Happy Family Times: January 2009

If you know Katie’s brother, Andy, you know when you are with him you will have an adventure - this winter was no different. Andy was in town for about a month doing a short residency with a family practice doctor in Provo so we were able to have lots of adventures.

January 9, 2009 - Getting a second opinion:

Kenny had a massive sinus infection that antibiotics from our regular family doctor weren’t making any better. Well, Dr. Andy did his own diagnosis and prescribed a different treatment plan – a nasal lavage. To accomplish this, we needed to acquire a 50 ml syringe to “wash” out Kenny’s sinuses. We were on our way from Provo to Logan at the time so locating a syringe was narrowed down to a local Walgreen's in Clearfield. We went to the pharmacy and asked if they had what we were looking for. They looked around and then said they didn’t have something that big. We thanked them for looking and started to walk away when the clerk called out to us and said she knows of something else that might work. She told us we could use an enema kit to accomplish the same thing. We all agreed that might work so we went to the isle to locate the kit. Dang, they were all sold out. So we kept searching the shelves and found a travel douche kit. We all looked at each other then agreed that it could do the job as well. We bought it!

We arrived in Logan at Kenny’s parents house. We took our bags in the house and quickly found a mug and the box of salt in the cupboard and took them along with the travel douche down to the bathroom. Dr. Andy’s treatment plan was about to begin.

Dr. Andy let the water run until it was the right temperature then filled up the mug with water and poured about 2 tablespoons of salt into the mug. He stirred it up, tasted it and decided it was the perfect blend.

Dr. Andy poured the mixture into the bag then added the nozzle to it. Kenny inserted the nozzle into his nose and squeezed the mixture into his nose. He said it killed and that his nose felt worse after doing it. So Dr. Andy and Kenny agreed they should do it again but a little slower this time. Dr. Andy again made the mixture, Kenny stuck his head in the sink and did the second application. Afterwards, Kenny said his sinuses did feel a little better. So I guess it was worth it after all.

For all those that are reading this story, just remember if your treatment isn’t working, ask for a second opinion.

January 10, 2009 – Skiing at Powder Mountain:

Kenny, Katie and Andy had a great day of skiing at Power Mountain. It was a Saturday but there weren’t a ton of people at the resort. And even though it hadn’t snowed for almost a week, there was a ton of untouched powder. It was a little slice of heaven for Andy who loves to ski powder. It was a beautiful, sunny day but a tad cold. All in all, we had a blast!!

January 17, 2009 – Snowmobiling at Strawberry Reservoir:

We picked the best day to go snowmobiling with Andy. It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday. We loaded our stuff up first thing in the morning, had some breakfast and set out for a day of fun. When we arrived at the parking lot and saw how many cars there were, we were worried that the trails might be a little crowded that day but that wasn’t the case at all.

We set out on a groomed trail not really knowing where we were headed. We followed the trail for a little bit then stopped because we all needed to shed a layer or two.

Once we were higher up in the Mountains, we took off into untraveled areas and ended up finding this wide open beautiful meadow with lots and lots of big hills and jumps. Andy and Kenny had a blast jumping cornices and drop-offs. Andy tried to learn how to carve the snow with the snowmobile – something Kenny had started to master while we were riding that day.

What adventure would be complete without Kenny having to fix something? This adventure was no different. Kenny’s machine all of a sudden stopped. He couldn’t get the engine to restart and stay on. He flipped open the hood and started pulling and poking at things and nothing seemed to work. He thought there might be an issue with the fuel line, which was something that couldn’t be fixed on the mountain. Then after 5 or 10 minutes of trying to figure out what the issue was , Andy looked at the steering column and noticed the safety cable was pulled out. Kenny plugged it in and everything was all better.