Heaven Gained an Angel Today

Mom passed away early this morning here at home surrounded by her family. Although she will be missed, we're feeling somewhat of a sigh of relief. She fought a hard battle and lived her life with grace and dignity through to the end. We know she is happy, healthy and perfect. She joined God and her beloved grandparents today and you just can't help but smile when you think she's in heaven now.  I'm sure she was greeted with open arms filled with hugs and so much love. 

The last few weeks were hard for her. She kept on telling us the past few months that she has the easy part, but what she endured these last few weeks certainly wasn't easy. 

Now to celebrate her life, look to move ahead, and mourn the loss of a truly amazing daughter, friend, mother, grandmother and wife. We'll miss her dearly as I know many of you will. We'll remember her and celebrate what she brought to us here on earth. Although so young and so much (I believe) still to give, the memories and all she taught me (and many others) will continue to be shared. Her purpose, her life will continue to impact so many...

Arrangements for the funeral service and visitation are being arranged by Gass-Haney.  You can read her obituary here.

Not to be overlooked

Thank you to everyone for your continued support to us these past few months. The food, sparkly stars chimes, prayers, cards, love, phone calls, and visits were everywhere we looked. For that, we thank you, truly thank you.

HOME AGAIN...

Mom did come home today; we're glad that she's here. She wanted to come back here so this is where she needs to be.  She's settled in again for the most part, however, it's been a rough day & last night.

She's been pretty restless and can't get relaxed. She says she's not in pain so we're relieved about that. We're trying to manage some of the anxiety and restlessness with some medicine.

We're hoping she rests better here as this can't be much fun for her.

Again, we can't thank you enough for all of the love, support and prayers. Please continue to send prayers for strength, peace, love, trust, and some much needed rest right now.

To the Hospital, again...

On Sunday morning, early AM, Tim took Mom to the hospital because of the pain again. Unfortunately, it had so quickly went up in the pain level that Mom requested they try the ER to see what they could do. She had been in pain, then comfortable and back & forth a few too many times since Tuesday and was tired of it. Understandable... we just can't know how bad the pain is. She has a high tolerance for pain so you know when it hurts that much, it's really bad.

In the ER they tried a quick release pain medicine that didn't even touch the pain. She was admitted to the Columbus Hospital about 11am on Sunday morning where they made the decision to change the type of morphine she has been on.  Finally by ~7pm that evening, she got some relief and has been comfortable ever since.

The plan is for her to come home tomorrow. We will see what the doctors/hospice care team think after things play out tonight. We're hopefully she'll get to come as tonight she was rested well today and was pretty alert again and moving around a little bit.

At this point, we're asking for just family to visit. Because the pain medicine requires that she stays relaxed and cannot get over anxious, we can't risk that she will again be in pain. It's too much and unfair for her to suffer.  If she becomes tense, anxious, or even starts fighting sleep she'll become agitated and restless and that is usually what leads to the pain if she can't settle down. We will for sure update here if anything changes with the visitors.

We know and it brings me (us) so much comfort knowing how many people are pulling for her, sending love, prayers, and all that you have done for my parents these last few weeks and really the last few years. We can't thank you enough. 

Keep the prayers coming....

Good Days & Bad Days

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

That's what Mom keeps saying... (actually, she keeps telling us to write the Thank You's).  Mom & Tim and all of us are overwhelmed by the support everyone has given. The cards, prayers, visits, meals, and beautiful outdoor sparkly stars that where hung outside along the house when Mom arrived home from the hospital have been so helpful. It's nice knowing so many people are here to help if anything is needed. 

It's been a little while since I gave an update on how Mom is doing. Overall, there hasn't been much change here.  Mom has her good days and bad days.  The good days are great when she's alert, talkative, and is part of the conversation. Then she has bad days and been in some pain.  Sometimes it easily managed, but the last 2 days has been a little worse.  It's a so frustrating to see her in pain. The hospice nurse team are so great and helpful and giving us ideas on different things we can do. We've went up on the level of pain meds quite a bit the last few days and are hoping this will level is out soon, and she'll be comfortable most of the time again.  Taking the pain medicine up makes her very droggy/sleepy.  Her body will be get used to in a few days & will be more awake and not feel so zombie-like, hopefully.

We've had quite a few visitors and it's nice to have people stop by.  If you'd like to stop by, please just call the house or my cell phone 847-400-6213 and let us know.  The hospice team has asked us to try to limit the time a little bit for visitors, probably around 10-30 minutes. You will know if she's trying to rest that it's probably time to go, and if she's more alert to stay a little longer.  It's hard to tell visitors to leave, but just know that we're trying to keep the overall activity level down so she stays comfortable. That's the #1 goal for Mom right now; we don't want to see her uncomfortable.

Settled At Home

Sharon arrived home on Friday early evening. Hospice met us here and got her settled in here with the morphine pump and all the details we needed to care for Mom.

It was a pretty rough transition getting here. She had a rough drive home from the hospital, and obviously very overwhelming to get here, the Hospice transition, and just overall anxiety with leaving the 24 hour care with easy access to the doctors and nurses if she needed anything.  It was a rough night. By the next day toward the middle of the day, she seemed to have settled down and was more comfortable.  The hospice nurse said that transition is always hard and is expected.  It was just really hard to see her suffering again when we got here.  So far, the hospice program has been great and is a phone call or a short-drive away if we need them. They have a lot of good advice and know what to expect so it's making us feel better taking care of her.

She's been comfortable now for about 1.5 days, she's had a few visitors, but mostly family. She's been pretty tired and hard for her to stay awake so she's sleeping quite a bit.  We're planning to have visitors this week. We've noticed she's perks up a bit when a the people have stopped by. 

Please just give us a call if you'd like to stop out. We know so many people would like to so just give us a call. You can call the house 402-246-4701 or my cell is 847-400-6213, and we will let you know if she's up to it or not.  She's pretty good at letting us know if she wants visitors or not. Please just be mindful if you have a cold or feel under-the-weather that we don't want her to catch anything and have to deal with that too. 

I will continue to update every few days or if anything changes.  We can't express enough how thankful we are of everyone's support. Your prayers, thoughts, and love is so amazing. My mom is a very special person and has obviously made an impact to so many.

Going Home Today

The plan is to go home today! She's been stable for the past 24-36 hours in regards to the pain and the levels of the pain medicine she's been getting. The level of pain meds needed has even been reduced a little bit so that will hopefully help as she is very drowsy/droggy most of the day.  She will be going home with a morphine pump which is a small pack she will be able to take with her to manage the pain so she's not suffering.  

Hospice will be meeting us at her house later this afternoon if we can get checked out of the hospital. I'll provide more details on this later.

We're just waiting for Dr. Wurdeman to come up to talk with Mom and make sure she's good to go home.  We're glad, she needs her own bed, quieter around the house and hopefully can get a good night sleep.

I know many of you would like to visit, I will update again later today once we get home and see how she is doing and if she'd like visitors.

More updates will come later...

Prayers, Love, Support.... And Relief

Quick update - Mom is feeling better, by yesterday afternoon, the pain medicine was at the level that was keeping her comfortable.  She was very tired yesterday, a little down in the dumps, frustrated of course, and droggy from the pain meds. She's able to now & since Tuesday evening push a button at a maximum every 30 minutes to get more morphine if she needs it.  By late last night she hasn't had to push the button for more; we are all so happy about that. The levels of the pain medicine are contributing to the continued constipation and making her tired.

She is doing better today! She was up this morning, took a shower, had breakfast (ate almost all of it, another great thing), and visited a little bit.  We still need to get the bowels moving, if it doesn't it will contribute to more pain.  We're hoping she'll go home tomorrow or Saturday (all depends on the bowels / balance with the pain meds) She will be going home w/ hospice so she can be comfortable and not be in pain.

Grandma & Grandpa Gehring just arrived. We think Mom is up for some visitors today. It will be good to have some different people here today.  The conversation will be lighter and hopefully get her spirits up a little bit.  Travis will be here shortly too.

Lots of love to everyone! Thank you for all of your support, it feels good to know that so many people are supporting Mom. She needs it! Please keep the prayers coming. I will try to update more again soon.