John Hesch

Shelly and I began walking last week down at the school track and we were wishing we had a pedometer to keep track of how far we walk. I read where Pfizer is giving away free pedometers for taking a short survey. It took me 3 minutes to complete the survey and my free pedometer is on the way. Heck of a deal.

Have you ever gone through periods of time when everything is going wrong? Feels like a giant rain cloud is following you around wherever you go? That’s my life. Right now.

I can’t remember a time in my life when it has lasted so long and affected so many people. It just sucks.

For eight months now I have been led to believe that a well known LDS company was in the process of acquiring funds to purchase KZION and hiring me to manage the station. Several emails and phone conversations with the VP of Marketing throughout this past year led me to feel quite confident of this. I haven’t made any major life decisions based on this assumption but I have laid low when it comes to advancing KZION.

Last week I found out that the investors for this company instructed them to diversify outside of the LDS market because there is little money to be made in the LDS themed market. This includes not making any additional purchases of LDS businesses.

Major disappointment.

My daughter and son-in-law bought my house and we need to move quickly. They bought it as an investment. They’ll remodel and resell quickly. We need to find a place to live. Fast.

Huge stress.

My oldest son, wife and young daughter recently moved from our basement into their own place. The second day in their new home their car engine seizes and needs to be replaced. They don’t have any money, my son is a full time student and also works a full time job. We aren’t in a position to help much.

Huge stress.

My youngest son (Lives at home) bought a car recently and the brakes just went out.

Huge stress.

My oldest daughter has three kids and the youngest has been having some health issues. Not major problems but enough to cause us to worry.

Huge stress.

My wife has been having some heart problems.

Huge stress.

I need to decide what to do with KZION. I need to find a new job.

It appears that Deseret Book has purchased LDS Living and so all of my buy CD links on KZION are broken. I can’t get LDS Living to answer me on whether they will be fixed or not. It’s not like I have the time to fix over 5,000 links.

Stress, stress, stress.

Yeah, I know. It will all work out. Life always seems to find a way to work itself out.

In the meantime please shoot a prayer or two my family’s way.

My oldest son who is 21 has been having a rough time lately.

Last night I had a dream that I was sleeping on the floor in a very small room high above what appeared to be a gymnasium. Within a few feet of where I was lying was an overlook without any guards or railings. This was not an ordinary gymnasium as the room I was sleeping in was probably two stories high and the entire room down below was covered with a mat, like you would see at a gymnastics or wrestling event.

I was awakened by the screaming of someone in obvious pain. As I listened to the scream I recognized the voice as that of my oldest son. I could tell that he was in extreme pain and was suffering. The sound was coming from down below. I crawled over to the overlook and I could see my son laying face down, and there were a lot of people gathered around trying to help him.

He had jumped or fell from the room I was in, several stories down to the mat.

I then woke up. The sound of him screaming in pain has haunted me all day.

I hope all you dads are getting a much deserved rest today.

Today my oldest daughter turned 27 years old. We took her to Applebees this evening. All twelve of us. Eight adults and four kids under five. My daughters husband had minor surgery today so he couldn’t come.

We had to wait about 30 minutes for our table and the kids hung in there pretty good. But once we were seated at our table the melt down began. By the time the food arrived, my poor daughter was a mess. Her kids were just tired and it was so hot in the restaurant.

My wife tried taking two of the kids out to the car after they had eaten to watch a movie, so my daughter could eat her dinner but soon her five year old melted down. We ended up boxing the dinners and taking them home. We didn’t even get to have the staff sing happy birthday.

I’m sorry the evening turned out to be a bummer Amy. We all love you very much and we had a good time in spite of what you thought. The kids went home and the birthday girl and other adults went to a movie. They went to see The Perfect Man.

Happy Birthday!!

Shelly is out of town this weekend so I did the grocery shopping this evening. I came back with $45 in junk food. This is why I shouldn’t do the grocery shopping.

While Shelly is out of town I thought I would get the car washed. It was sunny and almost 80 today. It’s raining right now. This is why I shouldn’t decide when to wash the car.

I would like to introduce my new grandson, Grant Cazier shown here with his mommy. Grant was born at 5:27 AM this morning and was 7 lbs 3 ozs and 19 3/4 inches tall. Mom, dad and baby are doing great. More pictures here.

Amy is still pregnant. She is now just 4 1/2 weeks away from her due date but the doctor wants her to wait another week. She is still taking the medication to stop the ongoing contractions. I think she is going to stop taking the medication next week and just go ahead and have the baby. Her last baby was born four weeks early with no complications.

Misty had to go back home to Washington so it’s going to be a tough week ahead keeping Amy down and not taking care of her kids and home. It was great having Misty here for two weeks. I wish her and Ty could find a way to live here in Utah, even if it’s up north. Misty’s husband Ty, is a geek and I don’t have any geek friends to hang out with. It would be fun to have them close.

Its been a week now since my daughter Amy was released from the hospital. Still no baby thank goodness and every day she can hang in there is a blessing. I think she’s about 6 weeks away from her due date so another week or so and she will be in the clear. She has a doctors appointment this afternoon so we’ll see what he says.

We’ve had it all. Major flooding continued today as the rain fell and rivers swelled. Several homes in Santa Clara were swept into the Santa Clara River.

Pictures are from KSL.

The only remaining bridge from St. George proper to my home was closed several times today including this afternoon when I tried to get home from work. Shelly and I spent the evening at my daughters home. I was able to get through at about 7:30 Pm but when I got home I found the power out. It seemed to be a selective power outage as homes on streets next to mine had electricity. Of course the power outage put KZION offline. About 11:30 Pm this evening the power came back on as well as KZION.

The weather forecast is sunny and 50-55 degrees for the next seven days so we should be able to dry out.

My daughter was finally released from the hospital this evening. The contractions have slowed down in response to the medication. If they resume she will be back in the hospital so she has been ordered to bed rest except to get up to go to the bathroom. She needs to hang in there for another two weeks or so.

What does flooding and newborn babies have to do with each other? I guess you could have major flooding if mom’s water breaks in an untimely manner

But not this time. St. George has been in a severe drought for the past eight or nine years and apparently Mother Nature has decided to do some catch up work, and so for the past few months we have had a ton of rain. For the past week or so its been raining non-stop. This morning all routes out of my community except one were closed due to flooding. Several times today the only route out of my community was closed. I never really realized this before but all routes from my home into town require crossing some kind of river.

The Virgin River runs just a block from my home and these are some pictures I took this afternoon. In this first picture you can see where the bridge has cracked. That’s one of three major cracks along the base of the bridge. Obviously that bridge is closed indefinitely. The only open route into town requires crossing a bridge and on our way home the river was about a foot from the bottom of the bridge. Looks like I may be staying home tomorrow.

My daughter is seven months pregnant with her third. She has been having some serious contractions for the past two weeks. Several times she and her husband have been into the ER. Her doctor told her she has to wait for another two weeks but this evening she was having contractions 3-4 minutes apart. This morning at her doctors appointment she was 50% effaced and dilated to two. They’re still at the ER right now, we’re hoping and praying that she can hang on for at least another week.

We heard from the insurance company and the medication that James needs to take for the rest of his life will cost us $165 per month. Can you believe that? Our insurance will only cover 65% of the cost which leaves us with $165. It’s a shame but James is going to have to take into consideration the medical benefits provided by any future employer.

There is a financial aid program for rare diseases that we’re applying for. Hopefully we’ll qualify for some sort of a subsidy.

After 15 months of a continuous migraine headache, thousands of dollars in medical bills, four doctors, three hospitals, and dozens of procedures and tests we have a diagnosis for James! He has Narcolepsy. Not a lot is known how Narcolepsy is contracted but apparently what happened is when James had bronchitis and sinusitis last year a virus destroyed the brain cells that controls REM sleep. Because his REM sleep is not regulated properly this migraine began and it has not gone away in 15 months.

During his sleep study James went into REM sleep within minutes of falling asleep which is not typical. He then had a few short periods of REM sleep throughout the night but not nearly enough as what would be considered typical. During his five daytime naps, James experienced REM sleep four of those times which the doctor has never seen before. Typically we don’t experience REM sleep during the day, it’s reserved for our night time sleep. But four out of five naps James went into REM sleep almost immediately after falling asleep.

We’re now waiting for approval from our insurance company and to learn how much the medication will cost us. Without insurance it costs $470 a month and James has to take this medication for the rest of his life. Once he begins the medicine he should be back to normal within a month.

We’re hoping and praying that this will be the answer. Thanks so much for all the prayers and warm wishes that we received over the past year and a half. I know James gained strength from your prayers. I’ll keep you updated.

Up at the top of the page I have a link for family. I added it before I really thought it through. I own heschfamily.org and so my first instinct is to use that domain to create a family website with information, pictures and links to family members websites, blogs and photo albums. This way if anyone forgets the URL of any one family member they can always remember heschfamily.org.

But a link to heschfamily.org really belongs on the links page and doesn’t necessarily deserve a top-link of its own. If not a link on the links page then perhaps a link in the sidebar. Any ideas?