Week 10: Great Week in California & Good Visit to Doctor

Great day at the Sacramento Temple:)

Katie & McKenzie ready for Savannah's sealing

Here is the update on McKenzie for this week:

She had a wonderful time in California. She loved staying with the Jensen family, who took such good care of her. They made sure she took all her medications and got plenty of rest:) They also made sure she had plenty of fun:) She was able to go to Savannah Argyle's wedding at the Sacramento Temple as well as see some of Old Sacramento and of course they had to do some shopping:) One of the greatest things was getting to see Elder Oaks at Stake Conference on Sunday and being able to shake his hand.  The only sad thing was that the sun did not come out very much:(

Shopping???

We were a little worried about how McKenzie's health would be on the trip, but she did very well. She had three small headaches during the week, which is not bad for where she has been in the past.  Then on Sunday night she got a big headache which then continued on thru Monday. She was pretty worn out by the time she got home from her trip Monday night.

Yesterday we saw the doctor, who did a lot of retesting to see how McKenzie's body is doing. She said that the parasites have been working hard to reproduce and that now they are 65% gone. We were a little discouraged about that, since last time she was tested they were 90% gone. Parasites are pesky and difficult and they like to move around when they are being attacked. The doctor changed up a few things that McKenzie is taking and she will be getting footbaths once a week for the next month. The doctor feels like it will take about two months to get totally rid of the parasites and she feels that McKenzie will be headache free by then:)

Oxidizing Footbath:  Detoxifying her liver:)

The positive part of all of this is that we are starting to see our old McKenzie reappear. Her laughter, sense of humor and her fun personality are coming back. This has definitely been a rough few months. She mentioned that she is starting to feel like herself again. We are so grateful. She continues to work on the emotional/mental part of all of this and is making some good progress!!!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support!!! You keep us all going.

Week 9: A Little Recuperation in California

McKenzie & Katie relaxing in California:)

Here's a little update on what is happening with McKenzie this week.  Last week was pretty good. McKenzie feels like she is about 75% herself physically. She seems to be getting a little better every week:) We are so grateful for her progress.

The hardest thing for her right now is dealing with the emotional part of all that has happened. She went from being in full-time service to the Lord in Bosnia and feeling like she was making a difference in people's lives as she was doing the Lord's will, to  having to come home from her mission and be taken care of by others. It is hard for her to feel like she is doing anything that matters right now. We continue to try to fill our days with good things, but it is still hard for her not to know what is next and not to feel good enough to make any decisions yet. She is definitely getting closer and I think once she is feeling 100% she will be able to make the decisions she needs to with the Lord's help. Then she can move forward feeling at peace.

Luckily for McKenzie she has a dad who is a psychologist, so working on helping her emotionally is something he is good at. Each week we (dad, mom and McKenzie) have a little meeting together to discuss what is happening with her physically, emotionally, spiritually and socially. As I have said before, we set goals in each of these areas each week so she can see progress. This week her dad asked her to answer three questions in writing each day. This assignment helps her to think through things that are going on with her:)
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One nice thing that happened this week is that McKenzie got the chance to go with her friend Katie Jensen Hall to California and stay with her family for a week. We thought a little rest, relaxation and fun in the sun could be helpful to her recovery. Katie and her family have been so good to take care of McKenzie while she has been there. Thanks so much Jensen family!!!

McKenzie and the Jensen family:)

We continue to see the Lord's hand in all our lives. We are grateful for all of you:)

Week 8: Lots of Love & Support As McKenzie Continues to Get Better;)

Letter that arrived today that McKenzie sent from Croatia two months ago:)

Missionaries in the Adriatic North Mission

Just another little update on how McKenzie is doing this week:)

She had another pretty good week. As we have been discussing how things are changing with her health, she mentioned that she only had her headache 50% of the time last week. This is great progress. When she got home she had it 100% of the time. This progress has taken a while, but we are grateful that there is progress. Also this week her energy level has been much better. She continues to set goals for herself and try to move forward each week.

Her struggles right now are more emotional. Going through so much in the last several months has been hard on her. She tries to keep her head up and keep smiling, but there are definitely some hard times and hard days emotionally. We are all so grateful for the Lord who is taking good care of her and for so many of you who are helping her to get through this hard time.

There have been some really sweet tender mercies this last week for her. Here are just a few:

1- On Monday she got into her email and had over 50 emails from all the missionaries in her mission. They shared their love and encouragement with her and were so excited to hear that she was doing better. Thank you Adriatic North Missionaries!!!!

2-A sweet friend from BYU's Vocal Point gave McKenzie tickets to their concert last week. It was so fun for her to get to go to the concert and then hang out with the Vocal Point guys afterwards.  Thanks Adam!!!

 On a funny note, McKenzie heard from several friends who had received letters from her in the mail today. She sent them two months ago from Croatia!!! haha. Who knew it could take so long??? Apparently they must of gotten lost in the mail:) So if she told any of you that she had sent you a letter and you didn't get it yet, it could still be coming:) haha.

We can never thank you all enough for loving and supporting McKenzie and us through this trial. We really appreciate all the phone calls, messages, prayers and thoughts:) You are amazing!!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Week 7: Best Week Yet!!!

McKenzie working a few hours in Dad's office:)

Well we hardly dare say it, but this last week has been the best yet!!! Each day when McKenzie woke up the headache was very minimal. She has felt so much better:) It has been great to see her smiling, teasing, laughing and getting back to herself.

She still had some times when the headache would spike and when she would have to slow down, but on the whole it was a much better week.  She is still struggling with her energy level, which is still not where it was, but it seems to be getting much better. We feel very encouraged by her progress this week.

One thing we have spent time talking about is that this trial that McKenzie has been going through has not just affected her physically, but it has also affected her emotionally, mentally and spiritually. We are trying to look at all these areas as we try to help her heal and feel better. She has been setting goals in each area, so that she can see progress each week:)

She often mentions that the world of a sick missionary, is a very different world. Not many people know about it or understand it. It has been a real eye opener for all of us. We are definitely so grateful for all of you who have been such a great support to all of us:) We couldn't do what we are doing without you.

Some of the highlights of this week were: 1) McKenzie taught the 12-13 yr old Sunday School Class on Sunday. She did a great job and was able to share many insights with them about missions:)  2) She has been working a few hours each day in her dad's office. 3) She had four ionizing foot baths last week which helped to get rid of the toxins in her body.

Thanks again for all your love and support. As things are getting better we are beginning to look at what is next. The decisions ahead will be hard ones, so please continue to keep McKenzie is your prayers:)

Week 6: Finally Starting to Feel a Little Better

Day One - Relaxing Ion Cleanse

Here is this week's update on McKenzie's progress:) Last week was terrible. Probably one of the worst weeks that McKenzie has had since she has been home. Her headache was really bad and everything felt so overwhelming and frustrating.

Luckily she just kept pushing through the hard times and woke up Sunday morning with her head feeling much better. It was the first time that has happened in about three months.  She had a good day on Sunday. She was able to attend a fireside with a friend where Sheri Dew spoke and talked about several things, one of which was that Satan is anti-progression. That hit home very strongly. Satan doesn't want us to ever think that we are progressing. McKenzie was so glad to be at the fireside and to remember that:)

Day Two - Ion Cleanse (Brown Water)

On Monday, McKenzie woke up again with her head feeling much better. We hardly dared to hope that something might be working and that possibly we could finally have found some answers.  We also went in to see our homeopathic doctor and she retested McKenzie to see how her body was reacting to the herbs and things that she has been taking. She was amazed to see the progress. She said that 90% of the parasites were dead and that now her body was working on getting all the toxins etc out.  Many of the areas of McKenzie's body that had been so stressed were now balanced and working much better. As she was looking at all the test results, she could see exactly what things needed to be changed in her treatment to make sure that the headache would continue to go away. One thing that changed was that instead of getting the IV treatment McKenzie now needed to get an Ion Cleanse (foot bath). It is so interesting how it works. The water starts out clear and then as your body is getting rid of the toxins thru your feet, the water changes color.The color of the water represents the parts of your body that are detoxifying. The first time she did the ion cleanse the water turned yellow. This meant that her bladder, gallbladder and a few other related areas were all detoxifying. Today she did another ion cleanse. This time the water was brown. This meant that her body was detoxing her liver as well as getting rid of tobacco and cellular debris. (Most of the people in Bosnia smoke, so McKenzie has felt like she was a second hand smoker) That is why it is so interesting that this happened today.

McKenzie and Elder Hansen

There have been a couple of other nice things that happened this last week.  Elder Hansen from McKenzie's mission who just got home, was able to bring her the rest of her things that she had left in Bosnia. It was like Christmas all over again. It was nice to be able to visit with him and hear about all the things that were going on in the mission.  Thanks Elder Hansen!!!

 

Bookmarks for all the RS sisters in the mission:)

The other nice thing that happened was that our Stake Relief Society asked McKenzie to head up a project for the RS sisters in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. We made bookmarks for all of them to let them know that we love them and that we are all sisters. It was a great opportunity for us to help build them up a little bit.

We are so grateful to finally be seeing some progress. Thanks again for all of your love and support:) We especially thank you for your prayers in McKenzie's behalf. 

Week 5: A Sweet Tender Mercy From the Lord

Siblings rubbing McKenzie's temples when the headache is bad

Sometimes they are not so helpful:) haha

Just another little update on how McKenzie is doing. We also wanted to share a sweet tender mercy that we received yesterday. As we look at the past month that McKenzie has been home here is what we are seeing:

Good things:
1-Her neck and shoulders have loosened up quite a bit and are not so painful.
2-She is getting much better sleep.
3-Emotionally and mentally she is feeling much better.
4-She is able to get up everyday and do good things (service, family things, helping friends, working on mission stuff etc.)

Not so good things:
1-The headache still never goes completely away.
2-She doesn't have much energy (she says she feels like a little grandma:) This is probably from having to deal with the headache everyday.

We continue to search for answers. The neurologist says that she needs to stay on the "Topimax" for another month to see if it will help. He is encouraged that she is doing better and that the headache is not getting worse. We of course are just frustrated that she still has the headache:(

The homeopathic treatment seems to be good although one IV treatment helped to relieve the headache, while the next one didn't do anything. We just keep moving forward and hoping to see some good results.

We are grateful for the sweet tender mercies that the Lord sends for McKenzie and us. Yesterday when McKenzie went in for her IV treatment, she met another  returned sister missionary who also had to come home because of illness. This young woman has now been home for two years and had so much wonderful advice for McKenzie. Their personalities seemed very much alike:) They were able to visit for about an hour while getting their treatments. As you can imagine there are many things that both of these girls have struggled with in not being able to finish up their missions like they had hoped to. It is a very emotional thing as well as being hard physically when you don't feel good. McKenzie was so grateful to have someone to talk to who knew just what she was feeling and could help her figure out some ways to deal with this new mission she is on.

 We are so grateful for all of you who love and support McKenzie. Thanks for keeping her in your prayers and for sending her your love:) She still doesn't have the energy to do all that she wants to, but please know that she loves and appreciates you!
 

Grandma's birthday lunch with the Aunts:)

Week Four: Finally Getting a Few Hours Headache Free

Our Homeopathic doctor doing some testing

  

Opthamologist visit

Here is just another little update on how McKenzie is doing. It has been another week where she has seen very little progress as far as her headache goes. It is hard to wait for things to work and yet that is what we are having to do. We have continued with acupuncture. The doctor sent us home with some herbs to use on McKenzie between appointments:)

Acupuncture at home:) no needles, just herbs. It's pretty interesting, that's for sure!!!

Today we went to a Homeopathic Doctor whom we loved.  She and her staff spent lots of time with McKenzie and were able to give us some answers. The best part of all was that McKenzie had an IV Power Drip of magnesium, B6 and a few other things to help battle some parasites that she has picked up which they feel are causing the headache. Afterwards she was headache free for a couple of hours. That is the first time in 2 months that she hasn't had the headache. They also gave her some herbal remedies to help get her body back to normal:)

Power drip-Some relief at last!!!

After that we went to see the Opthamologist to get her eyes checked. Everything looked good there, so her eyes don't seem to be the problem.

We continue to be hopeful that we can find some answers. Today was an answer to our prayers for her not to have the headache even if just for a little bit of time.

Trying to keep her sense of humor with her eyes dilated:)

We are thankful for all your calls, prayers, visits etc. You have all been such a great support to McKenzie. Please know that she appreciates all your love and support.