At 3 am August 30, 2011 Eileen got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that her heart was racing and felt strange. She returned to bed, thinking it would return to normal shortly.....it did not. Eileen had a similar experience 5 years earlier when Dr. Nielsen, her cardiologist, did a cardioversion on her, shocking her heart back into rhythm. In anticipation that the same thing might occur he had prescribed a medication she took with her to Portugal. She took the medication. It was supposed to return the heart to normal rhythm but it did not. She had to go to Hospital da Luz around 1:00 pm that day to get her heart back to normal. This final chapter will chronicle our final activities and the details of coming home.
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| Eileen in Hospital da Luz, Benfica, Portugal |
Even with her heart somewhat unstable and on a heavy medication Eileen and Kent went to Albufeira on the southern coast of Portugal to a Young Single Adult Conference, Sept. 1-4, where we helped run an employment training seminar. It was a wonderful experience and as long as Eileen took the high dose of medication her heart stayed in rhythm but the rest of Eileen's body slowed down as a side affect. The Jovems Adultos (Young Single Adults) were so fun to work with and really enjoyed our opening activity, the string game, as you can see.
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| Young Single Adult Conference, Employment Seminar, Albufeira |
The day after Eileen got out of the Hospital, September 1, it was Paula Pereira's birthday. Paula is our most talented instructor at the Employment Center where she is a volunteer. We were invited to her home and had a great celebration with her and her family. José (or Ze as they call him) is a very accomplished business man, fluent in English, Portugues and Spanish.
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| Ze and Paula Pereira Familia, Setubal, Portugal |
With just shy of a year under our belt as employment missionaries we had become very creative in helping those unemployed. Being blessed with enough money to live in Portugal and then some we decided to take our excess and find ways to help the poor unemployed without just giving them cash. We had lots of opportunities and we feel our money was a blessing to many. We didn't really dirty our apartment much but we would routinely pay a wonderful women to come and clean it. When we were at the Employment Center we would have our car washed with buckets we carried in the trunk...meet Jose Gonçalves below.
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| Jose' Goncalves, Entrepreneur Extraordinaire, Gago Coutinho, Portugal |
We also had changed the heating in our apartment and had to have the holes in the walls fixed so we got an amazing man from Angola to do the job for us and using the money for basic necessities and upgraded clothes he wanted to wear to church. Dinis Kingano is a smart, healthy and strong worker with many skills but it is still hard for him to find work
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| Dinis Kingano, Amazing Angolan, repairs bathroom, Antonio Serpa, Lisboa |
The following week (Sept. 5th) Eileen's heart would go out of rhythm and speed up when her medication was getting low so she was taking more and more of it. We were asked to speak at a large church conference for adults on Saturday night, September 10th in the city of Coimbra. Eileen practiced her speech dozens of times, trimming it down so it flowed smoothly and didn't put anyone to sleep. She did a terrific job and we both drove home late that night (two hours) happy that it had gone well and that Eileen's heart had stayed in rhythm for the whole trip. The next day we went to a major conference in Oeiras and while we were sitting in the meeting I looked over and could see her missionary badge shaking. It was obvious her heart was racing again. We had been working with the church physician in Frankfurt as Eileen was going through the diagnosis and treatment options. It was originally expected that the medication would be sufficient and we would be able to stay in Lisboa for the rest of our mission (until April 2012). Eileen was to go in and have some physical tests with a holter monitor on Tuesday. Well, Monday and Tuesday morning her heart continued to go in and out of rhythm so Dr. Swenson in Frankfurt talked to the specialists in Salt Lake City and they decided she needed to have an Ablation. She could have it in Portugal or go home and have her cardiologist watch over her. Tuesday afternoon it was decided we should go home for the procedure where the whole experience could be watched over by her long term care team. Wednesday morning we found out we would be leaving Friday morning, two days later (September 16th). Eileen began packing immediately. We had fasted and prayed that we might stay if it was the Lord's will. We had one exceptional experience with Roseane that confirmed that we knew our Heavenly Father was in charge. Happy to share it with anyone that asks.
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| Sadly, time to go home. Heart not responding. Eileen Packs. |
Thursday we took the opportunity to go to Beja and say goodbye to many of the people we had grown to love. It was tough to hug them and say goodbye. We shed tears and knew it would be a long time before we see them again, if ever here on the earth. We left clothes and ties and other fun things with them as we did not want to take it all home with us. We also left many other things with our Portuguese friends in Lisboa like our GPS, shoes, suits, and some computer supplies. Good thing we did as our suitcases would not have held all the things we had to pack and take home.
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| Goodbye in Beja (Ruberval/Sheila, Celson, Moroni, Douglas/Josefina) |
Our dearest friends the Forbush's and Lunds accompanied us to the airport where President Moroni and Rosa Torgan bid us farewell. It was tough to say goodbye but I do have to say it was exciting to know we would be seeing our family for the first time in almost a year....three new grand babies to hug and kiss.
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| Max/Julie Forbush, dear friends, say goodbye, Sept. 16, 2011 |
Getting home was uneventful and the hugs upon arrival were the sweetest. We arrived late Friday (Sept. 16th) in the evening and early Monday Eileen had an appointment with Dr. Nielsen. Within a week she was meeting with Dr. Crandall and the Ablation procedure was scheduled for the next Monday. It all happened quickly. Her procedure took about 3 hours and the doctor used two femoral catheters with cameras to go up into the heart and find the errant cells and a third catheter with a laser on it burned the unwanted cells. She had to stay on heart meds for 3 months until the heart was healed and normal rhythm was expected. It appears to have worked. Eileen is off all meds and her heart stays in rhythm. Eileen has enjoyed being with grand daughters and grandsons.
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| Rachel, Leah and Wendilyn welcome Grandma Eileen home |
Kent is back at work and enjoys the greatest of all worlds, the grand kids all around him.
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| Grandpa Kent loves hauling grandson Seth around |
It was a real pleasure to forego all the things most of the world is used to like TV, movies, vacations, shopping, playing sports and such, and to focus on some of the most basic of life's elements....employment, a place to live, food and clothing. To devote 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to helping the poor and needy was a thrilling experience. We enjoyed the opportunity to weave the gospel of Jesus Christ into all that we did. For it was Jesus Christ that emphasized the most important thing of all, "To love one another."
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| Home, Happy and Celebrating the Saviors Birth |
