Services will be Thursday, Nov. 10th

The services for Mom will be held at 11:00 am on Thursday, November 10th, at Daniel's Chapel of the Roses (1225 Sonoma Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95405). All are welcome to attend.

You are encouraged to contribute a story or favorite memory of your experiences with Mom as part of the service. If you would rather have your story read during the service rather than telling it yourself, simply click the "Comment" link at the bottom of this post and send us your story. We'll see to it that your story is included during the service. (This will also make your story part of our BLOG, for all to share.)

A reception will be held at Mom's house immediately following the service. Again, all are welcome to attend. Driving instructions to the reception will be available at the service. If you can't attend the service but would like to stop by the reception, contact Karen or myself for directions. You can also contact us by email at info at kibbish dot com.

As mentioned in the previous post, please don't send flowers. We would prefer that any money you would have spent on flowers be donated in Mom's name to one of the following groups instead;

Memorial Hospice of Santa Rosa

c/o Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Foundation



The American Cancer Society

Click on the links above to be taken to pages that will give you information on how you can contribute.

Thanks go out to all that have kept Mom in their thoughts and prayers over these past few months. We simply can't express how much it has meant to all of us.

Mom has moved on

Mom passed away just minutes ago, at roughly 8:30 am PST this morning. Her passing was very calm -- she simply stopped breathing.

We'll post funeral arrangements here once we have them.

In the meantime, please do not send flowers. The family would prefer that you make donations to the American Cancer Society or Memorial Hospice of Santa Rosa. We'll provide details of how to donate to these organizations when we post funeral arrangements.

Family may visit Mom one last time at the Palliative Care Facility this morning. Her body will be moved to Daniel's Chapel of the Roses later today.

New digs

The move happened a couple hours later than planned, but Mom is now settled in the Palliative Care Center at 151 Sotoyome Street (across from Memorial Hospital). We can happily report that the move went off without incident.

Mom is in room 30. Family can visit this facility 24 hours a day, and all visitors are welcome during the day. If you've been waiting to visit Mom until she moved into a fancier neighborhood, now's the time!

Why did the patient cross the road?

Apparently, to get to Palative Care.

Despite our concerns over the pain she may have to endure if moved, Mom is scheduled to be transferred to the Palliative Care Center across the street from Memorial Hospital (151 Sotoyome Street) at 1:30 PM today. The facility is owned and operated by the same people that run Memorial, so we have been assured that the care will be comparable if not better since this facility exists specifically to support patients like Mom.

We're told this is necessary because they have admitted additional patients into the Oncology ward, and would like to have Mom's bed available. Even if she stays she will gain a roommate, which would be inconvenient for Mom and us, and -- given Mom's condition -- possibly disturbing for the roommate and their family.

At the Palliative Care Center, every patient has their own room, and all rooms have 24 hour access for family members. I went over to the facility to check it out, and I admit I'm impressed. I think it will be a good place for Mom, provided we can get her there without incident.

With that in mind, we have been assured that all preparations and precautions will be taken in moving her. In addition, Dr. Johanson -- who is the Director of the Palliative Care Center, the head of the local Hospice organization, and a consulting physician on Mom's case -- has agreed to be there to personally oversee the transfer. He has promised to stop the transfer in its tracks if Mom appears to be in any discomfort.

We'll try to update this page again later this afternoon or this evening with the details of how all this goes...

Status quo, more or less

There have been only minor changes in Mom's condition over the last 72 hours. She remains unconcious, with the only facial expressions occuring if someone tries to move her suddenly: it's amazing, but she apparently still feels pain even in her current condition. In order to minimize such pain, the nurses give her a little extra dose of pain medication (referred to as a "bolus") about 10 minutes before moving her. That seems to do the trick.

There is also evidence that her body is gradually shutting down. Her digestive tract has ceased to function, and there's less bloodflow to her extremities (which is probably her body's attempt to keep her primary organs functional despite her low blood supply). Her skin is showing signs of necrosis as well, especially on her back.

And, as you might expect, the tumor is continuing to spread. There is now evidence of it on the roof of her mouth (of all places!). Fortunately, she doesn't seem to notice.

Mom had a couple unexpected -- but very welcome -- visitors yesterday. Steve Dixon, long time friend of the family and my fellow band member, stopped by for a while. We were very happy to see him, and we suspect that Mom was happy he stopped by too. Thanks, Steve.

And Mom's nephew Jeff came by as well. It was nice to chat with our cousin for a while, and I'm sure Mom got a kick out of the comparison that we were doing between our grandparents, our parents and ourselves. Some family traits can really give you a chuckle.

As always, feel free to stop by. We figure that if Mom reacts to pain, she likely has other capabilities as well, including the ability to hear what's going on around her. With that in mind, we try to provide her with as much amusing conversation as possible.