Important Update

Aloha Peg's Legs, family, and friends,

We have been trying to talk to many of you in person or by phone, but we really wanted to share this update with everyone as soon as possible. Peggy's circle is so large and she is loved by so many. Please forgive us if we haven't yet had the chance to talk to you directly.

As you know, Peggy's communication has been declining over the past few months. We are now at a point where she can no longer effectively communicate. We are down to "yes" and "no" communication, but even confirming yes or no is uncertain. Peggy still has eye movement, but it seems as if now Peggy is having trouble controlling her eye movement.

When Peggy could communicate, we had many discussions about her wishes. Peggy's wishes were always that once she could no longer effectively communicate, she would like to be weaned from the ventilator. Dr. Davis came in on Monday for an in-person assessment. It is his feeling and the feeling of the core group of family, nurses, and caregivers, that it is time to call family and move ahead with Peggy's end-of-life plan.

Dr. Davis asked Peggy if it is time to call family and she said "yes". He asked if it is time to move forward with her plan and she said "yes". It is a blessing that we could read her response to these questions.

We have begun to call family and Peggy's very large extended ohana. Peggy's wishes were that we call and email EVERYONE and let them know what is going on. She wanted us to give friends and family a couple of weeks to come and visit if they choose to.

If you would like to come visit Peggy, now is the time. It is a blessing to have a time line like this - not many people do. Peggy's wishes give us this gift of time.

I know that many of you will have questions, so please don't hesitate to call me. Please also talk with each other and support each other during this time. It is such a blessing to have a large ohana like ours - we can support each other and truly create a beautiful "rest-of-life" care environment for our Peggy.

It was always Peggy's wish to die in her home surrounded by tons of friends and family. Peggy may not be able to spell it out, but I know that if she could, she would be saying, "Celebrate me! Love me! And make it a party!"

This is a time to spend quality time with Peggy and each other. Come and hang out, share stories, hold Peggy's hand, cry, laugh, or just be "present".

Some family members are planning to make the trip out here in the next couple of weeks. We are working on an early Thanksgiving celebration at Peggy's. The tentative date is Sunday, November 16th. We hope you can all join us.

You can help us by talking with each other and sharing with others that you think would like to come and visit. If anyone would like some one-on-one time to connect with Peggy, please let me know and we can arrange that.

Hospice Hawaii is on hand to support us. We have scheduled our first support group gathering for our Peg's Legs next week Thursday, November 6th at 6pm at the Hospice Hawaii Office at 860 Iwilei Road Honolulu HI 96817. Phone number is 924-9255.

We really encourage you to join us for this meeting. Please RSVP to me by phone or email. We will be scheduling other group support meetings over the next few weeks as well.

With love,

Kimi and the Chun Ohana