Life Update

John's mom, Jerrie, passed away last Friday at the age of 86. Although she'd been in a nursing home near us for several years, she'd been doing (physically) fairly well recently. Her death was unexpected and obviously very difficult for John, who would often tend to her several times a week to visit with her or do her laundry.

Also, Gram has returned to the hospital. She had a shoulder replacement surgery about 4 weeks ago & has been in a rehab facility since then to recover. Last week though, she became very ill and was taken back to the hospital due to some complications from all her medicines. She spent a few days getting her blood pressure and blood thinner medications all figured out.

When Mom & John headed down to the Valley for Jerrie's funeral, Gram called to tell me that her heart doctor had seen some test results that made him want to do a heart cath surgery on her Tuesday. I've spent all day at the hospital with her, updating my mom by phone, as they did the surgery. Luckily he didn't find anything serious and didn't need to put in another stint or do anything else.

While we were waiting for her to go up to the cardiac surgery unit, Gram's orthopedic doctor came by to notify us that he had ordered some blood work to check for infections, which had come back with elevated levels. Her knee, which she's never had any problems with in the past, had been giving her severe pain & she'd been running a fever. He wanted to draw some fluid for her knee to check for a knee infection. He didn't want to do the surgery last night, but I'm not sure if she has a knee infection or not.

So that's where things are at right now. Hopefully Gram does not have knee infection & she starts regaining some of her strength back. She's having a very difficult time walking- mostly from being weak and knee pain. H is still very busy at work, and it's getting dark so early in the evenings now.

These photos were of a family photo outing back in October of 2004 where we had some nice photos taken of the whole family. And the Christmas photo of John & his mom is also from 2004.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Mom & John made it back safely from McAllen.