Circling the Wagons

I would like to express my sincere THANKS and gratitude to all of my friends and family for "circling the wagons" around my family in our time of need.

David

A Book for Alex, a Book for Christian and a Book for Katherine

As someone who went from having an immediate crush on Angela the first day I laid eyes on her at LSU in the late spring of 1983 to one who conspired with her to land David Fluker, once she told me she wanted a man with muscles and chest hair, Angela has been a integral part of my life for over 25 years. For me, and I think for every one of us, the most difficult thing is knowing that she and David were together for 20 years before they had their first child and now those three beautiful children are faced with growing up and never knowing their mother.

While each of us is powerless to alter the state of Angela's health, there is something each of us can do to make sure her three children know how important she is to us and how important Alex, Christian and Katherine are to her.

I have set up an email address, angelafluker@gmail.com, for you-- her friends, family members, former classmates, former business associates and others-- to submit photos and personal stories about your relationship with Angela. If, at any stage in your life, you were close to Angela and have memories to share, please take the time to express those memories in an email. Please feel free to write as many stories as you can and please scan and email any photos you may have with you and Angela and/or David. I am going to take everything I collect and turn it in to three identical books to give to the kids once they are older.

If you have any questions or suggestions for me, please email me at that same address: angelafluker@gmail.com

John Michael

A Review of This Past Week

We are all very aware that there are a lot of friends, family members, former classmates and people who know David and Angela through different social settings, such as business and church, who log onto this website on a regular basis. Most of you do not post comments but we know you come here because you care about Angela's well-being. As I look back over the past 16 months, one regret I do have is that we haven't updated this blog on a more regular basis. For the benefit of those who want to know what's going on but don't want to disturb David with phone calls, I'm going to try to post updates on a daily basis.

Monday, Jan. 5: As I do quite often, I brought Angela some gumbo for lunch and I was stunned by how much she had changed from exactly one week earlier. On Monday, Dec. 29, Angela was smiling, she was ready to go back to physical therapy and she was wanting to get out of the house and do things. The very next day, David had Angela back at PT and from there they went to chemotherapy. On Jan. 5, Angela was was not in a good frame of mind, she was very depressed and she was very emotional. When it was time for me to leave, she didn't want me to go and even though I told her I would would be back in a couple of hours, she couldn't understand why I had to go. I returned at 5:30 to find Angela in her wheelchair watching the kids play in the toy room, which is adjacent to the kitchen. But no sooner did I arrive did David wheel her our of the room because the noise was bothering her. For the rest of that evening, I played with the kids and tried to keep them away from Angela so she could rest.

Tuesday, Jan. 6: As you know from David's post, this was the day Hospice got a call. Sam and Suzanne Furby visited with David and Angela that night and Suzanne slept over with Angela so David could get some rest. This was not a good night for Angela. On Wednesday, David would tell me that her level of agitation was five times worse than it had been the night before.

Wednesday, Jan. 7: I had to call Tammy to remind me what happened on this day and she reminds me that it was the night we had pizza. When I arrived that evening, Tammy, Joey and Debi were on the porch with Angela, even though the sun had gone down and the weather was chilly. The fact that I can't remember much more than tells me that this must have been a pretty good night for Angela.

Thursday, Jan. 8: As I recall, this evening started out well. Katherine spoon-fed Angela while I was talking to her and I happened to have David's iPhone in my hand to capture the moment. It was a very sweet scene and I took some photos of it with both mine and David's iPhones. The better photos were taken with David's phone and I'll try to post one of them this week. I've included a photo of Katherine that I took after she finished feeding Angela and turned her attention to me. This turned out to be a horrible night for Angela. She probably went through more pain on this night than she has had since she got some extremely bad muscle spasms while she was at the Neuromedical Center in Oct. 2007. Her problem was that she couldn't go to the bathroom and it caused her to be in a lot of pain. This situation lasted throughout the night and Angela didn't get any sleep until after 4am on Friday morning.

Friday, Jan. 9: Despite everything this past week, Angela has been in the mood to visit with people. So, on Friday night, several of her closest friends-- Steele, Tammy, Joey, J.J. and I-- came over for dinner. We were joined by David and Father John Carville, Angela's first cousin. Theresa and Tiffany were caring for the kids that weekend, which made the house noticeably quieter. After a night without sleep, Angela spent all day and evening Friday sleeping. She was still sleeping when we gathered around her bed in the living room as Father Carville led us in prayer. She didn't awake until 9:30pm, after Father Carville had left. However, we were all able to visit with her for quite some time that night.

Saturday & Sunday, Jan. 10 & 11: Angela had a lot of company over the weekend and I think she enjoyed that.

Monday, Jan. 12: Once again, as has been the case over most of the last week, the tumor has caused Angela to get agitated easily and we've had to keep the noise level down.

Hospice Care

This is very hard to write, so I will be brief. This has been a very difficult past couple of months. Angela is now under hospice care at home. Thanks again for your many thoughts and prayers. Please continue to pray for my family.

CHRISTMAS, DAVID'S BIRTHDAY & AN ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

So much has happened since Angela's birthday on Dec. 16 that it's hard to know where to begin with this post. So, let me start with the good news. From the time of Angela's visit to Duke on Sept. 8 until last week, she had been in a state of depression that she just wasn't able to shake. Well, in the last few days her mood and outlook have taken a remarkable turn for the better. David and I believe that this change in attitude is due to the new anti-depressant medicine she recently began taking.

Last Friday was David's birthday and he called me to take him to lunch, which is a practice we've held for years. Five minutes later he called back to tell me that Angela would be joining us, which shocked and thrilled both of us. Well, the weather that day was unseasonably warm and the three of us sat outdoors at Serrano's at the north gates of LSU. David and I were both so excited to see Angela out of the house and off the recliner where she's been spending nearly all of her waking moments since early September. It was such a great lunch.

After lunch, David suggested that we head across the street to Highland Coffees and the time we spent there was even better than lunch. Before the kids came along and, to a lesser degree, even afterwards, we've hung out together in coffee shops all over town; so this was like bringing back old times. Everything considered, Angela couldn't have given David a better birthday present than she did by joining us on Friday. It was really a special afternoon. That evening Steele and I went to their house for birthday cake, and again, you could still see the change in Angela's demeanor.

Angela's positive change in attitude has continued since Friday too. Today, for the first time in a long time, Angela went to physical therapy and that was followed by chemotherapy. Tomorrow she is scheduled to have an MRI.

I'm sure a lot of you who visit this page are wondering how Christmas was for the Flukers. I spent all day Christmas Eve with Angela and the kids and was there Christmas morning, as I am every year. So here's a Christmas update, beginning with Alex's birthday party on Dec. 20th.

Katherine was sick on the Saturday that Alex had his birthday party and I stayed with Kat and Angela so that David could attend the party with Christian and the Birthday Boy. David's sister and niece, Diane and Karlie, brought the boys to get a live Christmas tree after Alex's birthday party. That night they returned home and all of us, including Katherine, decorated the tree as Angela watched from her chair. Without question, their favorite part of decorating was throwing the icicles on the tree.

Christmas Eve evening, Angela's side of the family came over to the house to eat and exchange presents and on Christmas morning, Diane and Karlie came over to make breakfast. Between the toys Alex received for his birthday and the toys all three received on Christmas, there was hardly any room to move.

In closing, I should point out that Angela still doesn't have any short term memory. But, there is a very noticeable change in her attitude. Though she does have her down moments, those moment are much more rare now and she's smiling again... and we are all very thankful for that.

Angela's 45th Birthday

Last night, Angela's sister and a few of her closest friends joined David and Angela for a steak dinner on the occasion of Angela's 45th birthday. The children's sitter, Courtney, took them to Chuck E. Cheese's while the rest of us enjoyed a quiet dinner at their home. The combination of her tumor and her treatment plan has caused Angela to face mounting challenges in the past few months and all of us were concerned as to how well she would handle the evening. Well, it pleases me to tell everyone who reads this blog that it couldn't have gone any better.
Angela joined us all at the head of the table in their main dining room for what turned out to be a great meal highlighted by even better conversation. There was no shortage of funny stories to keep the mood of the evening light and just as the birthday cake was about to be served, Courtney walked in with the kids. The timing was perfect.
Within a 15-day span in December, Alex, Angela and David have birthdays and there is also Christmas... so this is a very busy time of year. But last night was a great evening. And no sooner than were Angela's presents opened, did I receive a phone call to tell me my nephew and his wife had given birth to a baby boy. Just hours later, Steele's nephew and his wife gave birth to a baby girl.

Weekend After Thanksgiving Pics

The boys and I went fishing at Kevin Bankston's camp the Friday following Thanksgiving. Kevin and Cecil were wonderful hosts. Angela, Katherine and Angela's sister (Theresa) stayed at home and had a girl's night. Sorry no pics of the "girls night" - too risque from what I'm told!

Christian caught this one!

Angela's 45th B-Day is this coming Tuesday December the 16th.