Funeral Arrangements

Robert D. Brown Funeral Home

103 Fourth St.

Hillsboro, Missouri 63050

(636) 789-4949

Public visitation: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 5pm-8pm

Funeral: Thursday September 2, 2010 10am

Interment: Peaceful Meadows Cemetery, Hillsboro Missouri.

Memorials: Directed to the family to help with medical and funeral expenses. 

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Passing away…

 

On Saturday, July 28 at 6:10pm Kenny Wong  joined his Creator. His passing was very peacefull and he wasn’t in any pain.

His blood pressure had fallen slowly throughout the day, but the nurse still expected him to last until tommorrow.  However, he was in a peacefull sleep and was breathing easily when suddenly he gasped and he was gone.

-Andrew

Final Hours

It’s been a long battle with colon cancer for Kenny. We are at St. Clare hospital and we may be witnessing his final hours….thanks to so many who have been praying. The Lord is our strength.

Watching Fireworks

Independence Day

Kenny watches as the boys prepare to give him a firework show.

Some New Struggles…

Kenny has experienced some relatively good days over the past several months. He stayed on a low-dosage morphine for pain management that also allowed him to retain the ability to be awake and active. I reported in a previous post that he was walking three miles per day (6 x ½ mile). He still tries to get his walks in, but they are getting shorter. During the last three weeks, he has been facing some new challenges. His pain level has increased significantly and we’ve increased his morphine dosage by more than 100%. Even with the doubling of the medicine, his pain rates higher on his pain scale than before. He is learning to live with a higher tolerance.

Another issue is that he has been experiencing problems with urination. After several tries of other fixes, we finally had to resort to catheterization yesterday. The problem is that the colon tumor is pressing on the bladder reducing its capacity and is probably pressing on the prostate which is constricting the urethra. The catheter solves the elimination problem, but it was something that we wanted to delay as long as possible. The process was very painful for him, but he seems to be doing better with it today. With the help of a sleep aid, he got a good night’s sleep…the best he’s received in several weeks. He woke up pretty excited about that. The nurse (who is fabulous) fixed him up with a regular bag to hook to the bed at night and then a mobile bag that is smaller and can be used for his walks. That is a great idea, as he doesn’t want to be bed-ridden.

This is a quick synopsis of how things are going for Kenny now. I will try to continue posting updates as things change.

Thanks for checking the updates. Our family appreciates your prayers.

Quick Update

We have been receiving weekly visits from a hospice nurse for about 7 weeks now. This is working out well for Kenny. Our primary nurse can be seen below as she was getting a blood pressure reading. She’s been great. She checks all vitals, makes an assessment, and orders any needed supplies. Nursing visits will increase on a needed basis. A few weeks ago we received a hospital bed to help with comfort.
Ken’s vitals are all still good. He’s still walking 5-6x per day. He’s eating good and sleeping good too. The incision site from surgery is healing up quite nicely and Ken has gotten more comfortable with living with and caring for the colostomy. He takes extended release morphine in the A.M.and P.M. and takes another morphine-type drug for break-through pain. This gives him very good pain management.

The garden that that we started in March is growing and will soon be ready for more plantings as the danger of frost is nearly past. Kenny is looking forward to tasting those home-grown vegetables. He eats a lot of vegetables and fruits these days. Some meats have gotten too difficult to digest. Salads are now his favorite.

Well, that’s all for now……thanks for reading our updates!

March 27, 2010

March 27, 2010

March 19, 2010

Kenny is recovering quite well from surgery. He was in the hospital for one week and has now been home for three. Two weeks ago a nurse came to the house to remove the staples from the abdominal incision. She placed steri-strips on the incision to be left on for another week. They have since fallen off and the healing process is going well. He has been getting blood thinner shots every day until yesterday. I first learned to do it, but then Benjamin learned and gave him most of his shots. He was receiving these shots to reduce any chances of blood clots. This is especially a concern in patients who may not be very mobile, but Kenny, though he does sleep quite a bit, gets out and walks several times a day. The warmer weather has been very helpful. Even on warm days when the boys and I are wearing short sleeves (65 degrees and sunny) while working outside, Kenny is still bundled up in two layers of pants, three layers of shirts, a scarf wrapped around his neck and head with a winter coat over all of that….and has the hood up! I’m thinking that the blood thinner is contributing to his coldness. Perhaps now that the shots are done, he can get warmer. It’s very good that he is walking so much. He definitely gained strength quickly after the surgery. He had very good nurses during his stay at the hospital, we were very impressed. My family has gone through our share of medical issues and we’ve seen some good nurses and some very bad ones. The nurses at BJC-West were exceptional. A home health nurse came out to our home the day after our arriving here and she couldn’t believe that we had already learned the care of the colostomy completely. The staff had been quite thorough at the hospital. Kenny has learned to empty his bag daily and to change it weekly. Pretty amazing, I’d say. He just needs oversight in changing it. His pain is being managed pretty well. He’s back to taking his oxycontin every morning and night. That one medicine helps the most. He can also take either purcocet or oxycodone on an as needed basis. He was trying to get by with not taking those, but was suffering some during the day. He wanted to stay awake. I encouraged him to take one when he comes in to take a nap. This way, he can get good rest during a long nap instead of lying there resting and waking, off and on, because of the discomfort. The important thing is that he is able to get up and walk. He feels good while walking. Sitting and standing still is the most bothersome. This discomfort comes from the large colon tumor that wasn’t removed. He is eating good and sleeps probably 16-18 hrs per day. We will go visit the surgeon on Wednesday for a follow-up appt. The nurse from the oncologist’s office called last week wanting schedule chemotherapy again. Kenny and I had already talked about it and he was pretty sure he didn’t want to do that again. So, we continued to talk about it over the weekend too and then he called and left a message telling them that he didn’t want to do that again. I spoke with the nurse this week too. It’s amazing; they would keep pumping that stuff into a patient no matter what! It just makes him feel so tired and has other side effects that disallow him to function with any normality that it seems a waste. At least now, as he’s been off of it since New Year’s Eve (Dec. 31 was his last treatment) in preparation for surgery, he has some energy for walking. He has also been smoking less and drinking less soda. He seemed way more stressed while on chemo. He’s much more relaxed and is eating better too.