UPDATE FROM ALBUQUERQUE

Just a quick note to bring everyone up to date on this little group of people - hereinafter called family - in this obscure, remote and unimportant part of the world - hereinafter called Albuquerque, New Mexico. Actually, Albuquerque, New Mexico is the finest place in the world because others of undesirable characteristics (political ambitions, talking with their mouth full, basically obnoxious behavior, etc.) have intentionally been led to believe that Albuquerque is obscure, remote and unimportant, so they have no interest in the place.

Anyway - three subjects: (1) My current state of well being, (2) My son's (John Leslie in Dallas) current health status, (3) My wonderful Mother, Priscilla.

As I wrote last time, I have had my third exam since surgery and still remain cancer free. That is super news as far as I am concerned and I don't think I could ask for anything more. I still have my ups and downs related to how I feel and how my stomach gets along with the food I choose to subject it to. I do have a lot of trouble with my stomach now and I do get tired and ache in and around my stomach and back - but who cares? I don't - I will ge glad to ache any place you want me to as long as I am cancer free.

Also, as I wrote last time, my oldest son, John Leslie, had exploratory surgery and they did find a tumor. It has been decided that he does have Hodgkins Disease. As thrilled as I am about being cancer free, I would gladly take any kind of a terminal cancer disease if I could do that in place of JL having to go through this. He has had the bone marrow exam and I think that tested out okay and he has had a port surgically implanted for his chemotherapy treatments. He will be having more chemotherapy treatments than I had, but mine were eight hours long and his will be four. I don't know what, if anything, they are going to do about radiation. One of the problems with JL is that he just wants to get busy with the treatment and doesn't really care what stage it is. When I ask him what stage it is or other details and/or reports from the doctors - he is only upset that they haven't started the treatment yet. I believe the treatment starts tomorrow. So far he has done a very good job of ignoring the instructions of his medical team. They told him not to drive after his exploratory surgery and he drove to Houston because one of the children was in some kind of a big tournament. He was told not to go to work after his bone marrow exam, and he went to work. Of course he has had a lot of practice in ignoring advice and even instructions from people skilled in giving such advice and instruction. Anyway - I still love him!

Third subject - my wonderful and fantastic mother. We went to Houston early in April and came back with good news. Even though the news was good, it was still a difficult trip from the standpoint of anticipation of both the exams and the results. And, as mentioned above, we went to Houston with the worry about our son on our minds. On Saturday, April 28th, my brother John in Denver called and told me he had taken our Mother to the hospital. She had fallen down and my brother wanted to make certain that nothing had been broken. Prior to going to the hospital, I guess my Mother had been having some slight difficulty with breathing. They found that Mom had not broken any bones, but some where and some how, she aspirated and her food, even though pureed, went into her lungs and she developed pneumonia and then she had a slight heart attack. My brother, John, called me and said he didn't think she would make it through the day. She was in a lot of pain and having a very difficult time breathing. He called again later and said she had improved some and we decided I would sit tight until we knew what was going to happen and what I could and should do.

I left Albuquerque Wednesday the 30th and went directly to the hospital when I got to Denver and spent most of the rest of the day with Mom. That afternoon she seemed to be very restless and kept trying to get out of bed. This is a standard procedure for her whenever she is in a hospital. Even though she was nearly unconscious, she has such a strong will that she just kept grabbing at things - including my arms, until she could get a grip on the bed rail. She wore herself out trying to breath and trying to get out of bed. She wore me out just trying to stay calm and talk her into going to sleep.

We talked to a lady at the hospital about hospice care and we selected one we thought would be the best and the hospital arranged for a representative to come over to meet with us. A very nice young woman came over and she looked at mom and reviewed her records and then sat down with us. All of us assumed that it was a "done-deal" and that Mom would stay in the hospital and start receiving hospice care in addition to the hospital staff. However, the nurse from hospice came in and after talking to the doctors and nurses and reviewing Mom's medical records said that Mom did not qualify for hospice care in the hospital. She did qualify for hospice care but it would have to be in a nursing home (we would need to pay around $5,000 per month for room and board) or move her back into John's home. They would furnish all equipment needed - including a hospital bed plus a registered nurse for a couple of hours per week and nurses aid help a few hours per week.

The thing, I guess, that qualifies Mom for hospice care is that she can not be fed as the food will go into her lungs and complicate the pneumonia problem. The only way she could be fed is with a tube in her stomach or through the nose with a tube. We felt absolutely certain from previous experience that she would not allow any kind of a tube any place. She has ripped them out in the past and would continue to do so. At this point the reality sunk in. Mom's life would soon be over - we anticipated maybe six weeks to a maximum of six months. We talked and accepted the fact that this would happen and decided the best thing to do was to move her back into John's house to the special apartment he had created for her in his home.

I dreaded going in on Friday morning and when I looked at Mom I couldn't see how she could possibly be moved any place. This poor little frail woman was gasping for breath even as she slept. In order for her to qualify to stay in the hospital and receive the hospice care, her condition had to be classified as "acute" - meaning that she could not survive outside the hospital. I didn't see how she could survive the ambulance ride back to John's place, and even if she did I couldn't see how John and his wife Nancy could survive as they would need to be with her in some form or fashion 24 hours per day.

I must say the people at the hospital and the hospice people were all just wonderful people in every respect. The girl from the hospice informed us that Mom would need to be moved by noon and they would arrange to have all the necessary equipment delivered to John's house. I made some comment about how difficult it would be for us to do all this on such short notice. The hospice girl sincerely apologized but stated that was a hospital rule and she couldn't do anything about it. The doctor said - "you can wait until tomorrow to move her." I kind of questioned that and reiterated the hospital policy, and without any discussion, the doctor said again, we could wait until the next day. That was a huge relief, but the doctor and the girl from hospice continued to talk and pretty soon she came back and said the doctor had said that regardless of what happened they needed to remove the oxygen tube from Mom, and if they did it now this would qualify her to be considered an acute patient and she could just stay in the hospital. This was the best news ever and I did tell the girl from hospice that I thought I detected a halo above her head.

The doctor made sure we understood that their only goal now was to make Mom comfortable. They were not going to try to cure her or make her better - just make her comfortable. He also assured us that removing the oxygen tube would not cause her any greater pain or discomfort.

Nancy went home and John and I stayed in the room with Mom. Around 2:30 or so a nurse came in and injected some form of medication to cause Mom to reduce her level of anxiety. A little later Mom started making some different noises than I had heard before and the nurse told us that Mom was starting to die. She said her system was starting to shut down. We both went to her bedside and spent the last minutes of her life talking to her, holding her hand, gently stroking her face and telling her how much we loved her. At 3:15 PM on May 2nd. she left our world. she had been 95 years old for exactly one month.

My mother was a great woman. Everyone who met her loved her. One testimony to this is the fact that Mom was only in the hospital one week. They have shifts of nurses, so only one nurse had worked with Mom twice. The rest had only worked with her for one day. However as the word spread that she had passed away, most all of the nurses came in with tears running down their cheeks. The girl form the hospice was among those who came in and mourned over her death.

Mom is better off now and she is where she said she wanted to be. She said that she wanted to go join her husband and she had told John and Nancy she would see them in Heaven.

We spent Saturday - Brother John's birthday - visiting the funeral home and cemetary and making arrangements. At the moment, it looks like we will have a memorial service in Denver at Crown Hill on the 29th and another in our home town of Center on the 31st. For those who don't know, Center is a small farm community town in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado and the town was founded by our Grandfather, James Hurt. For the most part, Mom's friends are the people of Center and the San Luis Valley. It is only appropiate to have a service in Center.

There is always something good in everything. One of the good things of this trip was the opportunity I had to visit with my Niece Piper and her husband Lance and their two very beautiful daughters. I also visited my Nephew Austin and his wife Carrie and their two very special sons. On the Sunday before I went to Denver, another Niece, Holly - Austin's twin, and her husband Eric were in the process of moving from Denver to Albuquerque. So, I did miss seeing Holly and Eric, but I will make up for it now that they are New Mexicans.

God Bless all of you. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!!

ALBUQUERQUE AL

PS - Hey I am getting pretty good with no functioning "spell check" on my computer. If I missed a word or two - I did it on purpose just to see if you were paying attention. My grammer ain't all that good neither - I need one of them grammer checkers too I reckon.