Here are some pictures.

Here is the obituary that will appear in tomorrow’s local paper:

Leane Elizabeth Line, nom de plume “Leane Roffey”, 62, a resident of Bartlesville, Oklahoma died peacefully at her home on Monday, October 24, 2011, after fighting a courageous two year-long battle with breast cancer.

Leane Elizabeth Accomando was born March 17, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois the daughter of Joseph and Ethel (DeSalvo) Accomando. Leane was united in marriage to Mark P. Line (on her birthday) in 2001 in San Antonio, TX. Mark and Leane were uniquely designed for each other and found enjoyment in acknowledging each other’s achievements, as well as dreaming and planning for their future including the next “closet company” or business venture to risk.

Leane was highly educated, obtaining her Ph.D. in Business Administration. She was also certified in numerous classifications including interior design and feng shui. Leane enjoyed studying eastern philosophy and Taoism. She was also pragmatic and gained pleasure from creating “something” from “nothing”. Leane was somewhat of a serial entrepreneur, starting and running many successful businesses over the years. However, she also gave of herself to help others. Leane involved herself, as a math tutor, with the Sylvan Learning Centers prior to moving to Bartlesville.

Leane was a skilled artist leaving an array of paintings, drawings and sketches to be admired for years to come. She was also an accomplished musician with vast range, receiving training as an Operatic Soprano, as well as playing the lead bass guitar for both a Southern Rock and Heavy Metal Band.

It has been said of Leane that, “Everywhere she went, she had an impact.” Leane’s reach is hard to fathom, her trace, certainly left on the hearts of all who knew her. Leane’s death is truly sweet sorrow and she will be deeply missed.

Leane is survived by her husband, Mark P. Line of the home; a brother, John Accomando of Los Angeles, CA; Aunts: Mary Ann Miloch of Chicago, IL; Anna Lee Smithana of San Diego, CA and Kay Setliff of Mesa, AZ along with numerous cousins and other relatives. Leane is also survived by her dear friend and assistant, Carol Rice.

She was preceded in death by: her parents and a brother, Joseph Accomando.

In lieu of flowers, memorials in Leane’s name may be made to the Leane E. Line Memorial Fund for Cancer Research (www.BetterCancerScreening.org) c/o Bartlesville Community Foundation, 501 S. Johnstone, Suite 540-A, Bartlesville OK 74003.

A memorial service to celebrate Leane’s life will be held at 11:00 am, Saturday, October 29, 2011 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Bartlesville.

Online condolences may be left at www.honoringmemories.com. Services were entrusted to Neekamp-Luginbuel Funeral Home.

We’re now giving her one of her sublingual meds, Ativan and hydrocodone, every 2 hours round the clock. Because the support care aides are not allowed to administer meds, they’ve got me doing it. I’m able to nap in between times.

The regular hospice nurse is here now, and the regular aides will be here this afternoon on their regular schedule to give Leane her bed bath and fix the bed and such.

The on-call nurse has been here for about two hours and sees a fairly rapid decline in Leane’s condition over the last 24 to 36 hours — less noticeable to me because I’m with her all the time. She has therefore arranged to get Leane started in what they’re calling support care. There will be somebody here from hospice staff round the clock every day. If and when Leane pulls out of this decline, she can go back to regular hospice care again.

Things are likely to get fairly hectic around here from time to time, so please don’t be concerned if there’s a break in my regular posts here for a day or two. I will definitely be in touch, one way or another.

This morning, though, I noticed that her respiratory rate was quite high, about 30/min. So the weekend on-call nurse came over and found that she had 100.4 fever. She gave her some Tylenol, put a cool washcloth over her forehead and hooked her up to her oxygen for the first time, at 2 liters/minute. They were going to give her some antibiotics if we couldn’t get the fever down.

About an hour ago her temp was back down to 98.8 and her breathing is down to 22 or so.

The nurse had everything under control, so I proceeded with my Saturday morning plans. I had a private caregiver come over for a couple of hours so I could get out of the house for a bit. Our friend Carol came over and we went to the last day of farmer’s market this year, ran a few errands, went to lunch and picked up a few groceries. That may sound like I was out doing chores, except for lunch, but it was great to get out — I hadn’t been out of the house for quite a while.

Our friend Carol, who does housekeeping, shopping and errands for us, was here all morning and we were reorganizing a bit in the bedroom to make more space for medical supplies and equipment. The hospice social worker came over to talk about some things, I had several important calls to make, and Carol went and picked Emily up at the vet and brought us some lunch. She’s been demanding attention — loudly — ever since she got home. Emily, not Carol…

Leane has been sleeping calmly all day except for one period of agitation this morning. I got an extra dose of meds into her and she’s been back to restful sleep since then.

Aides will be here this afternoon for her bath and general cleanup and redoing the bed.

Going to get on my laptop now and take care of my day job for a bit.

I know, I know, mark your calendar. It’s something I practically never do, so this is going to be difficult for me, and for more than that reason. Please bear with me.

I’ve been putting some music CD’s on for Leane to listen to since she’s been having so much trouble with anxiety since Tuesday — this was an idea of her cousin Andrea. Thanks, Andrea!

Some of it works really well (in addition to her Ativan and hydrocodone, obviously), and quickly — Enya and the Monteverdi Vespers seem to be working particularly well. It turns out that much of our CD music is a tad boisterous for this purpose, so I’m finding myself putting on the same three CD’s fairly often. I’m trying some zither music now that seems to have her calmed down quite a bit. So maybe four.

Okay, so there’s no delicate way to say what I want to say next, so I’m just going to say it. I’m crying as I write it. I never, ever cry.

Eventually, when Leane finally loses her battle with cancer, many of you, perhaps most of you, are going to want to send flowers. Please don’t. Leane has always hated flowers — they make her sneeze, they plug up her sinuses and the cat eats them and gets sick.

If you really want to do something meaningful, please consider sending us a music CD that’s quiet, pleasant and soothing. This is something Leane would obviously benefit from RIGHT NOW.

I don’t want to post our mailing address here, so if you don’t already have it, just drop me an email to <mark at blazetrail dot com> and I’ll send it to you.

We both appreciate all the calls and emails that have been coming in. We don’t want that to stop. This is just a little something extra for those who feel so inclined. It’s not a huge desperate plea for assistance, but it would definitely help. A lot.

Thanks.

Thanks, Sandy, and thank you so much to everybody at Olympic Gym. This means a lot to us.

Get-well T shirt from Olympic Gym, San Antonio TX

I was able to sleep between alarms most of the night, and have my laptop set up in the bedroom so I can both keep an eye on anxious girl and get some work done on a project that I can do on that machine. (Most of my projects are on the Macintosh desktop.)

The nurse who came by the second time it happened said it was nerves, and told me to start giving her the sublingual Ativan every 4 hours or as soon as she wakes up, as opposed to “as needed” as originally prescribed.

To that end, I bought and downloaded an alarm clock app for my iPad so I can use an ear bud. That way I won’t be waking her up every four hours and can just wait till she wakes up to give her her medicine.

The obvious worst case downside to this scenario is that I might not get much in the way of sleep. Last night I gave her a dose at 1:45 and set the alarm for 5:45. When the rooster crowed — literally, as it’s a very high-tech alarm clock — she happened to be awake, smiling and responsive to sweet nothings. So she got that dose on time and I got not much less than 4 hours of sleep. I managed with 4 hours of sleep for years, all through my graduate college days, so I guess I’ll continue to pretend I’m in my early twenties.

She did manage to listen and respond to a phone call from her cousin Donna yesterday morning. We’ll do more of that with other friends and family calling and me holding the phone to Leane’s ear.

Leane needs to be turned to a different position every few hours to avoid bedsores. You roll her over partway on her side and stick a pillow in the gap. Every time I’ve tried to do that, she’s wiggled away from the pillow to lie flat again after maybe half an hour. She also raises her knees or otherwise shifts position on her own fairly frequently — she was immensely muscular before the cancer, a former powerlifter, so there must still be something left — and the nurses haven’t found any early signs of bedsores at all, so I’m hoping it will be enough.

Today the aide will be here today to clean her up and adjust the bedding and what not.