New Year's Eve - Meeting Niko

I'm afraid I've been slow to get things posted here on the blog. I have several posts "in my head" but I know you can't read them there. Life is busy so I'll just have to put things up as I can find time. Sorry to make you wait.

We had a very nice New Year's Eve. At least I did. Walter was pretty sick with a cold and had to stay home. My sister Pitas invited us to come to their New Year's Eve party. I knew their whole family would be there and I couldn't turn down an opportunity to go visit at least for a while. It was my first chance to meet Niko, my great-nephew (Boyboy's son).

Niko is an adorable and very well behaved 6 month old. It was great to see him, his parents, Pam, and everybody else.

Niko loves to pull himself up from a lying down position. His dad holds out two fingers, Niko grabs on, and up he goes. Of course I got it on video:



I also took quite a few pictures of the family and of Obet's Christmas lights. You can click on the photo of Niko and me above to get to the album and use the Next and Prev buttons to navigate.

No Filipino party is complete without great food. I ate just a little, wanting to go home and have dinner with Walter. Pitas and Obet were very generous and packed up "a plate" for Walter since he couldn't come with me. The plate was more than one and ended up being plenty of food for both of us to have a nice dinner when I returned home.

Thank you Pitas and Obet and family for your wonderful hospitality. It was great to see you all!

And I hope all of you had a fun New Year's Eve as well.

Pre-Christmas Gathering

Since our family is not able to get together on Christmas Day we gathered on Sunday the 23rd instead. It's not often that I and my two sisters get together all at the same time as everyone lives in different parts of the state. Of course our meeting place was at Mom's house in Lacey. It was great to see everyone.

My nephew DJ took this photo of Walter, me, Diega, Jozi and Mom. If you would like to see some of the other photos taken that day click on the picture and use the Next and Prev links to navigate the album.

Storm Devastation

As I described in my previous post we were fortunate to come away unscathed by the devastating series of storms that hit southwest Washington on Monday. Tens of thousands of people, especially in Kitsap, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Mason counties were not so lucky. With the storms came widespread flooding, power outages and 6 deaths.

The Centralia area in Lewis County was one of the hardest areas. Floods engulfed one-third of the town of Centralia and completely shut down an 11 mile stretch of I-5 for more than 3 days. I understand the water was 10 feet deep along 3 miles of the freeway. The Seattle PI quoted a volunteer who was helping to get supplies to people who need them as saying "I've lived here 26 years, and I've never run a jet boat down I-5 before. It's pretty unbelievable."

My sister Jozi, who lives in Centralia was fortunate to have her home spared. My cousin Rhonda was not so lucky. It took several days before any of the family members heard from Rhonda. When I started writing this post a few days ago I was going to call it "Where's Rhonda?" because she seemed to be missing. Fortunately she is found and she and her husband are safe, staying with friends. But they sustained major damage to their home which they recently finished renovating.

Word has it that they didn't have much time to leave. Someone pounded on their door in the middle of the night to let them know they needed to evacuate immediately. By the time they got dressed the water was flowing into their house. The waters eventually reached their windows so you can imagine how much damage was sustained. Since the waters receded they have been taking things that can be salvaged to Rhonda's mother's home in Elma to dry out. I hope they can make their home habitable once again, but I know it will take much hard work and lots of money for the repairs. I can only imagine they are heartbroken over this.

Jozi lives near the Skookumchuck River which did not rise as high as the Chehalis which is near Rhonda's home. Still, it's nerve-wracking waiting to find out if your home will be safe. Jozi lost a day and a half of work because of the freeway shutdown and not wanting to get stuck in Olympia if her route became completely impassable. She described a couple days of constant helicopter noise. You see, helicopters came from near and far (even from California) to help in the rescue effort. Over 300 people were rescued by helicopter from their homes.

Flood waters also caused road closures on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton got a record 12+ inches of rain.

These storms were not only full of rain but high winds as well. Hurricane force winds hit on the coast causing over 50,000 customers to lose power - about 30,000 of them in Grays Harbor County. My cousin Karen lives in that area and she had to evacuate her apartment. Not because of flooding, but because the wind took the roof off the apartment building! The coastal area was completely isolated from road access because of flooding and had to endure days without power. Two days ago there were still 16,000 without power. Since the storm the weather has turned cold. What a miserable situation.

Lewis and Grays Harbor Counties were recently declared federal disaster areas. I'm planning to donate some money for the relief efforts. If you find yourself in a position to do the same and would like to help, King5 has a page here with a great list of ways you can help.

Mom and Diega Doing Well

Mom had her lower right eyelid surgery on Tuesday. It went really well (the procedure took only about 15 minutes). This is a picture of her in the recovery bed and she got to go home shortly after this photo was taken. The nurses thought she looked pretty cute with her white eye patch. They told her the white eye patch means she's a GOOD pirate!

Once the patch was removed the area looks great - just like she has a black eye. Her surgeon did a good job at tightening up the lower lid so she should no longer have a problem with constant eye infections.

Diega is doing well too. She got to go home from the hospital on Thursday. She's in a fair amount of pain yet but getting a little better each day. She's gradually adding more solid foods each day - today she had crackers in her soup and some applesauce.

We're all glad that everybody is on the mend. Thanks to everyone who sent their prayers and well wishes our way.

Visiting Diega

On Friday Walter and I took a drive up to Port Townsend to see my sister Diega. Her latest surgery had not solved her problems as quickly as hoped so she's still in the hospital. Diega seemed very happy to see us and we had a nice visit. You can see her here chatting on the phone with our sister Jozi.

Diega has been in the hospital two weeks now and she was getting pretty frustrated. But I'm happy to report that "things began moving" for the better a couple days ago and she is finally making significant progress toward recovery. Today she was thrilled to get that nasogastric tube out. She's looking forward to first a liquid diet and then being able to eat some solid food. Yay!! Keep on getting better, Diega. We're all rooting for you.

Tomorrow my mother gets a little surgery on her lower eyelid which will hopefully prevent further eye infections. I'll be with her in Olympia for a couple of days.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Bunch of Updates

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted. Most of it is family medical stuff so I will try to catch you up in this one post.

Walter's Eye Surgery
Walter is doing well after his surgery. Everything went fine and we're just waiting to see how the eyesight will settle. Right now it's in some ways a little better than before the surgery (but not as good as a few weeks ago) and in other ways it's not so good. It takes a while to heal so we will be patient and wait to see what happens. The good news is that Walter's eye pressure came down to a very reasonable number and hopefully it will stay down for a long time. Many times after a surgery like this there are small adjustments to be made including which eyedrops to take, but we'll get that all sorted out.

Mom's Kyphoplasty
My mom's surgery went very well. And the best thing is it greatly reduced her pain. We are very thankful for that. Unfortunately she wasn't able to eat for weeks before the surgery due to pain and pain meds. When they weighed her in pre-op we found out she was down to 93 pounds. Gaining weight is going to be a high priority for her.

Now Mom's Sick
Two days after Mom's surgery she came down with a horrible diarrhea problem and has been sick for 3 days. She's been to the emergency room twice and was given IV fluids. The doctors think it's some kind of gastroenteritis. She has an appointment with her main doctor tomorrow so we'll find out what he has to say. In the meantime the problem seems to be slowing down. Hopefully it's about over.

It's frustrating because the first thing they say for diarrhea is to stop eating solid foods. She's not going to gain any weight that way. Poor Mom, she's getting pretty frustrated and discouraged with her health issues. We hope something will turn around for her very soon.

And Then There's Diega
At 5:00 this afternoon I got a call from my sister Diega. She was headed into emergency surgery for appendicitis. Diega has been having abdominal pain for a few days. She went to the doctor today and they found out it was her appendix. I'm told they will do the procedure laparoscopically and she should be able to go home tomorrow.


Amongst all the bad news there are some blessings to count. For example I'm really glad that Mom's back is feeling better and that she didn't get this gastroenteritis thing while she was still having intense back pain. And of course there's my own health to be thankful for...

Mom Going Home in Less Than a Week

We had Mom's Care Conference at the rehab place yesterday. Her condition is markedly improved. Her medical condition is stable, she looks stronger and is slowly increasing in strength.

It looks like Mom's probable discharge date will be next Thursday, September 13th. She can hardly wait to go home as you can imagine. Her family is nervous though because she will be going home where she lives alone. Family will be checking in with her daily by phone and her neighbors will keep their eye out as well.

Mom will have physical therapy a couple of times a week at her home and a bath aid. I have a bunch of homework to do for her return - things to put in place so she will be as safe as possible.

After the care conference yesterday Diega was visiting at Mom's bedside. They were holding hands and I couldn't help but take a couple pictures. Diega has my Dad's dark Filipino skin tone and of course that's in contrast to Mom's "I've been inside all summer" paler skin. I thought the handholding made for some great photos and wanted to share them with you. Aren't they cute together?

Russ and Jen - Congratulations!

We have some very happy news from Walter's side of the family. Congratulations to nephew Russ and his beautiful fiancée Jen who recently became engaged. They live in Houston and are planning an April wedding in Playa del Carmen on the Mexican Caribbean coast.

Russ and Jen met at the bank where they both work. I haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting Jen but I'm looking forward to it. She must be very special for Russ to choose her as his bride.

To see a few more pictures of the happy couple click on the photo and use the Next and Prev links to navigate the album.

Congratulations Russ and Jen!!

My Grandfather as a Baby

I just discovered that my sister Jozi and I were each in possession of old photos taken in the same photography session. These were taken in 1903. The first photo is a close-up photo allowing you to see the people best, the second photo shows the entire house, stairs, picket fence and gate.

The baby in these photographs was my grandfather, Theodore Lee Moe. The other people are his parents and siblings. My grandfather's grandfather, Ezra Moe (not shown in the photos), was a pioneer in the town of Skamokawa, Washington in Wahkiakum County. That's a tiny place on the banks of the Columbia River in Southwest Washington. A peculiarity of the labyrinth of waterways and creeks that intersect the area funnels fog into the town and caused the original Indian inhabitants to name it Skamokawa, which means "Smoke-on-the-water."

This house is no longer standing but the people of Skamokawa still know of the Moe family history there.

Family Pictures

Walter's brother Rusty and his family recently gathered in Kentucky to attend a family wedding. Since they were all dressed up for the wedding and the whole family was together they posed for some pictures. I received these two in my email yesterday. It's always nice to get photos from this side of the family and I think these turned out great. Thanks for sharing them, Cathy.

Here are Rusty and Cathy's three kids (who are not really "kids" any more) Will, Betsy and Russ:


and here is a picture of their proud parents Rusty and Cathy:

Everybody looks so fine!

Thinking of Genora

Walter's mother continues her treatments for breast cancer. She recently started a 6 week course of radiation therapy. I had a nice long chat with her yesterday and am happy to report she is feeling well so far. She has even returned to her job at a department store cosmetics counter 15 hours a week. I was also pleased to notice she was in good and optimistic spirits.

Last week Genora had an MRI and they found something in the area of her thyroid. The doctors are concerned it may be malignant so she is having a biopsy tomorrow morning. We are hoping and praying that the results will be negative for cancer.

Update 4/3/07:
Walter received an email from his mother. She had the biopsy yesterday. She described that it "hurt like everything and more." She won't get the results until the end of the week. Thanks everybody for your prayers and support.

More Ilwaco Pics

I uploaded a few more pictures from last Sunday's Ilwaco trip.

This is a photo of Mary Jane showing us her medals earned in World War II. That's a bronze star on the left and a purple heart on the right. Mary Jane was a prisoner of war of the Japanese in the Philippines like my Dad.

To see more of the pictures you can click on the photo then use the Next and Prev links within Webshots.

Ilwaco

On Sunday I drove to Ilwaco with my Mom and sister Jozi to visit cousin Mary Jane. Mary Jane is actually a cousin of my mother's. She and Jozi share a passion for family history. Mary Jane is getting up there in her years and she wanted to share some of the genealogy materials she has collected with Jozi. It also provided a nice drive and a fun visit for all of us.

For those who may not know where Ilwaco is, you can find it on your map in the southwest corner of Washington State next to Long Beach and Seaview. That's near where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

This photo shows Mom, Mary Jane and Jozi.

Cancer Treatments for Genora

As I've talked about before my mother-in-law recently had a mastectomy. A few days ago she had her first appointment with an oncologist to determine what course of treatment will be necessary once she is sufficiently healed from the surgery. The verdict was a bit harsh. She must undergo chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormone therapy. It seems like a lot, but was not unexpected.

My sister-in-law will stay with Genora in North Carolina when she gets the first of her chemo treatments. I think that's in early April. I wish we lived closer so we could help with things like transportation back and forth for treatments. Please keep Genora in your thoughts and prayers.

A Miracle

Most of the information I was able to give about Genora's condition in the previous post was thanks to my sister-in-law Cathy. Cathy stayed in North Carolina with Genora until Saturday and on Friday she went with her to her doctor's appointment and got all the scoop.

In the week between Genora's surgery and her follow-up appointment Cathy and Genora had lots of time to hang out and go window shopping. One day they were at WalMart and they happened to be looking at the silicone breast enhancers that women sometimes use to enhance their breast size.

While they were looking at the silicone breast enhancers another woman was there too. She started a conversation with Genora and Cathy by telling them she had just had a lumpectomy and that's why she was looking at those. Surprised, Genora told her she had just had a mastectomy. The woman said "well then you will need a full prosthesis. These won't be sufficient for you." And she proceeded to tell Cathy and Genora about the perfect store where they would want to shop and told them exactly where to find it.

According to the woman this shop had everything a woman needs who has breast cancer. Bras, prostheses, gowns, wigs, etc. On Friday after Genora's follow-up appointment they went there and had a great time. Genora got 2 prostheses (one for day, one for night) and 6 bras. And Medicare paid for all but 30%. Cathy says Genora now looks great in her clothes again and one side looks just like the other.

When they saw what good quality the wigs were, Genora became less fearful of the possibility of chemo. And of course Cathy fell in love with the most expensive wig in the store and wants to get one for herself.

Cathy was astounded that they just "happened" to run into this woman in Wal-Mart. Cathy had planned to help Geonra find a store to get a prosthesis, but she was just going to look in the yellow pages. That may not have yielded as good a result as what they found by way of this woman's recommendation. As Cathy so aptly put it, "God works in mysterious ways!"

Post-Mastectomy Report for Genora

My mother-in-law Genora went back to the surgeon who did her mastectomy on Friday (one week after her surgery). She is healing well and was relieved to have the drain tubes removed.

After testing the tissues and the lymph nodes they removed in surgery it seems Genora's cancer was pretty extensive and involved most of the breast tissue removed. Before the mastectomy they first took out 3 lymph nodes to test them. I am told that if those lymph nodes had been cancer free they would not have bothered to remove any other lymph nodes. But two out of the three contained cancer. So they ended up taking a total of 14 lymph nodes - 9 of which were cancerous. This means that her cancer is closer to a stage 3 or 4 than the stage 2 they originally thought.

The next step for Genora will be to visit two oncologists - a medical oncologist for hormone therapy and a radiology oncologist for radiation treatments. She doesn't know yet if they will need to do chemo. They think they got all the cancer for now, but may recommend chemo to make sure it doesn't come back. Nothing is going to happen for 4 to 6 weeks because she needs to heal from her surgery first.

I'm happy to report she is in good spirits and keeping a positive outlook. I appreciate all the good wishes and prayers for her.

Post-Surgery

Walter's mother's mastectomy surgery was today. She's doing well after the operation. They had to remove a couple lymph nodes in addition to the breast. The difficult part now is waiting for biopsy results to tell us whether the cancer has spread any further than thought. Apparently those test results won't be back for a week. Please keep Genora in your thoughts and prayers.

The "C" Word

A week ago yesterday was a sad day for us. We got two pieces of bad news on the same day. First, Walter's brother called to let us know that Walter's mother has been diagnosed with breast cancer and she must undergo a mastectomy this coming Friday.

As a woman I can't imagine what it would be like to be told one has cancer. What a scary thing. At first Walter's mom was so upset she had to ask Rusty to call Walter because she was afraid she would be too emotional. Walter has talked to her since of course, and I spoke with her just the other day. She seems to be handling it okay, but I know it's hard. As she put it to me, "you just never think you're going to have to say those words: 'I have cancer!'" Surely that sort of thing only happens to other people. None of us thinks it will be us.

Genora's breast cancer is Stage 2 which I'm told means she needs a mastectomy but should not have to undergo radiation or chemotherapy. The blessing as I'm told by my mother's doctor and also by Genora (who heard it from her doctor) is that when you are "more mature" shall we say, you have less hormones which feed the cancer and your chances of survival are greater because the cancer does not spread as quickly. That's why you hear about very young women dying of the disease.

Are you on schedule for any mammograms needed? Do you do your breast checks monthly? (Those questions are for the ladies, of course.) No one deserves to go through what Genora will be going through, but sometimes it happens. We have to take care of ourselves as best we can.

Now for the second piece of news received. Last year my good friend Betty passed away. I try to keep in touch with her dear mother Helen who is a very sweet lady and did a wonderful job of caring for Betty in her last year of life. We got a New Years' card from Helen. Her note inside explained that she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early December.

I don't even know what to say about that news. I have been told that pancreatic cancer can be particularly painful. I am going to try to call Helen tomorrow. I wish there were something I could do to help her.

On the up side, both these ladies have families who love them and who will do a good job of taking care of them. Please keep Genora and Helen in your thoughts and prayers.

Digital Photo Frame

I mentioned in an earlier post that my mother-in-law got me a digital photo frame for Christmas. What a fun gift! I decided the best way I could show it to you was to actually show it to you. So here is a little video demonstration.

You can click the big button below to view the video here or if you would like to see it a bit larger click here. Be sure your sound is on.

Thank you Genora!



Digital Photo Frame

Good News on Mom's Tests

It turns out that my mother is the perfect patient for the kind of tests she had today - endoscopy and colonoscopy. She did a great job with her prep, drinking down the ucky liquid in 3-1/2 hours when told she had to finish in 6. She said it didn't taste that bad to her.

And after the procedures today she said "nothin' to it!" She had feared the worst, and she hardly felt a thing thanks to the great sedative they gave her. Her throat was a little sore afterwards but that's to be expected from the scope they put down to look at her stomach. The sedative made her a little weak and wobbly, but that cleared up very quickly once she was able to have some lunch.

Best of all, the tests showed nothing to worry about in her stomach or colon. That means we still don't know the cause of her anemia, so she has to get another simple test on Monday. After her success story today though I'm expecting great things.

Go Mom!