Cousin Jude Passes On

I just received a phone call from my Aunt (Janet) who gave me some bad news. She informed me that Cousin Jude died last night at 8:00pm in Doctor's Hospital. He had been in ICU for three weeks now and the whole time he was in a coma.

This is how the events led to this...

Jude Kemp was working out in his yard with a gardener and they were lifting heavy things. Jude had to go to the bathroom and he filled the toilet with blood. He thought that he had an infection and that he had strained himself and pulled something inside of him. He had to go to the bathroom a few more times that day as well with the same results.

Once hearing about this his daughter Beth told him that he had to "go to the hospital." He didn't want to go; he had to be pushed.

When he was in the hospital he underwent a colonoscopy which reveled that his small intestine was filled with blood. They sent him to the Operating Room where they removed four feet from his small intestine.

He was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit after the operation so they could monitor him better. He passed more blood later and had to have another operation because they found more blood clots in his intestines.

Jude did not wake up after the second operation; he was in a coma. I visited him in ICU and did not recognize who he was because his face was so swollen from all the drugs. If it were not for Beth standing at his bedside holding his hand I would have walked by not knowing.

He had a bunch of tubes going in and out of him and had a cold blanket over his legs and stomach which was used to keep his fevers at bay. Beth said to me "Daddy doesn't like the cold." I replied jokingly that she had " better get a hot water bottle and put that on top of the blanket then." We laughed and made a few giggles at other things too. Laughter is my medicine; it helps to get by the rough patches in life.

A week and a few days later I heard from my Uncle (Godfrey) that Jude's kidneys were not working properly and that Jude had to get hooked up to a dialysis machine. His kidneys were failing him; his body was shutting down.

Two nights ago the doctor overseeing Cousin Jude called the immediate family in and asked them what they wanted to do because Jude had been on life support for a long time. The doctor asked them if they wanted to take Jude off life support and see what his body does or leave him on. They decided to leave him on. I guess God had to make this decision for them because the next night he died.

More Bad News - Will this ever stop?

Yesterday I found out that my Grandmother was taken to the hospital in the morning due to the fact that the day nurse taking care of her at home said that her pulse was "deadly low" and that she "needed to go to the hospital".

I did not visit her yesterday but made it there today, but just not as early as I would have liked it. I left the office at around six o'clock and went to Doctor's Hospital where my Grandmother was in ICU.

Upon exiting the elevator on the third floor I spoke to one of the nurses at the nurse station and she informed me that a lot of my family were "going in room 307" and that my "grandmother can only have two people at a time" by her bedside. I saw room 307 to my right and walked towards it not knowing what to expect. I peered into the room and saw a relative of mine which I have not seen in a while. His name is Jude and he is my cousins 74 year old grandfather.

He is not doing so well. He his having a a colonoscopy tomorrow morning. Apparently has has lost a lot of blood and the nurses there were giving him more at one point. He was busy drinking tea and drinking broth too.

I went and saw my grandmother who was totally out of it sleeping. She looks so frail now...well she's been looking this way for a few months now...slowing loosing weight. This is the last of my grands; the rest have already left this world. She is really special to me. I remember back in the day when I was a little boy she would call me 'Bong-see'. It's obviously not a real word, just my nick name she gave me with love.

Later in the waiting room I got the ok from one of the nurses that it was alright to see granny. She was awake now and I was able to talk with her. I stroked her hair and kissed her forehead as I told her "I love Granny." I said to her that she needed her sleep and to have a good night and that I would see her in tomorrow.

After arriving home from 2 plus hours in the hospital I got some more shitty news. I found out that Joe has been given 6 months to live. My eyes welted up with the emotion that filled my heart. "This sucks!!" I can't believe this!

This has indeed been a "Terrible Tuesday", just as my gmail custom message was set to today. I'm so tired of death...but it's one of those shitty harsh realities we all have to deal with. All you can do is live each day like it's your last.

My Father's in ICU

I just want to let you know that my father is not doing to well. He is in the Intensive Care Unit in the hospital.

On Monday July 17th he had a spasm in his left arm which caused it to "lock-up". Tuesday (18th July) he was admitted into Doctor's Hospital for observation. This was after a scan of his head. The doctors noticed 3 spots that they believe are cancerous because of his history dealing with it. The doctor's are not sure wheather the spots in his brain are indeed cancerous or not. The only way they can do this is to do a biopsy. However they cannot do this because of the small size and the location in his brain. They do not want to go in there and do more damage. Basically dad was bleeding from these locations in his brain which are inflamed. The only other option to "treat" the damaged portions of his brain is with radiation.

Dad was released from the hospital on Thursday (20th July). It was so nice to have him at home again.

Since then dad has been having the radiation on his brain. Chemotherapy had to be stopped since the two forms togther can do more bad than good. Chemotherapy & radiation do not mix well together.

On Saturday 26th August dad had a 104 degree temperature.

Dad has not been able to speak like his usual self. He has been running out of breath easily. His breathing has gotton so bad. Quick short breaths.

On the Wednesday another high temp. And on Friday it was back up to 104 again. Dad looked really, really bad. He was buring right up but he did not want to go to the hospital because that night (Friday) was a planned suprize birthday party for mom (who's actual birthday was on the following Monday). Even though daddy did not want to go he had to, so he confessed to mommy about the party.

On Sunday (3rd Sep) he was admitted into ICU and has been there since. Dr. Curling said that dads breathing passage had been clogged with a clot. He said that the cancer was making it hard for him to breathe. Also they found out that dad had pneumonia. The doctors decided to open up his lunges so that he can breathe easier. They inserted a tube down daddy's throat into his lungs and he was put on a resperator (the breathing machine). He now also has a staph infection as a result from the "operation".

Monday it was believed that dad had had a stroke because he was not moving his left part of his body. He had a scan done in the morning to see what changes occured in his brain. If there was a stroke it would be visible in the results. We would also be able to see if the spots in his head had grown in any way. There were no changes compared to the previous scan done in July.

Mom has been in the hospital by daddy's side straight through. She is so tired and worn out. She's a trooper though. If she did not have her children, and good friends to support her I just don't know what type of state she'd be in. She's not eating well, a little piece of something here and there. At least she's eating something. We all keep asking her if shes hungry, if she wants a sandwitch etc.