Chapter 13 - In Sickness and in Health

 

As you read over this chapter, it may help you to understand why I didn’t particularly want to write about this part of my life.  It is not an easy subject to write about.  Especially in light of the many surgeries I have been subjected to that are not generally subjects of polite conversation.  However I do feel it important that my posterity know of my health problems in the hope that they might see the importance of checking with their physicians regularly.  Your doctor can save your live.  Mine have surely saved mine.  My most precious gifts are my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and I hope to be around them as long as I can.  I don’t want them to have to undergo something that might have been prevented by a little foresight on their parts.  I love them all too much for that.

I had most of the usual communicable diseases as a child.  I was vaccinated for smallpox (I have the scar to prove it) and I had measles and mumps because I recall having been told about them.  I never had Scarlet Fever and I don’t recall ever having Whooping Cough. 

The earliest illness that I remember was the nephritis that I mentioned in chapter two, in my childhood years.  Other than that, the only real health problem I had while growing up was the frequent sinus infections that I mentioned in an earlier chapter in connection with my aborted swimming lessons.  I did, however, pick up Athletes Foot while at the Deseret Gym where I took my swimming class.   I recall having several bouts of that, ending up on crutches at one time.

 

 

There were no medications available to treat Athletes Foot when I was young, and I relied on a diluted solution of Clorox (sodium hypochlorite) in which I would soak my feet each night.  It worked pretty well.   I never completely got rid of the fungus in my toenails.

 

I became a Cub Scout sometime after I was 8 years old, but at that time the LDS Church didn’t sponsor the Cub Scout program.   I don’t recall how I got involved, but I do remember going to some Cub Scout meetings at Saint-Pauls Episcopal Church about 3^rd South and Ninth East.  They didn’t have weekly pack meetings like we do today, but did have a monthly meeting at that Church.  When I turned 12 I joined the Boy Scout program at my Ward.  I advanced quickly to my Second Class, but, at that time, one of the requirements to become a First Class Scout was to pass a swimming test.  I had never learned how to swim – and quite frankly never got through my swimming class at the Deseret Gym – so I couldn’t go any further in my scouting advancement.  I did attend scout camp, going to Camp Steiner, near Mirror Lake, a couple of times, which I did enjoy.  The ward had a scout room beneath the stage in the Yalecrest Ward.

As mentioned, during my high school days, my doctor discovered that I had a heart murmur.   My physicians tell me it is still present today.  I have had all sorts of tests on my heart and none of them have ever pointed to any problem from the murmur.  I will mention this later when I talk about my congestive heart failure.

I have worn glasses about as far back as I remember, at least by the time I was 10 years of age.  Most of my problem was due to astigmatism.  While I was in the Navy I opted not to wear glasses; I must have seen well enough to pass the eye test.  As I have gotten older, my eyes have become more of a problem, as would be expected.  I progressed to bifocals somewhere in my 40’s and then to trifocals.  I now prefer lineless or “progressive” lenses.  I am near‑sighted, and often prefer reading with my glasses off.  As I got older I was told that I had cataracts and I barely passed the driver’s license test one time.  While on our mission to Nauvoo, in 2002, I noticed that I was losing my depth perception and when I saw an eye doctor in Keokuk, Iowa (across the river from Nauvoo) he told me I needed cataract surgery in my left eye. When I had the cataract removed it was wonderful to have my depth perception back again!  Interestingly, Jeanné developed a cataract while in Nauvoo, and she had hers corrected shortly after I did.

One problem I didn’t realize I had until later in my life was that I have hammer toes on my right foot.  They really never bothered me, but while standing long hours as a pharmacist I had a lot of pain from a callus that I later learned had developed because of my hammer toes.   It just kept getting worse.  In my work I had seen many sad experiences people had had after foot surgery so I didn’t even consider that recourse until my sweetheart finally talked me into seeing a podiatrist. He operated on the worst toe, and I must admit that I didn’t have a bit of pain following the operation!  I could have kicked myself around the block, having gone so many years with that painful right foot for no reason!  The foot operation was in the spring of the year that Jeanné and I went on our first mission (1989) and so I never got back to my podiatrist for follow up.  Ten years later after returning from our trips on the Mesoamerica and the American Heritage/ Church history tours, I found I had developed stress fractures in the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th metatarsal bones of my right foot.  It made it necessary to wear a walking cast for about two months.  My podiatrist, Dr. Kenney, said that it was probably from favoring the callus that I still had on my right foot.  It also turned out that I had developed about four small warts on the bottom of that foot, under the callus, so I was sent to Dr. Craig Larsen, another podiatrist, to have those warts removed by Laser.   After I was diagnosed with diabetes, I started seeing Dr. Scott Soulier who said that the callus on my foot was being caused by my second hammer toe, which

 

telegraphed a pressure to the ball of my foot causing the callus.  He straightened the toe and the callus virtually went away!  I still have pain from a third toe which I thought might be related, but after going to two specialists I found out that it is arthritis and nothing can be done for it. 

At the age of 50 I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and have taken medication for that ever since.  My diastolic pressure seemed to be the hardest to control, and various doctors have given me different medicines over the years to control it.  Today it is being controlled very well.  All of my progenitors on my father’s side suffered from heart problems, so I figured it made good sense to watch mine.  I also learned I have high triglycerides.  At first it was suggested that I watch my diet, which helped, but I now take daily medication to lower my cholesterol and triglycerides, along with my diet, and I am doing very well.

It was about that time that I was diagnosed with high blood pressure that I realized that it was in my best interest to have a personal physician, and I began the process of having yearly medical exams.  Not that my first doctor wasn’t a good doctor, but our relationship didn’t turn out well so I transferred to Dr. Rulon Simons who remained my physician until he retired in 2007, after which I started seeing Dr. Ann W. Richards, as does Jeanné.

One of the things that physicians do is encourage sigmoid scope inspections of the lower colon every few years as a part of their medical exams, and I have complied with this, uncomfort-able as it is.  On one of these exams, Dr. Simons found some small polyps and referred me to a specialist who removed them.  They were, fortunately, benign and since then I have had no recurrence.   In recent years they now use a flexible colonoscopy in the screening procedure because of its ability to see higher in the colon and detect early changes.  It is performed under sedation and other than the cleaning laxative preparation it isn’t a bad test at all.  Do not overlook this important test!

I have always been grateful that I had the foresight to have these tests, especially since my brother, Bob, who opted not to have routine medical check‑ups, had to have a cancerous portion of his colon removed a couple of years before he died, and lived the rest of his all too short life wearing a colostomy.  That cancer also metastasized to his pancreas, which ultimately caused his death.

About the time that I had my foot operated on I noticed I was having a problem urinating.  I went to see, Dr. Tony Middleton, an urologist, a friend and former neighbor, who said we would watch things.  Just before Ann and her family arrived from England to live in the States, my prostate shut things down like a clamp.  I had to rush in to Dr. Middleton where he inserted a urinary catheter.  I couldn’t believe it when he emptied two liters (over 2 quarts) of urine from my bladder!  I was immediately put on his surgery schedule for the following week, and he performed what is called a TURP (Transurethral Resection of the Prostate.)  Many liken it to a “Roto-router” operation—it surgically opens up the passage of the urethra through the prostate into the bladder and allows you to urinate normally again.

 

This was a rather low spot in my life.  In trying to cope with the recovery after those two operations (foot surgery & TURP), problems at work (as mentioned in chapter 7) were becoming unbearable, and I made the decision to retire.  The up side of it all was that Jeanné and I were then free to go on the mission that we had promised ourselves.  It was the best decision I ever made until then.

Prior to our mission, Dr. Simons discovered that I had a hydrocele.  It was confirmed by Dr. Middleton and I was told just to watch it and if it got too large, steps would be taken to remove it.  I am not going to describe a hydrocele, but you can look it up if you desire (Google it.).  After our mission I went to see Tony Middleton again for a routine checkup and he agreed with me that the hydrocele had grown large enough that it should be removed, so I was again in the hospital for surgery.  Dr. Middleton wanted to keep a closer watch on me from then on so I started having routine rectal prostrate examinations by him.  During one of these exams, he discovered a lump on my prostate, and after a biopsy, the diagnoses was cancer.  He felt that he had caught it very early, and he surgically removed my prostate.  (At that time the only other “option” was to let it grow, and he gave me about 5 years.) That was in November 1991, and I routinely have had Dr. Middleton check me for further symptoms every six months.  Tony told me he used to consider a person free of cancer after 5 years, but has since changed that since a couple of his patients have had a reoccurrence after that time.  I have continued having my prostrate checked.  Dr. Middleton retired in 2005 and I now see Dr. Gary Johnson, who now has changed my checkup to just once a year, and also says he doesn’t worry about my cancer reoccurring.

In about 1997 I had some symptoms (pain in my chest) that could have been construed to be a heart attack.  My sweet wife insisted that I go in to see the doctor. I don’t recall exactly the situation, but I was doing something that morning, and when I came home she had left me a note that Dr. Simmons had called and said, “Go to the emergency room.”  I really didn’t think I had anything to worry about, but I went to the InstaCare office just a few blocks from our house.  They made the biggest fuss over me and the upshot of the whole thing was that I ended up with another doctor, Dr. Steven Horton, a cardiologist.  I was given a tread mill test and finally an angiogram.  This is where they put a catheter through an incision in your leg into your heart and inject dye to see if your blood vessels are clogged.  This is done under a local anesthetic so you get to watch.  I remember his comment to me as he viewed the results of the dye, “Mr. Thorup, why are you here?”  He could find nothing wrong.  To me it was a blessing to know that I did not, at least at that time, have any clogged arteries!  I have been checked by Dr. Horton about every one or two years since, having a couple of echocardiograms, and he could find only minor problems, probably associated with my congestive heart failure, which I shall mention later.

 

The removal of my prostrate brought a few side effects.  One that has increased in severity over the years has been an inability to control my urine.  At first it was only necessary to wear a pad when I was undergoing some physically stressing or emotional situations.  If I was nervous about something, the condition became more apparent (it still does.)  After a few years the condition got worse, and I found it necessary to begin wearing a pad every day.  During our tours, as a precaution, I wore a Depends all day.  Recognizing that it was not going to get better, I had Dr. Middleton implant an artificial sphincter (urinary prosthesis) on October 6, 1999. While he was at it, Dr. Middleton recommended that I also have him insert a penile prosthesis to take care of my erectile dysfunction, another side effect of prostate cancer.

If you are still reading, you may want to consider going to the next chapter, as things have happened that require a bit more detail than you may desire to know. 

The artificial sphincter that was implanted is controlled by a small pump which is located in my scrotum.  Dr. Middleton discovered that the pump had ended up too deep in the tissues to be accessible and so I had to undergo a second operation to correct that.  Things were not healing up like they should after the second operation and we discovered that I had ended up with a Staph infection which had literally eaten a hole in my urethra.  As quickly as this was diagnosed, Tony had me back in the hospital (for a third operation) and he had to remove the artificial sphincter!  It required about two months healing, during which time I had to wear an indwelling catheter.   Dr. Middleton said that I could have the prosthesis reinserted after about six months, but he actually waited for nine months, and on the 18^th of September, 2000, the artificial sphincter was replaced.  The operation was successful and while it is not 100% effective, I could get along with just wearing small pads again.  The one thing that it did was to make it possible for Jeanné and I to go on our second mission to Nauvoo.

While on our mission to Nauvoo, I discovered that the prosthesis pump for the erectile dysfunction was eating a hole in my scrotum.   (Here again, Google this subject if you think you need to know more.)   I called Tony Middleton and he put me on a daily low-dose of antibiotics, hoping that would take care of it.  Unfortunately the infection grew larger over time and in July of 2002, I had Jeanné take a picture – it had grown to over ¼” in diameter – and I e-mailed it to the doctor.   He advised that it could be life-threatening to let it proceed, so we asked our mission president for permission to go home a month early – which he gave, and the penile prosthesis was removed.  With as much trouble as I have had with staph infections, I decided not to have it replaced.

In 2007 I had cataract surgery on my right eye, mostly because Dr. Alldredge advised that I might be getting too old to have the surgery if I waited any longer, and I would need it before too long.  Following that I got new glasses.  I could now almost see as well without wearing glasses as I could with them.  Unfortunately I was later diagnosed with macular degeneration and while some things have helped, I can see where it is coming back.

 

Within a month of our May 2007 tour of Israel, I woke up with some pains in my chest.  Jeannè drove me up to the Altaview hospital and they transferred me to the LDS Hospital by ambulance because they were better equipped to take care of me.   They couldn’t find anything wrong. 

Within days of returning from our trip to Walt Disney World in Florida, in September 2007, I had another episode.  This time I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.  Following that I went to my heart specialist, Dr. Steven Horton, and had a series of tests and it was decided that these problems I had been having were being caused by congestive heart failure.  I was then sent to a sleep lab for tests and they confirmed that my heart was not pumping correctly during my sleeping hours.  They put me on a machine called a VPAP (variable positive air pressure) at night, along with oxygen, while I slept.

Once I got everything working, I slept like a baby at night.  Whereas I used to wake up two and three times a night to go to the bathroom, I don’t get up at all.  It is almost like my whole body goes to sleep.  After returning home from all my tests, Dr. Horton gave me a DVD in which it says that congestive heart failure is not life threatening if you follow the instructions given you by your doctor.  When we went with John and his family on a cruise, I rented an oxygen generator which was delivered right to the cruise ship.  It worked well, except for the last day of the cruise, it got awfully noisy.  The one that I use at home is very quiet and by placing it in our laundry room we hardly know it’s on.

Last Spring when Jeanné and Ann and I drove to Oregon and the Redwoods, I took my oxygen generator with us in the car, and also took it with us when we went with John & Leslies’ family to the Tetons.  As mentioned earlier, in Chapter Twelve, I took a portable oxygen unit with me when I flew with John to Mexico.  That worked out great. 

I still have problems with my urine dribbling a bit, but otherwise my health is pretty good, if I say so myself.  I was pleased to learn from my respiratory physician, Dr. Laura Hardman, that my test showed that my VPAP is working perfectly for me.  She also told me that when I am traveling anywhere at sea level, I could get along fine without the oxygen.

During our first trip to Bear Lake, with John and Leslie and their family, I got along just fine with my oxygen generator.  However on the second years travel there , on the second day, I started having a problem with my breathing.  Jeanné and I had been given the huge master bedroom and on the second day, as we were going to bed, I couldn’t get my breath.  It soon got so bad that they called an ambulance.  I don’t know where it came from, but it was there in about 10 minutes, and I was taken, along with Jeanné, to the Intermountain Medical Center hospital in Logan.  It took us an hour and ten minutes and was quite ride!   We arrived somewhere around midnight, and by that time the three EMT’s in the ambulance had me breathing normally and I was quite comfortable.  At the hospital I was immediately rushed to a room, where they started working on me.

The hospital treated me so well, and after running about every possible test on me, and injecting me with at least two big doses of Lasix to get rid of my bodies’ excess fluid, I was allowed to go home after two days.  This time I had a portable oxygen container with me.  Erin and Matthew had to be back to work, so we thumbed a ride with them.  John and Leslie’s family stayed at Bear Lake and finished a wonderful vacation.

About  a couple of weeks later, I had a similar experience, but this time Jeanné just drove me to the hospital where I was again rushed into a room, where I stayed another day. My doctors have identified the problem as Congestive Heart Failure and because of such we presume that I won’t be going on too many trips (at least to a higher altitude) any more.  I now have learned that I must watch my weight closely.  If my weight goes up over a certain weight, I take 40 mg of Lasix; otherwise I take 20 mg every day.  Plus I started taking a stool softener morning and night to help control my constipation which can also affect my body weight.  It has been over a month, at this time, and things are working fine.  I no longer need an oxygen tank during the day, and use my oxygen generator just at night as I have been for several years.

Since that episode, I have been very careful of my weight, as they determined I was retaining too much water.  By adjusting my diuretic dosage, I have been successful so far.

In 2011 I had what is called an A-fib (Atrial fibrillation or flutter—a common type of abnormal heartbeat in which the heart rhythm is fast and irregular.)   My doctor (Steven Heath) put me on oxygen and then I went in the hospital where I was ‘shocked’ back into regular rhythm.   A year later (2012) I had a similar episode, and again shocked back to a normal heart beat, and he then put me on two new medicines that are supposed to prevent this from happening.   they seem to be working.

 

To sum up this difficult-to-explain section; for being 87 years old I feel very well.  I have pretty much lost my balance, due to the fact that I no longer have feeling in my feet, and I am loosing the feeling in my hands – it makes it so I can’t seem to hold on to anything!  Frustrating.  But my favorite saying still is, “I would rather be seen than viewed.”   I love you all!  Please take good care of yourselves.