Aubrey Rose Owen-4

From Pete: “I woke up from a difficult night of rest and prepared to travel down to the U hospital to see Rosann and attend church. I decided I would fast and pray for Rosann, so I didn’t eat breakfast, and I decided I would break my fast at 5 PM. I finished getting dressed and traveled to SLC. Again, this was a difficult trip for me. I listened to Classical 89 and made it down there around 9:30 AM. Rosann’s mom was ready for me to take her place. I felt so bad, she was unable to completely pull out the couch-bed and she had to sleep diagonal on it. It looked uncomfortable. I spent the next half hour with Rosann just holding her hand and tryin g to help her with whatever I could. I helped brush her teeth :).

At 10 AM I went to the U sacrament meeting. It was a half-hour meeting for the employees, patients, and their visitors. It was a beautiful little chapel called the Hope Chapel; many different denominations use this chapel for their services. The service was great and taking the sacrament was a really touching and meaningful experience for me. I had a hard time singing the opening hymn because of all the thoughts running through my head… mainly the thought that I may lose my little daughter. If all of the things threatening Rosann continued to keep up, we would have to make a decision, and Aubrey would not be able to survive. I felt a little alone and I tried to remember my Savior. After the service, I pulled aside a Senior Missionary Elder and I asked if they could bring the sacrament to my wife. They introduced me to a young married couple and said that they coordinated all of the sacrament delivery throughout the hospital. The husband looked familiar to me and I asked him... ‘Greg, I know you from somewhere. Where do I know you from?’ He said, ‘yeah, you look familiar as well. Are you from Bountiful?’ I told him, ‘No, did you wrestle?’ he said, ‘yeah, I did and I graduated in 2005.’ I told him, ‘hmmm, I am a little older than that. Did you ever attend WSU?’ His eyes then lit up and he said, ‘wait, your name is Pete. I knew you in the Purple Pak!’ Many memories came flooding into my mind and I responded, ‘oh yeah, that’s right!’ We continued the conversation and he was now attending the U of U and had been married. He loved this calling. Anyway, that was nice to see a familiar face and I no longer felt lonely. Heavenly Father truly sent me one of his “tender mercies” as Elder Bednar has said. After I had arranged with them to bring Rosann the sacrament, I walked back to her room, No. 2404. When the people came to bring Rosann the sacrament, the young couple gave us a thought and then blessed the sacrament in our room. It was a beautiful experience and I was full of gratitude when they provide the emblems to her. The rest of the day was wonderful. I napped and served Rosann most of the day. At some point, I tried to help her get up with the nurse and that proved to be extremely tiring for her. She was worn out the rest of day. My family came to visit later that evening, mostly because my youngest brother was unable to see her… he had been in Las Vegas for his spring break. They arrived around 9 PM, briefly visited Rosann, and then waited in the Surgical ICU waiting room with me. Another brother and I played Angry Birds on our phones and watched some of Ironman. My youngest brother finally arrived and I told him the whole story. He visited with Rosann as well. I am so grateful for my family and all of their support.” From Rosann: “I woke-up in the morning and talked a little with my mom as she packed up her things. Then Pete came @ 9:30 and I was so grateful to see him. He was dressed up for church. He looked incredibly handsome. I love being married to him. He went to a sacrament meeting in the hospital. Then he came back and told me that a couple would be stopping by to give me the sacrament. I was so happy about this. They came and shared a beautiful message about Heavenly Father’s plan for us and about Jesus Christ. Then I took the sacrament. The sacrament has never meant so much to me as it did today. I thought about Christ and him suffering for our sins. Partaking of the bread and water was so symbolic. If we are always putting Christ first in our lives, all things will fall into place. We will have no reason to fear. He is the bread of life. The rest of the day wasn’t fun. I was dizzy all day and I was seeing double as well. The nurses wouldn’t let me eat until they had found out the results of my blood tests and the phlebotomists were all having a hard time taking my blood. I am swelling up so much that they can’t find my veins.

They had to bring in an ultrasound machine and do an ultrasound on my arms to locate veins. They said that they have to do this on really obese people to find their veins- that made me feel really fat! The phlebotomist couldn’t find success in taking my blood, then two nurses tried and finally a doctor had to be called in and lucky he was about to successfully take my blood with the help of the ultrasound. Then I had to wait for an hour for the results. A doctor came in and said that the results were horrible. She said that if it weren’t for the medication that my heart wouldn’t have been able to beat by itself. Finally they brought me food after I asked them so many times. Pete feed me and it was so good. We tried to have me sit up on my own and this made me really nauseated and I lost all the food I had just eaten. I was really bloated. Then we tried to have me stand so that I could go to the bathroom. I was only able to stand. This drained me of all my energy and I decided to just take a nap. Pete’s family came to visit that evening and I could only handle one person in the room at a time. It was too overwhelming otherwise. It was nice having Pete stay with me this night. It is comforting to hear him breathing in the same room and I am even starting to appreciate his snoring because it is the only familiar sound in the room. His being here for me has kept me sane.”