I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back to writing on this blog, but much has been going on. I really don't know what or how much I will write tonight, but here goes.
On August 14th, Jim's brother Norm was put back into the hospital with pneumonia, sepsis and a urinary tract infection. He went down hill from there. To make a long story short, we were advised to change his status from Full Code (to resuscitate and do CPR if needed) to a Do Not Resuscitate comfort measures only status. We agreed to the change. He got worse, and finally we were asked to put him on Hospice services. We made sure he got the chaplain to see him and give him last rites. We got daily calls on his condition, and yesterday Norm passed away. We are glad he is not suffering, and has gone home to be with God and with his parents, and the one lady he loved, Jeanette. Here's the worst part of the story, and what I hope will help the rest of you when you make your final arrangements. Last year when we visited Norm back in Buffalo, he told us there was only ONE thing he wanted us to make sure was done when he died. He wanted his body donated to the University of Buffalo Medical school for research. When I agreed to put him into hospice care, I explained this to the social worker there. She asked me if we had a copy of the agreement. We did not, and said we wanted to take care of this before he passed. She informed us that the individual wanting to make the donation MUST get all the paperwork completed BEFORE he or she dies. In a last effort to try to follow through on his last wishes, I called my former sister-in-law, Judy who used to work for an attorney. She made many calls, including the anatomical donations department at the University. She tried, and tried, and I can't tell you how very grateful we are for her efforts to help us out, but there was just no way we could do as he had asked. Please folks, if you have any ideas of what you want done with your body when you die, please make sure to put it in writing. Don't leave it to others to try to figure out what you would want done. I don't know what else to tell you, and I know people don't like to talk about dying or what care you want to receive when you are too sick to make your own health care choices, but it's something we ALL need to do, and do it before it's too late. This has been a very sad weekend for us both, but we must proceed to go forward now.
The ONLY thing about our motorhome that we were not really thrilled about, is that the shower is rather narrow. We saw an ad at the Camping World Store for a shower curtain rod extender. It is hinged to move inside the shower space when you are NOT taking a shower, and then swing outward about six inches to give you more elbow room when you are taking a shower. We got it and we are very, VERY happy with the added shower space it gave us. If any of you have shower spaces in your RV that are narrow, and not more than 42 inches long, this rod extender may work for you too.
We recently purchased an outdoor two seat couch for our screen room. In my next post I will try to include pictures, but for some reason, my computer does not want to let me post any pictures tonight.
The park here filled up for the holiday weekend, and it has been very hectic. We helped a neighbor who was having trouble setting up his screen room. Tonight he and his wife invited us to join them for a taco dinner, but we explained that we would not be good company right now, and declined. I think that's all my news for tonight. I'll try to be more upbeat next time. Take care. Stay well and enjoy the cooler weather as autumn approaches. Bye for tonight.
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