The Grand Delusion

I promised Autumn I'd give her a little background on our current situation. It's a little confusing if you haven't been following along. It's a little confusion even if you have been following along. I'm not going to go into much detail on the medical side - just the specifics of who is living where.

In 2004, Kara had become sick enough that she asked her mother to come and stay with her while I took a week-long trip. That visit lasted for seven months, and involved visits to clinics in California and Mexico.

By the end of 2004, Kara had gained back a fair amount of strength, and we believed that she was finally on the mend. Part way through 2005, though, she began to lose ground again, and on Halloween Day Kara and I flew to Dallas so she could get treatment at a clinic that specialized in environmental illness. The trip was supposed to last for a few weeks, but Kara was still not much better when she came home two months later.

In February 2006 she returned to the clinic, and made some progress. In the spring of 2006, it became clear that Kara would not be well enough to return by summer, and I felt impressed that our family needed to be together. I began looking at the possibility of moving.

I had already been allowed to work remotely during my trips to Dallas, and I approached my boss with the possibility of working from Dallas on a more long term basis. This idea was met with approval, at which point I began a fairly long period of fasting, prayer, and temple attendance that confirmed my impressions to move our family to Texas.

While Kara had been living in some condos in Dallas that had been renovated to be more environmentally safe, her doctor strongly recommended that she move out of the city pollution. We sold our home in Lehi and bought one in Willow Park, about 50 miles west of Dallas - far from the pollution, but close enough for occasional trips to the clinic for testing and treatment. The market conditions were good for us to make this move, as our house in Utah had appreciated significantly, and real estate in Texas is quite affordable.

The plan was for us to sell our house in Utah, pay off our medical debts with some of the gains, and use the rest to remodel the house in Texas. With the family together, and Kara able to live in a safe home far from the pollution of the city, the thought was that she would make a quick recovery.

Unfortunately, the anticipated improvements to her health never came. Kara was unable to eliminate her trips to the clinic, so although we were all together some of the time, she was still spending four days and two nights in Dallas each week. And just before Thanksgiving this year, she moved back into the condos near the clinic, unable to manage the drive back and forth to Willow Park.

Kara's mom has again come to help. Last night Kara was admitted to the hospital with dangerously low electrolyte levels, despite being on TPN. Hopefully they will be able to finally give us the miracle that we have been seeking for more than half a decade now.