We sent dad off to heaven this morning. He had rough month and developed difficulty breathing and forgetfulness. An MRI showed that the tumor removed form his brain a month ago, returned and was causing ever more shift and swelling. The chances of a good recovery were slim, but he underwent a second brain surgery last weekend; however, he was very agitated after surgery. His lung, brain, bone and liver tumors were growing so quickly, so despite the surgery, he never got back to his normal self. As a family, we felt that dad would be most comfortable in a hospice home. Dad stayed 4 nights at Palolo Hospice and joined Grandma and Grandpa at 8 am on Saturday. He was surrounded by his family who love him very much- mom, aunty helen, julie and grant, jonathan and me, jr, catherine and the kids. We already miss his smile, boundless energy, and love for our family tremendously.
Happy Birthday Mom Sato! We had a low key celebration, and brought over a kalbi mix plate from our favorite Korean restaurant O-Bok. Delicious. For her present, we’re adding to the mass of diplomas and certificates on her wall, and framing my Emergency Medicine board certificate and a teaching award I got in residency. As you can see, the wall is getting pretty full! Thankfully, I think I’m done (and very very tired of being a student) with training and education, so we won’t have to squeeze in any more fancy papers onto mom’s wall.
We attended Andrew and Connies wedding bash the day after new years at the Outrigger club. Andrew is my friend from high school and we caught up with a bunch of old friends– Here’a picture of us with Andrew, Weston and Janice, Wes’s girlfriend. The sunset was beautiful, there was a bounty of fruity Hawaii-themed beverages, and we especially loved the roast suckling pig at dinner. Delicious!
Every year, we make lucky New Year’s mochi at mom and dad’s house. In years past, dad did most of the work- measuring out the rice, making sure we add enough water, and getting the mochi to the just right consistency. This year, since dad is sick, he supervised us, and we did our best to make the most of our sticky mess. It was a busy day! Everyone had a different job, and overall, we did a pretty good job.
Dad did a great job watching the puppies…
Aunty Helen was busy in the back yard making kadomatsu for everyone.
Jonathan hung up my diploma’s for mom… Jonathan and I professionally framed my diplomas for mom for Christmas, and hung them up over her desk.
Grant installed hand rails and safety devices for dad in the bathroom…
The boys enjoyed their new air hockey table…
And everyone got really messy making mochi. A good, busy day.
Our beautiful tree and some of our favorite highlights from the Christmas season:
Hawaii Kai Boat Parade 2009. My family came over with food from Pawaa Chop Suey (delicious, I especially loved the Orange Chicken and Beef Tomato) and we enjoyed watching the beautiful lighted boats go by. My favorite float was a boat with live hula dancers and a ton of lights. Fancy.
Presents! The top picture is Jonathan trying to guess his present (t-shirts from Mom and Dad Sato and Aunty Helen). The bottom picture is Jonathan devouring a huge tin of Chicago mix popcorn. Thanks Yuh-Mei and Les for the delicious treat. It was one of Jonathan’s favorite present, and he ate the entire tin BY HIMSELF in a few days.
Christmas dinner. We started off at Aunty Helen’s house, but then moved the party over to Mom and Dad’s, so we could eat dinner together and watch the kids open some presents. Here’s a picture of Jarrin with his new Air Hockey table from his Grandpa and Grandma. He loves it and already assembled it in Grandma and Grandpas sitting room!
Every year, we visit our Shinto shrine on New Years for good luck. We get blessed and buy good luck amulets.
This year, Janell got an Omikuji, a fortune written on a slip of paper. It predicted a good school year for her. After she read it, she tied the piece of paper around a tree’s branch; it is said that good fortune will come true or bad fortune can be kept away.
And of course, after our visit to our shrine, we went to Aunty Helen’s house for good luck New Years food.
The boys watched football, while Janell and I played with her new pink curling iron. It was super fun. Happy New Year!
So, as usual, I feel behind in my posts. I’ve been super busy since dad got out of the hospital, but I really want to get my posts up! I have a ton of pictures downloaded onto my computer, and I’ll try to keep them in some order: Jonathan’s trip to Tally, Boat Parade, Christmas, Kim’s Wedding, Mochi Pounding, New Years Eve, New Year Celebrations, and Andrew’s wedding. I’ve already posted the New Year’s eve photos because I was so excited to share them, but keep a look out for a barrage of new, but outdated posts in the upcoming weeks.
The video starts out with Janell and Crystal’s happy face sparklers, then moves onto Jalvin and Jarrin’s firecracker bonfire. It’s a little long (lots of firecrackers) and dark (no professional lighting!), but scroll to the end (around the 1:12 mark) to see the family say hello.
So, totally random pre holiday, post hospital stay, blog post.
I was searching the OHSU website, http://www.ohsu.edu/emergency/. Check out the link to the “Discover Our Residency” page (you gotta scroll down to the bottom left). Pretty cool…
Class of 2007: Travis, Pat, Mike, Amy, Brett, Vince, half of Yogin and myself. I think we took this after our third year in-service exam. It’s our entire class except for Young, who was late for a shift, and didn’t make the picture, and we’re all wearing a very appropriate shirt made by our friend Yogin: “My patient survived Megacode… I can save fake people”. Miss you guys! Happy Holidays!
