Holey Heart to Whole Heart to Hawaii!

That's right, everyone. I am no longer a "holey" person :) I went to my 3 month checkup this morning, and the hole in my heart has healed over! Which means that I can stop taking Plavix (a blood thinner that enjoys draining my energy store). What a great day.

For those that don't know what I'm talking about, I had a heart procedure this past April because I had an unnatural hole in my heart. I'll try not to get too technical and anatomical and use pictures. Before the procedure, the doctors didn't know if it was a PFO (patent foramen ovale) or an ASD (atrial septal defect). The heart has 4 chambers, and in the womb, the fetus has a "hole" with a flap between the 2 atria because the mother oxygenates the blood for them so it doesn't need to go down to the lungs. So there is blood flowing in both directions as shown in the picture below by the blue and red arrows.

After a baby is born, the flap is supposed to close so the baby can start oxygenating their own blood. However, sometimes it doesn't close all of the way (PFO), and sometimes there isn't a flap to begin with (ASD). The hole can be dangerous because deoxygenated blood is flowing through the body, and it could also let blood clots through and up to the brain, causing a stroke.

I ended up having a 9mm ASD, which is almost 1/2 an inch. The procedure was very noninvasive, and I was in the hospital less than 24 hours. They go up through the femoral vein in the leg with a catheter to the heart.

Once they determined how big the whole was, they put the device in. There are different kinds, but I have one called an amplatzer septal occluder.

Here is a fun little step-by-step how they insert it into the heart.

It is supposed to heal over in 3-6 months, and mine has! Hallelujah! I hope that wasn't too boring for you.

Oh, and why did I mention Hawaii in my title? Because Josh and I are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow. I'll let you know how amazing it is when we get back.

First Official Blog Post

Hello all! When Josh and I first got married, many people informed us that we needed to start a blog because that is what married people do. Makes sense, right? Well, we decided to be rebellious (and mostly lazy) and skip this blogging requirement. However, after much prodding from a sister and a cousin that shall remain unnamed, we decided to start a blog. We realized that we rarely write in our journals and decided this would be a good substitute.

I want to start off my saying how great life is. We have had so many blessings this past year, with many things falling into place.

First of all....

Josh graduated from BYU!



He graduated with a degree in Teaching Social Sciences with a minor in TESOL- Teaching English to Students of Other Languages. I'm so proud of him!



His supporters:





It was a great day! He was very excited. What a good lookin' guy :)



Then, after a lot of praying, searching, applying, fasting, interviewing, and praying some more... Josh got a job! We had been hoping to find something fairly close to Provo so I can continue going BYU, and Heavenly Father heard our prayers. In a few weeks, Josh will be a Miner at Bingham High School!



He will be teaching Financial Literacy-aka nothing he studied in college. BYU career down the drain. Okay, not really, but it kind of feels like it. I'm sure the education classes he took will be helpful. We're excited though because the information he will be teaching-the basics of personal finance-will be good for us to know as well. He's started researching and learned a lot already. Which will definitely be helpful on a teachers salary :)

Once we found out where Josh will be working, we started looking for a place to live. We currently live in a basement apartment (and nobody lives upstairs right now) that we have actually loved overall, but our contract ends in the middle of August, and it is a good 25-30 minute walk to campus without snow. Since we only have one car, we decided to search for a place that is closer to campus and that I would be doing the walking and Josh could have the car. I'm just thoughtful like that :)

Married housing in Provo is... interesting. The cheap places are just that. Cheap. Low ceilings, no A/C, no dishwasher, no washing machine or dryer, no coin-op laundry, etc. We might as well be living in a cardboard box on the side of the road. We currently have a dishwasher and washer and dryer, but no A/C. After experiencing a summer without A/C, it became a priority for Josh as we looked at apartments. It hasn't been dreadful because we are in a basement, and we have a fan, but it could be better. After looking at lots of interesting places, we found a place in our price range that's only 4 blocks from campus, has a dishwasher, A/C, and coin-op laundry. It's part of a complex, so we'll have to adjust from having a house and yard to ourselves, but we're excited.

Well, there's a quick update on the exciting happenings in our lives. To those who poked and prodded, you are welcome.