Hospice

Today Grandpa has started to receive hospice care at the hospital. He went into the hospital yesterday because of shortness of breath and his severe back pain. Because of his frail condition and his many medical issues, the medical staff and his doctor said that there was really nothing left to do except keep him comfortable. Grandpa did not want to live this way and was ready to have it end.

Grandma signed some hospice paperwork this afternoon and Grandpa was moved to another floor of the hospital where he could receive hospice care. Jim met with a hospice coordinator and both he and Grandma will meet with that person again tomorrow morning.

We were over to visit him tonight and he probably doesn't know that we were there. He is receiving morphine to ease his breathing and to control his pain.

Please keep him and Grandma in your prayers.

Sunday Summary

Here is the reason that it has been a week since my last blog entry.

This is the start of a shawl for me to wear on our Mediterranean Cruise this summer. This pattern is called the Seascape Shawl and it features sections of lace made to look like different kinds of shells. So far I have completed the Cone Shell Lace and the Sand Dollar Lace. I am currently working on the Scallop Shell Lace and I have an extra stitch so I am unknitting a row (208 stitches) to find my mistake. I like knitting lace but do not like when I have made a mistake and have to go back to find it. The white lines you may see in the photo are lifelines and they are lengths of string through a row so that if things really go wrong I can rip back to that row and pick up the stitches on the string and start over from there. It is a great idea, but I hope I don't have to use them. I have been putting a lifeline in every 10 rows. I love knitting on this shawl and would do nothing else if my conscience did not prevail!

So, other things have been happening around here. Corey and Tucker have returned to places that they now call home and Tucker has made the trip to Mexico. Corey had a haircut before he went back to school and here is a self-portrait he took for me since he had the haircut just an hour before he went back to SU and I was at school.

Friday night we saw the movie Up in the Air, with George Clooney and we both really enjoyed it. I can see why it has received so many award nominations. Of course, put a smiling George Clooney in a suit and I would watch him pick up garbage!

While Tucker was home and doing some work in the basement, he discovered a small leak in some pressure valve on our hot water heater. So Jim replaced the valve on Saturday morning, but the dripping has continued, so he is continuing his search for the cause. We may end up calling a plumber in the near future. When one lives in a house that is 75 years old, simple projects sometimes bring a never ending sequence of things that need to be fixed or replaced.
Saturday night we went to the RIT hockey game with Bob and Sally and cheered the RIT Tigers on to a 2-0 win.

This morning I went to church and worked as a substitute deacon. When I got home, Jim had lunch waiting and my XC boots were warming in front of a heat vent. We planned to go XC skiing so after a soup and sandwich lunch we decided to try skiing at Greece Canal Park. For my first time out this season, I was looking for some fairly easy skiing and the Greece Canal Park was perfect. We skied for 75 minutes and enjoyed the trails. For the most part we skied on trails that people had been hiking on, instead of tracked trails but the sun was shining and there were very few people out there so it was a great time. Here are some photos from our ski.

So, that is all to report around here.

Hope all is well.