My Dad and Our Busy Schedule
Posted by EvansMom on 27 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Uncategorized
I haven't had a chance to update in ages, it seems. Three and a half weeks ago, my dad was admitted to the hospital. That was early in the morning of Monday, November 3rd. On the evening of Tuesday, November 4th, our lives changed forever. At 7:00 p.m., it was decided that Dad would have emergency surgery to remove a blockage. The alternative was death. It was quite possible that he wouldn't survive the surgery, and if he did, that he wouldn't live to leave the ICU. At 9:30 p.m., Dad was being wheeled off for surgery. I gathered the family outside his ICU room for a cheery (and teary) best wishes and love send off. The call came at 12:45 a.m. that surgery had been successful and I was finally able to drift into a restless sleep. Dad awoke on life support, the breathing tube down his throat, and with a colostomy. The three and a half weeks following that are all a blur of ups and downs in my mind, thinking that we were going to lose Dad on numerous occasions. Pneumonia turned to double pneumonia and major difficulty breathing. He was on and off of oxygen regularly. Then he developed an infection in his incision, needing packing, which is still ongoing. After that, C. Diff and the wish to die because he was so sick and nauseous, vomiting and diarrhea, poor guy. We're still dealing with C. Diff and packing to heal the incision. He's been off of oxygen finally for a few days, but still has next to no appetite, since nothing tastes good or even tastes much at all. My days are spent getting the kids up, ready, and off to school. Checking my messages, and getting what I can get done in one and half hours before Manfred comes home for a hot lunch. I whisk him off to work and head to the hospital, arriving around 11:45 a.m. and staying until 2:45 p.m., before starting the after work and school pick up rounds. Suppers have to be quick and are sometimes take out. Then there's homework, hockey, skating lessons, Good News Club, baths and showers, cleaning a bit more, laundry, wind down, and getting to bed later than we should. I'm hoping and praying that Dad will be well soon. He has lost waaay too much weight already!
