We have set up a memorial service for remembering my father, Jerry Frey, at Rose Hills in Whittier on Friday 2/13/2015 at 3:00 PM at the Memorial Chapel building. We request that people pictures or videos instead of flowers to the memorial service, as we are unfortunately running out of room to keep any more flowers.
This will be more or less the final update to this site. I will continue to put pictures and videos up on the memorial site and organize it better as I find the time.
Kevin Frey
I started posting pictures from my Dad’s life to http://jerryfrey.wordpress.com if anyone is interested. I’ll take any photos, videos, or anything else you’d like to share with everyone. Send them to kevinrfrey@gmail.com and I’ll get them posted soon.
Kevin Frey
After weeks of recovery and looking like he was going to improve and come home, Jerry Frey passed away yesterday, 1/22/2015. His whole medical team is shocked at the turn and don’t even know for sure what happened. His lungs and heart stopped working, and they unsuccessfully tried to bring him back multiple times.
We can not begin to imagine what going through life without him will be like. We had so many plans, and he was even talking about what motorcycle he was getting next. He was the rock of our family, always the person to go to for any help, and one of the greatest people I have ever met. He will be greatly missed.
Rest well, dad. We all love you.
-Kevin Frey
He seems to be on his way to recovery and is out of the ICU and in normal bed at the hospital. Although really beat up and still resting the majority of the day, he’s looking better every day. Sorry for the short updates, I’ll see if I can get more written Wednesday unless there are any other major updates.
-Kevin
Sorry for not posting the last couple days, had to take our cat to the vet after scratching her eye on something at 2 AM Friday, and our main sewer line clogged and started overflowing right before I took her to the car as soon as the vet was open. Luckily, was able to get drain clear, and our cat seems to not be too damaged either. Jerry is still getting better every day, just haven’t made it down to see for myself unfortunately. Too tired to post much more, I’ll update tomorrow, sorry for the delay.
-Kevin
So my dad seems to really be alive and moving today, but seems to be disoriented from all the medication and pain. Trying to have a conversation with him is still a bit difficult (bolded to make sure it’s more easily seen, for all of us that want to call, talk to, visit, and hear him actually speaking logical coherent things like normal) because of his attention span from meds, pain level, and bruised throat from the breathing tube that was there for a week and a half. He is also breathing harder and heavier than usual with a little bit of a pant, probably because of his throat being bruised, not being used to breathing again, and maybe a little bit because of the opiates. He was making comments though, in whispers, and recognized me and everyone, reacted to everything more or less, but the few things he said were things like “we need to go back to the last place” (from my experience with painkillers from when I was sick, opiates cause one to think they are somewhere else doing something else in a dream-like state, and then they snap out of it most of the time by the sound of their own voice saying something random and unrelated to what’s going on around them, and they snap back into reality while in the middle of saying it), “oh, I’m in a hospital”, and “I want to get out of here”, and things like that, but gave a definite yes to the fact he was wincing from pain and trying to think, and yes for more pain meds, even answered yes repeatedly so that we were sure we weren’t randomly drugging him needlessly. He kept seeming like he felt like he needed to go do something as well. Mom kept telling him to just sleep and rest and not worry about anything, but he quickly forgot. Not sure if he knows exactly where he is, but he is at least somewhat responding. Overall not a bad result for first day off the breathing tube I think. He looks like he may still have a bit of a fever, but it might be because of the swelling or damage from the fall. We’ll see how his recovery goes over the next few days and see how long he needs to stay in the ICU. I’ll be updating at least once or twice a day until he can do it himself, which will probably be at least a week, maybe longer. We’re all hoping for a speedy recovery though.
-Kevin
Side note: it feels a little weird riding around on my street bike now and seeing all of our motorcycles and magazines and how entwined in my dad’s life it all was, and the fact that it’s going to be a minute before he can use a motorcycle, which was his main source of transportation until now. I should have probably payed a bit more attention to their maintenance to keep all 4 remaining bikes running well.. All I know is to wax my chain regularly lol. My last chain lost it’s seals and almost fell off while I was commuting 100+ miles a day.. Also strange seeing him unshaven for a week, that’s more my style lol. (For those who don’t know, I’m going on 4 months unshaven, my beard and moustache are starting to get way long. I just keep working non-stop and forgetting it’s even there lol)
Jerry got his breathing tube taken out just a few minutes ago. Next step is to get out of the ICU. I’m going to go down and see how he’s doing right now. I’ll update on his status after I return.
-Kevin
My mom just let me know that my dad is going to be back in the room soon, and the surgery was much more difficult than anticipated according to the doctor, but he said he was happy with the result and his hand should heal OK, he will just have a plate in it for 6 months, similar to his hip and vertebra I think. His hand was apparently really smashed up. Will update again with any new info as it comes in.
-Kevin
Jerry has just now been taken in for his final initial surgery on his broken hand. After this all his broken bones have been set and internal bleeding stopped. Still has a bit of a fever, but is a relatively low risk at this point. The doctor has said that air tube removal tomorrow is likely. My dad seems to be wanting more and more to have it taken out. Hope this all goes well. The cats both keep meowing at me from his room even, we’re all wanting him back home.
-Kevin
As of 5:00 am today on the 8th day for Jerry Frey in the hospital, my mother has told me a few more things to post about my father’s condition. His fever has gone down a bit, to below 102. He has a cold blanket that circulates water through it cooling him down. Respiratory check by a nurse at the time of update was all clear, as was x-ray of lungs. His right arm is set and bound, but right hand is still broken, which is possibly today’s surgery. The rest of the major surgeries are done as far as I’m aware. Hopefully breathing tube will come out soon so we can lower his sedation and actually talk to him sometime, but no plan as of yet. Could be today, could be in a week. That’s pretty much it for this update. I’ll post some pictures below for anyone that wants to see some of the damage from the last week themselves.
-Kevin Frey (Son)
Jerry Frey's Tragedy 