Entries Tagged as “General”
In Loving Memory
On Tuesday, September 29th my family suffered a tremendous loss. My father passed away at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital surrounded by the loving arms of his family.
Mom and Dad went to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital on September 22nd so that dad could go back on dialysis. His donated kidney had failed due to chronic rejection. Because his fistula had stopped working, he needed to have a dialysis catheter inserted. He had the catheter put in and was resting comfortably when my mom had to leave for Ukiah to go to work. Around 4pm on the 22nd, dad complained to the nurse about having difficulty breathing. He was transferred to the ICU. By the time my sisters and mom arrived in Santa Rosa, they had intubated dad. We thought that he may have developed pneumonia again.
On the 23rd the doctors had to give dad a transfusion because he was anemic. His blood pressure was low and they were giving him medication to regulate his blood pressure. On Thursday, we received the horrible news that the blood work showed that dad had suffered a heart attack within the past three days. After talking to the doctor and nurses, my sisters and I decided to fly Nathan out from Oklahoma. On Friday, they attempted to extubate dad. It was good news. In all of our minds, we thought that as soon as they extubated dad, he would be on the road to recovery – just like last time. For 10 hours dad was able to breathe on his own, then at 3am on Saturday, they had to intubate him again. Dad turned 65 on Monday the 28th. It was also my parent's 35th wedding anniversary. We sang "Happy Birthday" to dad and prayed for a miracle.
I was blessed for every single moment that I had with my dad. There are no words to express how deeply I loved him.
I will miss him always.
Services will be held at 12pm on Friday, October 9th at St. Mary's Church in Ukiah.
→ Respond NowTags: General
Happy Mother's Day
Mother's Day rolls around but once a year. And this year, I think Heather and I both felt more appreciative of our mothers than ever before. Probably because there have been many more challenges this year than in the past. We wanted to make this mothers day a great one instead of glossing over it like lightly as we have done in the past.
This year, things just fell into place and we didn't have to try real hard. We decided to head up to the "Circle X" (as it's known to a select few in Potter Valley) The Circle X is a gorgeous piece of land a few miles outside of Potter Valley on private property. Fortunately Chris is good friends of the family and we were able to use the Pine Grove for a great BBQ location.
I don't think we could have asked for a more perfect day. It was a perfect 75-78 degrees, sunny, and the grass and wildflowers were in full bloom. Audrey seized the opportunity to collect ladybugs for her "Ladybug Lounge" This is no ordinary shoebox, no. It's a full featured five star ladybug habitat. I wish I had a better picture, but you will know it when you see it in the pictures.
No Aplet family function would be complete without a little redneck adventure right? Well you're not going to be disappointed. Joe brought a couple of handguns, targets and enough ammunition for everyone to take shoot few rounds. For the Naong family, this would be the first time they had ever shot a gun of any kind. So after a brief set of safety instructions from Chris, we let everyone squeeze off a few rounds with the revolver. For those that felt that the .22 cal revolver was too weak sauce, we also had a 9mm. See Nothing says happy mothers day like firing a couple of hand guns at paper targets! Now you may be laughing at me for thinking so, but the proof is in the pictures!
To end the day, we went to check out a secluded cabin that Chris helped to build. It's really out in nowhere land surrounded by beautiful scenery. There is no road to get to the cabin to speak of. Unless you count the 4x4 road that is only passable a few months out of the year during the low river season. To get to the cabin you have to cross a cable suspension bridge that spans about 60-70 yards. With 4 people crossing at once it can get a little bouncy and shifty feeling. Poor Henna was scared to death. She crossed the bridge crouched in a wide spread low crawling position all the while shaking like a leaf. When she made it across and was safe of solid ground, she instantly felt relief and was shaking her tail fiercely as she bounded up the rest of the trail. Clearly she did no like the bridge as much as we did. On the return trip, I practically had to drag her across the bridge giving her lots of encouragement.
I took a few photos of course and posted them to my flickr page. If you don't already have the page bookmarked, here it is. I think I have it set to allow you to order prints (free account may be required) or download large versions of the images. Let me know if you have any problems with flickr.
→ Respond NowTags: General
Dog Rescue
What an exciting evening. Mark and I are trying to improve our lifestyle and have taken up cycling. Not only is it good exercise for us, Henna gets a pretty good workout too.
Tonight we went out for our evening bike ride and decided to go on the bike trail, which follows the drainage canal leading to the Sacramento River. It was perfect weather, warm but not too warm. It was a hot day, so we like to wait until around 7pm when it starts to cool off.
We were biking along the path and meet up with some neighbors that had dogs too. Dan's dog "DOG" (deeogee), was so cute that Henna couldn't resist saying hello. She did so by pulling Mark off his bike while dragging him over to say "hi". We got to talking and it turns out that Mark and Dan have a lot in common . (Websites, graphic design, photography, videography – to name a few) Another neighbor came by with her dog, "Piggy". After Piggy got in the mix, it was game on and full doggy play began. After a while Piggy and her people had to go.
Dan, Mark and I continued talking as "DOG" and Henna romped around off-leash exploring the area. They weren't very far from us, but the water in the drainage canal intrigued them. As they neared the edge I called for Henna to come back, but when I didn't see her coming, I got a little nervous. I couldn't hear the jangling from her collar either. I went over and looked down the steep embankment; I couldn't see them, but I could hear them splashing around and whimpering. Mark and Dan came over to see how they could rescue the dogs. Mark knew that he had to go down to help them, so he emptied his pockets and proceeded to the edge. While peering over, he lost his footing and went sliding down the bank head first into the stagnant, murky water. Luckily Dan had some rope and a chain that we could pull them up the embankment. First out was Henna, then "DOG" and finally Mark. He was pretty scraped up from the thorny bushes and pretty stinky from the nasty water. The dog's barely skipped a beat and went right back to playing. Mark wanted to head home to shower but not before exchanging a soggy wet business card.
Luckily nobody was hurt and we get to tell you all a humorous story from our day.
→ Respond NowTags: General · Henna · Humor
Gil's in the Hospital: Please Read
Update May 12, 2008
Sorry for the lack of an update. I was hoping Heather would post the final update but she did not :( Feel free to send notices of discontent to her directly :)
Well, Gil was released on Thursday May 8th and is back home taking it easy. He still has to go for walks and do his breathing exercises if he wants to get better. He is doing well and I think he should be back to his old self pretty soon. I am sure he is looking forward to working in his garden again. Thanks everyone for their thoughts.
Update: May 1, 2008, 12:30PM
More great news! Dad is fully responsive. His speech and motor skills are back to normal. When Mom arrived at the hospital this morning, he was prepping for breakfast and she helped him eat his first solid meal since last Thursday. Dad's been taking small strolls down the hallways so he can work his leg muscles and get some exercise. The doctors are very happy with his progress. He is being moved from the ICU today to the CTU (Critical Treatment Unit). Due to age restrictions in the ICU, Audrey wasn't able to visit with him, so now she will finally be able to see her grandpa. Yay! The doctors speculate that Dad will be released sometime next week. We are so relieved that he is getting better. I want to thank every one for your thoughts and prayers. Please wish Dad a speedy recovery.
Update: April 29, 2008, 11:40 AM
Great news! The doctors were able to remove the breathing tube from Gil and take him off the sedation. He is awake, but not fully responsive. Heather and Chris have been telling him where he is, and what is happening. It is not clear yet that he understands but he may need some time to adjust. He has been through a lot. His heart rate is all over the map so that is still cause for alarm but they are watching it closely. Heather will give me another update in a little bit. Thanks for the good thoughts everyone!
Update: Monday April 28, 2008
Just wanted to give you all an update on Gil. The doctors made another attempt to take Gil off the ventilator today. They brought him out of sedation long enough for him to look around the room and acknowledge where he was. I am not sure if he is aware of his surroundings as they have him on pain medication and some form of amnesia medication. This helps him to forget the whole thing and forget any pain he may of had. So that part is good. They were not able to take him completely off the ventilator unfortunately, so I guess they will try again tomorrow.
He has developed a fever and the doctors are putting cold rags on his face and body and have placed extra fans in his room to help keep him cool and comfortable. His other vitals I believe are all stable and doing well. Once they can get him off the ventilator then he can work on his recovery. I hope this comes pretty soon.
That's all for now. I will post again when there is further change.
Update: Sunday April 27, 2008
Hello all, for those of you not able to see Gil in the hospital, I wanted to give you an update as I know it right now. I did not go to Santa rosa today so I am only attempting to relay this info that I got from Heather.
The nurses attempted to take Gil off the ventilator today as his vitals were all good. His blood pressure was good, not great but good. He was breathing with little oxygen from the ventilator. So when they attempted to remove the tubes and take him off sedation, his vitals dropped sharply. The doctors and nurses did not want to take a chance so they sedated him again, and put the ventilator tubes back.
They are mildly concerned about leaving him on the ventilator too long, as some people become dependent on it for breathing. So they do want to take him off it as soon as it's safe.
The doctors were able to identify the strain of bacteria that is causing the phenomena. It is a form of Streptococcus, sorry that I do not know its exact medical name. They are giving him antibiotics to fight the infection, so hopefully it will take care of it and give him the strength to do the rest on his own.
So thats all I know right now. I will update tonight when I talk to Heather again.
Friday-Saturday April 25 & 26, 2008
Hello All, I wish I was writing something completely different tonight, but I am writing instead to ask for your thoughts and prayers for Heather's Father Gilbert Naong. He came down with a severe and sudden case of phenomena. This illness combined with his kidney transplant, and defibrillator has taxed his body to the max. He was taken to Ukiah Medical Center yesterday (Thursday 4/24/08) complaining that he could not breath. He was kept overnight but his health only deteriorated. He was placed in a medical induced coma and put onto a ventilator.
Around 1pm Friday Gil was air lifted to Santa Rosa Medical Center where they are better equipped to handle his unique situation. We met today with two doctors who have seen Gil, and each gave us their own take on the situation. Dr. Lamb the main doctor, took us all into the hall and delivered a very short and to the point opinion that the outlook was not so good for Gil. His myriad of various health issues have really diminished his chance for survival in his opinion. Gil's Kidney doctor Dr. Shiprro however had a more optimistic outlook and felt Gil was going to be ok.
We are all praying for Gil, and hope that you do the same as he and his family can really use the support.
I do not have a whole lot of info for you other than this but will post again when I have more info.
→ Respond NowTags: General
A Mother's Ghost Story: Rough Cut
Finally, a rough draft of "A Mothers Ghost Story". I shot this video sometime last year thinking I would just do a quick and dirty cut and splice on the video to make a short documentary out of it. What I found when I got into it is that I enjoyed the story and wanted to make something more interesting to watch for everyone. I never intended for it to have titles, support video, graphics or any of that. The interview was done by Craig Martinez over the telephone. Craig is a long time friend that has a genuine interest in ghost stories. Craig and I have talked about doing other ghost story projects so you may see something pop up from time to time here.
Well, this is a rough cut. Probably the third version I cut. It's still rough around the edges, but I need some time to hone my skills in After Effects or Motion before I can tighten up some of the sequences. Titles and credits are a bit weak in my opinion, but I wanted to share the video with you all and get feedback on how I have done so far. I have watched it so many times that I think I have lost my ability to tell the story as I know it inside and out. So if you are watching it and think this is an odd cut or I don't get this part let me know so I can make some tweaks to it. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
→ Respond NowTags: General