Blogs from Arizona, United States, North America - page 284

Motorhome News from North America 3 Going around in circles - Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and back into Arizona Zyon National Park - and The Grand Canyon 4th - 15th February 2006 As the sun came above the mountains we retraced our steps, following the road from Bryce Canyon down through the beautiful valley of irrigated fields along the Virgin River, snaking its way like a sidewinder through Glendale and Orderville, where hundreds of old cars are laid to rest beside neglected houses - and a fine church stands proudly by the road, to Mount Carmel Junction. The persecuted Mormons made their way to this part of Utah 150 years ago and finally settled a short way to the north. They certainly struck lucky here, for the smart town of Springdale at the bottom of the canyon ... read more

My mom is a fighter. By all indications that we can measure she appears to have beaten the sepsis, a whole system infection that 80% of those who face it do not recover from. She has done this with an immune system that was wiped out by the chemotherapy treatment. Her heart is doing its own work and her kidneys are starting to move fluid out of her body. She is still in a tough position and there is a long hard road of recovery ahead of us. The good news is that the doctors are starting to make estimations about her recovery instead of her survival chances. For the last week my mom has been surrounded by her family and friends both near and far who love her. So many people have been praying for ... read more

It took a while for me to work out what destination to pick out of the myriad of things you can do in the South West Corner of the States. I decided to go to Monument Valley, a must I suppose if you are in the vicinity of Utah, and as a last stop, Canyon de Chelly, a much less known site in Arizona. In fact, there was hardly anyone, which was a welcome change from Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. The name Canyon de Chelly is derived from the language of the Diné, the local Indian tribe in this area, “tsegi”, meaning gorge. The Canyon was declared National Monument in 1931 and belongs to the Navajo-Reservation. It’s the biggest Indian Reservation in the States, measuring 55,900 km². It was given to the Diné-Indians in 1868 ... read more

This Message is from my mothers husband Doug: This has got to be a confirmation of the power prayer! We have taken a small, itty-bitty step back from the precipice. Today Ginny’s signs remained stable. Her BP, pulse, blood oxygen and urine output have remained stable and slightly improved. She is still totally sedated and is receiving about 20% of the last vaso-constrictor. This morning her blood test was about identical to yesterday’s so we had an additional transfusion of packed blood cells and also two of platelets. She did not run a temperature all day. We have two more days on Xygris (the anti-sepsis medication) that are very significant. Up to this point there is no sign of internal bleeding, one of the major down sides of this medication. These two days are going to ... read more

After a very tense morning Ginny is improving slightly this evening. Her heart rate has risen to an acceptable level and her temperature has dropped to normal. They have been able to drop down on the dosage of one of the drugs and will work on the second overnight as long as she holds her blood pressure. They are still working the antibiotics into her. She was more lucid this afternoon and was interacting and communicating with us clearly. She is very upset about having a tube in her throat and letting us know it, something we see as a good sign. Both the oncologist and the admitting doctor and the nurse on duty this afternoon expressed their pleasure with the direction of things. This morning they initiated a drug that was a last resort to ... read more