Rest in Peace Mom, We Love You

Hey all...

I just wanted to let you all know that mom passed away this morning. She went peacefully and beautifully holding sheila's and my hand with dad rubbing her head and marc rubbing her feet, with amy standing beside us, while billy was flying in and jenny was tending her kids... we all told her how much we loved her in the final moments and that we were all there for her and that we will always be there for each other and take care of each other... and after we all kissed her goodbye, i felt her final heartbeat / pulse in her hand fade away and she was gone...

it was exactly what mom wanted... she was home in her own bed, looking out at the bay with her family at her side and she was in no pain... she was in a semi-sedated state acknowledging us when we said funny comments or "i love yous" but in no pain and literally went into the "deep sleep" so to speak...

after a nice night with dad (minus us interrupting to change her pain medicine) :-) .. and sheila sneaking into their bed early in the am... she waited for me to, i guess to my "final" caretaker duties... making sure she was "fresh," as she would say, for her next journey... she held my hand tight and amy and i realized that it was it.. and we grabbed everyone to send her off the way she always wanted...

on behalf of me, my mom, dad, jenny, billy, marc, sheila, amy, don, donnie, julia, and liam.. and baby to be, we really appreciate all your love and support over our entire lives and especially over the past 5-6 months... it has been a rediculously fun, crazy, scary, and unbelievalbe roller coaster and there is no way we would have gotten through this all without you... so THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts..

Mom always said that she never wanted a Wake... she said..... "there is no reason for my family and friends to be in a depressing funeral home talking about the good ole times when they could be doing it at her house or a local bar or restaurant and really enjoying themselves and having a party!" .. so with that being said... our home is an open house for the next few days.. please feel free to stop by and reminise about mom, dad, us, whoever...

we will be having a Mass at St. Patrick's Church in Bay Shore on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 11:00am followed by a lunch at Southward Ho Country Club about a mile down the road from the church... all are invited...

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice Care Network, 99 Sunnyside Blvd, Woodbury, NY 11797

Thanks again!

We love you!

Love,

The General and all her troops!

BTW...

Oh... By the way... I forgot to tell you ...

Last Saturday, I snuck into mom and dad's bedroom to check on them... and they were both passed out cold... mouths open and all! :-) but the cutest thing was despite both of them having to be upright on their side of the bed, they held hand in the middle through the ENTIRE night!!

(i took a photo, which i know they would kill me if i posted, since their mouths were open and all!) :-)

they are so cute and adorable!!!... and still, every second of every day, madly in love with each other!

Family Fun Times

Hey all..

So... we had quite the busy couple of weeks since dad's stint in the hospital. We started Hospice, which is awesome! and dad came home!! amazing! and not only did he come home with no problems, but he got home a day early to surprise mom! it was so cute!!

my mom's two sister's (Kathleen and Sheila) were also here for a nice visit along with my cousin Peter and little Charlie! Adorable!

And last Saturday we had a beautiful family mass at the house... Ned Murphy (my mom's cousin, the priest) came over along with my siblings, a few extended family members and friends. It was really amazing and nice... music, candles and hosts that tasted like peanut butter! Marc and Jenny read the readings... it was the perfect mass, right in our living room!

we had a small little party after and watched the Kentucky Derby... Big Brown and Dennis from Cork!! Wahooo!! we actually have a Dennis from Cork in our family!! so we were rooting hard for him in addition to our local Big Brown! Mom loved every bit of the day! and as we brought her up to bed we all sang Good Night Sweet Heart.. and mom loved it and made us sing it again!! It was so funny!! then she ordered everyone to stick around and drink and be merry b/c even though she went upstairs... she was downstairs in spirit!

That's my mom! :-)

Later that weekend, mom actually walked up and down the stairs and we took a walk over to walker beach. It was so great and HOT... fantastic weather! she really enjoyed the nice peaceful view and that all her ducks were in a row so to speak...(all 5 kids were here at once!) and loving her!!

this past week, mom had PT and did great! and i must say HOSPICE is awesome!! Muriel (our aide) comes Mon-Fri 8:30-12:30 and does everything! Helps with breakfast, lunch vacuuming, laundry, showers everything!! awesome!! and the nurses and doctors visit once a week and are on call 24-7~!!

AWESOME!!!!

Anywhoooooo... this weekend mom is heading to the Hospice Inn... it is an inpatient Inn (more comfy than a hospital) to get her pain medicine as an IV into her port. This way she is constantly getting medicine every hour plus additional medicine as she needs it... pretty great! soo.... we shall see!

hope all is well... and please keep those prayers coming!

lots of love!

rach

Dad Tries to One Up Mom!

hey hey hey...

so i think my dad was getting jealous of all the attention that mom was getting because.......

.........after a fun filled 8 days at Chateau de Sloan Kettering with mom... doing not one, not two, but three procedures, a kidney stent for her right kidney, a liver stent and a medi-port (which is like a permanent I.V). we were released on friday to go home!!

and boy oh boy did we think that was the greatest! Jenny, Don, Donnie, Julia and Liam drove up to visit and billy and amy were here it was great! we had a great night with a home made dinner and lots of laughs!

that night, since mom basically has rubber legs i decided it was best that in sleep in the room with them to help her to the bathroom.. and thank GOD i did... at about 5:25 i the morning mom starting calling at my dad.. Billy.. billy... i thought it was because he was snoring so much.. then i realized that was not snoring.. so i jumped up and was like DAD!.. and looked at him and for a moment i thought he was choking, so i raced out of the room to my get Amy, my sister-in-law (the ER doc) and she came in and immediately started to do CPR on my dad... he was having a seizure and was in cardiac arrest... i called for an ambulance (which by the way, the stupid lady on the phone was practically asking me out on a date with the meaningless questions she was asking... unreal).... anyway, .minutes later (that seemed like forever) the police were here and they had a defibulizer (a heart zapper) which later had to be used... amy had brought dad back to life with CPR after he had no pulse and his pupils were fixed and dialated 3 times... then they zapped him and he was brought back for a 4th time... and he was actually able to communicate... we thought for sure that he was going to be brain damaged or something... but nope..
right away he was answering questions and cracking jokes...

... the ambulance arrived and they took dad to our local hospital which we later learned is the ONLY hospital in suffolk county that has 24hr cardiac care (normally this hospital is a dump! but it merged with another hospital and now it is getting pretty good) ,.. anyway... they put in 2 stents in his right artery and the blood started flowing.. which was great.. but it was a little too much too fast, b/c he FLAT LINED AGAIN and they had to zap him again! 5th times a charm!! unbelievable!! ..anyway... that was the final zap he needed to bring him back to us.. for good (we hope!) :-)

as of now.. about 60hrshrs later.. he is doing great!! i have seen him three times and he is great!! he had to have a balloon pump put in to relieve the stress on the heart... but that was taken out last night.. and today he was walking around and moved out of the ICU into a room and should be home on thursday!

when i say that WOW i can't believe it.. i mean WOW!! Amy and the Cardiac Docs said that basically only 3% survive that severe of a cardiac arrest that he had... and when they do... there would be some brain damage and would have had to have been incubated and so much more... but dad is great! and didn't need any of that!! seriously.. he was cracking jokes with the ER and cardiac crew... saying that he was going to sue the doctor that broke his ribs (knowing that it was Amy that gave him CPR)... he is amazing.. and hysterical... doing great.. literally before he went in to get his stents put in, he said... "i am getting stents put in, well my wife just had two stents put in, so i have to at least have two so that i can tie her!"

and as of now, Jenny and Don and the kids went home and jenny will be back this weekend ... marc flew in yesterday and will be here for a while, sheila is back in the city as of this morning for school and billy is flying out tonight returning on friday and amy is here til thursday returning on sunday or monday.. and me... well, i am just trucking along singing a song! :-)

but no seriously.... the stars were aligned friday night / saturday morning, b/c any other night any other time in any of our lives, the chances that i would be sleeping in my parents room with them and amy being here are about 1 in infinity! we are thankful every second...

and so is my dad... yesterday when billy and i were there, he was like... i have been thinking alot... and i got my life back...i have too many kids and grandkids to live for... i got a second life, now, i have to figure out what i am suppose to do with it. It just wasn't my time!

amazing!

so this weekend, when dad gets home... we are going to make a nice little romantic candle light dinner for them... i mean, seriously, what could be more romantic than forced bed rest with your true love of over 50years!!

love you

Rachel

Third Time's a Charm

Hey Kiddos...

so i am sure you may have heard through the grapevine that we were back at Chateau de Sloan for a lovely 8 days... the first 5 nights were pretty sweet, mom had her own room with a beautiful view... it was quite spectacular! :-)

anywhooooo... during our lovely visit we were informed that mom's "levels" were off and the best way to fix them was to get these stents put in... one in her right kidney and one in her liver / bile ducts... so we said.. lets do it... on monday, we were on our way down to get the liver stent, literally on the gurney when we got BUMPED! we were not happy... but we were promised that our kidney stent on tuesday would go off without a hitch and it did...

On wednesday, we were going in for the liver stent again, when the doctors reread that cat scan and realized that they could do the procedure endoscopic (through the mouth) instead of going through her side.. but the doc that could do that was unable to do it on wednesday, so we got bumped, again!! but our amazing attending knew that would really tick mom off, so she was able to have mom get a Medi-Port put in on wednesday as a trade off for being bumped... mom was thrilled because a medi-port is like a permanent I.V. that hides out under your skin, and you can get blood drawn from there, have chemo and I.V. solutions... it is awesome!

anywhoooo.. thursday, mom successfully got her liver stent and lucky for me, her throat was sore, so she couldn't speak..!! :-) (just kidding mom...) :-)

friday after a quick scan, we were discharged and we went home to enjoy a fantastic night with jenny, don, donnie, julia, liam, billy & amy... it was great! sheila and the kids made welcome home posters... it was great!

saturday morning we were awakened with a surprise which you can read in my next entry, but were lucky to have a few murphy's make their way out for a visit... which mom loved!

well... i hope all is well with you all...

love and miss you and please keep on praying for us!

rachel

Pain Pain Go Away Come Again... NEVER

Hey everyone...

How is everyone doing?? Starting to enjoy this beautiful weather? We sure are!!

So... we starting knitting this past Wednesday and we both love it!! .............
Although i think i am slightly more obsessed with it than mom! :-)

And unfortunately, mom had a some pain towards the tail end of the week, so we popped into Sloan... and after a quick and painless 48hrs... we were discharged and are home... All is good... they ended up upping her methadone pills, but to do that, they needed to monitor the methadone intact via an I.V.... anywhoo... to make a long story short... her pain is under control!

WAHOOOOOOO... so, we are THRILLED! mom will be skipping and cart wheeling down the street all this week!

anyway... we would love to hear from you ... so post a comment even just to say HI!

and keep those prayers coming!!

love
rachel

Chillin like a villian...

hey all..

how is everyone doing?? all is good on the home front... we had a brief stay at Chateau de Good Sam this past week. Mom's sodium level was low, so we had to stay there til it was brought back up, which it is... and we are home and footloose and fancy free!

this wednesday we are taking knitting lessons and on thursday we are taking pottery, so look out! we are going to be sporting some amazing scarfs or one armed sweaters while drinking out of some lop-sided mugs! :-)

hope all is well on your end!!

keep those prayers a coming!

love
the general

Griffin Family Fun St. Patty's Day BASH - Part 3

I couldn't resist!!

ENJOY!!

Griffin Family Fun St. Patty's Day BASH - Part 2

Hey all..

here are some more photos!! enjoy!

i will e-mail you all the links to the photos later this weekend..

Happy Easter!

So great seeing you all!

Rachel