The Prices' 2001 Newsletter

Honey we’re home.  Hello again!  We’ve been out of touch with a lot of people during a long “limbo” period, so we need to do some catching up.  (And even if we don’t deserve it, we would love to hear from you again.)  It’s been an exciting year for us, much of which revolved around Jaedin’s hospital stays.  We have been very blessed in that despite some setbacks during his recovery from surgery, he’s back to himself now.  The other big relief is that we’re finally settled into a new house in the Portland area.  We’re actually in a town called Troutdale (we hadn’t heard of it either.)  It’s next to the Columbia River Gorge near Mt. Hood – a nice area but we’re now finding out that it’s very windy in the winter.  It’s feels good to finally move into a place of our own, but the house was a bit of a fixer, so there’s an endless list of projects that seems to get even longer each time we finish one.

Seattle to Portland.  It seems like a really long time ago, but we started out the year in Seattle.  It was a typical winter with one big event being a 6.8 earthquake that shook us up pretty good.  The earthquake seemed like big news at the time, but looking back on it now, nothing before 9/11 seems like big news anymore.  There was a lot of damage in the area, but in the end, the only direct impact for us other than a bunch of broken glass was an extended freeway closure that got me back on my bike for the commute.  We had outgrown our tiny house in Seattle, and we had been thinking about moving to the Portland area for a while.  It would get us closer to family, and when my company opened an office there about a year ago, I started making the transition to working on Oregon projects.  In the meantime we were gearing up for Jaedin’s last big heart surgery (tentatively scheduled for last summer in Seattle), so we had decided to wait until after the surgery to move.

Wrench.  Jaedin’s surgeon transferred to another hospital in the Midwest, though, so that put everything up in the air.  Our cardiologist recommended that we talk to Dr. Hanley, a surgeon at UC San Francisco who specializes in the type of surgery Jaedin needed.  We were a little nervous about going out of state for the surgery, especially since there’s no way to predict how long the recovery will take.  There were still quite a few questions as far as how and when to proceed, and as we talked with different surgeons, each one suggested a unique approach to the operation.  In the end, they left some of the big choices up to us, and the responsibility felt very intimidating.  After a little more research and lots of prayers, we decided to head to San Francisco and scheduled the surgery for August 6.

Ready, set...  We had a lot of planning to do in order to get ready for the surgery.  One side bonus was that Lindy and I both got to spend some time bonding with our mothers.  My mom came out to watch the boys for a week while Lindy and her mom took a trip to California to meet with Dr. Hanley, scope out the area, and visit some relatives.  We knew that any complications during the recovery might mean an extended stay, and since we had been planning to head to Portland in the fall anyway, we decided to put our things in storage beforehand in case we ended up being in California for the long haul. 

Go!  We headed to California a few days before the surgery for a preparatory catheterization and got the green light for the surgery.  Then we had a day or two to relax around the Bay Area, where Lindy and I first met six long years ago – we couldn’t have imagined back then we’d be returning under these circumstances, but despite it all, it was good to be back and see old friends again.  My mom and brother came out along with Lindy’s parents and brother to help watch Cam and root Jaedin on.  The surgery itself went very well, and Dr. Hanley was able to take care of both of the major procedures Jaedin needed (one big question all along had been whether or not to split the two procedures into separate operations).  Jaedin gave us a couple of good scares during the recovery in the ICU.  Things settled down after a few days, though, and Cam went back to Eugene with Lindy’s parents.  Jaedin fought his way through the rest of the recovery, and we got to take him home after about two weeks.  He was glad for the change of scenery, but very timid about things for a while.  Lindy and the boys headed to Eugene, where Jaedin had lots of help keeping Cam from tackling him.  I split my time during the week between the Seattle office and the Portland office, and spent the weekends in Eugene. 

Not Again.  We still had to keep an eye on a couple of areas of concern with Jaedin’s recovery, and we brought him back to Seattle for some follow-up visits with his cardiologist.  He finally got a clean check-up in September, and it looked like we were in the clear.  I had a conference to attend in Utah, and even though Jaedin was back to himself, we were a little concerned that the altitude might be too much for him.  We decided to take Cam to Utah with us (since he had been getting left out) and let Jaedin stay in Eugene with Grandma and Grandpa.  A few days into our stay in Utah, though, Jaedin started getting sick.  Blood tests showed that something was wrong, and we headed back to Eugene just in time to catch an ambulance with him up to Portland.  It turned out he had developed an infection somewhere along the line that had taken a while to surface.  A surgery team was mobilized and they took him in right away for another operation.  We had been up all night and were so exhausted by this point that it just didn’t even seem real.  We were back to the hospital just when we thought we were in the clear.  We were very grateful to hear after the operation that the tissue around his heart did not look infected, but we were told that if the infection had come from or spread to the Gore-Tex tubing (placed by Dr. Hanley during the operation in San Francisco), they would have to repeat that operation.  Apparently the only way to make sure the infection is gone is to wait and hope that the antibiotics take care of it. 

Adjustments.  The antibiotic treatment might last up to a year.  After a week or two in the hospital, we took Jaedin home on a permanent IV line with a pump that had to be hooked up every few hours.  The new medications, dressing changes (they left his chest open in case there was something deeper going on), and IV pumps were overwhelming.  But after a few days of adjustment, Jaedin took it all very well.  He was proud of his pump that he got to cart around with him everywhere and amazingly enough, he started looking forward to the dressing changes.  They switched him to oral antibiotics a few weeks ago, which will continue for another few months.  There is a possibility that the infection could flare up again once the antibiotic treatment ends, so we’re not in the clear yet, but right now all signs point to a complete recovery without further surgery.  So even though it’s been a struggle, we are very grateful that we have Jaedin home with us and back to himself now.  See Jaedin’s website (and our post to the HLHS listserv) for more details on the diagnosis, operation, recovery, and outlook. 

Househunt.  Once things settled down a bit after the surgery, we started looking at houses around Portland.  I switched to the Portland office full-time while staying with my sister in Hillsboro during the week.  After a couple of weeks of looking, we found a house out in Troutdale with lots of potential (too much potential, I’m afraid…)  We do have a guest room, though, and we’d love to have visitors if anyone is out this way.  Being in Troutdale makes for a long commute to downtown, but the light rail goes right to the doorstep at work, so at least I don’t have to fight traffic.  So anyway, here are a couple of events and highlights for each of us this year:

Cambren.  Cam will turn two in a few months.  He likes familiar faces and sticking to his routine.  He loves to eat, and he has already passed up Jaedin weightwise.  His favorite word is nnnnnnnnnnnno!  If you hear him say it, you’ll notice that his voice has changed already, so that’s one less thing he’ll have to worry about when he hits puberty.  He also loves to help around the house.  The other day I caught him painting the TV set with a wet paint roller he found.  He loves to ride around on my back, especially when I’m putting in flooring (as if my knees weren’t shot already).  Cam got to go back to Michigan with me for a weekend stay with Grandma and Grandpa Price (who were back from Utah getting the house ready to sell).  He had fun playing around the “farm” and getting to know his uncle Kevin, who was returning from 2 years of missionary service in Hungary.  Since Kevin missed out on our “Jaelynn and Pam” surprise last year, we had to get him as well.  He didn’t know we were coming (I told him the flights were all too expensive), so I shipped myself to him in a UPS box.  There’s obviously more to it than that, but it’s a long story, so if you want the details, you’ll have to ask. 

Jaedin (pronounced ‘Jaden’, not ‘Jay-dean’, the way lots of people seem to be pronouncing it lately - I hope he forgives us for the spelling someday).  Jaedin recently had his third birthday party.  We can’t believe he’s already three – which means he’s old enough to join the Sunbeam Primary class (Sunday School) in a few weeks.  Jaedin has a great attitude about life.  He’s as energetic as any other three-year old, and he always thinks of Cam when there’s something edible to share.  When it comes to toy trains, though, it’s another story.  He loves to help around the house wherever he can.  His Fisher-Price toolkit gets a lot of use while we’re remodeling.  One of his favorite things to do lately is to look through Christmas toy catalogs.  The other day he came up to us with a catalog open to the train sets, waved his hand across the entire page, and said, “I wanbuy alldat!”

Lindy. Lindy got to spend a good chunk of the year back home in Eugene.  She and the boys went there a few weeks before the surgery to spend some time with her grandma before she passed away.  After the surgery, she got to spend a lot of time with her family while I was working in Portland.  Since we moved, there’s been a whole new Lindy to get used to.  I come home to find meatloaf on the table, reupholstered furniture, and all the rooms a different color.  All the walls and floors in the house needed to be redone, so as you can imagine, she has been very busy with home improvements.  She gets lots of ideas from home improvement shows, and a few weeks ago, she actually ran into the crew from her favorite show at IKEA.  I tried to talk them into coming over to our place to fix it up, but they didn’t want to take me up on that one.  So anyway, Lindy has done a great job balancing the move-in chaos.  On a humorous note, I thought I’d share a conversation she had while I was attending a conference on the safety of dams a few months ago.  The hotel room key came with a pass to the spa, and Lindy thought she’d take advantage of that while I did my presentation.  When she got there, she realized she didn’t have the pass with her, and the receptionist wouldn’t let her into the spa without some ID from the conference.  So here’s an excerpt from the conversation:  “No, I don’t have the ID card with me, but my husband is right downstairs at the dam safety conference.”  And the receptionist’s inevitable response:  “Well no need to get so upset ma’am, but I really don’t know anything about any safety conference.”   “You know, that conference all those dam engineers are attending.”  “Oh, you mean the dam safety conference, well why didn’t you just say so?”  …and apparently it just went downhill from there.

Krey.  Hit the big 30 this year.  It actually happened while we were at the hospital, so it kind of slipped right by me.  I did notice, though, that suddenly all the doctors seemed younger than me for some reason.  It’s been an interesting year at work with the transition from Seattle to Portland.  I work primarily on river restoration and dam removal projects, but I’ve been able to slip in some water quality sampling field work in the Cascade Mountains.  I haven’t had too much luck with machinery this year – I managed to break down in both of our cars within two weeks of each other, and I also somehow obliterated two hard drives within about three months at work.  Speaking of office equipment, that brings me to the annual embarrassing moment.  One night I was bringing a load of my office equipment from Seattle to Portland after a long day of field work.  It was pretty late by the time I got there, and a button stuck when I went to disarm the alarm system.  So the siren starts blaring, and the security company calls on the phone.  I shut off the alarm and grabbed the phone.  I had just recently transferred, though, so I wasn’t on the list of authorized employees yet.  I was told they would have to call the receptionist to verify my employment.  I was embarrassed, since they would have to wake her up, and I went back to unpack my things.  Next thing I know an officer drives up to find me backed up to a door with computers and office equipment in my van.  You can guess how that looked to him.  He called for reinforcement and they surrounded the place.  Turns out the security company’s call list was outdated, so the person they called didn’t work for the company anymore and had no clue who I was or why I was “breaking in” to the office after midnight.  It took a lot of explaining, but finally they bought my story.  So anyway, when Lindy started talking about an alarm system for our house I cringed a little, but I’ll hope for better luck in the future.

Wrap it up!  So that pretty much sums up the year for us.  Trips to LA and Whistler BC cap off the travelogue, and now we expect to stick around Troutdale for a long time.  We’re looking forward to hosting our first Christmas Eve with extended family here.  It’s been an eventful year both personally and globally, and there’s a lot to be thankful for.  This year we’re especially thankful Dr. Hanley’s hands, hospital meals that can feed a family, froot loops and chicken noodle soup (Jaedin’s favorite hospital food – and yes, that’s mixed together), AAA towing, IKEA, Veggie Tales, grandparents, low interest rates, a Home Depot within a mile of our house, and great friends who don’t mind when their “so-called” friends drop off the face of the earth for six months and then expect a personal response when they fire off some generic newsletter.  

Have a great Christmas Season,

Cam, Jaedin, Lindy & Krey

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