September 13, 2011 - These past two weeks have been full of doctor visits, visiting kids and family, and spending time in St. George with Mom and Dad. We’ve been treated so well. We have the use of a sporty red car and this pleasant apartment, Zion Summits, directly behind the Conference Center. From our living room windows we have a panoramic view of the Salt Lake Valley. The sunsets are gorgeous and we can watch jets taking off and landing at the distant airport. From our bedroom we have a beautiful view of the capital building. It fills the window and we sleep with the curtains open at night so that we can see shining on the hill.
Dr. Christopher Jackson, a rheumatologist at the University of Utah has been treating Marsh. He served as the Sao Paulo Interlagos Mission President during our first year in Campinas and helped us with some of Marsh’s medical needs. These past few days he has spent a lot of time with us examining Marsh and very patiently talking to us and answering questions. Within one or two visits the consensus was that Marsh doesn’t have Polymyositis but rather, a related condition called Inclusion Body Myositis. This is an inflammatory muscle disease, characterized by slowly progressing weakness and wasting of both the large leg and arm muscles. Unlike Polymyositis there is no cure or treatment and physical therapy is of little or no help.
On a positive note, the doctors feels that the disease will progress slowly enough that Marsh can return and complete his mission. Since there is nothing more that can be done in Salt Lake City, the decision has been made by the Quorem of the Twelve to send us back to Brazil. Elder Anderson met with us in his office where he told of us the Twelve’s decision. So with the Quorum’s blessing we are ready to head back. We will leave in two weeks, on September 27th just in time for transfers on October 3 and 4. We didn’t expect that we’d be back so fast.
