August — The Johnson Family

Dad’s Work Schedule for August: 11 Days in Colorado Springs, 10 Days in Wyoming, 6 Days in St. George, 4 Days in Northern Utah. Total Work Days in August: 21 Days!
Matt in Wyoming and Colorado Springs with Dad: Matt enjoyed a week with Dad in Wyoming at the end of July. Highlights were running together every morning, working out in the apartment, watching movies every night, Matt binging the 2nd and 3rd seasons of Stranger Things and playing Switch and lots of reading while Dad was at work, delicious lasagna and voltage mountain dew, putting practice and hanging out at the Waterslides. Dad loved having someone there to eat lunch and dinner with. On Saturday morning they drove to Colorado Springs and Matt spent five days hanging out with his friends. He especially loved sleeping over at the Larsons with Ian and Cade, going to the pool and having lots of parties with his CS friends who missed him even though he had only been gone for two weeks. What fun memories for Matt!

Katie and Roommates Living it up in London and Paris: (July 27th - August 14th) When Katie’s plans to do a Study Abroad didn’t pan out like she’d hoped, she and her roommates decided to plan their own summer adventure. They spent two and a half weeks in London with a short 4 day trip to Paris. Dad did a lot of work helping them get good flights and flats to rent. They loved it! What a fun memory.

Loving our beautiful view from the Kitchen window and even our hot August weather. We spend a lot of time indoors but it’s so fun to walk around St. George early in the morning and step out onto the back porch to heat up for a few minutes from time to time. Loving it here!!

Megan Soccer Tournament in Logan: Dad and Matt drove Katie’s car from Denver to Northern Utah (to help Katie get her car back). Meg loved playing with her team and we loved watching her. They were competing against 5A and 6A teams so they had a hard time coming up with a win but it was fun to cheer them on. More details in Megan’s Soccer Posts.
August 11th - First Day of School: Megan started her Senior Year at Dixie High and Luke and Matt started their year at Dixie Middle. What an adventure! Dutchman’s Cookies and Pencil notes for the kids when they got home! Love my brave kids.

Em and Brynn come to St. George for a week: So fun to have Em and Brynn here. They pretty much did their own thing, swimming at the pool, using my St. George card for freebies, going thrifting and watching shows. Nice to have a break together and enjoy time before Brynn left for her mission. Saying goodbye was hard for both of them. We love Brynn!
Cute Cute being silly and cute telling me all about school and cross country after school one day.

My Mom and Dad come for a visit and an unexpected week in the hospital: My dad started having noticeable heart palpitations on the drive down but didn’t say anything. Then after getting here and eating dinner, he didn’t feel well at all. Within 45 minutes he told my Mom that we had better head to the hospital.
The three of us headed to the St. George Regional Hospital to get him checked out. He was in a lot of pain as we waited in the emergency room. A 9/10 pain level every time his heart beats. They gave him some morphine and Dad asked if I could call my Bishop to come give him a blessing… which he did. It was a wonderful blessing and left Dad and Mom both feeling at peace. Thank you Bishop Woolley.
Chris received the report from the doctors and then sent out a text so everyone would know what was going on… So helpful.
- He said… “I’m monitoring from Wyoming. 1. Initial blood test (troponin) and EKG were completely normal so this is likely not a heart attack. 2. In the standard blood tests, his D-dimer was elevated. This is almost always elevted in cancer patients, but it can also be a sign of a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs). Untreated, this is a life threatening disorder so he got a chest CT which was normal with no evidence of an embolus. 3. Now they need to definitively rule out a cardiac evenw ith a follow up blood test (troponin) to make sure that stays normal. And then a stress test in the morning. If either of those are positive, he would get an angiogram (injecting dye through the arteries in his heart to see if there is any narrowing or other abnormality and to treat anything found.). If the troponin remains negative and his stress test is normal, they can confidently rule out a cardiac event. 4. If these life threatening causes of chest pain are excluded, then they can try to figure out what else could be causing this severe pain. That will begin tomorrow. 5. They are treating him with morphine for the pain and hopefully they can get that under control so that he can get some rest tonight.
They moved Dad upstairs to the observation deck — which wasn’t an official room so mom couldn’t stay the night. I brought Mom home with me and we sleep. As I climbed into bed I texted the family…
- I know you’re all asleep at this point, but mom and I just left the hospital. They finally gave Dad some Dilaudid (5 times stronger than morphine) and that started working immediately. Finally. Hopefully he can sleep. He has great nurses. We’ll head back over in the morning.
10:30am We went straight back to the hospital once the kids left for school. Poor dad had had a really rough night. He’s still in a lot of pain and really weak. He had an echo cardio gram and then they took him to get a stress test. He asked for pain killers before he left because he was in such bad shape. I think the oxycodone helped him be relaxed during the test. After the rest his oxygen levels crashed. He was in the 50’s and 60’s and doctors flooded the room. It was really scary - both mom and I getting a little emotional. They had him on 13 liters of oxygen and it slowly crept up. He’s stable now but still in a lot of pain. They found something doing the stress test. That combined with how he crashed after the stress test shows he’ll need an angiogram. The cardiologist will be coming in soon to talk to us.
11:46am We just talked to the Cardiologist. Dad needs a heart catheter angiogram. I’ll be within the next hour and a half or so. The cardiologist expects to find something but he’s not sure what until he gets in there. They’ll go through an artery in the wrist. Could need a stent or two. We’ll see.
12:22pm My mom texted everyone… “It’s so good to see him finally resting. Praying for guidance and a good outcome.”
At about 3:30 they took Dad in for his angiogram. At 4:00 they came and found Mom and I and reported that the angiogram is going well. Dad needs a stent in the left anterior descending artery - which is happening right now. This should help him feel better. We’re really pleased with this news. He’ll have to stay in the hospital overnight tonight and maybe one more night. We’ll see how he recovers.
5:06pm I texted… “He’s in recovery now and looking a lot better. His artery was 95% blocked and needed two stents side by side. We’ll be in recovery for an hour and half. He’s ordered some dinner and then we’ll head to another room. Mom added… “His color is better ad he’s anxious to eat. He still has to concentrate on breathing enough. Chris J texted… “Wow. 95% stenosis is crazy. So glad you went in yesterday.” Dad was excited and ready to eat when his food came. Mom and I debated going to the Joseph Concert that night but Dad urged us to go and we felt like the timing was really working out for us. Katie, Em and Brynn picked us up from the hospital and we went straight to the show and then back to the hospital to check on him just before midnight.
The next morning Dad told us he had had a rough night again. 6/10 pain… not chest pain (which is great) but cancer bone pain. The cardiologist is ok with him going home but he needs to pass the breathing etc with the hospitalist before they can let him go.
4:52pm We headed back to my house to sleep. The plan was to sleep overnight and then head back to Provo the next morning. I had hoped that he would feel good enough to swing by the high school or Tonaquint or anything but he didn’t. We went straight home. It felt good for him to have a bath, change his clothes and then sleep the way he likes to on his side. He didn’t have any appetite. He ate a couple of bites and then didn’t want anything else. No chest paints but his oxygen levels are a constant concern.
The next morning was stressful. Dad wasn’t feeling good at all. We went back and forth and then decided to get him back to the hospital. Sarah asked if David and Mary were driving back to Provo today? And my text back said…
- “Dad slept for 17 hours straight. Mom didn’t get much sleep at all as she took care of him during the night, helped him to the bathroom ( he can’t get up from the toilet by himself) and monitored his breathing (most of which hung right below 90). It was an emotional anxious night for her and even when she should have been sleeping, she couldn’t. Dad has been extraordinarily sleepy and out of it and we can’t decide if it’s jut his body catching up or if it’s something else. In some ways I’d like them to just rest here one more day but dad is anxious to get home. And they really do need to get home for the Home Health company to come tomorrow at 1:00 which will probably be accessing dads needs and how they might come to his house and help him feel better. I can see a real need for that right now. Hopefully he will regain strength and be back to his ‘noraml cancer weak and in-pain self’ soon, but things look bleak right now. This is going to be hard you guys. I think they’ve decided to drive soon. Dad is asleep on the couch again and mom is trying to lie down and get some rest to prepare for the drive. Dad wants to lie down in the back of the car but his oxygen levels are so much better when he’s sitting so I think we’ve convinced him to start in the passenger seat. Pray for there to be enough oxygen to get home and for mom to be able to make the drive. Scott or Mike, Dad will need help getting out of the car and upstairs into his bed when they get close.” -Sent at 12:41pm
Everyone responded with love, concern and prayers. We waited while Dad slept, but he was so lethargic that we just couldn’t feel good about going home. By 2:46 we were back in the emergency room. At 6:14pm I texted…
- We’re still in the ER. He’ll be moved to the Observatory soon to spend the night. X-ray looks ok. Blood tests look ok. No Covid. He has fluid in his lungs that looks a little worse than a few days ago. Likely pneumonia but doesn’t look like a classic case. They will start him on antibiotics right now. He’s acting a little less lethargic and his appetite seems better. I’m going to go order him some pizza from Pizzeria Limone. Mom has really had quite a stressful day but is felling a bit better now.”
- 9:35pm “He loved the pizza! And had a really great appetite. He’s doing so much better than he was this morning. They just moved him up to his room for the night and are getting him settled with his night meds and antibiotics. One in one arm through an IV, and another antibiotic in the other through IV. Mom is going to sleep at the hospital with him and he’s so glad about that. I’m headed home for the night and feel good about where he’s at. I hope he sleeps better than he did the previous hospital nights, but I have a feeling it’ll be a better night. They’re giving him a sleeping pill so hopefully that words. He’s more content and having more conversations with the staff. It’s good to see him acting a little more like himself.”
Dad had a better night. The doctor really wants him to stay another night just to be sure. If everything is on track, he’ll be released tomorrow.
- Dad texted.” I’m being well cared for. It’s a good hospital with excellent staff but I’m still having trouble keeping my oxygen levels up and they say they can detect further progress of the pneumonia that I had and so that’s what’s keeping me here now. I expect to be out tomorrow though.”
I took Katie and Emily in to visit with him for awhile in the afternoon and then brought Matt and Luke.
Saturday morning Chris and I went back in and spent some time at the hospital. It was good to be there to talk to the doctor and hear that everything is moving towards getting home today. They left for Provo about 1:40.
Boy what a crazy trip to St. George. I’m sad that they had to go through this but I’m also really happy that I was able to be here to support them while they went through it. My kids were able to take care of things mostly on their own and I spent most of my days with mom at the hospital. I won’t pass by the St. George Hospital without thinking about my Dad and this week. Love him.

Going to Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat: Meg ended up having soccer practice Tuesday night which is the whole reason I reached out to my mom to see if she wanted to come down for a visit. Dad was supportive and they made the quick decision to head down so she could join me. It was touch and go for awhile as we waited to see how Dad’s surgery would go but he ended up doing ok and URGED my mom to go. We left from the hospital, enjoyed the show and they headed straight back to check on my Dad. The show was fantastic and David Archeleta was amazing. We LOVED it!!!

Otherwise August was a FULL month of Varsity Soccer, Cross Country practice and races and getting settled into a good routine here in St. George. It didn’t take us long to get the house all cleaned and organized. It feels like home!
Chris spent August 15th - 19th In Wyoming, came home for the weekend, went back to Wyoming from the 22nd - 26th and then spent an extra five days at the end in Colorado Springs.
August 29th: Katie and Emily start their BYU Fall Semester!