Weekend Update

Hi from Kate...

Not sure what everyone knows...so Mama fell and broke her hip...had surgery on Thursday night (well actually it was early Friday morning...) Thank God for large families cause she was able to have many of her children at the hospital at various times during the several days of surgery and hospital stay.

There has been a change for her recuperation plan. Originally she was going to a nursing facility on Bethel Rd...but they could not (or would not) take her, due to her behavior and dementia issues...so she is giong to The Arbors in Hilliard...5471 Scioto Darby Rd. Hilliard Ohio 43026. Phone is 876-7356. Please visit if you can. Papa too...I went to visit him on Saturday, and he really wants visitors. He hates that all he does is sleep and eat. I told him about Mama's fall and surgery...He was very worried, but I told him that all of her kids were taking care of her...and he was happy.

I took Papa for a walk down the hall and sat watching TV in the small family room. Even to walk him down the hall is stimulation he needs. Thank you to all family members that try to give their time and energy...it all makes a huge difference. Grandkids...Papa wants visitors...he may not be able to hear and understand everything you are saying...but he does comprehend that we care...and he wants to see people. Even if you can go for half an hour...please go. Take him for a walk down the hall, with his walker, or bring pictures to share...I'm hoping to get the girls over to play the piano...Anything you can think of to stimulate him.

Megan visited OU with Jim on Saturday, and OSU with me on Tuesday. We still have University of Cincinnati, Michigan State, and Miami of Ohio later this month. Jena managed to lose her retainer last week, so tomorrow I go to find out how much $$$ it will cost to replace...UGGH! Nicole is beginning her braces tomorrow too..wish us GOOD LUCK!

Our trip to Wolf Lake Ranch is coming on Saturday...Margaret is coming too...Paul and John can't come this year...bummer! We'll be back July 12th. Hope all is well with everyone...please send updates.

Love,

Kate

Just heard from Forum...

Thursday (6/26/08): From Tish. Sorry I missed the Wed get together. Anyway, I just heard from one of the nurses at the Forum. Mama was very agitated today and went to hit one of the workers, and consequently lost her balance. She fell, hitting her forehead (around her eyebrow) on the hand rail attached to the wall. She has a pretty big knot on her eyebrow. Hospice medical staff is going over to check Mama out and make sure she is OK.

Just wanted to keep you all in the loop. Talk to you later.

Kate's back!!!

Hi everyone it's Kate....Megan and I got back late Friday night from her volleyball in Florida. It was a lot of fun watching her in her element with all of those hundreds of other volleyball players, lots of college recruiters and coaches. She had a blast, played some great volleyball, and we got a lot of sunshine. Very nice time for both of us.

Jena and Nicole were a big help to Jim while I was gone...they helped around the house with their chores and helped with the dog each day. It was good practice for them before I head back to work. (Hopefully late summer, early fall.)

I plan on seeing Mama and Papa either Monday or Wednesday. Mary mentioned the Forum was having a family support meeting for family members of dementia patients. It is Weds. evening 6:30. I'm hoping to pick Liti up and take her. Mary was also planning on attending. Any family members are welcome. Dessert is provided. Meeting is in Dementia building...3rd floor lobby area of independent living section. I know Tish was seeing them today...I hear Mama still has her watch, glad it makes her happy. Fran, Megan picked up the clothes for Baby Hugo this morning...she was at a friend's house right down the street from Mary's. I will get them over to Amber this week.

We are having a big garage sale this weekend with some neighbors. I am getting rid of all my "little kid" toys...YEAH!!! I will hopefully get my loft back! I'm sure I will keep a few things for kiddos to play with when they come over for Thanksgiving, etc. But hopefully next time you all come over, my house and my backyard will look different...a bit more focused on the adults and older kids in the house :)

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog lately, hopefully I will have more fun info to share the next few weeks. I would love to hear stories about the graduation parties. Val, how is the cat? I'm off to take some girls to the mall to spend the money that seems to burning a hole in their pocket...and then I will hopefully get to work out in the yard...I have weeds that are bigger than my dog :)

Love to you all.

Kate

Update

Hi from Tish. Stopped by to see Papa on Friday. Since I was not going to be able to drop in during the weekend (out of town & celebrating Don's Father Day w/ him on Sunday) I wanted to spend some time w/ Pops on Fri. He was exhausted and not really up for any sort of visit. He is again beginning to swell(face and feet). I need to mention that to Dawn @ hospice. Also, Rich, I am not certain if the hearing aid is working. I have talked to Kate about this (and she has spoken to Margaret). The 3 of us have visited Pops on a fairly regular basis recently, and Papa seems to be having a lot of difficulty hearing. I'm not sure where we were going to have his hearing aid checked, but maybe it would be a good idea to set up the appt again. Can you please advise?

Dawn (from Hospice) called on Friday a.m. to give me an update on Papa. He is on Atavan now (same drug as Mama) which should help with his anxiety and agitation. The Forum had called earlier in the week to let me know that Papa's dementia is getting worse and he is beginning to live more and more in the past. He frequently thinks that he is at work or needs to go to work. This is making him very anxious...thus the Atavan. Also, Lou (from Hospice) called me last Thursday to tell me that he had a wonderful visit with Mama. Lou is the minister for Harbor Light Hospice. He took his mandolin and played religious songs for Mama. According to Lou she loved it. He said she was so sweet and a very "gracious" lady.

I hope some of the family got to visit with Papa this weekend.

Margaret, I understand you have had your ups & downs medically in recent past. I will give you a call. If you ever find yourself in that situation again, PLEASE CALL ME. I will be happy to take you to the doctor.

I think Kate is still in Atlanta w/ Megan but should be back shortly...

Well, for all of the readers of the Cabrera Family Blog who are fathers, I hope you all had a fabulous Father's Day.

Talk to you all soon. Love, Tish.

Update on Weekend

In Kate's absence I will fill you in on latest with Mama & Papa. I had lunch w/ Papa and then took him over to see Mama. This was on Sunday. We visited Mama for about 20 minutes. She was having a bad day...crying quite a bit. However, when we first arrived she was very excited to see both of us, but particularly excited to see Papa. She kept repeating "how did we make it happen?" You cannot help but wonder where her mind has taken her. Papa was pretty exhausted after only 20 min, so I took him back to his apt so he could nap. By then, Mama was also napping.

I am not sure Papa's hearing aid is working as it should. I had to repeat all of my questions and he could only hear me if I was sort of yelling. My guess is there might be a problem with hearing aid. I asked the nurse about it, and she indicated that he was responsive to their questions so her guess is everything is OK. Who knows.

I still have not talked to Nancy V. about Papa's Lasix. I will try to call today.

I'm sorry I missed my nephews' graduation parties this weekend. I thought about both of you and I hope your parties were a great success.

Well, that's about it. Talk to you all soon. Love, T.

p.s. One thing I want to mention. Kate recently asked Papa what we could do for him to make things better. His response was "more visits." I know it's tough...but I thought I would throw this out there.

Kate's update

Hi everybody...it's been awhile. Our house has been a continous wave of end of year activity. The girls last day of school is tomorrow! Megan's taking finals this week, and getting ready for her volleyball tournament at the Nationals in Orlando Florida. They played extremely well in Louisville over the Memorial Day weekend. Nicole has 5th grade graduation tomorrow morning and will officially be a middle schooler. She has joined the moneymakers in our house and has been very busy being a mother's helper in the neighborhood.

Jena had her end of year choir concert where she was one of four students (out of about 200) to receive an award for her musicianship. She is singing in the end of year talent show tomorrow. Okay, enough bragging about my girls...I am one worn out Mama between awards banquets (track, volleyball, choir, etc), end of year girl scouts (yes this is my twelfth and final year as a leader), piano recitals, volleyball tournaments, track meets, homework, etc. I am looking forward to summer when I won't be babysitting 50 hours a week...maybe I'll get my house cleaned finally:):):) Tish...I also did not get any house cleaning done when we got home on Sunday.

This weekend, Jim and I are taking the girls for a long weekend with two neighbor families to a lodge at the Wilds...(safari type place associated with Columbus Zoo). We will have our own little lake with kayaks, canoes and motor boats. It will hopefully be a long weekend of napping by the water, and hanging out by the bonfire. I'm looking forward to it immensely. Unfortunately, that means we will miss all the graduation parties...I'll be thinking about Luke and Joe and all of their parents!



Tish updated you all on our visit to Mama and Papa. I heard from the Forum that hospice brought Mama over to see Papa yesterday, (Monday)...and that they were holding hands and laughing together. Rich is taking Papa's hearing aid in today to get it looked at. On Sunday, he couldn't hear anything at all. It was very frustrating for all of us, (especially him). I am still waiting to hear back about Mama's tooth. They have no idea how it happened...but Sandy is working on getting Mama an appointment with a dentist to get it fixed. She will arrange for a driver, and an aide to go with Mama for the visit. Mama is very disturbed by her chipped tooth, and really wants to get it fixed.

Mama also became enthralled with my watch during our visit. She said she wanted one just like it. Of course, I had to give it to her...(you know me, it was a cheap little Timex)...You would have thought I had given her the moon. She was laughing, and saying Thank you over and over. She kept showing everyone her new watch. It was very sweet and somewhat comical. I'm sure she's lost it by now, but it made her very happy in the moment. Now I need to buy a new watch...I'm going crazy without one :)

Tish and I also visited Lita in the hospital on Sunday. She is back at home as of Monday night. She is tired of all the medical issues in her life and I can't say I blame her one bit! She would love to hear from any family...In case any you don't have it, her new phone number is 614-766-7886. Her new address is 3242 Newgate Ct. Dublin, Ohio 43017.

I think that is all the news I have. Sorry it's been so long, hopefully things will slow down next week.

Love to all,

Kate

It's June 2nd Already

From Tish: Well, it's been awhile, but it's great getting in touch w/ all of you again. Hope the entire, extended family is well. Jeami, it was great seeing your post. Maggie, I haven't seen you in awhile...I understand your man was in town this weekend. Hope you enjoyed his visit. We certainly had gorgeous weather. And, finally, Valerie, I loved your story about the cat. Of course, I'm a cat person so you know I would find that story very endearing.

Kate and I visited Mama and Papa yesterday. Papa was up to a visit w/ Mama so we wheeled him over to the other building. Getting him across the street was hysterical. Kate and I will have to tell you all that story one day. Once at Mama's, we took them outside and sat on the patio. Of course, Mama wanted outside of the gates so we wheeled them around the perimeter of Mama's building. All of this exhausted Papa so I took Papa back while Kate got Mama back inside.

After buying Papa more batteries for his hearing aid, we then took off for the hospital to visit Liti. It was a beautiful day, so Kate, Liti and I sat outside and spent a couple of hours chatting etc. All in all, I think we had a good visit with both Liti and Mama and Papa.

On personal note, I know some of you have not had the opportunity to visit my home in Delaware, but Don and I bought 10 Arborvitae (to act as a barrier between our house and next door neighbor's...they have 3 donkeys and llama) and a bunch of holly bushes. Hurray...we are doing some landscaping on one side of the house that is sorely in need of it. Kate, I got absolutely no housework done when I got home yesterday afternoon. Don and I took that drive up to Hoover Reservoir...it was beautiful.

Well, that's all for now. Love to all, T.

p.s. Dr. Harris took Papa off Lasix altogether and Mama has a chipped tooth. Kate is going to call about the chipped tooth because there is nothing in the log to indicate what happened. A little disconcerting. I am going to call Dr. Harris' office to see if I can find out why they took Papa off Lasix altogether.