Being in the Main a Blog of the Life and Times of the Wood, Robertson, Pilling, McLoone, Johnson, and Bates Families
Monday, May 17, 2021
Arta updates - May 12 and 16 (and a link to the gathered "80 for 80" blogs from last year)
Waiting at the airport for Doral to arrive
Just a Sunday evening update from the Carter-Johnson house.
The passing of the torch happened this weekend: Doral arrived on Friday, and is staying for a week; Catherine left on Saturday, after being here for 10 days (which was replacing Mary, who was here 3 weeks, Richard who was here with Mary a week before that, and Moiya and Wyona before that). This is truly the party house!
Things have been busy, but also interesting. There has been much scanning and copying of documents. Every document touched seems to generate another series of conversations about the past and the present. Very fun.
Catherine crashes on the couch
Less fun is Jaundice! Yes, Arta is turning a pale shade of yellow. At first we wondered if it was just a bit of a suntan, but... nope. The tumor is compressing the bile duct. It was great that Catherine was here this week to triage the jaundice questions. If you saw the youtube updates from May 12, there is more on that (I will put the link to the May 12 updates at the end of this post).
Mary crashes on the couch
But in brief, Arta goes to the Hospital again on Tuesday May 18, and Dr. Barclay will try ERCP to insert a stent into her bile duct. That regular procedure may or may not work (50/50): it depends on whether he can get past the tutor. If he can't, then they will keep Arta over night, and he will try again on the following day, coming in from a different direction.
In short, there will be two routes to getting a stent into place to help the bile drain. We will keep you posted re what is going on.
Rebecca crashes on the couch
What we can say for sure is that Jaundice is not fun, and it has made Arta increasingly tired and uncomfortable. That sucks.
Here is a 12 minute video update from today where she talks a bit about that, as well as about some of the challenges in finding space and time to say goodbye to people (particularly when the people she is speaking to do not WANT to say goodbye!).
MAY 16 UPDATE
And here is the MAY 12 UPDATE (in which Catherine says more about the Jaundice)
And finally, we have gathered together the "Eighty Memories for Eighty Years" posts that Arta did last year before turning 80. They are now gathered in a single blog on Arta's "Grandmother Arta" blog page. So... if anyone wants to see those posts in order, you can find the post at this link:
It is one of the hardest things for me to do. I agree with Doral, that saying goodbye feels like we are accepting the inevitable outcome that none of us are ready to face. I prefer to revert to dad's old position of just saying "bye for now", but recognize this is completely selfish. I hadn't thought of how hard it must be for you Arta to have to say goodbye to all of us over and over again.
Our last goodbye was perfect. It was carefully crafted with 3 main messages: "I love you". (Along with 3 taps as Doral would have done to Wyora) "It's been nice knowing you." (What you said to me all last week. Recognizing how much we have valued our relationship with each other.) And then finally, "Bye for now."
I will hold on to my religious belief that this is not the end. Although we may not see each other again in our physical bodies, I am holding out hope that our connections to each other transcend this unknown called death and that it really is only "bye for now".
On saying goodbye----
ReplyDeleteIt is one of the hardest things for me to do.
I agree with Doral, that saying goodbye feels like we are accepting the inevitable outcome that none of us are ready to face. I prefer to revert to dad's old position of just saying "bye for now", but recognize this is completely selfish. I hadn't thought of how hard it must be for you Arta to have to say goodbye to all of us over and over again.
Our last goodbye was perfect. It was carefully crafted with 3 main messages:
"I love you". (Along with 3 taps as Doral would have done to Wyora)
"It's been nice knowing you." (What you said to me all last week. Recognizing how much we have valued our relationship with each other.)
And then finally, "Bye for now."
I will hold on to my religious belief that this is not the end. Although we may not see each other again in our physical bodies, I am holding out hope that our connections to each other transcend this unknown called death and that it really is only "bye for now".