Month: June 2019

Almost 132,000 men moved against Germany today and over 3,000 of them lost their lives fighting against one man's army.

We let go of the reins today to Dad’s brother PJ. Dad’s health is considerably better than when we first came out here a little more than a week ago. There’s still a long road ahead for all of us. I think they are a little shy of the resources needed to continue without help. I think the tall pole in the tent for the two of them is mobility.

For me and my wife we’re more convicted than ever about reducing the clutter in our lives and having a plan for our departure. It’s not fair for our loved ones to figure out what to do with all the “Stuff” we’ve piled up on our property. (Especially if we are physically separated.)

Important paperwork needs to be gathered and organized for our designated loved one.

Our last full day in Pahrump NV, we’ll stay in Vegas tomorrow night.

Dad has a reverse osmosis under the sink and they are buying bottled water because it tastes bad. It’s ok for coffee, but it needs service. Also there is standing water underneath the sink that needs looking into.

Swamp cooler status is a complete changeup since my post earlier. I pulled the cover off the unit tonight and the overflow extension was removed from the drain to winterize it. (So no water is allowed to build up inside the cooler.) I replaced the overflow and it filled up properly. It seems to be running properly although there is a significant amount of particulate in the bottom of the unit that needs to be cleaned out.

The idea of leaving the scooter at the hospital didn’t pan out either. (The hospital may change his room at any time.)

Dad’s gas card and credit card was given back to P today after filling up the white van.

One of the two chargers for the scooter is in the sewing room under the piano/keyboard. The other one is in the garage near the door on the floor. (Not sure if it works.)

P has the red four wheel walker with her for her trip to the doctor.

We are carrying a small suitcase with clothes for Dad, we may carry the travel bottle of oxygen as well with us tomorrow.

All of our belongings will be in the white van at the hospital. We are planning on being there a little after 09:00 AM.

We didn’t know as of today whether the electric bill has been paid. (It’s online, but may not be autopay.)

Dad has received his last dosage for this round of Chemo tonight. They will check his blood and clear him to go home if he passes the physical stress test of walking.

Dad looked better today, he ate good. Completed long conversations and didn’t fall asleep in his chair.

Dad is having an issue with his hip, when he walks on it, he is in considerable pain.

P has a list of all his medications. That list has been moved out of the brown envelope and I don’t know where it ended up.

All three of us were awfully tired at the end of the day today. P is limping pretty badly and looks in pain.

We’ll leave almost a full bag of Dominican Republic coffee. All the beer in the fridge has expired. We just bought the little plastic bottles of coke but I would check anything else in the fridge before drinking it.

The basket in the baby fryer on the counter was dirty and she wanted to soak it. The fryer is full of soapy water.

None of dad’s three thermos’s have been opened since we got here a week ago. So beware…. The coffee pot seems ok unless it’s not closed properly, then it leaks all over the countertop.

Truck keys are on the fridge

There is a 6 port cell phone charger on the kitchen chair next to the wall, although the wires feel awfully stiff. They do work rather well.

The large box next to the kitchen wall is recycling.

Dad’s O2 was 94 today without supplement Oxygen, so I don’t know why they bother during the day. At night he wears the O2 strap.

Bringing P home every day has lengthened the days significantly. (Since we’re heading to Vegas right after breakfast and stopping by the store on the way home.) It also means that I post the last update this blog close to midnight EDT.

It is a little frustrating that he still had not received his Chemo treatment after five days in the hospital. The whole reason for going into the Emergency room was to speed up his first treatment and stop the cancer from eating up his organs. Going into IMU may have been the cause of the delayed treatment. (They apparently avoid traversing zones of care, floors.)

Nothing worth repeating about breakfast or the trip to the hospital this morning except maybe the parking lot was completely FULL today.

When I got to dad’s room he was receiving his second Chemo dosage. He had good color and his temperament was about normal, so the Chemo didn’t seem to affect him much.

We went for our lunch break about 11 like we have for the last couple days, they had Taco’s and I pigged out. I had four of them. We headed back up to dad’s room and he got his lunch a short time after his Physical Therapy session. (Taking an assisted walk.)

The coolest thing I’ve seen in days was watching my dad dig into a meal and enjoying it. I am not sure but I think my dad could taste his food for the first time in months! He was eating feverishly until his hip started bothering him. The pain got so bad he called for some pain medication. By the time the doctor showed up he was writhing in pain. The doctor prescribed 4ml of Morphine. It was another 10 minutes before the nurse came in with the syringe. As soon as she administered the dosage dad started drifting away. It wasn’t 3 minutes and dad was sound asleep. S came to visit an hour later and dad was still sound asleep. As a matter of fact dad was still too groggy to follow a conversation at 5PM when we left for the day. S and the nurse requested the doctor change the dosage to 2ml from now on.

Talked to his brother and we confirmed the travel plans for Thursday. P is driven to her appointment at 7 am by a neighbor. M + K packs their belongings and drives the van with the scooter to the hospital at 8AM. Brother rents a car and drives to the hospital at 10AM. P arrives with neighbors to visit Dad sometime after 10:30. We visit with Dad until about 5PM and his brother takes us to the hotel for the evening. He and wife drive the two vehicles and P back to Pahrump. M + K flies home on Friday.

Scooter notes; P’s GoGo scooter is a super piece of equipment. It’s fairly light, it turns on a dime and it’ll easily out run a good jogging pace and not need a charge at the end of the day.

F’s brother has gotten tickets for the 6th of June around 10AM and our tickets are currently for tomorrow (Tuesday.) I am loosely thinking we should plan to stay in Vegas Thursday night and fly out early Friday morning even though it will be more costly. *If we can get seats. That way we can spend a day with his brother on Thursday. He can drop us off in Vegas before leaving for Pahrump on Thursday evening. I am 50/50 on his brother renting a car right away. We are driving F’s car that has to be returned to Pahrump sometime Thursday. It would also work flying home on Saturday morning if the flights are crowded. The tall pole in the tent is K is still quite ill with Vertigo and she will have strong opinions about which flight to take home. (We should choose them before seeing F today.)

Dad has Med-port installed and dad had a good hearty lunch. We are waiting on a transport technician to bring us to the 6th floor for Chemo. That should happen today, although it is getting rather late. (It’s 15:30)

So, now that we know dad will still be in this hospital on Thursday, it simplifies things just a little. The tall pole in the tent is that we’ll bring our bags with us to Vegas on Thursday. We need to be dropped off at the hotel Thursday before everyone leaves for Pahrump. We have an early morning flight that will require us to be up at 03:30 on Friday.

Dad is now on the 6th floor and is waiting on Chemo treatment. We left the hospital shortly after moving him to the 6th floor. One thing we noticed is that dad has very small bumps that have showed up on his right side and back. The nurse said that he didn’t think it was anything serious, the nurse on the 6th floor didn’t have a chance to look before we left. I didn’t see them on his chest or his left side, the nurse was loosely thinking some kind of sensitivity to his surroundings.

The hospital sent someone up to gather his meal preferences for the next couple days. (But he was in IMO on the third floor. ) It remains to be seen whether they transfer the requests to the sixth floor. Hope so…

Got a couple laughs, a few more smiles and smirk’s today, so he seems in good spirits given the situation. They checked his weight and I think it was 147 Lbs.

I slept much better last night having a CPAP even if it’s my spare. I was too tired to even go out to eat so we had cereal and oatmeal for dinner. (We did have a huge lunch.)

The bathrooms and their bedroom are fairly clear of clutter and clean. The sewing room is pretty cluttered, but would not take a whole lot of effort to support someone sleeping here.

My boss gave me the option of staying a few extra days so it’s time to organize our last days here. I don’t have the expertise to change the valve in the swamp cooler or repair the air conditioner on the toy hauler. I have not been given permission to fix Dad’s wireless so we are using my T-Mobile hotspot that costs about $40/Month for Internet. (He says the wireless password is on his password sheets, I couldn’t get it to work the first few days I was here.) I tried logging on to his router, but the router refused the connection. (It says it is not finished setup. It requires a hard reset on the unit and start the setup process from the beginning.) He has an Amazon Echo, but without access to the wireless, I can’t work on that either.

When I got to this stage with my Mother, I setup cameras on the outside areas of my Mom’s farm with remote access from Atlanta to manage the cameras and recordings. It allowed us to see if they are home (Cars in the driveway) and to look for them if they didn’t answer the phone for an extended time.

There are a few eggs left and I’ve got over half a box of instant oatmeal. K is running low on Soy milk and strawberry mini wheats so we’ll have to make a trip to the store by Monday. We cleaned the coffee pot as best we could when we got here and have been making Dominican coffee every day using Dad’s machine.

I am thinking I can make some headway on the front area of the garage where the bed is. I can clean out the fridge in the garage of all the expired stuff in an hour or less. I did fill his tank sprayer with fluid to kill off the grass, but not had the time to drag it across his yard. I started trying to clear out some space in the garage pull-out couch, but like everywhere else, it is a pile of stuff with no home.

The hardest part when I cleared my mom’s farm is sorting things. What stuff is needed to maintain the property. What stuff does she not want to let go of and we can find space to keep. What on this property is still valuable enough to try and sell for the estate. Who is going to sell it? What is the condition? What’s it worth, does it run/work, can it be safely used/driven?

With my mom, rust destroyed most of what she was trying to save. Here in Pahrump things last a lot longer in storage. It still would take months to sell this stuff on EBAY.

The well died for the second day in a row this morning, we called the “Well Guy” this afternoon and he found insects (Assumed ants) in between the contacts of the pressure switch. He charged $65 for the trip and we’re in good shape.

We brought P home from the hospital and went to Wally World on the way back to get some milk. We also stopped and replenished the gas before returning home.

P said that they performed the test on F’s Aorta this morning. They did not put in the “Med Port” because they successfully got an IV in his arm.

F was eating when we got to the Hospital this morning, he had a feast of food on the tray.

P was sitting on the scooter I brought her yesterday because they took her big lounge chair for F to sit on after the therapist had F walk out to the hallway and back. They are very concerned that he’s going to fall while he is in the hospital.

We went to the Cafeteria for lunch again today, it suits us. Good food and company!

At F’s house in Pahrump, P is currently with F at the Hospital Rm. He is to receive a procedure today, but the specifics are very foggy. He had not eaten since we arrived at the hospital at 11AM yesterday until I left around 18:30.

We filled up the car with gas last night, so we are good for the trip back to the hospital today. Might need to check the engine oil?

I’ve connected the water line to F’s garage “Swamp Cooler” and it seems to be functioning well. I have not gotten onto the “Toy Hauler” to see if a capacitor is the reason the A/C is just humming loudly with no cool.

I checked their electric scooter and the batteries were completely dead. I think Pat needs the scooter to get around the hospital. The plan is to bring the scooter to Vegas and try and get batteries at Batteries and Bulbs.

One of my spare CPAPs is at the FEDX sorting facility in Las Vegas. According to them it is still on schedule to arrive by noon at the hospital. I haven’t slept very well without it and it’s been three nights already. I’ve not gotten anything from Delta on where my primary CPAP ended up. I know the plane left here bound for Atlanta then went to Seattle.

I’ve made coffee and four eggs for breakfast. K is having Strawberry frosted mini wheats.

We’ll probably head to the hospital by 9AM. The water float valve in the swamp cooler is stuck causing the water to run out the overflow. I turned it and the water back off before leaving to the hospital.

I tried charging P scooter last night. Both batteries are only about a volt and the chargers were unable to coax them into working again. We stopped by batteries and Bulbs and picked up a pair of batteries on our way to the hospital. K drove the scooter to F’s room without any issues.

My return trip is scheduled for very early Tuesday morning. I’d like to return to Atlanta AFTER F gets back home from the hospital. My personal opinion is that the trek to and from is too much for me and I think it would be too much for P as well. It’s considerably easier with a navigator/co-pilot to make our way through the neighborhoods to the hospital.

I did get my spare CPAP today, need to find out who brought it to the hospital. He went an extra mile to make sure it got to us on a Saturday. (It had no signature required.)

They did an MRI today and Fred said there is Cancer in his head/brain. They did not elaborate on the severity.

We were able to take a break and eat a good lunch for the second time. The hospital does have some pretty good food in their Cafeteria. P was happy to have the scooter to make the trips to the bathrooms and we took it to lunch. She didn’t know the seat swivels allowing her to sit up against the dining table.

K’s Vertigo is still an issue that we are dealing with as best we can, nausea is the tallest pole in the tent. K also gets panicky when there is a lot of commotion. Which with P making phone call after phone call has been pretty difficult for her. I think we’re going going for a walk where it’s quiet…

The doctors do seem to be focused on F’s heart. (Low blood pressure?) They did an extensive echo on his heart today and they want to do one on his Aorta tomorrow.

No chemo today, I think they are not convinced he can endure it without crashing. He is scheduled have a line put in to induce the Chemo if they are able. Monday he’ll get the Chemo fluid that is recommended for small cell lung cancer.

They had a hard time getting a IV put into him this afternoon, I think he’s a little dehydrated. They were talking about getting him on Boost at the hospital to put some weight back on him. (Calories) Two IVs failed they may have to put a MedPort in to give him fluids and the Chemo on Monday.

We are back in Pahrump and I am terribly tired from not sleeping for three days.