Happy Birthday Eric!!!

Today is Eric Chun's birthday! Happy birthday, to my super awesome husband! Go Eric! We spent the weekend celebrating our birthdays and we're still recovering, so we're going out for a simple Genki Sushi dinner tonight! Our family favorite!

So, a few things to update everyone on...in no particular order, here we go:

They have found Salmonella in Peggy's urine and possibly GI tract. Not sure how it got there, but she is now on antibiotics. Peggy does not seem to be in too much discomfort from the Salmonella, just some fever here and there. Now, Cory has asked that I ask everyone if they have any GI issues that they have themselves tested for Salmonella since they may need antibiotics.

Well, not sure if it is a coincidence or the Salmonella, but Marvel has had GI problems and now Lolo is sick too. Lisa had some type of bug last week and now Elroy has a bad cold - what is going on, people? Please please please drink lots of water, take your vitamins, wash your hands well and OFTEN, get enough rest, and bathe yourselves in hand sanitizer!!! And if you start to have GI probs, you may want to mention the Salmonella thing to your doc.

This week Saturday, Peggy will be attending "An Evening of Aloha" - Na Wahine Kupaa - Women of Strength: A Tribute to Mother Marianne Cope and the Sisters of St. Francis...celebrating 125 years of Service in Hawaii. This signature multi-media concert will be held at the Hawaii Convention Center. Peggy will be featured in a video as a special tribute to Mother Marianne. Marvel, Suzanne Ching, Andy Yim, Eric, Elroy, and myself also say a few words in the video!

Tickets for the concert range from $25 to $75. They may be ordered from Honolulu Box Office at 540-8457 or online at www.honoluluboxoffice.com. Tickets may be picked up Oct. 4 at the concert hall.Proceeds from "An Evening of Aloha" will benefit the Sisters' Health care ministries in Hawaii.

The Spa Party last Friday was a huge success - so much fun to pamper ourselves and socialize...all for a great cause! I am waiting to get photos off of my friend Cathy's camera so that I can share them! I know you all want to see how adorable we all looked in our headbands with goop on our faces! Thanks to everyone who joined us for the fun and mahalo for all the support.

We are working on plans for another fundraiser...we're looking at the end of October. We'll keep you posted as things materialize. Please let us know if you would like to assist.

That's about it for now! Hope everyone is having a great week!

Best Birthday EVER!!!

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday! Eric and I took the morning off to go stand-up paddle surfing. Then we went to Peggy's at noon to find a party waiting for us in Peg's room! The office girls came up with a theme (Hello Kitty) and some yummy veggie food for me and Rhea (our special surprise guest!). Karen also brought some kalbi for the carnivores!

We celebrated my birthday and Eric's (September 30) and Rhea's (October 1). Marvel and Peggy came up with the second part of the menu - oven dried tomatoes, potatoes, and salmon. Aunty Pat Lokatos came strolling in with the hit of the party - Cosmopolitans!!!

Lolo came with one of my favorite desserts - red velvet cupcakes from Hokulani Bakery! Mmmmmm! The food was great, the company divine, and the cosmos - dangerously delicious! We were laughing all afternoon! Eric, Rhea, and I were blessed with amazing gifts and memories that will last forever! Thank you all for making the day so special - I am so grateful for all the love!!! Maybe it was the cosmos, but I'm sure it was the best party yet!!!

We went home for a quiet evening in and Peggy and the gang went out to Les Mis! Party Animals!

I'm off to Costco to pick up some Champagne and other goodies for our Spa Party tomorrow! Can't wait! Looking forward to seeing you all there! XOXO

Birthday Week, Baby!

So...I warned Peggy and the girls that I'm planning on goofing off this week as much as possible since it is my birthday week! My actual birthday is Wednesday. In fact, I was born on a Wednesday and according to the words on a porcelain mug my parents have, "Wednesday's child knows no woes." So I'm aiming for a "woe-free" week of fun! :) Today I dropped by the house for a couple hours in the afternoon with Sawyer. We visited with Peg, Marvel, Judy, and Elroy.

Denise the HCA RN came by since Peggy was running a temp today. She had a 101 degree fever this morning, but it was low-grade (99 or below) the rest of the day. Denise took a sputum culture and we should know by tomorrow if there is any infection brewing. People had been noticing a bit of a smell coming from the trach site, but once Misty the HCA night nurse changed the inner cannula, the smell seemed to go away.

One-Word Answers

Thought it would be fun to share some of the one-word answers we got for the question, "what do you see when you look in Peggy's eyes":

Life
Fun
Party
Determination
Mischief
Charisma

and my personal favorite (from Kelly) - PROJECTS!

Thanks to those of you who responded!

A Few Medical Updates

Peggy's eyes have been better today. Not a lot of communication, but here eyes are definitely less red. We believe that patching the eyes really helps clear them up. You may even find that you need to keep alternating the patches from eye to eye until her eyes get better.

FYI - when you use Tobradex, don't flush her eyes after because Peggy tells us that it burns her eyes and it also seems to make them red and irritated. So, use the Tobradex, then wait 30 minutes before putting anything else in them.

Cory came by today to collect a urine sample to check for a UTI, but was not able to get one. She left a cup, so we'll try to get one later today. We need to refrigerate it and then call HCA to pick it up. We got to visit and catch up with her for a little while.

Peggy has a bedsore that we are monitoring. Because it is near the pads, the nurses are recommending that we change the pads every 4 hours to avoid infecting the bedsore.

Kaleidoscope

Hey Legs! "Kaleidoscope", a literary and fine arts magazine that features the work of people with disabilities, is working on a story featuring Peggy and her work. For more info about the publication, visit the United Disabilities Services website at www.udsakron.org

As part of their research for the piece, they have asked me to ask a handful of people (Peg’s Legs/family members/friends) to give some one-word descriptions/answers to the following question: When you look into Peggy’s eyes, what do you see?

Please take a second to email me your word!!!!

Happy Monday!

Peggy's eyes have been very red and irritated the past few days. Very red and puffy. We're wondering if it might be the weather we're having, maybe an allergic reaction to the vog since there is no wind? Not sure, but what we do know is that we have been going through A LOT of PM gel.

We have an order of 50 tubes coming in from the mainland any day now (it is cheaper to purchase it online), but since we were running so low I picked up 5 or 6 tubes at Walmart on Friday (at $9 each). Lisa called me yesterday (Sunday) and said that she had just opened the last tube! Yikes! Did we really go through that many tubes in 3 days?! That is just crazy.

Lisa has Peggy's eye patched today, but it is next to impossible to read her eyes today. Joy from Hospice came by for a visit and Rosa and Lisa did bath today. Karen and I have been cleaning house, getting things clear and clean for our Spa Party.

We're still looking for a B caregiver to go with Marvel and Peggy to "Les Mis" next week Wednesday night - any takers??? We need a B or Peggy can't go!

TGIF!

We are so grateful for Lisa taking last night's overnight shift since Eric and Michelle on now on vacation. We have found a wonderful solution to our bath aide problem (thanks to Kelly's genius thinking!). We now have a wonderful CNA from Hospice coming in M, W, F to help our morning person with bath! This service is part of our Hospice benefit! So today, "Rosa" from Hospice came in at 8:30am to help Lisa with Peggy's bath. Yay!

We are getting very excited for our Spa Party! I really want to encourage all of you to come and BRING YOUR FRIENDS! This is going to be a really special event and you all deserve the pampering, socializing, and goodies! We have a good response, but we're looking for even MORE of you to RSVP!!!!

Random Medical Updates

Productive day today. We got to video chat with Peggy's daughter Leslie and see little Hanalei "live"! It was so much fun and so easy with "Skype" on my laptop. Peggy's eyes were a little funky today, not a great eye day. So we'll try again on a better eye day soon. But she could see Hana's adorable little face and we could hear Leslie and Stu perfectly! It was amazing!

A few medical updates:

Peggy has a raw patch of skin on her left ear. We think it is from the face mask rubbing her skin. We are treating with duo-derm patches and keeping an eye on it.

Kelly is on top of all the meds ordering. We have 50 tubes of Refresh PM coming to us in the mail. We are currently down to only 3 tubes. Lisa reminded us that if we patch Peggy's eyes as soon as they look red, we will cut down on the need for as much PM gel.

Christie is no longer available for bath. She will call us M, W, F around 3pm to ask Peggy if she is interested in having an afternoon bath. Peggy doesn't tend to like this as it is right in the middle of her day, but we have that option. We will work on finding a new bath aide, but until then our private hires will be helping pick up the slack.

FYI - Eric and Michelle will be going on vacation this month for a couple of weeks 9/11 through 9/25. We have all of their shifts covered. Lisa will be taking some overnights and both Lisa and Leah will be coming in at 6am some days. Thank you so much to all of you who helped get all this covered.

That's all folks - be sure to read the previous blog post - don't miss our super fun spa party! I can't wait!!!!!

Spa Party at Peggy's: A Brunch "Fun-Raiser" Honoring the Peg's Legs Caregivers

What: Spa Party at Peggy's: A Brunch "Fun-Raiser" Honoring the Peg's Legs Caregivers

Location: Peggy's House...3115 Alika Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96817

When: Friday, September 26, 10:00AM to 2:00PM


We're having a spa party at Peggy's just for you! We are pairing up with "Beauty Society" and friends to bring you a luxurious day of pampering, socializing, and FUN!

We will be indulging in FREE facials featuring HOT & NEW products by Beauty Society! All the products from Beauty Society are PARABEN-FREE! And they are the first in the industry to implement a GOING GREEN program with refills.

The products will all be for sale at our spa party and 15% of all sales will go to benefit "Friends of Peggy Chun".

We will also be providing mini massages and other spa services - all FREE - just for you! We will be serving a delicious brunch - coffee, scones, fruit, MIMOSAS, and other goodies.

Our honored guests are the Peg's Legs caregivers, but all are welcome. Please bring your friends, moms, sisters, aunties, nieces, neighbors...you get the idea. Every guest will go home with a fabulous goody bag, not to mention a new lease on life! Come and join us for the fun - YOU DESERVE IT!!!

RSVPS are a MUST to ensure your free facial and goody bag.

Find our Online Evite at http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/QBAITIAVAWZIIBBCJGAK/spaparty

Please RSVP by Email to Kimi ASAP and please feel free to forward on to your girlfriends!

Les Mis - B Caregiver?

We are looking for a B caregiver to accompany Marvel and Peggy to Les Mis! Wednesday, September 24, 7:30pm. You will need to be there around 6 and will ride with Peggy/Marvel to and from the show in the cab.

Another Good Communication Day

Peggy had another good eye day yesterday. She was able to ask some questions to Clarence from Hospice. Clarence came to the house with Gretchen and Joy from Hospice Hawaii. Joy will be our hospice RN and will be making weekly visits to Peggy. I will be posting all their contact information up on the board.

We had a great meeting with the Hospice team. They wanted to stress to all of us that they are simply ADDING to our team, not taking away from anything. Everything will continue to be handled in the same manner, we now just have the added support of the wonderful people from Hospice Hawaii.

Clarence, Joy, and Gretchen spent some time speaking with Peggy about their role. They asked her to think of questions that they might be able to address (questions about spirituality, etc.) when they meet with her.

Clarence and I will be meeting soon to discuss ways in which they can support all of us, such as support group gatherings. We want to make it easy and simple for you to get any support that you need, any questions you might have answered, etc.

We are starting to throw around some fundraising ideas. We will keep everyone posted. Please email me if you are interested in becoming a part of our fundraising committee :)

Peggy's on Facebook!

Hey Peggy Chun Fans - is anyone out there on Facebook? For those of you who don't know, Facebook is a free online networking community. It is easy (and FREE) to join - so go check out www.facebook.com

We have created a "Friends of Peggy Chun" group on Facebook. Go on Facebook and search for "Friends of Peggy Chun". You can join the group and then share it with all of your friends. Let's see how many members we can get! Help us share the story and artwork of Peggy Chun across the world!

Good Eye/Communication Day

Well, we actually had a good eye day with Peggy today. Marvel came in at 2pm and Peggy's eyes were looking pretty clear. She spent about 20-30 minutes spelling out a sentence to us, expressing that she wanted to be able to see all of us in the room better, so we angled her bed a bit. Marvel and I were getting pretty good yes and no responses, so I took the opportunity to have a good talk with Peggy about where things are at.

I expressed to Peggy our concern about the communication difficulties and our need to know where she is at emotionally and physically. For the most part, I phrased everything in yes and no questions and I was sure to ask the questions repeatedly and in different ways to test for consistency in her responses. The most important question I asked her was if she is satisfied with her current quality of life and Peggy answered yes several times to this question.

Here is a list of the yes/no questions that I asked Peggy and her responses. I will write out the questions so that you can see how we phrase things in yes/no for her. We logged all of these on the new communication log which is turning out to be a great tool to track Peggy's words and communication patterns:

Are you satisfied at your current quality of life? Yes.
At this level of communication, are you content? Yes.
Do you feel like you are communicating effectively? Yes.
Do you feel that your "hallucinations" are affecting your ability to communicate? Yes.
Are you afraid? No.
Is your mood "good" on most days? Yes.
Are you in physical pain? Yes.
Is the pain manageable? Yes.
Is the pain mostly in the trach/body aches? Yes.
Should we use more lidocaine throughout the day (for trach pain)? Yes.
Would you like to increase oxydose? Unclear response.
Do you want us to continue to ask how much oxydose you want? Yes.

All of this communication took a lot of double and triple questioning. There was a lot of confirming and reconfirming. I feel confident that for the duration of our conversation she was lucid and communicating effectively. She seemed more present today as we talked than she has for weeks. This is the most communicating that I have done with her in months.

I feel very relieved that we were able to talk about all of this. I feel good knowing where she is at today and knowing that she is not suffering. It was the first time in a long time that I have felt like we were having a "real" conversation.

Peggy was grateful that I talked with her. After we talked she thanked me. As I told Peggy, I will continue have these conversations with her on "good" eye days.

Les Mis

The fabulous Deena Dray of the Diamond Head Theatre has generously offered 20 tickets to Peggy and the Peg's Legs gang to preview "Les Miserables" (the DHT's season opener!) on Wednesday, September 24th at 7:30pm (the show is 3 hours long).

The tickets are first come first serve and I am rewarding you devoted blog fans first! So if you would like 1 or 2 tickets, please email or call me ASAP.

PS - September 24th just happens to be my birthday! :)

Peggy's Communication

Hope everyone is having a nice Labor Day. Just a quick note for our private hire/"A" level caregivers. There is now a "Peggy Communication Log" form on a clipboard in Peggy's room. Please fill this sheet out every shift along with your regular shift checklist. This communication log will help us to get a good idea of Peggy's current level of communication.

I need to confirm for everyone that it is indeed getting increasingly difficult to communicate with Peggy. On most days it is strictly yes/no communication and very often determining whether Peggy is saying yes or no is unclear. There are some days that Peggy can spell out about a sentence or two of information over a period of hours or days. However, it seems that Peggy has also been having an increasing amount of confusion or confusion in relation to "hallucinations" as Peggy has referred to them.

Dr. Davis came for a bedside visit on Saturday to test Peggy's eyes and communication. He was able to get some yes/no responses from her. He told her that he will check on her again on Tuesday and then again on Thursday. He says that her ocular range of motion is significantly diminished from where it was even a couple of months ago.

The beautiful thing is that you are all experts in knowing Peggy and knowing her needs, likes/dislikes...you are all doing an amazing job of caring for her despite the difficulty with communication. I know that if Peggy could spell out to you Peg's Legs, she would say, "I love you all. You are all amazing. Thank you for everything. Kisses!" Know that she is saying this with her heart, if not her words.

As we have discussed, we will be bringing in support from Hospice Hawaii soon. We are bringing them on board to help support each of you as well as Peggy in this last leg of our journey. Clarence and a Hospice nurse will be here this Wednesday to do an initial visit with Peggy and meet with me and Eric. Please don't hesitate to talk with me about any questions you might have or if you have any specific ideas about how Hospice can best support you as caregivers.

Kelly is on shift here today. We have little Pepper (8 months), Indy, and Sawyer all here watching "Mary Poppins" with Peggy!

By the way, Kelly is now managing our ordering of all supplies. She has put up a dry erase board in the medicine room for supplies/ordering communication.