Saturday, February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day 11,700 miles later...


Feb. 5-6, Dr. Petersen flew 21 hours round-trip (2,350 miles each way) to accompany an Elder to Lima, Peru from one of the 14 missions he's the area medical advisor for. The brain tumor that was thought to be benign on the first MRI has turned out to be a very, aggresive malignant one, so the prognosis is only 25% that the missonary will still be alive in 2 years. We are so sad. The missionary told Dr. Petersen that his patriarchal blessing said he would have a second mission, so that may be in heaven.
And then, Feb. 12-13, I was assigned to go with Dr. Petersen because it was a sister missionary to accompany home to Costa Rica for seizure-type related problems. That was 3500 miles from Buenos Aires, = a 16-hour over and back flight.
So within 9 days Dr. Petersen was on a plane 37 hours, plus all the airport waiting time, and driving to and from the airports.
We're running on fumes as we leave early tomorrow morning to give a health presentation for the mission presidents and their wives in Colonia, Uruguay. Traveling is not a "leisure activity" on missions~!
Dr. Petersen has traveled 11,700 miles in 9 days. I've traveled 4,700 of that with him in the past two days.
Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

4 comments:

Janiece said...

That is alot of traveling.
I was sorry to read about the missionary, but what a postive attitude to have.

Brewer Bunch said...

Wow - you really do get around!! I hope you had a good Valentine's Day.
Hey, we watched such a good movie last night about marriage- you and dad would love it! It's called fireproof. No swearing, no sex. Very high moral values taught. In fact that production company has made 3 other movies on various topics (all have a piece in them about centering your life on Christ) that we are going to buy for our movie library. I am going to buy this one also and send it to you. (I think the other movies are called flywheel, faith like a potato, and the note - you can look them up on the internet to read about them. We are so excited to watch them!)

4kidsandcrazy said...

Wow! So sad about the missionary. That is a ton of miles! I hate flying it is just a means to an end. I can't imagine doing that much in such a short time. Hope you find time for a nap soon.

SAYDA said...

So sad about the missionary. So wonderful that we know he will serve another mission. You sure do quite the traveling. Always travel safe. May the Lord bless both of you always.