A very unexpected and unfortunate event occurred in Provo on Saturday evening.  A shoplifter, who had been detained, pulled out a gun, aimed it at the employees and cops who had detained him, and was shot by police.

These types of events always make me sad and angry; sad that someone was stupid enough to shoplift and angry that someone was stupid enough to pull a gun on someone else.  This event, however, was a little closer to home than any other events of this type, and I’m not just talking about it taking place in Provo.

At about 8:15 pm, Corey went to Smith’s to pick up some of our prescriptions.  The pharmacy there closes at 9:00 pm.  When 9:30 pm rolled around, I started to wonder where Corey was and why he wasn’t home yet.  A little after 10:00 pm, I decided to give Corey a call on his cell phone.  To my dismay, he had left it at home.  At that point, I started to get worried.  My mind started making up all kinds of things that might have happened: Corey got in an accident, the car broke down, etc.  But, never in a million years did I imagine that Corey would be a witness to a shooting.

Corey finally got home about 10:30 pm.  When he walked upstairs, I said, “I tried to call you, but you left your phone. I was worried.”  His response, “Yeah and what a day to leave my cell phone at home, too.”  At this point, I realized that something had happened, and he began to relate the events of the evening to me.

Just as he was checking out (he stopped in the store to buy some lettuce; otherwise, he would’ve been gone already), he said he heard four distinct pops.  They sounded like really loud popping balloons.  Then, he heard a voice, “Everyone get down.  There’s a gun.”  At that point, Corey said he heard a barrage of bullets.  He ducked behind one of the self-checkout machines until the shooting ceased.

The cops ushered everyone in the store to an area so they could get everyone’s statement of what they heard and saw.  Corey said he saw a man in a dark uniform run toward the office and he heard a lot of bullets being fired, but that’s about it.

We found out on the news that the shoplifter was trying to steal some beer when a couple of employees tried to stop him.  He started to fight with the employees.  Just as the cops arrived, the employees had finally got the man into the main office area when he pulled out a gun.  The cops took their guns out and shot him several times.  The shoplifter was pronounced dead on the scene.  No one else was shot or hurt.

I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like to be there.  I’m glad for Corey’s sake that I wasn’t.  Otherwise, he would’ve had to think about me as well as himself because I would’ve fallen to pieces.  (He said there were a lot of people there that had fallen to pieces, including one of the employees that was in the vicinity of the shooting.)  He told me that he didn’t feel scared at any point, but the whole thing was very unsettling, disturbing, and surreal.

I’m sad that someone died, but I’m glad that it was only the shoplifter.  I’m glad that no innocent bystanders were harmed or killed.  And, I’m especially glad (and grateful) that Corey is okay.

Corey has had bad eye sight for a while now, but he wouldn’t get his eyes checked, until a couple of weeks ago, because he didn’t think his eyes were “that” bad.  It turns out his prescription is nearly as strong as mine. Anyway, based on that previous statement, you can probably guess that Corey needs glasses, which he does and got today.

While I was at work, he sent me a picture showing me what he looks like in his new glasses.  Lauren and Guy, two of my co-workers, asked me why Corey was so sad in his picture.  I relayed the message to him.  About five minutes later, he sent me the second photo.

Corey’s really self-conscious about the glasses.  He’s afraid he doesn’t look good in them.  I told him that it’s just because he’s not used to seeing himself in them.  Personally, I think they look nice on him.  They make him look sophisticated, don’t you think?

He’s also having a hard time with the fish bowl effect.  If you wear glasses, you know what he means by that.  It happens to all first-time glasses wearers.  I told him that he just has to get used to having corrective lenses.  At this point, he’s not sure if it was a good idea to have had his eyes checked, even though the world is much sharper and focused now.  (After he picked me up from school, he told me he liked it better when the world seemed softer … blurrier–see pictures below. ) I think he’ll like them more once he gets used to not only how they look, but how they change/improve his vision.

PS–For the record, he said he wasn’t sad in the first picture.  He just doesn’t always smile in pictures.

This is a very scary topic for me to write about.  As I’ve stated in past posts, I usually stay as far away from politics as possible.  I hate the anger and contention that ensues because of the disagreements over the issues.  However, in my last poll, a good number of you said you wanted to read about my feelings on controversial issues.  Here I go.

I’ve been thinking about President Obama’s health plan a lot.  Mostly, because there are so many posts/polls about people disliking/liking it on Facebook.

In talking about his health plan, President Obama has said, “No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick.”  First off, I agree with this statement whole-heartedly.  Now, before you start seething or fuming because I agree with this statement, please hear me out.  Just because I agree with this statement doesn’t mean I agree with the entire health plan in general.

One of my Facebook friends posted President Obama’s statement as their status on Facebook.  I immediately clicked the “Like” link.  A few minutes later, I noticed the following comment:

“Then, they should plan ahead and take care of themselves. Because if we want the government to do it, it will cost us our souls!”

The part that really struck a chord with me is the planning ahead to take care of themselves.  In general, that’s a good rule, but from personal experience, it doesn’t always work like that.

Corey and I were married in March 1998.  He was 22 and I was 19.  We had very little money, but we both had jobs and we had good insurance through Corey’s job.  However, because we didn’t want to be stuck in the same place our entire life, we decided that because I only had a year left of school at Snow College to get my Associates degree, we would quit our jobs, move to Ephraim, find a job there, and finish my year at school.

This plan worked until Corey was injured on the job in July 1998.  And, unfortunately, the job wasn’t paying worker’s compensation and they didn’t have insurance, even though they had told us they did.  (We were young and naïve.)  Because Corey could no longer work, they fired him and his injury was bad enough that he needed surgery.

From this point on, a mere four months after we were married, Corey and I have been constantly putting more than half of our income towards medical bills.  Some of you may be thinking, “That was an expensive surgery.”  Yes it was and Corey’s medical problems didn’t end there.

About a year and a half after we were married, Corey started having horrible migraines.  However, these migraines were more than migraines.  They wouldn’t just incapacitate him for hours.  They would incapacitate him for days and even weeks.

He had test after test done to find out the cause of his headaches.  No underlying cause has ever been found.  This went on for nearly eight years.  Fortunately, during this time, we had insurance.  It did cut our costs, but not as much as you think it would’ve.

Just as his headaches were starting to go away, Corey started to have pains in his abdomen.  The pain was later attributed to a faulty gall bladder.  However, even once his gall bladder was removed, he still had problems.  The doctors kept running test after test until he was diagnosed with polycythemia, a disorder in which his body produces too many red blood cells, usually associated with leukemia or lymphoma.  A few months later, he was diagnosed with colitis.  However, because of the polycythemia, they can’t control his colitis in the typical manner.  And finally, last year, they found a tumor in his femur.

Since the tumor was removed last December, Corey has been doing much better.  He still deals with the pain from the surgery and having a good chunk of his femur removed, the polycythemia, colitis, and he always has a constant low-level headache.  But, for the most part, he’s doing really well.  Unfortunately, our finances are still suffering from all the medical trauma.

We have insurance.  We’ve had insurance since his headaches started.  It’s through my work.  I quit going to school so I could be the main breadwinner because Corey couldn’t work.  It was too hard on him physically.  A regular eight-to-five job is still too hard on him physically.  However, even with the insurance, we’ve still paid more than half of our income to medical bills.  We still have medical bills we’re trying to pay.

You can’t always plan ahead for medical problems.  And, even if you can pay for the smaller illnesses, no one can afford to pay for cancer treatment.  It’s too expensive, except for the über rich, like Bill Gates or Donald Trump.  Heck, they may not even be able to afford all the treatment.

Do I think that health care should be affordable for all?  Yes.  Do I think our health care system, as it stands, has problems?  Yes.  Do I think President Obama’s plan is the best way to fix our health care? I don’t know.  I don’t think we should bankrupt our nation to provide health care for all, but I think we can make health care more affordable and that it can cover more than what it does right now and without all the headache from dealing with the insurance companies. President Obama’s plan may not be the solution, but at least he’s thinking along the right lines in the sense that no one should die or go broke because they can’t afford the care they need.

Happy birthday, Dustin and James!

In the post Dax, the Killer, I posted the results to a quiz I took about her.  That quiz told Corey and me there was a 96% chance that Dax is trying to kill us.  She made her first attempt on Sunday.

We took the picture after Corey had wiped up most of the blood and the wound had started to clot.  This picture doesn’t show how bad it really was.  It wasn’t deep enough to get stitches, but I kept telling Corey it looked like she had sliced his carotid because it was bleeding so much.

PS–She didn’t really mean to.  She was trying to climb over Corey while he was laying down and accidentally scratched his neck.  Or, at least, that’s what we’re telling ourselves to give us some peace of mind.

Happy birthday, Jamie!

Yesterday, Corey went to the doctor for the fourth time since his surgery.  His leg’s healing nicely.  He can even walk with just one crutch now and he can drive too. He’s still in pain, but it’s continuing to subside and become less and less noticeable.  The doctor told us he should continue to use at least one crutch for a month just to make sure his bone strengthens and then it’ll probably take six months to fully heal.

We also got some good news yesterday.  The doctor told us that after looking at a sample of the tumor and having the Mayo Clinic confirm diagnosis, they’re 98% sure that his tumor is non-aggressive. He should be out of the woods now that it has been removed.  They’re going to continue to keep an eye on him and do scans at least once a year to make sure it doesn’t grow back since there’s that 2% chance that it’s aggressive.  We know 2% isn’t a huge chance, but Corey’s the one in a trillion people who’s allergic to non-allergenic iodine. We can never be too sure with him.

We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers during this time.  We’re very grateful that everything’s okay and we hope that he’ll soon be able to start having better health and a better quality of life.

Some of you are probably wondering how Corey’s doing so I thought I’d post an update.  He’s still in a lot of pain.  He’s a little more mobile, but not by much.

He went to the doctor today to have his staples removed, but the doctor decided not to remove them quite yet.  Instead, he just took the bandages off.

As you can see (sort of), the scar basically runs the entire length of his thigh.  The scar will be pretty interesting once it heals all the way.

We’re still waiting to hear the results of the biopsy.  Again, the doctor told us the tumor looks non-aggressive.  However, because it was in his cartilage, the tissue’s being sent to the Mayo Clinic to confirm diagnosis.  As soon as I know something, I’ll let you know.

Anyway, thanks for all the well wishes and meals.  Corey and I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and prayers.

As far as a moving update, we’re still moving this weekend.  And, we’re moving to our townhome! However, we may not close until Monday.  If that happens, we won’t be able to take possession of the property until then, unless the sellers allows us to.  We may end up staying in a hotel this weekend.  We’ll know more tomorrow.

I’m really glad our moving ordeal is coming to a close.  I just wish it wasn’t such bad timing.  We had 80% of our stuff packed before Corey had surgery last week.  We would’ve had everything packed, but our moving date kept changing and we didn’t want to go without something necessary if at all possible.  I get to finish packing now.  Needless to say, I’ve been kind of tired and stressed this week with having to go to work, pack, and take care of Corey.  I don’t mind the taking care of Corey part; it’s just a little exhausting when it’s coupled with everything else.

I know everything will be okay, even though life’s a little hectic and stressful right now.  I’m just counting my blessings and trying to stay positive.

As I stated in an earlier post, Tuesday and Wednesday were kind of hectic.  Yet, I still had time to finish reading a book.  Hectic and time to read a book don’t seem to go together, do they?  If you take into consideration that I was sitting in a hospital waiting room for three hours on Tuesday, then it starts to make more sense.

I haven’t posted anything about this in the past because Corey hasn’t wanted me to say anything.  However, now that the “procedure” has been done, he’s okay with me sharing a little bit of what’s going on.

A few months ago, Corey’s left leg started hurting a lot.  After a series of MRIs, CT scans, and other tests, his doctor found a tumor in his femur.  One of his orthopedic surgeons decided it would be a good idea to remove the tumor, sooner rather than later, and find out how aggressive it is.  Because the strength of the femur would be compromised, the surgeon had to adhere a metal plate to the bone to help strengthen it.

We’re still waiting for the results of his tumor.  The doctor told us that it looked non-aggressive when he took it out so we should expect good news.  However, there’s a fine line between non-aggressive and mildly aggressive so we should be prepared too.  We should know the results no later than Monday.

Corey’s recovering, but he’s in a lot of pain and is laid up in bed.  The cats are keeping him company and I’ve stayed home from work since Tuesday to take care of him.

PS–We’re glad we don’t have to move this weekend. But, we’ll be moving next weekend no matter what because our grace period with our landlord has ended.  I’ll post more updates early next week.