A hospital bed has been delivered and set up in anticipation of Christina's needs. For now, she is in her own bed in her bedroom over the garage, but as she is weakening, we need to be prepared for when she can no longer get downstairs. 

Hospice has been good to her as far as needed equipment and anticipating her needs. 

Her bolus pain dose was increased to avoid further crises. 

We are thankful for her continuing mobility for now! Thank you so much for your support! 

Christina had a bad pain night last night, which is such a hard thing for her and for us. After medication, she finally was able to rest and sleep, and is feeling better this morning. 

We are grateful for your support. 

Christina's pain is better controlled, IV Tylenol for the win!

Thursday a hospital bed will be delivered as we anticipate her needs. 

Thank you for your continued support. 

As of today, her pain is under better control, which we are glad for. It took a long time! 

She is spending more time sleeping, which is to be expected. 

Friends have also increased visitation, which has been very encouraging to her heart, and to ours. 

Thank you for your prayers and for your donations. 

Good morning. 

Christina's pain is under better control, so we are grateful for that. 

She is beginning her transition to the end of her life, and we appreciate your continued prayers for her and for us. We have all been deeply touched by the love and care shown to all of us by family, friends, neighbors, and everyone else who has reached out. May God bless you all.

We will keep you updated. 

Christina's pain would be better managed if her pain pump would work properly. When it is working her pain is down to about a 5. The stress of having problems with the pump causes more pain, and makes it difficult to see where her current baseline is.

She was able to bathe and change her port needle today. She went right back to bed. It was exhausting.

Then our refrigerator and freezer went out. We have a small fridge and put her pain medications and some of our food and the cold drinks in it. We filled 2 chests with ice. It makes life more inconvenient than it already is, but we've had this before, so we are doing okay. A repairman is coming to take a look late afternoon Friday.

Please continue to pray for her and for us. We are so grateful!

Hi, all, we are grateful for your generous donations!

Right now, it seems like increasing the dosages of her pain meds has been helping. I am hopeful we are finally getting Christina's pain under control. 

Her new nurse is great! 

A friend is bringing her some flowers soon. She loves having fresh flowers in her room. 

Thank you for your support.

First, thank you so very much for giving generously and helping to meet our goal! We are so grateful for your generosity. 

Christina is still struggling with pain, but the hospice team is still making adjustments to her medications, and her pain will be evaluated on Monday. We have had a very busy week, and now the hospice will be giving her a new nurse as her current nurse is taking time off. It is difficult to change nurses because of the trust and emotional bond developed. Please pray that she gets a competent and empathetic nurse. She has had 3 so far, and the changes are stressful.

We thank God for you!

Hello, friends. 

I wish I had better news... Hospice has made some adjustments to pain medications, but Christina is still having pain. Still adjusting her meds, so we may see improvement today. 

Neighbors blessed her with a gift of thistle flowers and other flowers yesterday. She loves thistles because we used to pick them for my mom and stepdad near their home in SC. Also her best friend and her friend's husband came for a visit last night after work. Christina gave her friend a lock of her hair to remember her by.

Today is bath day, so hoping that a good soak in epsom salts brings her some relief.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We are very close to meeting the goal.

Patricia

Good morning,

Christina is better rested this morning with the increase in pain medication yesterday, which brings joy to our hearts. She has been in such pain for so long. 

You may notice we increased our goal. I had not correctly accounted for the cemetery costs or the headstone, and they are going to be more than we were expecting.

To be transparent, the cost estimates are $7,100 for the local funeral home, which includes their services plus casket, visitation, and transportation to SC for burial, $4300 for the destination's funeral home, which includes their services for receiving and for the graveside burial and temporary marker, and approximately $5,100 for cemetery services for the plot and headstone. The total is $16,500. 

We already have the flowers, as we bought artificial flowers and Christina herself who is very artistic has nearly completed the necessary arranging. It has brought her enjoyment to do it herself and know what it will look like. Although it is very tiring for her, a friend came yesterday to help. I posted a picture yesterday of the casket flowers. 

We  are blessed by your support and the love you have shown us.

Thank you for your generosity.

We are getting closer to the goal.

Today, Christina's nurse was able to increase her pain medication to give her more comfort. We are grateful. Last night, she couldn't sleep, so I am hoping tonight v that she can. 

Today, she was able to spend some time working on a project, her own decorations for her casket and the funeral home. We bought artificial flowers, and she is arranging them. It gives her control and peace. 

If you can please share this campaign so we can meet our goal. May God bless you all. 

Today we are very grateful to God and to you for the support and the love you are showing us! 

Yet, our hearts are broken because our oldest friends have decided not to support Christina or us, not even to share my posts or information about it, because they have strong feelings about "giving up."

While I understand the intent, we are far past that point. We haven't disclosed ALL the suffering and ALL the treatments that Christina has endured, because Christina and we have some right to privacy and confidentiality. I can 100% assure you that everything that can be done has been done. Hospice and preplanning your own funeral is NOT giving up. It is taking ownership. It is living the best life you can with the best outcomes, while you can. It's about less suffering and more living. 

If you have ANY concern, please don't hesitate to message us.

Yet... Another friend wrote, "I’m in tears over the $5 anonymous gift.💝 What a powerful testimony that there are no big gifts or small gifts… and that doing SOMETHING is better than doing nothing. Just give what you can. It all adds up! 💯" 

God can use suffering to show his mercy and grace. Any gift of prayer, of presence, or of financial support is appreciated, and we thank God for all of it and especially for you!

Today, Christina's nurse was able to increase her pain medication somewhat to keep her more comfortable, and several friends have reached out to us. Our oldest daughter and grandson also visited

Yesterday, her childhood friend came to visit. Although she couldn't stay long, their visit allowed them both time to say goodbye in person. Christina was also able to meet her friend's fiancee. Many tears were shed.

We continue to be humbled and most grateful for your generous support, in prayer, in presence, and in gifts of food, time, encouragement, and financial support! This is very hard, but it is made less so with the help of friends and family.

We are blessed.

Good morning, Christina had a better night sleep than usual, which is a blessing. Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. Her challenges going into these weeks ahead are her continued nausea and pain. We are monitoring a painful spot on her heel (from lying in bed). 

Christina is expecting a visit from an old friend today. It might be tiring, but visits encourage all of us!

We are blessed for the support and thankful to God for all of you! 

Hello, friends and family, and a special greeting to those of you who don't know any of us but have generously donated! Thank you! 

It was a very long day, but Christina is resting now. She had physical therapy today and we met her new nurse, who is diligently working to ease her pain. A bonus is he is from South Carolina, which is our (old) home state, and where Christina was born! What a blessing to have someone from "home" as a partner in her care!

And we had a phone call from an old friend, also a blessing.

A hard and tiring day, but a good one! 

It has been a stressful day, but sometime while I wasn't looking, we passed the halfway mark! We are so grateful for your prayers, your shares, and your gifts. 

Christina is particularly stressed as she feels her time growing shorter each day. 

Today we were blessed by a visit from Susannah, Andrew, and baby Calvin. We love watching him grow!

It's hard to find the right words when family and friends are so overwhelmingly generous. 

Today, Christina had a lot of pain. She had a bath with a nurse aid, and that was extra tiring.

Today a couple we haven't seen or spoken with in years came to our house, visited and prayed with us, helped clean up the yard so people wouldn't trip over recently downed tree limbs, and left behind gifts and a card with another gift inside. 

Another couple made a very generous donation that doesn't show on the website. They mailed a card and a check. 

We have received large and small donations, named and anonymous, and we want to thank you all for everything.

Thank you for the prayers, messages, and the gifts today!

We are so grateful!

Today, Christina had some physical therapy, dry needling, to help with the pain in her muscles and joints. It is very difficult for her to leave the house, but worth it for some relief. She is home and in bed now, resting. She has another appointment Thursday, if she is able to go.

This unsettled weather has caused her more pain and migraine today.

She struggles now with low oxygen, so we are hoping to hear tomorrow that the hospice will approve a portable oxygen concentrator for when we have to leave home. We do have an oxygen tank on a cart, but it's very heavy and difficult for me to bring since I had spinal fusion in December.

Thank you!