12/29/05                    An update on Mom. Over the last couple of days the doctors have discovered that Mom has had at least one stroke, probably with in the last couple weeks. This known, they are unwilling to do the open heart surgery that she needs. She has congestive heart failure among other things. She has been transferred to a rehab facility. There they hope to have her walking and moving around with in a couple weeks. Then home perhaps where we will have to provide care. It is possible that if she improves greatly, puts on weight and gets stronger, they may then be able to do surgery. She doesn't seem to be up to much of anything right now. She and all of us appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Thanks for your love and caring. 1\2\06 Mom was taken from the Rehab back to emergency at Dominican in the middle of last night. She was having trouble breathing. This has been an on going problem and seem to be typical of her condition late at night when fluid builds up. Andrew, as usual, got the call and went down at 3AM. By early morning her vitals had stabilized and Andrew drove her back to the Rehab facility. Tomorrow we meet with doctors, I'll post the results of that. 1/3/2006 Andrew and I met with the Doctor's and staff at the rehab today. They think Mom should be able to go home on Wed Jan 11. A family member will need to be with her at home 24/7 for the first couple weeks. They say Mom is getting better and stronger. 1/6/2006 The last two nights we brought Mom Chinese food and then sushi last night. She's able to get her self out of bed and with the help of a walker get around. Doing better and on tract for her coming home on Wed Jan 11. We've got the first two weeks home covered 24/7 with family staying at her house. 1/11/2006 Mom came home today. We will divide up the calendar and make sure someone is with her 24/7/ for the next couple weeks. The Docs say she needs to be very careful she doesn't fall. They've got her on Cumadin blood thinner. Any bruise would be dangerous. Mom is getting stronger. 1/16/2006 I spent the weekend at Mom's with lots of help from Rhonda and Kathleen. Mom's doing pretty well, I'd say. Rhonda did a fantastic job of cooking and preparing meals some of them frozen for future use. Kathleen and Nana spent some real quality time together. James went back up today for a few days. 1/18/06 From Andrew: Ida continues to improve and is getting around her house pretty well. She's mentioned to me several times that she never thought she was going to come home from the hospital, so I think she's really glad to be back at the house on the hill. She's looking forward to having her regular Thursday lunch with Mary Duffield and other lady friends at her house tomorrow. I also took her to her hair salon this morning and that was her first time leaving the house in a week. I dropped her off and when I picked her up 1/2 hour later I must say she looked better than I've seen her look in a month. She was really smiling and I could tell she felt really good about herself, it's been a while since she has. 2/4/2006 James turns 20 today. we'll have a little cake and ice cream at Nana's. I'll spend the night tonight. Nana has someone there from 7 PM to 9AM every night. We just cut back from 24/7 care. We are now hiring a service to come in several nights a week. Nana's doing pretty well, I'd say. Getting around with a walker, although she seems as though she could do with out it, sometimes. 3/29/06 from Andrew: Ida has had some relief from her symptoms for a few weeks at home, but is now back in the hospital. The unfortunate news is that now a second valve in her heart has now failed. This leaves her with little energy and a need for 24 hour oxygen. The doctors have done some tests and are now scheduling her for surgery on Friday morning to replace both valves. This is a risky surgery but is the only real opportunity for Ida to recover and improve. Our family asks you to pray for Ida and especially that her surgery is successful and that Ida can find the strength to recover quickly from the procedure. 3/31/2006 Noon Mom has just come out of surgery, the Doctor said things went a well as he could have hoped. Good news! He has replaced the aortic valve and repaired the mitral valve. She'll be out of it for the rest of the day at least but we'll get to see her for a minute this after noon. 4/1/2006    OPEN HEART SURGERY from Andrew: Ida had her surgery on Friday morning, and she was moved to ICU around 1pm. The doctor said the surgery went as well as he could have possibly hoped for. The Aortic Valve was replaced with a Cow’s valve and the Mitral valve was repaired with some synthetic material and a minor restructuring of the valve. This will give her a vastly improved heart function. Here’s a brief explanation of what was going on inside Ida’s heart: The aortic valve is a main valve at the top of the heart that blood flows through on its way from the heart to the body. The mitral valve is inside the heart and opens and closes to allow blood to flow from one part of the heart to the other, and by opening and closing the mitral valve keeps pressure in the system, and allows all of the blood to be pumped out of the heart. In Ida’s case, the mitral valve was not closing all the way and blood wasn't clearing completely out of the heart, this is a condition that lots of people have and is not by itself critical. Ida also had a constricted aortic valve that wouldn't allow a full flow of blood out of the heart. As the aortic valve continued to get smaller and more constricted it put more pressure in side the heart and on the mitral valve which continued to worsen as the pressure increased. (Think of how a weak spot in a hose will bulge or burst when you clamp the end of the hose with the water on full.) Eventually, as the aortic valve constriction grew to nearly 90%, Ida’s mitral valve pretty much failed completely, this left her heart very compromised and is why in just the last few days, she got much worse. Now with a free flowing aortic valve (thanks to a cow), and a repaired (but not perfect) mitral valve, Ida’s entire heart and circulation system should function much better. She’s not out of the woods yet, but with this surgery behind her and her heart repaired she has an opportunity to improve to a level better than she’s been at for probably several years. Thank you to all who kept our mother in their prayers and thoughts. Andrew 4/1/2006 Saturday Morning. from Andrew: I was at Ida’s bedside this morning, when she finally woke up from her long surgery that was performed yesterday. She was looking pretty good, and while somewhat disoriented, was asking questions, talking and moving around in bed a bit. The nurse plans to get her out of bed later today, and Ida said she'll be ready for that. Ida, will have a tough recovery and rehab from this surgery and any encouragement she gets will help her with that. The doctors have to walk a fine line between too much pain medicine that would make her too lethargic to get out of bed and moving around, versus too little pain medication that would have her in too much pain. Ida will certainly be in some discomfort and pain in the next few weeks and I ask all of you to pray for her strength of spirit to get through this. Andrew 4/1/2006 Mom had a little lunch today, only 36 hrs after her surgery. She's moving, awake but pretty beat up from the operation, but is fighting and doing really well. There's talk of her leaving ICU tomorrow. The nurse and I helped her to her feet to get from the chair back to her bed, I don't think I could have done that after what she went through. Not much in the way of pain meds today, some motrin and the finally a little morphine after her walk from chair to bed. They make her cough to exercise her chest. She's a fighter. 4/6/06 I think I can say that mom is really starting to look better. She is definitely more herself, hopefully they will take her out of ICU tomorrow and into a regular hospital room. If she can start taking her pills, the IVs can come out. She's not eating much. 4/13/2006 To say that Mom has gotten better in the last 2 days would be an understatement. She's over in rehab, went out and got her hair done. She's dressed and up and eating and looking great. She really looks like a new woman! 4/25/06 Tuesday Mom has been home a week and is improving nicely. She's a little frail, needs to put on some wait. Brother Lee and Virginia came down over the weekend to spend time with her. She loved it. 5/4/2006 I took Mom to see her hear surgeon for a check up yesterday, he basically said she was in the 90% recovery group. Doing great, a little fluid around one of her lungs and a little soreness in her lower ribs. One would think! Still only about 105 lbs. She'll be 87 May 18. 7/18/2006 This update is over due. Mom is doing pretty well. Still living at home, although that is getting more difficult. We all are exploring options. She is quite forgetful when it comes to times and dates, names, taking medications, basically everything. She has great spirit and a great attitude and rarely complains about anything. Her greatest joy is her family. I spend every Saturday night there. James spends many nights up there although he is in Texas buying land at the moment! She is to start a exercise program this week. 8/13/2006 More changes and developments. The first day of Mom's exercise program ended up in the hospital with a mild stroke or TIA. This, before the start of any exercise. A few days in the hospital, back to 24/7 care, and life is once again very complicated but now finding a routine again. We are now getting ever closer to moving Mom into a senior living center and/or assisted living. Kathleen and I spent the night last night and at the moment Mom is doing pretty good. Although, I have to say she seems even more forgetful and confused than ever, in between times of absolute clarity of events before my birth. She told me today how unbelievable it is that there is both a Rolls and an Alpha Romeo in her drive. Huh???????? I'd like to know details of the party she is remembering 60 or 70 years ago. Although I really don't think she was hanging with that high class snob crowd even then. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, we are all actually doing quite well. 12/3/2006 Overdue! Mom is in a retirement community and doing well. This means she is out of her wonderful home of 40 years. She seems adjusted, happy to be there, and in reasonable health, albeit frail, although it should be noted she is up to 115 to 120 lbs. What man really knows a women's weight. She was under 100lbs.  6 months ago. She is volunteering 1 hr per week in the convenience store. Mom worked full time until she was in to her mid 70's. She has done volunteer work ever since. Mom was born in 1919, so you figure out her age. She is more aware of what's happening. She has not had a hit of O2 for months. Things are good! I really think she might live into her 90's. I really think that Ida has a new lease on life, praise God. Thank you all for your interest, thoughts and prayers. 6/28/2007 We had Mom at Kathleen's recital the other day ( Kathleen nailed some Chopin ) Mom had a great time and is doing well. 10/3/07 Well, Mom's been doing pretty well up at the Villa, but, yesterday went back in the hospital with chest pains and hi blood pressure, after giving most of the nurses hell she seemed to be feeling better and was admitted just to keep a watch on her and run another EKG and blood test this morning. But, she woke up blind in one eye, geez. Anyway, the Docs do not believe it is stroke or cardiac or corroded attery related. She will see an eye doc in the hospital and they are keeping her at least one more day. 10/15/07 Things are almost too crazy to allow me to write or do anything else. Mom has been in and out of the hospital 4 times in 12 days, she goes home and wakes up short of breath and scared. Another TIA (small stroke today) they might keep her over night then maybe back to the Villa tomorrow. Andrew and I need to re-evaluate her leval of care to say the least. We're hardly able to work or focus on anything else because we keep running around taking care of mom. Anyway, these are difficult times that will play out one way or another, we will be there for mom. I've been praying with her a lot lately.  She's pretty much blind in one eye and not seeing too well out of the other. 12/4/07 After a shakey October and part of November, mom is doing much better. She had arterial blockage to her kidneys that was repaired. She was over to our house for Thanksgiving although she became tired and had to go home early. I took her for a ride up the coast the other day to Davenport for lunch, which she really enjoyed. So, for now, she is back with us and finding enjoyment in life. Much more than I could say 6 weeks ago. 12/30/07 Mom is doing pretty good right now and is in reasonable and stable health. She is still at the Villa. She came to a couple of concerts that James performed at over Christmas (see www.JamesVocals.com) and we all had a nice family get together over the holidays. 05/02/2008 Since Christmas Ida has had some ups and downs. She was in the hospital several times around the end of March begining of April with low heart rate and related conditions, not feeling good, tired, trips back and forth to the hospital are  worse for her than the condition itself, it seems. A pace maker was implanted in her left side upper chest which for a least 2 or 3 weeks put us back into a 24/7 care situation at The Villa. Any procedure is very hard on her, the facility is sometime very difficult to work with when we come in to stay or have someone up there with her. They naturally want to take charge of all that and charge us and have many rules (like hands off, no help) if we are with her. Complicated, but we are dealing with it, and now she seems to once again be improving with her new pace maker. So, with her 89th birthday coming up May 18, she looks ready to party. Whew! Rock on, Mom. 08/17/2010 A very long time since the last update. Mom has just had a pocket revision for her pacemaker, this is the second revision. This procedure re-implants the devise under the pect muscle, necessary when patience have little muscle mass. Not fun, but not really a big deal either. Mom is physically doing fairly well for 91, but has fallen victim to severe dementia.

Fenton & Nana 1954