Knee Surgery #5!

From: Brendan Smith Friday, April 13, 2007 8:30 AM
Just a few more bits of news; I bought a car yesterday. It’s a 2006 Chrysler Sebring with 22,000 miles on it and I got it for 11,500. I’ve been looking for the perfect car for a while and I’m excited about this deal. I was expecting to have to spend about $18,000 so I’m totally stoked, and it’s a great look and fun car too with a V6 and it gets about 32 MPG on the freeway.

The second bit of news is bad news. I have to have surgery on my knee again. It’s scheduled for May 2nd. The bone from the bone plugs is healing perfectly from my surgery last year but the cartilage is not doing so great. Plus the doctor thinks I may have a new injury on the other side of the knee with a small bone spur on my knee cap on that side that my have torn some cartilage there. Anyway, it should just be a scope this time and should heal fast. The arthritis looks good and the doc thinks that this one could help me avoid ever needing a knee replacement.

From: Leslie Smith Thursday, May 03, 2007 8:36 AM
Just thought I'd let you know how it went with Brendan's surgery yesterday. It lasted about 1 1/2 hours, but we were there a total of 6 because the anesthesia was just really rough on Brendan this time around. He was really sick so they would give him nausea medicine, which in turn would make his oxygen levels drop too much so it was a long cycle of this. By the time we were almost home, though, he was feeling pretty good and had a great evening. He was able to eat really well last night and just rested all evening. Here is the knee stats: His original ACL surgery looks great. Last year's bone plugs are not 100% healed, but the Dr. said they are looking pretty good. This time there were two new things wrong...which we honestly don't know how or when they happened. He had a small miniscus tear which they fixed and the left side of his knee was raw bone and they took a bunch of broken pieces of cartilage that were just floating around. The Dr. wanted to try to take one of those pieces and grow it in a lab to make more and graft it back on, but the area is just too big and the procedure won't work. The next best thing he could do was to drill holes in his knee 1 cm apart which will cause it to bleed, form blood clots, which will form scar tissue which he said is the next best thing to real cartilage. Matt Harpring from the Jazz had this done 3 years ago and he's playing basketball just fine now. It will take about 3 months to see if it's going to work or not. The only other option left is a total knee replacement which would make it not possible for him to run or jump anymore, but the Dr. really doesn't want to do that because Brendan's just too young for that. Pain wise, he's done ok on just Tylonel and had a decent night's sleep considering the huge noisy storm that kept us up for most of the night. He's not on crutches and he should be somewhat back to normal in 3-4 weeks...just in time for our trip to Iowa. Last time the next day was the worst so we'll see how today goes. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. By the way...Jordan will be getting his patriarchal blessing today...so exciting!!!!

From: Leslie Smith Tuesday, May 08, 2007 8:17 AM.
Brendan is back at work and doing REALLY good. His knee is less swollen now than before his surgery. He is really optimistic about everything and other than walking a little slower than normal, you would never know he just had surgery…no crutches…no limping (only going up and down stairs.) Plus you wouldn’t believe that his surgery hasn’t stopped his working out. He still lifts weights every morning and his is down to 200 lbs!!!! I hardly recognize him and I see him every day! He has lost 40 lbs. in 4 months! He looks amazing! I honestly don’t understand his willpower and determination. I’m so proud of him.

Prom 2007

After almost 7 months of being sixteen, Jordan has finally asked a girl out on a date…for Prom, nonetheless. He wasn’t going to go because these date dances are so out of control expensive, but I gave him some great ideas on a low budget. A few of his friends had the same concern so they are going all together and I know they’ll have a blast. We went to Costco and bought 2 dozen pink roses for 14.99 (the regular flower shops charge 54.99 for only one dozen roses). Then we rolled up this poem in a pink ribbon:
K o u r t n e y
Some roses are pink, some roses are white
I would be honored if you would join me
for a fun filled Prom night

We’ll spend the day playing out in the sun
Then get all dressed up for an evening of fine dining,
dancing, and fun

If your answer is yes to going with me,
A pink rose in your hair tomorrow I’ll see
If my offer, however, you must decline
Then your wearing a white one will be my sign.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Smith

We purposely didn’t give her any white roses so that it would be hard to say no. Prom isn’t for another 5 ½ weeks, but Kourtney is such a cute girl and Jordan didn’t want to risk her already being asked. I remember last year at the 9th grade honors night, she got some award and I told Jordan, “Now that’s a cute girl.” Honor student, athletic, modest, and very naturally beautiful.

Then we went to the high school to deliver it because she was at softball practice. The team said that she wasn’t there, so we then drove to her house. Her mom said that she was at softball practice, but not at the high school because the JV team practices at Vet’s park. So we continued on and found the team practicing on a back field. Allison and a neighbor friend had come along and Jordan thought it would be cute to have them deliver the flowers. They walked over there and asked for Kourtney Blanc. Jordan and I hid in the car parked down the way a little bit. The whole team screamed, “Kourtney you got flowers!” She was playing catcher so she took off her head gear and ran over as the team surrounded her. Today as Jordan was going into his Spanish class he saw her across the hall…she smiled and pointed to her hair where she had a pink rose in her headband! He’s going with these top notch boys and I couldn’t be more excited.

New Calling/Missionary experience

Brendan got a new calling this past Sunday. He has been called as the 1st counselor in the Young Men’s presidency. He says that he will honestly miss being Gospel Doctrine teacher, but he’s excited to work with the boys in our ward. He is over the Teacher’s quorum and has an awesome scout leader to help him out. In fact, it’s kind of funny that the men in Young Men’s right now are pretty much all the husband’s of the women who were in Young Women’s with me a few years back. He’ll have Jake next summer and has just outstanding boys to work with right now. It’s going to be great.

We had the BEST YM/YW activity last week. The youth were each told to get a personal copy of the March New Era and read it cover to cover. It’s all on missionary work and mission preparation. They were given a “mission call” a few weeks ago with last week’s date, but the location to be announced later. They had to sign and return the letter. Then last week they met at the church…they were given engraved nametags and paired off with a companion (not necessarily the same age) and given a “mission,” which was a home of someone in our ward. For example, the two boys that came to our house were told that they would be going to a mission to New Zealand at the Smith home. They reviewed a lesson sheet and some scriptures that the YM and YW presidencies had prepared and headed off. They had a “traditional” dinner from that country at the member’s home and we discussed missionary work during dinner. Then, they gave us a lesson on missionary work, challenged us all to be better missionaries and bore their testimony’s about it. One of the boys that came to us will be going on his mission in August and it was so great to see how mature he is and what an incredible little missionary he is already. Then Brendan spent about a half hour sharing experiences and information about New Zealand so they could learn a little about it. It was so great. Everyone had so much fun and it was so great for so many members of the ward to be involved with the youth encouraging their preparing for missions. Jake even said that he hoped that they do this every year. He went to South Africa, but was a little disappointed when they served lasagna, but loved the experience. Jordan, unfortunately had a track meet and had to miss it. It really made a difference in everyone’s lives…including ours.