Aunt Katie 9-21-08 - 10-21-12

Katie Langley Whitley

My beloved Aunt Katie passed this morning about 5:15 after a very long and special life. A little over two weeks ago she stopped eating and was only getting clear fluids so it took this amount of time for her body to shut down. My sister Linda and my cousin Melanie were by her side until she breathed her last. She meant so much to so many people and will be missed for a very long time. Rest in peace my sweet Aunt Katie.

Yesterday I attended the funeral of my Aunt Tennie (Ernestine) who was my mom's sister and was 95 and also lived a blessed life as a caregiver for other older people and sharing the gospel everywhere she went. 

Happy 104th Birthday Aunt Katie

Report on Aunt Katie 4-12-12

   Aunt Katie has continued to have trouble with her blood platelet level and was admitted to the hospital yesterday.

   Normal platelet count should be between 150,00 and 450,000 and her count had gotten down to zero which is why they admitted her.  I visited with her this morning and she was acting like nothing was wrong except a head ache and stomach ache. She was talkative and cheery as she always is. The only apparent problem was her poor arms which were almost all black from the probing for blood to test and IV's.  Her skin is so thin they have to be really careful removing a piece of tape so they don't take the skin with the tape.

  While there I had the pleasure of meeting her nurse for the day, Valerie Murphy.  She is a bundle of positives which made me feel really good. The way she handled everything was so professional, I wish I had a picture to show because she is very lovely and has a nature about her that makes you feel like my Aunt Katie could not be in better care. 

  On the other hand while I was there a "vampire" and training assistant came in to remove more of Aunt Katie's blood and put her through a lot of discomfort and in the process got blood all over her bed spread that had to be changed.  I was not happy with them.

   Beeping machines!!!!  I detest those machines that are by the bed on this roll about thingy that starts beeping this error tone.  It was doing it when I got there and Aunt Katie said the girl that was in there last said she would get someone to take care of it. Well half an hour later when I pushed the nurse button Valerie came in and made it stop.  Then out in the hall another beeping sound started with a code red for the maintenance room and it continued for about 20 minutes.  

  They did start giving her platelets just before I left to sit with my 2 grandsons while my daughter went to school to take a test in the nursing program she is enrolled in.  Her hubby had an accident recently and tore some tissue in his knee and was operated on this morning.  I was writing this at 12:40 PM and at that time his mother was bringing him back home from Raleigh to recuperate.

  Rachel, my youngest, knows all too well about knee surgery.  She had to had to have her's operated on when she was a teen for a tissue tear.  I can remember coming home at the end of the day and could hear her screaming from inside the house.  We rushed her to the emergency room and found out she had a very bad staff infection in her knee so they had to go in again, clean it all out and stitch her up again.  It was not a happy time.

Before the party happened

On Friday early in the day my high maintenance bride wanted me to ride over to Roanoke Rapids with her to run an errand or two and to get her toe nails done. So there I was sitting in the care in front of U.S. Nails for what seemed like forever.  I did manage to get a nap or three while sitting there. 

Now Linda will want you to know that she encouraged me to have my toe nails done as well but I chose not to indulge. 

Thought you needed to see a picture of their window advertising as well. After that exciting adventure we spent a while in the supermarket shopping for her mother and then delivered her groceries we let Soffie relieve herself and headed to Rocky Mount for some shopping at Sam's Club for paper products that we buy in bulk to save.

Of course no trip to Rocky Mount is worth it without a visit to my Aunt Katie. We had a long visit with her and she was doing fantastic and looked great as you can see. "104" will be here before we know it.

Polly was taking a siesta so this is the pose you will have to have for this trip.  It was a great afternoon as any time spent at Aunt Katie's is always rewarding and that's the rest of the story.

Thankful Thursday-My Aunt Katie

At 103 my Aunt Katie still amazes us every day and my family feels so blessed to have her near to us to love and be encouraged by her. You can be feeling down and after a few minutes with her your spirits are lifted. She has that effect on everyone. 

She doesn't want to be a bother to anyone. A few days ago she was alone in the kitchen at the sink, turned around and just fell in the floor. Praise God she did not break anything or really get hurt.  She has the alert button hanging around her neck but didn't want to bother anyone so she thought it out. If I get a chair cushion on the floor I can get my knees on it and get myself up. So she untied the cushion and managed to get her knees on it and pulled herself up. Anyone of us would have ran to her aid without a second thought but she is a trooper and a survivor heading for the big 104 in September. 

Everyone needs an Aunt Katie in their lives. I sure am thankful I have mine.

A Break is Coming

It has been a long year and with Linda's Knee operation at the end of May we didn't get an opportunity to have a real vacation. We've had a couple of long weekends but that isn't quite enough to really feel like we rested like we needed.

Now I think I have written here a number of times that the beach is not exactly my favorite place to be compared to the mountains but Linda has this awesome cousin that happens to have a house at the beach and is allowing us to stay there for about a week at no charge which is a blessing. We will be taking Rocky with us and will have no agenda so we can sleep as long as we want and just relax for a change.

Well my friends, winter has finally found NC. It made it below the freezing mark Sunday and today it was in the 50's at the end of the day with cold rain for Halloween.

My Aunt Katie fell in her house last week but is OK. My sister Linda took her to the doctor today and he confirmed that she had no fractures which is great. Her legs are a little swollen so he has increased her fluid meds to take care of it and will recheck her in about a week.

Not much else going on except working and sleeping so take care my friends and I will try to post more frequently in the future. Have a great week.

Life Goes On

It has not been a very good week but it is behind us now and life does go on. The madness started with work. My technicians have been taking their daily doses of stupid pills which ultimately ends up costing us valuable time and lots of expensive gasoline which causes my boss to rant in his 40 years of military manner.

Add to this technicians who cannot be disciplined without spending the rest of the day pouting and doing inferior work. They fall into the category of men who will "always do what they have always done". And I am the service "manager" who has an extremely hard time managing a group like that. Friday did get here praise God.

Aunt Katie was in the hospital part of the week due to an infection and dehydration. Since being home on oxygen she has not been as active and along with that has not been drinking enough fluids and eating like she should. The hospital took care of all these issues and she went home saturday feeling so much better.

Saturday morning I got up thinking I would get my hair cut while Linda cooked a baked spaghetti for us to take to my daughter Rachel's house. We were barely out of bed when she called saying my youngest grandson Matthew was sick and needed to go to the doctor so we shifted into another gear and rushed over there since we are about 40 miles away. I took them to the doctor while Linda stayed with Kaden and baked their lunch dish. Kaden thought Linda was so cool when he discovered she had a large bag of freshly sliced sharp cheddar cheese. He told her he had not had cheese like that since he was at the beach during the summer so he was in heaven. When he saw she had some left in the bag after finishing the dish he made sure she knew he wanted it left there for him.

This morning Rachel called after we had only been out of bed about an hour and had breakfast on the stove. She said Matthew got worse during the night and needed to go to the emergency room. Knowing it would be over an hour before we could get ready and be there she went to plan B and got her hubby's parents to help her get there. All this time her hubby was at my daughter Karen's home in Rockingham doing some work for them which is about 3 hours away.

So my friends it has been one of those weeks and weekends. I sure hope it went smoother for most of you and I hope to showing up more often now that I have more time. Take care and have a blessed week.

Aunt Katie (9 lives "Kitty") doing great

My sister Linda reported this morning that they did the procedure yesterday placing the netting in the femural artery to catch any clots and she was back in her room by 1 PM eating a taco salad doing wonderful. They want to send her home today and the only thing to be decided is whether or not to send her home with oxygen. She is such a trooper my sister said we need to start calling her Kitty since she seems to have 9 or more lives. Thanks for all the prayers.

Report on Aunt Katie

For a few days Aunt Katie has been having trouble breathing and would get tired very quickly. Yesterday it got severe enough that she called the rescue squad that took her to Nash General Hospital in Rocky Mount. Better known as "Trash General". They detected blood clots, one in her lung and more in her legs and gave her options for other area hospital that were more capable of handing this type of situation so she opted for Wake Med in our capital of Raleigh.

They will be doing a procedure similar to a heart cath. that will insert a type of mesh that will act as a filter to catch any clots that try to get to her heart, which would kill her instantly. She is in one of the very best facilities we know of so we are confident she is getting the best care possible.

I will keep you updated as I learn more and ask that you lift her up in your prayers.

Wordless Wednesday-Aunt Katie is 103 Today!!!

Update on Odie, Linda & family

OK folks we are winding this week down and only one more day separating Linda and I from our holiday weekend in Siler City, NC. Yep, heading back to the Celebrity Dairy for some relaxation and loving on some young goats. I won't be needing that coat this time around

As you may remember from a previous post Linda's Aunt Frances lives near the dairy in an independent living facility so we will be picking her up to spend some time with us at the dairy to give her a change of scenery.

Feel like I need to catch you up on some of the stuff that has been going on in my neck of the woods for the last week. My Aunt Katie spent a few days in the hospital due to a severe reduction in her level of platelets in her blood. It was finally determined that she has an infection in her stomach that was causing the problem and meds have been started that should correct this situation.

During her stay in the hospital my Uncle Lester was looking after Polly her dog and putting her to bed in the house each night. When Aunt Katie came home a couple of days ago Uncle Lester visited her and indicated he would not be back after heading back to his home which is next to Aunt Katie's. Well, Polly was outside and waiting for Uncle Lester to come back and put her to bed so she spent the night sleeping on his porch, unknown to him, until the next morning expecting the routine to play out as usual.

Yesterday Uncle Lester went fishing which is his only real pleasure in life as he approaches his mid 90's. While fishing he accidently caught a hook through his finger. Not having anything to cut the hook with he backed it out of his finger, barb and all. He got home and cleaned it out with peroxide so hopefully there will not be any infection.

Linda had a memorable week as she reached her goals at the rehab facility and graduated out to continue a series of exercises at home until she is allowed to return to work. Seems like forever since May 31st when she had her surgery.

8:30 and close to my bedtime folks so I don't know how much activity I will have in the next few days as we take it easy at Celebrity Dairy but I will try to keep up to date on reading & commenting on blogs.

I love it

Hi blogging family, still unable to comment on most of the posts I read but hoping for the best and maybe all will be fixed soon. On to todays post. If I had to list one item at the top of my list of loved appliances it would have to be my Elite 8 qt. pressure cooker.

I grew up in the era when pressure cookers were dangerous and very noisy with the heavy device that sat on the pressure release nozzle dancing around as the steam would escape. I've heard all the horror stories about food stuck to the ceiling after an explosion.

Praise God we are in a new era and don't have to worry about that ever again. My cooker is "all" automatic and makes no noise except to beep when the cooking time is over switching itself from cooking to warming mode. If left alone it will depressurize itself within about 15 minutes but I usually just turn the valve on top to exhaust and it is ready to open in about one minute.

Today I was contemplating what needed to be cooked and all we had was frozen so I pulled a food saver sealed pouch from the freezer with 2 chicken leg quarters which was fused into a block. I placed the frozen chicken into the cooker added water, salt & pepper, set the timer for 70 minutes and hit start. Later when the beep announced it was ready I depressurized it and found the chicken to be fully cooked and the leg bones pulled out without resistance. I strained the broth after removing the chicken, added curly pasta into the pot of broth and added the chicken taken off the bones and in a short while had a very tasty dish for supper.

It is comforting to know that I can always have a tasty meal ready in short order even is the ingredients are frozen solid. One of the best investments I have ever made.

So far it has been a very lazy & peaceful holiday weekend. Tomorrow will be different as we have a lot of stuff to do before Linda goes to the hospital. Rocky is way overdue for getting his nails trimmed, we need to visit my Aunt Katie taking her some pork ribs and veggies, do some shopping & visit a friend that we haven't seen in a while. Will be wild & crazy but worth it. Take care everyone & I'll catch up with you later.

Wordless Wednesday -Aunt Katie's Polly

Thankful Thursday- My Blog Family

It never fails, I whine a little bit and all of you just pour on the love. I really do appreciate each and every one of you in my wonderful blog family and I thank you so very much for all the great comments you have posted lately. That's the kind of stuff that keeps a guy blogging.

As a side note I just have to share about my Aunt Katie who as you may know is working on the big 103 come September. Over the last year or so she has had various problems with levels of stuff like platelets and changes in medications. She went for a checkup last week and everything is back to normal, she is eating very well, having no trouble with going to the bathroom and being very active inside and outside the house. My sister Linda took her to that appointment last week & asked her if she wanted to get something to eat before going home. She said it would be fine and when asked where she would like to go she said she didn't know and finally said that Bojangles would be alright. Now Bojangles is good fast food but Linda got the idea to take her to Red Lobster and that got her excited since she had never been. She fell in love with their cheese biscuits, ate scallops for the first time and was like a child at Christmas time which of course made my sister happier than she has been in a long time just watching her enjoy herself.

We love her more than I can say and rejoice that she is doing so well and enjoying life@ 102. So today my friends I am especially thankful for my blog family and for my wonderful Aunt Katie.

1908

Major Events of 1908

Ford Model T. introduced.
The first ever beauty contest is held in Folkestone, England.

Devastating earthquake hits Messina, killing 100,000.

"Young Turk" revolution in Ottoman Empire.

Bulgaria declares independence from Ottoman Empire.

Bosnia-Herzegovnia annexed by Austro-Hungary.

Crete votes for union with Greece (union is not fully effected until 1913).

"Tunguska Event" - meteor impact in Siberia. The explosion is equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshma bombs.

SOS becomes the standard radio distress symbol.

Mother's Day is celebrated for the first time.
Sixteenth Amendment to US Constitution (authorizing Federal government to collect income tax) is ratified.

Seventeenth Amendment to US Constitution, requiring direct election of senators, is ratified.

But most important event of the year was the birth of my Aunt Katie on September 21st.

This year we celebrate her 102nd birthday and feeling so very blessed to have her to love. Her mind is still sharp as a tack as the saying goes. When I go over to visit and be blessed by her I usually find her walking around in the yard raking or checking on bushes that may need trimming. I guess one reason for her longevity is to always staying active.

I and my family can't tell her enough how much we love her and what she means to us all.