This Past Month

Most of those who read my blog are aware we’ve had an unusual experience at our house this past month involving our son, Bryan.

Bryan has been serving a mission in Budapest, Hungary and having a marvelous time working in that part of the Lord’s vineyard. He had been learning an extremely difficult language and had already connected with many Hungarians and with the other missionaries serving there with him. We loved our weekly emails from Bryan which expressed his happiness at being a missionary and serving in this part of the world; all felt right in our lives for the past four months.

On July 15, at about 10:00 a.m. I received a call from President Baughman, Bryan’s Mission President. He said that Bryan had been having trouble with his knees and had been sent to have an MRI. He said that if the local orthopedic deemed surgery an option, they would probably send Bryan to Germany to have the operation and then keep him in the Mission Office for a couple of months while he recovered. At 1:00 that afternoon, I received a second call from President Baughman telling us that due to the severity of Bryan’s knee issues, he was being sent home to have the surgery and would be arriving at 11:30 p.m. the next evening.

It was shocking news and suddenly everything was different. I immediately got an appointment with Dr. Pepper Murray, a highly recommended orthopedic surgeon from Bountiful for Monday morning and made changes in my work schedule to accommodate Bryan’s return and eminent surgery. The next night, Rob, Kevin and I were waiting at the Salt Lake International Airport for Bryan to come walking down the concourse.

He looked great and it was wonderful to see him again, but it just didn’t (and doesn’t) seem right that he was home already. Bryan felt it too. He has been trying to keep a positive attitude about being here, but it has been very difficult.

On Monday, July 19, following his examination, Dr. Murray said he definitely required surgery on both knees; we scheduled it for the following Tuesday, July 27 at Lakeview Hospital.

That was a very long day and we were a little discouraged to receive the news from Dr. Murray following Bryan’s operation that he discovered osteoarthritis in Bryan’s joints and that this surgery was not going to be a permanent repair. The surgery turned out to be more involved than originally thought. Dr. Murray had to file down bone, clean out the back of both knee caps, cut out most of the cartilage in both knees and remove scar tissue from the left knee.

Since that day, Bryan has been following the doctor’s orders and striving to rehabilitate his knees so that he can return to Hungary. The surgeon has expressed his opinion that Bryan won’t be able to return to an Eastern European Mission because of the rigors of cobbled roads and too many stairs in 10-to 20-story buildings without elevators...too hard on bad knees.

We appreciate all the prayers and concern we've received from friends and family on behalf of Elder Crouch. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts as he heals. We hope that in the next six to eight weeks he will be able to return to full-time missionary service wherever the Lord sees fit to send him.