Dad mentioned Uncle Ray this morning and his desire to end it like his beloved brother-in-law did. I told him that they don't have physician-assisted suicide in Delaware. Mom, in her wisdom, said that when he gets to the point of Ray that we not engage any heroic measures to prolong his life. Simple but filled with understanding and intelligence. She hit the nail on the head.
My goodness he's quiet (10:11 a.m.) or I am just too involved in my Facebook commentary, but he's out of the bed and asking me whether the breathing tube and cannula in his old examining room (just inside the door in a paper bag) is as long as the one he's using currently. It is, I tell him. Still need to figure out how to lengthen it to at least 10' over the current 5'.
It's overcast and drizzly on this Friday morning, the end of the first week in December, and her royal "Princess" surveys her kingdom from her favorite couch throne at the entrance way to her Castle
on Pickwick Drive, North Limestone Gardens, Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
New plan as he worryingly asks, "Is it 11 o'clock", it is as I look at the clock given to him for his ears of service at Memorial in the employee clinic ... no shaving or bathing until tomorrow as he drinks his citrate of magnesia and water (1/2 and 1/2) as he is constipated and needs to take care of that, first.
Doing a little web search on the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, dad's hometown, which is sponsoring an exhibit currently at The Frick Museum in New York, featured in a Fresh Air piece yesterday, posted to my Facebook. Well, I just love this famous painting, made more famous by the bestselling novel of Tracy Chevalier, Girl With The Pearl Earring.
Programs presented in conjunction with Girl with a Pearl Earring:
Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis and Rembrandt’s Century, on view January 26–June 2.
At the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco.
Just got this serendipitous post from Fay Lyon Verburg on Facebook, who I'd forgotten, married a Dutchman:
" Rudy, I forgot that your dad and my father-in-law (deceased) both hailed from the Hague.
I'm sure there are still cousins there to visit. My father-in-law was in the Dutch Royal Navy
during WWII."
Just noticed that dad had an appointment today with Dr. Stephen Grubbs. I called, having
to type 2, 2, 2 into the phone to reach the proper party and leave a message that we would
not be able to make the appointment due to dad's illness.
" Rudy, I forgot that your dad and my father-in-law (deceased) both hailed from the Hague.
I'm sure there are still cousins there to visit. My father-in-law was in the Dutch Royal Navy
during WWII."
Just noticed that dad had an appointment today with Dr. Stephen Grubbs. I called, having
to type 2, 2, 2 into the phone to reach the proper party and leave a message that we would
not be able to make the appointment due to dad's illness.
Art Steele, doctor son of Sydney and Mercedes, called this early afternoon from Baltimore
and hopes to stop by tomorrow or Sunday. He will call when he leaves the Maryland city
where he is attending some intense conference. Good to hear from him as he called my
Rudy, Jr. I don't believe I have ever met him, but I may be wrong.
and hopes to stop by tomorrow or Sunday. He will call when he leaves the Maryland city
where he is attending some intense conference. Good to hear from him as he called my
Rudy, Jr. I don't believe I have ever met him, but I may be wrong.
Doctor
self employed
February 2008 – Present (5 years 11 months) Augusta Regional Free Medical Clinic
semi-retired. part-time.
Director, Shenandoah Diabetes & Endocrinolgy Center
Private Medical Practice
Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Medical Practice industry
1990 – 2007 (17 years)
Closed practice due to health, for multiple surgeries. Now ready to work.
A. Arthur Steele MD, FACE, FACP's Education
University of Maryland School of Medicine
MD, Medicine
1967 – 1971
Internship in Internal Medicine at the University of Maryland Hospital, 1971-1972.
Residency Internal Medicine, at S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, 1972-1974.
Fellowship, Oncology at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. 1974-1975
Fellowship, Endocrinology, S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, 1975-1977
Residency Internal Medicine, at S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, 1972-1974.
Fellowship, Oncology at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. 1974-1975
Fellowship, Endocrinology, S.U.N.Y. at Buffalo, 1975-1977
College of the Holy Cross
Bachelor of Science (BS), Biology, General
1963 – 1967
A. Arthur Steele MD, FACE, FACP's Additional Information
- Interests:
- General Endocrinology, Diabetes, Thyroid Diseases, General Internal Medicine.
- Groups and Associations:
- American College of Physicians; American College of Endocrinology
- Honors and Awards:
Just posted this "elephant in the room", the topic of physician-assisted suicide. My post
read: "It's the elephant in the room. Oregon has had it since 1994, Vermont since May of this year, but in 46 states and the District of Columbia it's a crime."
Dad brought it up today, see the bold red at the top of this blog post.
read: "It's the elephant in the room. Oregon has had it since 1994, Vermont since May of this year, but in 46 states and the District of Columbia it's a crime."
Dad brought it up today, see the bold red at the top of this blog post.
Excellent trip to the bank in Greenville (now I see why dad went all that way all those years ... they are incredibly helpful), Pathmark, and then Bachetti's. Even in the rain, the drive up Centreville Road past those estates, that windy, serpentine, narrow road with its foreboding, large trees growing right alongside the roadway and then at the close, before the turn for the upscale shopping center and Wells Fargo, as you drive by A. I. du Pont High School.
Racheal Conaway, Wells Fargo banker, with the biblical spelling of her first name and the additional "a" for the more common name Conway, was the person who helped me after I waited for a few minutes. Kwaku Boateng was in another office, but Racheal was amazing. She got my checks ordered and told me that the other set of checks were for an account that had been closed. Checks had been purchased but she ordered a new set, starting at #520. If we find the other set, just shred them like she did for the checks that I brought.
Racheal Conaway, Wells Fargo banker, with the biblical spelling of her first name and the additional "a" for the more common name Conway, was the person who helped me after I waited for a few minutes. Kwaku Boateng was in another office, but Racheal was amazing. She got my checks ordered and told me that the other set of checks were for an account that had been closed. Checks had been purchased but she ordered a new set, starting at #520. If we find the other set, just shred them like she did for the checks that I brought.
It's 6 p.m and the NewsHour is starting on the television, dad is lying on the bed, which I made a few minutes ago (he always says I do a superlative, perfect job of making the bed), but to continue my shopping trip, I got extra paper towels and toilet paper, which was on special at Pathmark, where I also got my statin prescription.
When I got home, Skeesha, was backed into the driveway and ready to leave the house. She'd brought the essential connector for the plastic tubing of dad's breathing line to his oxygen concentrator, which I upped to 3 1/2 liters. First thing I did was extend his breathing line with the connector. It made movement a little easier.
When I got home, Skeesha, was backed into the driveway and ready to leave the house. She'd brought the essential connector for the plastic tubing of dad's breathing line to his oxygen concentrator, which I upped to 3 1/2 liters. First thing I did was extend his breathing line with the connector. It made movement a little easier.
I await a phone call from a possible sitter volunteer from Delaware Hospice. I got his name from Melody but have forgotten it. Still, hope he calls. I met him, Dennis, as I went outside to walk Dancer on this rainy, chilly, dark night. He was on the sidewalk, umbrella overhead, and called out: "Mr. Nyhoff". He would turn out to be a godsend.
Tonight I will be attending the Rainbow Chorale: Concert in the sanctuary and Memorial Hall of First & Central Presbyterian at 1101 Market Street, right across from the DuPont Hotel near Rodney Square. I will meet Linda there and take her home from the concert. Where to park will be interesting but I think there is a parking garage right by the church. Parked there years ago when we attended a play, I believe, at the hotel.
The concert was wonderful. Kristen Tosh-Morelli and her partner were there. She use to sing in the group and sang with other alumni at the close of the concert. I wrote a fairly detailed critique, mostly positive, on a response card that was enclosed in the program and put it in the box, which resembled a ballot container, but I left WITHOUT MY CELL PHONE still hiding under a program on my pew. Did not realize it till Linda, who can take steps like an athlete, and I made it to the car on the 2nd level of the car park off Orange Street near the Hotel du Pont. It was a short walk from the church, but holy cow, no cell phone, we drove back to the church and I illegally parked, she turned on the flashers and I found it, thankfully, where I was sitting, hiding under the program. WHEWWWW!!!!
Don't know how I can forget something so vital.
Called Dennis Strunk to find that dad had wandered downstairs and that the DH volunteer of 3 years, an organic chemist, who lives close by, had managed to walk him back upstairs and back into bed. A remarkable achievement for someone who did not know my father from Adam ... I thanked him profusely and after he left, went upstairs to reattach the nasal cannula, which had come lose in my father's perambulation. He objected a little but did not reawaken. That would happen later in the morning and as I type, suffused with 3 cups of coffee, I wonder how sleep deficit I am an undergoing.
He had two accidents during the night and as a result, two pajama bottoms rest in the washer at present and require movement to the dryer. Doug, in a phone call from my Credo phone, which I think I'm going to change to in the coming days, said that "we" should look into adult Depends. I will, today.
A call to Delaware Hospice yielded an amazing conversation with Lucy Mealey, RN, who left a detailed message and whom I called back to learn so much more about her and her family and her association with dad and the fact that she is married to the owner of Mealey Funeral Home, Charles "Chick" Mealey.
The world is a small place of inter-connectivity.
Tonight I will be attending the Rainbow Chorale: Concert in the sanctuary and Memorial Hall of First & Central Presbyterian at 1101 Market Street, right across from the DuPont Hotel near Rodney Square. I will meet Linda there and take her home from the concert. Where to park will be interesting but I think there is a parking garage right by the church. Parked there years ago when we attended a play, I believe, at the hotel.
The concert was wonderful. Kristen Tosh-Morelli and her partner were there. She use to sing in the group and sang with other alumni at the close of the concert. I wrote a fairly detailed critique, mostly positive, on a response card that was enclosed in the program and put it in the box, which resembled a ballot container, but I left WITHOUT MY CELL PHONE still hiding under a program on my pew. Did not realize it till Linda, who can take steps like an athlete, and I made it to the car on the 2nd level of the car park off Orange Street near the Hotel du Pont. It was a short walk from the church, but holy cow, no cell phone, we drove back to the church and I illegally parked, she turned on the flashers and I found it, thankfully, where I was sitting, hiding under the program. WHEWWWW!!!!
Don't know how I can forget something so vital.
Called Dennis Strunk to find that dad had wandered downstairs and that the DH volunteer of 3 years, an organic chemist, who lives close by, had managed to walk him back upstairs and back into bed. A remarkable achievement for someone who did not know my father from Adam ... I thanked him profusely and after he left, went upstairs to reattach the nasal cannula, which had come lose in my father's perambulation. He objected a little but did not reawaken. That would happen later in the morning and as I type, suffused with 3 cups of coffee, I wonder how sleep deficit I am an undergoing.
He had two accidents during the night and as a result, two pajama bottoms rest in the washer at present and require movement to the dryer. Doug, in a phone call from my Credo phone, which I think I'm going to change to in the coming days, said that "we" should look into adult Depends. I will, today.
A call to Delaware Hospice yielded an amazing conversation with Lucy Mealey, RN, who left a detailed message and whom I called back to learn so much more about her and her family and her association with dad and the fact that she is married to the owner of Mealey Funeral Home, Charles "Chick" Mealey.
The world is a small place of inter-connectivity.
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