Obituary

Jim's obituary is in the paper today.


http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/dclassifieds?Dato=20091110&Kategori=OBITUARIES&Class=30&Type=CAT1320&Lopenr=91100284&Selected=18

Jim's Final Arrangements

Visitation:

Wednesday from 5-8pm at the Middle River Friends Church.

Funeral:

Thursday at 10:30am at the same church. He will have Fire Department and Military honors.


Middle River Friends Church
4057 S23 Hwy
Carlisle,IA 50047

(515) 989-3319

Funeral Arrangements

The details are still being finalized, but the visitation is set for Wednesday from 5-8pm and the funeral for Thursday at 10:30am.

Due to the large number of people who will attend there has been trouble finding some place in Carlisle that is big enough. Once the location has been set I will post another update.

A Sad, Sad Night

Last night about 10pm, Scott's dad Jim passed away after having a long fight for his life. He had a room full of family and went very peacefully. Jim was a great husband, father and grandpa. He leaves a void in our hearts. We are sad beyond words.

Jim will be transferred to Richardson Peterson Funeral Home in Carlisle, but a funeral site & date have not been determined.

Jim will forever be in our hearts & minds!!!!

The End is Near

Friday night at around 10:30pm we got word from Grandview that Jim went in to cardiac arrest and had flat lined. They sent him to the Oelwein hospital and revived him and then transferred him via helicopter to Covenant hospital in Waterloo. Me, Scott and Liza in one car and Martha, Mike and Jordan in another all headed to Waterloo.

When we arrived at the hospital, they were doing a CT on him. Soon a doctor came in to tell us of the situation. They gave us some suggestions as to what may have happened, a brain bleed, a stroke, possibly septic from the colostomy bag. We still don't know the true cause other than that Jim is very, very sick. We weren't really prepared for what we saw. His eyes were wide open, with no blinking, he gave us no response at all and then was seizing every 10 minutes. We all knew immediately that he was gone and had no brain function. By 4am they removed his ventilator and gave him high doses of morphine to make him comfortable.

None of us slept Friday night. It is now Saturday night about 5pm and most of us still have not slept. This morning they transferred him from ICU to a hospice room and we met with hospice staff earlier this morning. He is comatose and seems very comfortable.

Jim & Rick updates

Scott's update from Sunday about Jim:
I got here around noon - dad was awake and alert and had been weaning since about 8 or 9 am.

It took me a minute to find him because nobody told me they moved him to a different room for some reason. This new room is a bit smaller, but he has a better view of the TV. Not sure why or when they moved him.

It's now almost 3pm and his O2 sat has been around 98-99 and even hit 100 a few times. Can't do much better than that.

The nurse says his bedsore is looking really good with whatever treatment they've been doing for it.

This is probably the most awake and alert I've seen him in quite a while, so I've been talking to him quite a bit, giving him as many updates as I can think of. I showed him some pictures of Zane and Alison's baby on my netbook. He seemed to enjoy that.

The nurse gave me a cup of ice chips and I pretty much fed him the whole cup until it was gone. He really liked it and wants so more. He normally complains that his mouth is dry and all I've been able to do for him in the past is a little tap water on a sponge/swab. This has to be a lot better.
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Today, they are moving Jim back to Oelwein. The doctor in Waterloo had expressed concern about him ever getting off the ventilator. The family had some discussion of whether to send him back to Oelwein to wean or to just bring him closer to home to be a continuous vent patient. Hopefully Oelwein will continue the weaning process and now that the feeding tube issue has been solved, we can get him off the ventilator.
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As for Rick, he said this round of chemo has been the worst so far, in terms of having no energy. He's barely been able to work or concentrate this time around. The first week always takes its toll on him, but right now he just wants to go sleep.

Trick or Treat...

...smell my feet, give me something good to eat!


Well we had a very uneventful beggars night. We had absolute miserable weather, complete with rain, strong wind and about 40 degree weather. I had the pleasure of taking Zane out, while Scott enjoyed sitting in the nice warm, dry house, playing computer games on facebook.

I was pretty sure Zane wouldn't last long and decided we'd just stick to the houses on our street. We started out down the sidewalk, the wind blowing right at us and Zane wanted me to carry him. So I headed back and got the stroller. As we approached our first house, I had to drag him out of the stroller and carry him to the door as he whined "NO". Same program at house #2. Strolled him up the drive of house #3 and he said, "Nooooo". I decided that was it. He wasn't enjoying it and I certainly wasn't enjoying it. So back home we went. Some of the neighbors had a better idea, they drove their kids around.

Due to the crappy weather, we only had a few trick or treaters, which meant lots of left over candy. So don't worry Zane didn't go without candy. In fact, "CANDY" has been the first word out of his mouth in the morning.

Look at all that candy! This is what 2 houses will get ya!

The neighbors

Halloween Preparation

In order to get ready for Halloween, we have decorated (very little), been to a pumpkin farm (see earlier post), bought a costume, bought a glow stick - just for fun, watched It's a great pumpkin, Charlie Brown special, bought some candy to hand out for trick or treaters (peanut free), determined that mommy will be the one to take Zane around again this year while daddy stays home to hand out treats, carved our large pumpkin and I think that about does it.

Here we are carving our pumpkin. I say we as is (me & Scott). As in past years, I get the joy of scooping the pumpkin guts out, while Scott draws the face and carves. Zane wasn't too interested, which surprised me considering he loves pumpkins. He was more upset that I brought his pumpkin inside since he helped me arrange the pumpkins, gourds and squash outside. Anyhow I plopped him up at the table to watch daddy do the carving and he did seem a bit intrigued.

Once we were all done and returned the pumpkin outside and lit it, I took Zane out to see it and he could care less. He was more interested in the moon and stars. Suppose that means he'll be an astronomist????? Remind me again why we go to all the trouble of carving a pumpkin for a boy who isn't too interested? =)