Epilogue

I do not expect this to be nearly as good as one of Eric's posts, but here goes. I am Eric's wife Laura. I managed to find my way into his blog to tell you all that Eric Michael Woolhiser died September 24, 2016 at 13:40. The hospice nurses came. Father Reid from Saint Ann's came and gave the last rites and the apostolic blessing. He was wearing his brown scapular when he died. As he was dying he was comforted by family and friends. He had the requiem mass that he wanted on October 1st and he will have a military burial on Wednesday in Salisbury, NC at the National Cemetery.The house that he built for us has been full of family and friends all of August, September and likely a good part of October. I do not know how to express that this way of doing a funeral is well worth it. So many people's death's are ignored. People flew in from all over the world and drove here. It is worth it to dress up and spend time with all the family and friends. These collective memories are wonderful and part of our cultural heritage that should not be ignored.

There is no way to properly express our gratitude to all the family, friends and complete strangers, who have prayed for us, provided us dinners and donated to the cancer and burial expenses. We hear so much bad news all the time, but there are so many people out there who are truly wonderful. We pray for our benefactors all the time. As Eric has said "Ingratitude has never entered heaven", so you know that he is praying for you all.

God Bless You!

Laura Catherine Stapf Woolhiser

After Action Report - Yesterday's Power Loss

We lost power yesterday and for many hours, my bed was stuck where my body was bent in more than a 90 angle, and I had to be careful to keep up a shallow breathing or I simply was not going to survive the day.

This was no exaggeration on my part.

Charlotte Fire had to be called.

Still, even with power available, it is a chore to be sure that I can keep a breathing power posture, and as I write this, it's clear I need to switch to hospice care such that I can simply keep breathing, so that I can simply keep breathing, and we can get very simple tasks like breathing operating and we can make it possible to get from one breath to another.

I would like to tell you more about the adventure, but to be  honest, there is a lot to tell, and this currently more than I can say about the great response we got from  the fire dept and we'll have to save it for another day. but it's clear I need more help than can be provided for at home.

I simply need to suck it up, and get full care, and breathe.

more detail later, but it's now simply too much danger than can otherwise be considered.

Laura and family were/are great but it's plainly too high of a risk to otherwise think about.

Stuff that should be addressed

Forgive me for being so tardy in posts lately. I can say that it was well deserved as I was just trying to get organized as a lot has happened to me, but it there also has been a tremendous amount of issues that have occurred outside my four walls, that while not very timely, I feel we need to talk about.

Last night for example, my mother and Jim were up for a return visit from Massachusetts.  We had watched "Taking Chance" which raises an important massages that really are not top of mind for most veterans and they should be.

It's a great film, and it should get more attention then it does, so I figure I should share some of the ideas, and hopefully we can all agree that there are a few holes to raise, and less ignorance on the whole.

OK Building the new Table

With Mike's help we got a substantial bit of building the new table done.  I had expected that the new table wouldn't actually arrive until Monday, or the latest would be Wednesday the 1st.

Here was the initial set up at the hospice bed so we didn't mount all the cabling and you see it's a bit of a rat's nest.  Later, Mike and I were able to do better with the table that did arrive home a week before expected, and we're trying to reduce the connections between the table and the desktop so it should snap together in about five minutes.

Carlos Johnson and his wife was able to visit yesterday and today from Massachusetts, and this is the very first post I've been able to make from the bed inside my home bedroom.  The ergonomics are still not quite correct, as they are still leaving my back slightly twisted - and this will have to be corrected before I do too much work, or I will have a lot of back pain. It holds a lot of promise though, and already I can easily type a good ten times faster than on an iPhone, and I can see my typographical errors so much more easily.

Julie also arrived this morning and surprised me by just walking in with a glass of milk for my initial breakfast.  There are still a few things to do like get me on a hard wired network rather than the WiFi, but still, this is a very great improvement over the iPhone.

Laura and I were even able to get some bills out like the medical premium.  We'll wait until Monday to get the other stuff out with the co-operation of Michael and start working on ownership transfers and getting the money directly to Laura in the future. Again, I'm still worried to be this close to getting the essentials done, while also being at risk of on food while in bed and not having it all done.

Also, Michael was able to get his leave extended to April 6th, so we have to work fast to get the house transfer all squared away.

However, I also don't think God would have brought us this close without actually getting it all done either. It's all going to work out nicely, and as I've said before, having these small challenges are entertaining in themselves.

We're Trying to get Out - and pack like a Rock Show

We're Trying to get Out - and Pack Like a Rock Show

After getting most of the internet working here at the Hospice House here  in Monroe, we're ready to pack it all  up again to get back hoping that it can easily be packed in two  cars and easily set up in the new destination. weather that be home or the Hospice House.  Hopefully we can get it down to two - three boxes of dedicated luggage  so that all components have a specific place and nothing gets missed.

Along with that we need to develop a list of how to get the network up.

To connect to the Hostpice - there are 3 Wifi Networks  that expose them selves,  networks Here at the Host The CHSGuest should be connected. Success seems to come by opening Chrome first .

This should open a browser where you assent for Guest Credentials.   Once that's up, all  other networks and ports seem to work well including EVE online. and Amazon Prime. I assume I can get to Net-flicks and YouTube pretty easily.

It seems that also CCP has made some recent changes to the EVE Online launcher and there's some 7 GB of files for the new launcher to down but I will defer those until I am at home and have a network I better understand.

I will then produce a better home coming connection guide for when I'm home.

I'm looking forward to making my home coming instruction set, when I get the new over the bed table dedicated to the desktop table.  This table will get drilling and special mounting hardware so that the break down and build up process is as seamless as possible.

I will try to see if we can build a dual monitor support on the next table, but each monitor weighs 10.4 pounds, and I have to be concerned about the advantages of a leftward anchored table vs a rightward anchored table given the weakness of the left arm.

The left arm is stronger, but it might not be the case.  Some experimentation is in order, because I still need to adjust what will later become the dinner table and miscellaneous stuff like urine bottles, and stuff.  I also have to be sure that I don't produce something that will be in the way of health care workers who will see unfamiliar equipment that may get into their way on first glance.

Closer to the End

Two days ago, the neuropathy hit me again in the legs.  I can't feel them from the waist down.

It's no longer safe for me to get out of bed at this time.  I'm guessing that the nerve damage has increased in my spine, and without treatment, there's no real hope things will improve. I can still get to my feet, and with some help get to the toilet to void my colon, or my hospice nurse will get me to the shower, but there's little more I can do.

I can hear my joints progressively creak, and I wonder how long my arms will still serve me.

Who can say at this point.  Before I elected hospice care, Dr. Burgess predicted that I would not make it to Christmas, and he also said death may come in the Sping. I do feel things are degrading, and it's coming sooner than later.

St Ann's is sending me the sacraments at least weekly, so much of what I need, I am getting, and so very grateful to have Our Lord visit me as He has.

We still have legal affairs to accomplish, such as deeding the house to Mike, transferring my Disabilty income to Laura, and also my car needs to change hands.

Hopefully we can get most of these done this week.

I'm also hoping that Kim and Mike can build me a better bedside table so that I can get to my full sized computer, and get some memoirs done.  Other than that, I think "My Rides Here" and I'm as ready as anyone could be.

Last Night's Adventure in Pain

To begin, last night was very painful because I was taking less medication than I was authorized.  So a lot of this pain, I created for myself.

However, since this is the first time that I have died, the process is still a little new to me and I have more to learn.  With hospice care, I actually have access to a nurse for 24x7.  All I need do is call.  For the past couple of nights, the nurse on the phone would review my current medication plan and simply tell me to take more.

But here's a couple of tips to pass onto anyone who's doing this same sort of thing.

First, keep a good log of all the medicine you do take as you take it for example,  my log looks something like this :

8/16 02:30 30mg Oxy - PL 8
8/15 23:35 30mg Oxy - PL 4

and so on - this I keep as a little note that I keep on my iPhone.  But where it's useful is when I have that phone call with the on call nurse, instead of reading it over the phone, I email it directly to the nurse, and she can see exactly what I am doing.

Instantly, she can read it for an accurate judgement of what I should do next.

Last night, the pain was so bad, that they actually sent a nurse to the house at 02:00, and my wife greeted her at the door.

I didn't know that this is what the service actually can do.  Sure I get regular visits to monitor other things, but all it took was a single phone call to get help.

Well the nurse examined my legs for bruises and other problems and concluded that a large source of trouble was just how the airmatress was working, and because of my height, I was sliding into the foot of the bed, producing a lot of pressure pains.

With a little work on pillows, we fixed it, and circulation was restored as it should be.

Problem solved, and I can rest.