and I had made for my little granddaughters  this past Christmas.   

I used a juice bottle that I cut the bottom off.   

When Sister James brought me the yarn she also brought her little niece

Ngari (3 ½ yrs) to the hospital to see us.   

 She is the only active little girl in the Orange Branch.   

 I decided to make it for her.   

She is an Aboriginal girl that is being adopted by Sister James’ sister and brother-in-law.

Just incase I ever made one, I have been looking for 7 months here in Australia

for a baby doll that might fit it.

I have found no small baby dolls

so I set out to make one out of a sock.

This really helped pass my time while I sat there at the hospital.

I finished it and I asked Sis. James to bring Ngari back to the hospital to visit us again and I would give it to her.   But they all got sick at their home and were unable to come.  

Now I don’t know when I will give it to her.

It was also nice to be able to have our internet and computers at the hospital. 

I was all alone at the time of Ron's surgery.   My daughter-in-law in Idaho was

on the computer too and she would e-mail me and send pictures.  

We wrote back and forth for 3 hrs.   She was truly my lifesaver.  
Thank you Christy.

I don't know how I would have handled it without you.   

Everyday I kept getting e-mails from family and spent the time writing back.  

They were even able to skype us, which I loved.

I also studied for my talk that I gave on April 29.     
It was about families.  

To watch TV in the hospital, you have to buy a TV card for $5 a day, insert it into a place on the wall and your TV works.  We decided not to buy one.   But 2 patients that had been in the same room had given Ron their cards when they left.   

One man gave him his card on April 14 with 7 hrs left on it.  

It was Ron’s birthday so we watched the movie "Curse of the Pink Panther".

 The card expired just before the mystery was solved so we will never know what happened.

Every night I went to the Doyle’s home for  dinner and visiting.  
They took good care of me and also came to the hospital to visit often. 
After leaving the Doyle's,  I would go home to my apartment, turn on a movie and go to sleep.   
Never seeing much of the movie, but at least I didn’t feel so alone.  
Sister Doyle offered for me to stay at their place and even volunteered to come and sleep at my apartment.   But I felt pretty much ok about being alone.  
Besides I needed some private time to cry.
It was hard seeing Ron in the condition that he was in.

I got to be a pro at this wrong side of the road driving.   I know my way to the hospital, the Doyle’s, the church, Big W, 2 grocery stores and now a gas station.     Oh yes, and back to our apartment.

I feel my Heavenly Fathers love and presence and I know he is also taking good care of me.

Thank you all for your prayers and concerns.