[Gpdd] (Announcement) Hope remains, Alge going to Hospice, wedding and Black Pearl news

[warmbreath at comcast.net]

Hi Everyone and EveryPig.
Our dear friend Alge has made it through the night and is sufficiently 
stable that St. Ann's will be transferring her to Hospice. The details will 
be firmed up in next 24 hrs., hopefully, maybe a bit longer. If possible she 
will go into St. Ann's own Hospice, if it is too full then she will go to 
another. Alge is still gravely ill and her prognosis is guarded, but the 
goal of her hospice care is to give Alge's body a chance to get stronger and 
mend and IF that happens she would be able to go to physical therapy and 
breathing therapy in order to prepare her to go home. This hospice stay 
might easily be a month, easily longer, and our prayers and messages will be 
able to get to her and bring her our thoughts and prayer to add to her 
strength. I made mention that she isn't very alert just yet but thankfully 
she IS receiving pain meds, that's clearly part of the reason, the docs have 
to be careful not to depress her respiration but she is receiving relief 
which I know we were caring about.

So I believe we have our roll to play in her recovery, although the 
prognosis remains guarded and the outcome is by no means certain.  But she 
will not be able to take phone calls for the foreseeable future because she 
is not strong enough, nor does she have enough breath to talk much. But, 
like I said before she is a fighter and we all are part of that great will 
she has as she know well how much she is loved by us, and that lends her 
strength.  To add to my message of yesterday, just the existence of GPDD and 
our sense of community has led us to an interdependence that not only aids 
our dear piggies, but adds to our own lives and sense of purpose, and that 
especially comes into play in people like Alge and myself who live where its 
a bit hard to get allot of outside visitors and support, whee have our 
internet lives as well to lend us strength in hard times.

So Alge's decision to refuse intubation was no doubt the best one. Beth, and 
we will call her Beth rather than BethAnn, has done a magnificent job of 
keeping things going for Alge and Alge has many time told me how happy she 
is with her daughters love and devotion and care. The decision for hospice 
is partly due to the difficulty of getting to Alge country home; it's a 4 
wheel adventure in the winter, with an icy hill involved and the drive Beth 
makes to her job in Columbus is 1 1/2 hours one way, another 20 min to St. 
Ann's, not as far as I had feared, so I am cheered by that too. So Beth is 
able to visit every day, which to me is just wonderful news, Beth also has a 
twin sister Connie, and 2 other daughters Carmen and Becci who is younger, 
but I may have got my notes scrambled as to who's who. One for sure visits 
frequently, and trades off days on weekends with Beth. Beth has her teenage 
daughter Katherine at home with her and the three, Beth, Katherine, and Alge 
live together now that Alge's dad is gone, so it's a nice family unit of 
caring people that Alge will be hopefully returning to, another good omen 
for Alge.

We have now a plan to for contact, many thanks to Beth who understands our 
love and need to communicate. Today, hopefully right now Beth is setting up 
a new email, the address is algespigs at yahoo.com. and she herself will join 
GPDD today if she gets through the sign up process OK.  I think you can send 
messages there and if they bounce back you will know it's not ready yet so 
just send it again after a bit. The plan is that Beth will printout our 
messages at work everyday as well as GPDD and take them to her mother. If 
Alge is able to get into St. Ann's Perative Unit, the name for their own 
hospice, possibly St. Ann's email system will work there too, we will have 
to wait and see. Because things will be changing so fast now Beth believes 
it's best to hold off with the room number until her move to hospice is 
accomplished.

So on with the wedding and partying, soon someone will be reading the piggy 
adventures to Alge and Alge will hopefully be able to read them herself. in 
the near future. Capt. Jack might have a bit too much carrot grog today, his 
toast may be a bit sloppy. I wont be able write my part of the wedding until 
tonight, appearing in tomorrow's digest so I will take my clues from what I 
read. It's so exciting, did it turn out that Barnacle Bill had two dates for 
the wedding? maybe that's a good thing? I will find out from you all. Also 
was Capt. Jack challenged by another hopeful for Peaches hand, did Peaches 
accept Cat. Jack's proposal, does Baby Hess want to be adopted by Capt. Jack 
and Peaches?  How did Shipwreck Sam do as best man? At least with him I know 
his relation ship with Jodie Da Pig is stable as she plans to add a wedding 
band to her engagement ring but she will never leave her momma and daddy 
slave, she and Sammy are very happy with their virtual life on the Black 
Pearl, maybe a Hawaiian wedding? The choir of Rainbow Bridge piggies chirped 
their wedding song, just as I'm sure they put in an appearance at Bertie's 
and Sweetie's Wedding today or at least the reception and send-off later. 
Today's wedding I'm sure was regal and traditional and I know Alge will just 
love reading everybody's stories. A wedding for the history books, I sure 
wish Alyssa was there to film it, well, maybe she is! G-force, eat your 
heart out! Whee have a pirate ship, a magnificent wedding, and an entire 
force of secret agents doing important work around the world, guinea pigs 
doing earthquake relief, now that would make one fine movie!!  So raise a 
toast to Alge!and one for our Piggies, The Newlyweds! Alge! add a prayer, 
the honeymoon voyage will commence, which I will pick up on  as the wedding 
concludes and the Black Pearl departs for Hawaii and California. What a 
life!!!  Congratulations Bertie and Sweetie Pig, the Duke and Duchess, may 
you live long and prosper and your stories be many and live through the ages 
through our mighty pens. And Remember March 9th, our special day for Peter 
Gurney, whee shall have a candle aboard the Black Pearl too!
Thank you all!  Sandy