Happy Thanksgiving

Kenneth always looked forward to the holidays. If he was here now, he would be wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Thankful

My No. 1 thing that I am thankful for is that Kenneth and I had 56 years to share together.

56th Wedding Anniversary

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and kind actions during this most difficult time. Today is Kenneth and my 56th anniversary. It is very difficult to wake up this morning and again realize my best friend and husband is not here with me on our anniversary. I am sure this day will be very hard for me but with your help I will make it through each day. Thank you for your cards, e-mails, calls, visits, and especially your prayers.

Jo Faye

What Happened? I thought Kenneth was rehabillitating?

Kenneth was in a rehabillitation facility(had been since the 11th of April). Toward the end of March he started falling and had to go in the hospital. He was getting better and the doctor told me on the 2nd of April that they would send him to the center the next day to start rehab (the radiation and chemo had nearly killed him) - he was very weak. The nurses and aides knew they had to help him to the bathroom and stay with him. Before I left that night he had walked down a long hall and back on a walker and did so well I could hardly keep up. I left feeling very good about the situation and felt he would be home in about 2 weeks. That was about 6:45. He called me at 8 and told me one of the aides had let go of him in the bathroom and he fell and they were taking him to x-ray to see if he broke anything. At 10 he called me back and said his hip was broken. He had to lie in one position without moving until 7:30 the next night when they did the surgery on his hip. Then he got pneumonia and a urinary track infection. They sent him to the nursing home on April 11 for rehab. He was doing pretty good even with the broken hip and they had started taking him to the bathroom, then last Sunday morning an aide left him on the commode to do something else and he fell and bunged himself up and that set him back. It seems there was just one setback after another. They were giving him strong vicodin for the pain and it made him just totally out of it for a few days. He was coming around and we had a good visit Sunday. I took Chili and Pepper (our dogs) over there on the front porch - it was the first time they had seen him or him them since he went to the hospital. He held them and Sheila pushed him around the parking lot to the back in the wheelchair and he was holding the leashes. He enjoyed that. Then Cindy, Ginger, McKenna, and Bryan came and he and Bryan discussed the junior/senior prom he had been to the night before and he held McKenna (our 4 month old greatgrandbaby). Yesterday when I went to see him, he was begging me to take him home. It just broke my heart to tell him I could not take him yet. Then I went and talked to the social worker and she said they were going to review his case Thursday to determine whether or not he would be able to rehab. I also started talking to her about taking him home on hospice. When I got home I called the Hospice and they said he definitely would qualify and they would furnish a hospital bed and a wheelchair and teach me how to transport him. Then this morning I was sitting on the couch reading the paper and the phone rang and I could tell it was the nursing home. I thought it was Kenneth (he sometimes called me after breakfast on the phone in the lobby to ask what I was doing and when I would be coming over there), but it was someone named Hope (who had called me before when he fell) and she just said "Your husband expired while in the shower. Where do you want us to send the body" I just went limp. I could not believe my ears. How could he be gone!!!! Am I having a bad dream? But it was real and he really is gone and my heart is broken. I am sure that God will somehow give me strength to get though this. He has been there for me many times before. It is just that I am going to be so lost without Kenneth. He was my rock.

I will always believe that if the hospital had not been negligent and let him break his hip, he would be home now.

Daddy Ken

Kenneth had a wonderful family - Clarence (Daddy C) and Sophenia (Nanmama) had 5 boys and Kenneth was the middle child. In this family photo Kenneth is on the right back row.

Kenneth was only in the military for 6 months before being honorably discharged but Jo Faye really liked the sight of her husband in a uniform.
Kenneth would own or manage 4 service stations in his home town and always went to work looking great in his uniform.

When the kids were born, Kenneth was so proud and spent a lot of time playing with them. Jo Faye really didn't like it when he held one of her babys up on one hand, but he never dropped them.
Kenneth was an honest man who cared for people - willing to help anyone in need!

One Last Weekend

This last weekend was beautiful. Kenneth was excited to see his 2 puppies come for a visit at the rehabilitation center. Sharon and Sheila arranged to meet Jo Faye on the porch of the center and Kenneth was able to hold both dogs in his lap.

Sheila pushed Kenneth in the wheelchair on a walk while Kenneth held the leashes and walked both Pepper and Chili. It was good for all three of them!

We didn't know it but this would be Kenneth's last weekend alive.

Setback - Need Your Prayers!

Although our last posting had good news and Kenneth's prognosis was good, he began to have a lot of trouble balancing. He fell several times last weekend, once on his face in the street. On Monday his regular doctor gave him a check-up and told JoFaye to take him to the emergency room right then. They admitted him and began to pump fluids into him and run tests. The tests came back with good results and Kenneth began to feel better. He even picked up the pace down the hospital hallway and surprised Jo Faye.

She left the hospital that night feeling good about his recovery, but at 8 p.m. Kenneth fell in the hospital room bathroom and broke his hip.

Kenneth's hip surgery was succesful but they are giving him morphene for the pain and he just doesn't handle morphene very well to say the least. He has been totally out of it all week which really makes it hard on Jo Faye. He really doesn't know what he is doing and we hope he doesn't remember what he did.

Kenneth will have a longer recovery now - not just getting over the chemo but now recovering from a broken hip and surgery. We covet your prayers for both Kenneth and Jo Faye. Oh, and Kenneth's big concern right now is that his puppies are o.k., so if you come to visit him let him know that they are doing just fine but they miss him.

Good News! Thank you!!!

Kenneth had tests Monday and we got the results today. Our Dr. said he had "good news" - three doctors had looked at the MRI and they all determined that the brain tumor was gone. The left temporal lobe has no evidence of cancer. The lung tumor has shrunk to .7 millimeters and the liver tumor has shrunk to .8 millimeters. Our Dr. said the blood test shows that he is anemic, low on iron - the chemo has killed red blood cells and the white blood cells have dropped from the chemo. That is why he is so weak!!!! Our Dr. thinks that in about 6 weeks he will start to improve. He said that he gave Kenneth VERY STRONG chemo and that most people over 70 cannot tolerate that dosage, but he thought Kenneth did well, even though in my eyes he has NOT done well. He fell this morning before we went to he doctor. I am thankful he did not hit his head. He is just so very weak. I am supposed to make him drink milk shakes, Ensure (Glucerna), and eat, eat eat!!! Kenneth has to go back April 24 to see the Dr. We are through with chemo for now. the Dr. said eventually he will have to have more chemo, but not for a while.

We want to thank you for your prayers and concern. God has been good to us and answered the prayers.

Love,
Jo Faye

Hair Going Going

Hair it started last night. I brushed globs of hair in just one brushing. After that just run a comb through it ,more and more. it was not supposed to start for 12 days. instead just 2,Guess soon I will not have any then I will look asTyler did ,lol. We will see........... Love you all Daddy Ken

What is next?

For months I have trying to blog my biggest problem has been and still is how to put a picture of the blog... Now I am in two different treatments for Cancer,I wanted to talk about it. For my brain they are using x rays, f0r long and kidney kemo. From yesterday and 12 days , weekdays ,I will have head x rays ,this is supposed to take care of my brain cancer. At least we hope so. every 21 days I must spend 5 to 7 hrs. in kemo /the Dr. said that should take care of the loung part.

Where's Kenneth?

It is 9:30 and I have been washing and cleaning the bathrooms (mopping, etc.) and I missed Kenneth - went looking for him and guess where I found him - out in the front with a ladder and the pole saw cutting limbs. At the time, he was on the ground cutting a limb.   At least he had his hat on.  I did not say anything - just came back in - it would not do any good.  He would just say "the doctor said I could do whatever I felt like."  I could not believe my eyes!!!