Mark update, and what's up with these Yoders

Mark decided that he was tired of being a four-eyes and so got fitted for contacts last week. Since he has astigmatism, he has to have a special kind that are weighted on the bottom. He has had a tough time getting used to them. Sometimes his vision goes in and out of focus as the contacts move around in his eyes, and he's had headaches and dry eyes. Sounds fun....

 Madelyn is not at all  happy about this. Not only is she freaked out by the mere thought of someone putting something on their eyeball, she has had several crying spells because now she's the "only one" in the family wearing glasses.

Mark spent a good chunk of the weekend practicing putting his contacts in and taking them out. Putting them in isn't difficult, but he has a really hard time taking them out. He'd been trying for 15 minutes (at least) the first night, and I finally had to come and take them out for him. And if you've never grabbed someone's bare eyeballs with your fingers, then you don't know the meaning of true love, because it was disgusting.

The problems are thus: Mark has a thick brow, small, squinty Asian eyes and fingers "like Vienna sausages". (His words, not mine!!) He can't fit his fingers into his eyes, basically. Finally, he asked an Asian nurse at the hospital how she gets hers out, and she told him to push them down rather than to the side and then grab them, and I guess that helped because now it only takes him five minutes to take them out. And now he can wear sunglasses again!

 Just had to zoom in on that shocked reaction -- priceless. (She had been licking brownie batter out of my mixing bowl...)

Anyway, at work the other day, he had three different patients tell him that he was a hot topic of discussion on facebook. I guess a mother had gotten on a local forum and asked which pediatric provider they would recommend. I copied some of their responses:

• Jenifer All are good but Mark is my favorite. Really down to earth, easy to talk to and will tell you what's up.

  
  
• Angie I Agree they are all great, Mark is my favorite
  

  
  
• Vanesa  Dr Mark Yoder

  
  
• Crystal I take my kids to Mark Yoder. He is great and listens to you
  
  
• Sieta  Mark yoder for sure. He is amazing!
  
  
• Justina Mark for sure!!!:)
  
  
• Chris  Also for Mark, nice guy. He came an volunteered for the SUU ROTC too.
  
  
• Danielle  I love Dr. Mark Yoder also
  
  
• Andriana  Mark! He is so easy to talk to and gives you all the advice you need. I always feel like sometimes i ask stupid common sense questions but he is always there to tell you whats up and doesn't make you feel dumb when you ask anything. I love him! I have heard good about the others there as well.
  
  
• Alex  mark!
  
  
• April Mark Yoder is the best he is so good with my boys and so caring 
  
  
• Skylor love mark he is amazing and has helped us so much with the long road with our daughters health problems he is so caring he is the only doc i know that will call and make sure she is doing ok and if we need anything or have any questions
  
  
• April  Mark yoder for sure, but all are great! However with mark, I can't say enough good things about him. Genuine, knowledgeable, really cares and listens. Not one of those ,"god complex" type doctors. He's does his job because he sincerely wants to help others. Also super down to earth, understanding and funny. Trust him more than anyone else
  
  
• Vanesa There you have it Mark is AMAZING
  
  
• Laura  Wow thanks girls! I appreciate you guys taking the time to help us out. Is Mark yoder a P.A??

  
  
• Mandy  Yes Mark is a P.A. and he is awesome!
  

  
  
• Cami  Love Yoder, Have seen Dowse once and Darlene once and they were very thorough but I always ask for Yoder for sure.

  
  
• Danielle  I don't think mark is a PA. I thought he was an actual Dr. Imight be wrong though

  
  
• Cami Pretty sure he is just a PA still, but he can take his own patients and everything still.

  
  
• Tricia  We like everyone there. I've never had any negative experiences with any of the 3. Mark is a PA and he is the one we schedule with most of the time because my sons really like him. Good luck.

  
  
• Ashley  Dowse is great, but always seems a little rushed.
  Mark yoder is still a PA I think, but he is absolutely wonderful and I always feel like he has time to talk and give advice when needed.
  
  

  So my husband is awesome. There were about 15 "Likes" on the comments as well. I just had to include the ones with the confusion on if he was a doctor or a PA. I love how some of them said "he's still a PA", as if he was going to be a doctor but stopped halfway through medical school. That's not how it works, people. Haha.
  
  

  Also...
  
  

  Yesterday during church, it was ward conference and they were saying what everyone's callings were, and so our full names got read aloud. So of course we had at least three or four people coming up afterwards asking what sort of bizzaro name "Mark Toy Yoder" was. Well, "Toy" is an Americanized version of  "Choy", which was Mark's Chinese grandfather's last name. He immigrated to San Francisco from China when he was 15 and that's when the name was changed. So Mark's dad was born Frank Toy, but then he was orphaned at 11 (I am probably butchering this story) and eventually adopted by Yoders.
  
  

  So I was telling someone yesterday that "Yoder" is Pennsylvania Dutch, and it got me wondering what the heck that even meant. So I Wikipedia-d it and it turns out it's not Dutch at all. People called it Dutch because it was actually "Deutsch", a.k.a. German. "Yoder" is derived from "Theodorus" who was a Swiss-German saint. ((1) Sanctus Theodorus; (2) Sanctus Tjordorus; (3) Sankt Tjoder; (4) Sant Tjoder; (5) Sant Joder; (6) Saint Yoder.) In Switzerland and Germany, the name is "Joder" and the Americanized version is "Yoder". 
  
  

  So "Yoder" is Swiss-German, just like my maiden name "Murset". Well, my mind is blown.
  
  

  A large population of Swiss-German immigrants ended up in Pennsylvania, and have stayed put. So the name Yoder is very common out there, especially among the Amish and Mennonites. Mystery solved!