31 October 2013: Halloween ... Delaware Hospice comes to visit today and I look to decorate (marginally) and get goodies for trick-or-treaters ...

Might as well start today's post with my favorite poster on FB, Loyd Dillon, and his fascinating post on today's birthday girl, Ethel Waters. He is so amazing and so informative and enlightens so many with his knowledge.

Ethel Waters was an African-American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress.
She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts,
although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hZySbS2_Dw&feature=share 

Trick or treat. We humans deal with our life circumstances either positively or negatively. Today is the birthday of Ethel Waters (born on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1896) who definitely took the positive path. She came into the world as a result of the rape of her then-only-13-year-old-mother. She grew up in abject poverty. She married as a teenager but had to leave her abusive husband and work as a maid. She was still poor. Very poor. But she sang. And people heard her. And her career blossomed. Most people remember Ethel Waters (if they remember her at all) as the sweet, gentle, beatifically smiling middle-aged woman singing "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" -- perhaps at Billy Graham rallies. But Ms. Waters started as a hot young jazz/pop singer. Here she is with the original 1938 recording (yes, she was first) of "Jeepers Creepers." Enjoy it. And realize fully that the "seasoned citizens" you see out in public weren't ALWAYS that old. Be surprised by this record. And by her. On the birthday of Ethel Waters.

Nice to know that Jan Browning Parsons is thinking about me and send me regular FB messages to make me aware of her thought process:

Jan Browning Parsonsposted toRudy Nyhoff

32 minutes ago near Augusta, GA

Thinking of you this morning. What's Halloween like in your neighborhood?

Like · 

• 

  Rudy Nyhoff Thanks for thinking about me Jan. Always can count on your positive energy. Helps my day to know that you are there in the human ether of caring. Don't know about Halloween, yet. There are a lot of little ones in Limestone Gardens and there is a vibrant neighborhood civic association (they had a communal Halloween party last Saturday), but my parents have always been, to coin a phrase, "humbugs" when it comes to trick-or-treaters. The light is off at their home and no one visits. Hopefully, we'll get a few tonight as the light, perhaps orange, will be on. Dad is not enthusiastic, even though I suggested he dress up as a doctor.

  8 minutes ago · Edited · Like

  
  

  
  

  
  

  I posted my second Anu Garg word from wordsmith.org,with these words 
  For those of us who enjoy the good times, a proper and fitting descriptive term exists: fallstaffian.  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Just had the honor, the privilege of cutting dad's toenails, long and so thick, with my cuticle pincers/scissors this mid-morning. He said we needed more light ... we made do on the couch with window light and I collected the remnants in my hand and just had to take a pic, a bit strange, perhaps morbid to document the dead cells but meaningful, nonetheless. In the meantime, mom is in the bath doing well. She drew and entered the bath all by her lonesome. (I turned off the water, that's it.)

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  Answered the door to John Thisell's doppelganger, general contractor Thomas Forrest who proceeded to give me a tutorial in house care in particular cleaning roof shingles, aluminum siding, gutters, and pointing up our chimney, which I have never paid any attention to. He is driving his new Chevy truck, 2500, 4 X 4, four-door which he bought for a cool $43K, I think, and which gets, no matter how you slice it, 10.5 mpg, currently. 
  
  Will have to look him up later when the house needs sprucing up. He will be the man to go to ... just liked him ... so talkative ... he is a liver transplant (2006) survivor and has other health issues. He is a big man and my age, too, 57. Some vitals on his biz: Thomas Forrest Contracting (office #: 302-983-8349 and 800-347-0587 and he has a cell, too 302-981-8266)). However, cannot find him listed on the Web. He does not have a web site and can't find a review of his work on Yelp or on Angie's List. 

  
  

  Have completed digesting and sweeping up the leaves in the drive and the walkway in anticipation of some, if any, trick-or-treaters tonight. The lights are on -- all three of them; front door, office screen door, and light out by the driveway (which I switched on for the first time in literally decades just a few days ago from the waiting room of dad's office -- had no idea what the switches did and found out soon enough).

  
  

  Did a little shopping and picked up some interesting items from Walmart that included a knee brace, that mom used and found moderately helpful walking down the hallway, affixed to her left knee; and some heating/cooling devices that can be microwaved, which I did for dad's shoulder and mom's knee, to heat up or placed in the freezer to make cold (DUH!!!).
  
  Also, dad actually asked about the pill dispenser and we went over it and I think he understands how much easier it is to put out her pills in advance. He is fixated on copying out on a piece of paper, the Warfarin amounts (provided by the Coumadin Center after her INR blood test results are reviewed) for the coming days. I showed him that each day had the proper amount of warfarin, alternating between 5.0 mg and 2.5 mg with 2 metoprolol each day in the mid to late afternoon.
  

  
  

  Dancer is a big hit. We had a decent turnout of trick-or-treaters. Started to run out of the fruit chews and mom offered her sugarless candy and then, I decided to close up shop around 7:30 as dad made ready for bed. 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

30 October 2013: Wednesday, today is the appt. for Stephen Grubbs, oncologist, and possibly, fitting of new progressive glasses for dad ... we shall see

Big day today ... we have the appt w/Stephen Grubbs at HGCC at 11:20 and will try to make it to Delaware Ophthalmology in the Limestone Medical Center to have dad try his new progressive lenses. Should be interesting. He got up early today and I fed him first and he finished his Cream of Wheat and tea which I presented to him on a wooden serving platter that I found atop a stand (which I think I bought at K-Mart 3 years ago when I had an extended stay after dad's fall and eventual knee surgery) in the exam room of dad's old office. It seemed to work. No spillage, thankfully. 

      

              Helen F. Graham Cancer Center                                       Dr. Stephen Grubbs
        (Today is the 10th Anniversary of the Center -- big article in paper)

Good time to be seeing Dr. Grubbs as dad is having some facial swelling and a little slurred speech. He says the radiation did nothing to resolve the impinging on the superior vena cava and perhaps a stint might be called for. We shall see. 

Mom is listening to a podcast of Car Talk with Click 'n Clack, the Tappet Brothers, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, from the Good News Garage in Cambridge, MA, ... "My fair city ..." and she has my incomplete work on today's Crossword, which is tough.

Just finished a short post to Norma V. Nyhoff and looked up, thankfully, her zip + 4 to her apartment address in Duluth.

Had to post this on Facebook after my encounter with the dog-food buying lover of his recently deceased, prematurely, bulldog:

CHECKOUT EPIPHANY: Bare with me on this. At Pathmark, man buying dog food. No Pathmark card. Thinks food is on sale, it is not. Checkout clerk, young and willing to please, goes to see about price. I mention that to the man, "He's going to see about saving you some money", and he begins to tell me about his 3 dogs, now 2 since the untimely death of his beloved bulldog.

"Didn't expect him to die," he said. "I loved that dog so much." He went on to say that he expected an older dog with all kinds of age-related symptoms -- hearing and sight loss -- would die first. "We're not getting any more dogs after these two are gone," he said.

The transaction complete, he leaves the store and I will not see him, in all likelihood, ever again; and yet, he has left me with a touching story of love and loss that will remain. That's what I mean about the human(ism) touch. It is so exquisite and so powerful. 

Today is Jezibel Anat's birthday, seems auspicious on Mischief Day for a pagan/goddess/witch like herself ought to be born on the day before Halloween.

Spent some effective time calling Comcast and getting the signal back on the Vizio TV in mom's room. It has to be placed on "Component" and not HDMI 1 or 2 or TV or AV. We went round and round Robin Hood's barn but got it going with the customer rep, a young woman with an accent who got to the bottom of it, not necessitating a visit from a Comcast employee.
 

                

Dr. Stephen Grubbs, dad's oncologist, checks him out toward the end of our visit in the late morning of Wednesday, 30 October, 2013. The visit went well. He is an extraordinarily able and engaging doctor.

The decisions after looking at the CT scans and talking to dad were the following: (1) the tumor was stable, it had not grown significantly and even though the Superior Vena Cava was narrowed, it was not causing any serious problems; (2) dad will take risperdal, an anti-depressant, at night to effectuate better sleep; and (3)Delaware Hospice, an organization that Dr. Grubbs has been associated since its inception in the early 80s will call (indeed, has called already -- tomorrow, Thursday, 2 p.m., will come to our place for a first meeting) to get things rolling in the hospice department. 

         

Optician, not Jamie Horisk, who was at lunch, displays type, The Presbyopia Times, for dad to check out with his new lenses, a first for him of some 70 plus years. The initial results were not too positive but we have a week for him to get use to these progressives ... he did see well, distance-wise. 

Took a nap this afternoon, shortly before 4 p.m. and was listening to WDAV, the classical station out of Davidson College in Davidson, NC, when I heard that the next piece would be Mozart's 31st Symphony. I eagerly anticipated listening and then awoke at its conclusion ... RATS!!!!

The Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297/300a, better known as the Paris Symphony, is one of the more famous symphonies by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written at age 22. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNQuYPGdqiI

Symphony No. 31 "Paris" in D major, K. 297/300a (1778):
1. Allegro assai
2. Andante
3. Allegro

Conductor - Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Wiener Philharmoniker
Musikvereinssaal Wien, 1984

Delaware Hospice has already called, a certain Mr. Dew (?), and made an appointment for Thursday, 2 p.m., at our home. Dr. Grubbs is a man of his word. He has gotten the ball rolling. 

   
16 Polly Drummond Shopping Center
Newark, DE
(302) 478-5707

http://www.delawarehospice.org/programs-services/hospice-care

Just noticed that Joe Jacobs, a nephrologist in the Philadelphia area, liked a photo of Doug petting Dancer with mom looking on from this past weekend. Sent him an extended FB message in my request for his FB friendship. Good to see his presence on the social media behemoth. 

               

This was a surprising FB IM from Brandy Brookshier. Arthur is going to send me a check for the amount that remains after repairs were made to his rental house on Pershing:

• Conversation started September 19, 2011
• 

  9/19, 11:45am

  Rudy Nyhoff

  I wanted you to know that you have been in my thoughts ever since Arthur told me about your pregnancy crisis. I wish you all the best and hope that the days, though perhaps tedious and long in the hospital, will bring you delight in knowing that you shall have a healthy, wonderful baby in the near future.

  Be well and take care, rudy
• Today
• 

  3:29pm

  Brandy Smith Brookshire

  I have a check to mail to you. What is your new address?
• 

  3:32pm

  Rudy Nyhoff

  What for? I gave Arthur my final check amount, in total, to cover repairs to the house on Pershing.

  How is he doin' Brandy, really?

  But if he wants to pay me, who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth, I'll accept the money.

  My address: 4546 Pickwick Drive; Wilmington, DE. 19808-4239
• 

  5:08pm

  Brandy Smith Brookshire

  He subtracted the cost of repairs from the last check. The amount is for $140.00. He is doing a lot better now that he is off of the stronger pain medication. I think he is going to be fine except he is already antsy to get out of his room and outside.
• 

  5:13pm

  Rudy Nyhoff

  Please thank him, profusely, for me. He didn't need to do that math but he has always been a decent, upright, responsible individual ... why should he change? I appreciate him, immensely. So good to hear that he is progressing in the early recovery stages of this rotten accident, but he's got to be careful and he knows how to do that better than anyone.

  I hope he has the patience to heal, correctly. It's not going to happen overnight. Please give him my best and all the best to you and yours, Brandy, this can't be easy for you.

  Be so well and take care, rudy

Took Dancer for a walk down Limestone across the road, it's busy at this hour as night comes on, and went into deer country next and in back of Limestone Acres. Walked down into the woods and then made an ill-advised decision to go up the hill and hit thick thorn bushes and had to turn back and slowly make my way down (followed Dancer and that helped).

Made phone calls to immediate family and was successful in contacting all three ... got a text from Lindsay, who was at work; spoke to Nick, who just got back from Vegas (did not gamble because he had no money) and was at work; and finally, Susan, who was late to her church but gave me a few minutes to update her on dad, et al. It was a worthwhile walk of a little over 1.5 miles. A good way to conclude a wonderful day for dad but weatherwise, overcast, a little drizzly but still warm. Tomorrow we get to meet Delaware Hospice and new avenues open up in the care of my father in the last stage of his life.
 

29 October 2013: Tuesday, another brilliant day ... I washed his sheets/cover and we made the bed this morning ...

At dad's suggestion, I washed the sheets and cover (on the highest setting for water and it still soaked it up) to his bed this morning and later, after they were dried, again, on the highest setting, we made the bed. Here he is placing the pillows into place after we put the fitted (in name only, very loose) sheet and pull-up sheet and the cover on the bed and the final touch are the pillows, which he is exacting about.
 

Dad places one of the 4 artistic pillows with attractive designs, that I'm only now noticing, onto the bed to finalize the completion of the bed. 

Went online banking to see that my debit transaction, with my new card, which I activated before heading to Tyler Fitzgerald's, had been withdrawn from dad's account. So, without thinking (and doing the right thing), I transferred my account, roughly $5,800 into dad's account, roughly $9,300 or so, and came up with a joint account amount of over $15,000. Dad has been trying to figure it out for the last hour and he's hitting roadblocks because he is so confused. I have phoned Doug but it's my thing to deal with and hopefully, things are quiet now downstairs, he will be accede to the new account situation. Doug's good suggestion was that I use my VISA credit card for transactions and pay the bill monthly, rather than use the debit and confuse dad with the amounts, which he checks everyday using the 800 phone number. Good idea!

Dad actually turned up the volume on a favorite record of his ... Horwitz live playing Rachmaninov, Chopin, and Schumann. Just amazing playing that he turned up and enjoyed recumbent in his sofa. 

Vladimir Horwitz at the concert Steinway late in his storied career.

Found and read this amazing obit in today's News Journal about a PhD chemist (from Stanford) and First Unitarian member, active and former president several times, Robert Chandler Johnson. I was inspired to send a whopping check of $10.00 to Stem Cell Research at Stanford University. Incredible life. He died after a "long struggle with Parkinson's disease."

http://shar.es/Ie2bz

Great walk at the abandoned Hercules Country Club golf course that I just thought might make for a good look see. It was and Dancer loved it. Smell haven everywhere in the overgrown fields and fairways.

Time to head toward bed. Did a little shopping this afternoon, before the walk and had a good time at the Farmer's Market, a first for me, and then a car wash and finally, a stop at Pathmark, where in just an instant, I connected with a man buying a bag of dogfood. It was on sale and he did have a Pathmark card. I told him that the checkout clerk was checking on the sale price and then he told me about his bulldog that had died suddenly and how he was his heart. They still had 2 or 3 dogs, one that is 16, who he thought would go first and didn't. No more dogs he says it's just to hard to see them die, he said. He shared that with me in just an instant. Such a gift and then he was gone and I'll never see him again. That is life, you need to grab the moment.

Listened to NPR TED program with Guy Roz and it was a repeat. The author of Half Life spoke of his injury that changed his life, he became a hemiplegic, half paralyzed and he learned all about the crash that caused his injury and went to see the driver who could not understand the hurt that he'd caused. He was not an evil person, the author said, he was just too involved in his own need to vindicate his action that day. Amazing story. His life, changed totally, has been for the better. He mentioned Victor Frankl and how you do with what you have much like Arthur Shealy, you make do and you move forward with what you have. It's all you can do.

And I did talk to Arthur today and Mrs. Shealy. He's in the bed and he has two breaks and another injury and he's only taken over the counter pain medication and managing. I hope he doesn't get any bed sores. I hope he will heal. 

28 October 2013: Monday, Dad gets his, perhaps, last CT scan with contrast this a.m.; brilliant sun and clear day, squirrel on roof, ...

Called the office (302-366-1200) of Stephen Grubbs, oncologist, and got the voicemail  quite cheery, of the scheduler (Krissy Diehl-Adams) and left a message concerning the appointment date of dad post-CT scan with contrast, which will be done this morning at 10 a.m. in the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center, 1st floor. She called right back and the time is on Wednesday, 10/30/13, at 11:20 a.m. I have included Doug as an "invitee" on my iPhone calendar, so, hopefully, he will be informed about his CT scan (with contrast) and his appt. with Dr. Stephen Grubbs. 

Imaging of Occupational Lung Disease
(http://radiographics.rsna.org/content/21/6/1371/F24.expansion.html)

Visit went well and quickly to the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center (HGCC) this morning. I filled out his paperwork and even signed for him and though we waited a few minutes, I left for the bathroom and when I came back he had been ushered back for the test.

 

They allowed me to wait for him and a short read of a Bloomberg biz magazine and a near snooze and he was out of the door, no worse the wear and we followed the EXIT signs, were outdoors, I fetched the car and we were off. Just spent some time bookmarking Web Resources listed in a pamphlet I picked up at HGCC on lung cancer and just posted on FB link to a X-Plain slide tutorial on lung cancer. A little simplistic but informative. Did not know that one lung, the right, has 3 lobes, and the left one is smaller and has 2 lobes (Did not know that.).

Just got a call from Jamie O'Hara who reminded me that there is a get-together of JDHS grads from '74 who are meeting at a local tavern, Tyler Fitzgerald's (next to Manor Care Nursing Home) , and he'll pick me up at 6:40 p.m. and we'll go pick up of Joe Coen, who wrestled and played football in HS and who is even thinner, as he works out, today than he was in high school. He is tall, Jamie said, and he lives near St. John Catholic school and church but not in Maplecrest.

The Great Fred Comegys receiving honor
at Conrad HS Hall of Fame induction. 

Found the above on Robin Onizuk's FB page and posted this:
It is so good to see Fred Comegys. What a great guy and such a tremendous photojournalist. He was my inspiration as a budding photo-j back in the late 70s and continued to be my inspiration as he won all kind of awards and decided, even though he could have shot for any publication, anywhere, to stay put in his home Delaware and take such wonderful images of so many events and people. A true giant in the world of newspaper photography. Good to see you Fred.
Butch Comegys, senior staff photographer on The Scranton Times-Tribune newspaper, hometown of Joe Biden, coincidentally, ok'd my FB friend request in record time and I messaged him thusly:

Thanks Butch for accepting, so quickly, my friend request. I knew your iconic father when I was just whippersnapper in the photo-j biz. He was an inspiration and I heard so many stories from the man who taught me so much about newspaper photography, Andy Bruce, who worked for the tiny Newark Weekly Post and oftentimes shot assignments with your father. He was in awe of your dad and told me a few amazing stories of how he got the most incredible images. Anyway, good to touch base on FB. I hope you are well and enjoying your work as the senior staff photog in the hometown of our VP, our own Joe B. from Delaware.

All the best, rudy

Had an incredible exchange via FB messaging with cardiologist David Grubbs, younger brother of dad's oncologist, Stephen Grubbs. We had the following exchange which I shared with dad, resting on the bed behind me, who told me about David's visit to him following his bypass surgery almost 20 years ago.

Are you, David, any relation to Stephen Grubbs, my father's oncologist, who works at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center? And by the way, thanks for liking my photo of my dad and his daughter-in-law. Be well, rudy

55 minutes ago

Stephen and I ARE brothers. He is four years older. Both of us have great memories of your dad's intellectual prowess in being a great diagnostician and nice guy.

Dear David, You are the only one who came to visit my father after his bypass surgery, at least in the cardiology realm, and you are remembered with great fondness by him for this gesture. It says so much and explains your wonderful words, which started to bring tears to my eyes when I just read them to him a few moments ago (he is lying on the bed behind my computer monitor). Thank you so much ... you have given the most touching of gifts to my dad and it touches the heart (literally, in your case, but most importantly, figuratively in the human spirit). All the best to you and yours,

rudy Picked up prescriptions from Pathmark and had great conversation with a great human being and pharmacist, Ed Siracuse, and Daviya (sic), about the move from mom's principal physician -- dad is moving over for Dr. David Maged and trying to determine how to continue and OK the medications and how to get them refilled. He had good and sensible advice. Talk to Dr. Maged to make sure you are on the same page and as I left, with my prescriptions for lisinopril and pravastatin, too, he mentioned that mom's script for metoprolol was on file and all we had to do was call in a refill. Amazing individual ... both love my father and respect him very much.

It is said there is no substitute for experience, and practical experience is exactly what
brothers Stephen (right) and David Grubbs seek to provide undergraduate students
in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering through the
David S. Grubbs Undergraduate Research Award.

I had shared the misunderstanding I'd just had with dad over paying the Mealey Funeral Home bill as I spoke to Lori Mealey on the phone, which he overheard. Don't need to pay yet, I'm not dead, he said in so many words. But it's a psychological thing, so I will wait to pay even though Doug gave me a check for $4500 for the bill and it's not doing anything in my checking account. I will wait.


Met Ann and Steve and the Bassetts, Kirby and Miss Harriet, at the park at the close of my walk with Dancer. She remembered her name and I remembered the wonderful biscuits they made for Dancer three years ago. So nice to touch base with them again. Such an amazing gathering tonight at Tyler Fitzgerald's (it's well documented on Facebook with lots of photos) of a number, over 20, JDHS grads '74 vintage. Talked a long time with Jean Rahaim (nee Thompson) and grabbed her for a combined photo that she was not averse to. (Had such a crush on her in middle school, she really has matured into an even more lovely person, mother, and wife to a very successful courtroom lawyer ... has a daughter who is an art professor in London, England, who just married, last month, in reality, in a civil ceremony that Jean and her husband attended, a Brit named Jack Shakespeare. So good to see so many older but recognizable faces tonight.