2001...
Our story began in January 2001 when Reed
returned home from serving an LDS mission in Sydney Australia and started
working at Kneaders Bakery 11 days after. Stacie had just gotten a job there
one week before and thought from the moment Reed walked in that she had met the
man of her dreams. We officially started dating in March and we quickly fell
madly in love and October 12th of that year we were married. We were
young and in love and having so much fun, we couldn't be happier.
2002...
One day in January of 2002 we were
discussing our day with each other when Stacie suddenly doubled over with
severe abdominal pain. When it didn't subside we went into the Emergency room
where they discovered a large ovarian cyst that had grown large enough that she
needed surgery. It was during that first, of what would be several laparoscopy surgeries,
that they diagnosed Stacie with endometriosis. This new and frightening
experience gave us a chance to prove our love for each other with a challenge
right out of the gate as newlyweds.
It seemed we had just recovered from
this experience when we would be tested yet again when Stacie had to have her tonsils
removed. Several bouts of Strep throat had warranted for a tonsillectomy which
she had in June of 2002. The surgery went well but Stacie was extremely sick
from the procedure. She was constantly nauseated and throwing up and unable to
eat. After about a week she started to throw up blood and we quickly called the
surgeon. He instructed us to try a few things and if the bleeding persisted we were
to call him and go to the ER where he would be waiting for the call. The
bleeding increased and we found ourselves in the ER at about 10:00pm that night.
We gave them the number that the surgeon
had given us and we waited for him to show up. Hours passed by and there was no
surgeon. At around 4:00 am he showed up very frustrated because he had fallen
asleep fully dressed at home waiting for a call from the ER, which was never
made. He was concerned with Stacie’s condition because she had been bleeding
for so long and had become very anemic. Reed assisted him while he tried to
cauterize the bleeding but he was unable to stop it while in the ER and the
decision was made to take Stacie back into the operating room for her 3rd
surgery in eight months.
Her luck continued when in September of
2002 she had another laparoscopy after she had an ovarian cyst rupture. During
that surgery they discovered her endometriosis had progressed.
2003...
We had made it through a rough first
year of marriage and looked forward to a fresh start when in January of 2003 our
luck changed again. Reed and Stacie both worked at the hospital at this time,
Reed in the Operating Room and Stacie in Mother Baby. Reed received a call from the hospital one
Sunday afternoon to ask him to come to the hospital because Stacie had been
badly burned while at work. She had received 2nd & 3rd
degree burns to both of her lower arms when a water basin collapsed and spilled
its boiling contents all over her.
The rest of the year seemed to go by
much better until December when Stacie continued to have abdominal pain &
it was discovered she needed to have her Gallbladder removed.
2004...
After going through so much in such a
short amount of time we expected Stacie to be exhausted but when it became so
bad that she couldn't even function she was tested and diagnosed with mononucleosis
in March of 2004
Then, in August of 2004, we received the
best news since we had been married! We took Stacie to the ER for increasing
abdominal pain and the Doctor announced to us that Stacie was pregnant. We were
overjoyed and the nearly three yearlong streak of bad luck seemed to have been finally
broken!
But the excitement was soon changed to fear
when the pain became more and more severe. A couple days later we found
ourselves waiting for emergency surgery because a second ultrasound had
revealed that the pregnancy was an ectopic pregnancy and needed to be removed quickly
for Stacie’s safety.
We will never forget the disheartening
phone calls we made to our parents to inform them we had lost the baby and that
Stacie was getting ready for yet, another emergency surgery. She made it
through the surgery well but the emotional toll that had accompanied this
surgery had made recovery one of our hardest yet.
During
this same time, Reed was also dealing with challenges of his own. While
on his mission in Australia, Reed awoke one morning to find that both legs were
numb and he was unable to move them. He pushed his legs off the bed and sat up until
the feeling returned in his legs. He had thought at the time that they had just
fallen asleep, as if he had laid in a position wrong to cause them to become
numb. After a day or two Reed started to experience extreme weakness in his
legs and started to have problems getting out of a car and walking. It wasn’t
until another missionary, being concerned after witnessing Reeds failed attempt
to get out of a car, called the mission president to report what was happening and that a problem was found. He had an emergency transfer down to the city and
after a MRI they found Reed had a bulged disc. Reed was able to go through
physical therapy and was able to finish out his mission.
As Reed continued working to provide for them, attending BYU in pursuit of a degree and eventual medical career and taking
care of Stacie, his back problems worsened. Along with various doctors’ appointments
and other treatments, in August 2004, Reed began receiving steroid shots in an attempt
to assist with his back problems. These would be the first steps towards what
would become a long battle to reclaim a healthy spine.
However, our hope for a better future
was restored when in November 2004 we were miraculously surprised with the news
that Stacie had become pregnant again!
It was an uplifting and inspiring way end our year... after a very challenging first few years of marriage….
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