My Dad is still cruising along, praise God! He had a bit of a crisis a couple of weeks ago with extremely low blood pressure, the kind where I would be calling the rapid response team and getting the code cart near the room. 72/34 is not consistent with life for too long without some intervention. Sometimes it is a disability to know more than the average daughter. Hospice nurses started continuous care which means that there was a nurse for 12 hours and a hired sitter for the night 12 hour shift. I was not ready for the expected outcome, despite his faith and mine, it is really difficult to remain strong when faced with the possibility that I was losing him, watching him slip away. I love my Dad. he is a good and just man, like Joseph was. He and I have had our frustrations with each other, but I dearly love him. He is so generous and thoughtful, patient, kind, soft -spoken, slow to anger...it sounds like Corinthians, doesn't it? Well, yes, but he is stubborn. I do get aggravated with him sometimes, I'll admit it, but that is me--I am impatient, judgmental, critical, etc., so it is my short fuse that usually is the culprit when we disagree. I am as stubborn as he is, too, so that battle of wills sometimes gets in the way. I am his 56 year old daughter who happens to be a nurse trying to tell him what to do. Sometimes it just works out better if I get one of his hospice nurses to tell him the same thing-he listens when Jennifer or Theresa tell him ;-) My daughter can usually tell him too and he listens to her better than to me. She says no, but I see him light up when she is here. :-)
Anyway, the "crisis" lasted 5 days. He was confused, very weak, unable to stand to safely transfer to the commode or wheelchair without a lot of assist. He fell a few days before this started, fractured two facial bones and had a huge black eye for a few days. I brought him into the ED since he hit his head and had a laceration, the doc closed the lac with dermabond , checked his labs, and did a CT of his head. I was concerned that he might have had an infarct or bleed, but no sign of either, just atrophy (age related) and the fractures. His hemoglobin was 7, pretty darn low, so his anemia has probably had a lot to do with the weakness and shortness of breath. Low hemoglobin=low oxygen for the essential areas of his body. His concentrator is on the max 8-10 litres/minute.
He had a lot of visitors, including two wonderful priests, a lot of prayers were said, Joe brought his guitar, some good friends from the Center came on Saturday afternoon for praise and worship and Fr. Lance celebrated a Communion service for him. Prayers were said by good friends on my rescue email list, dog group friends, neighbors, family, dog forum friends, the Center community and as far away as California, Boston and London. I really thought that this was his farewell, the nurses pointed out all of the physical signs indicating that he was working on leaving here. He and I even talked briefly about funeral wishes, that was extremely hard, but I felt that he might need to get it off his mind as he worked through this.
I am extremely happy to give praise to Jesus because all those prayers were heard and he is back to reading his paper and watching TV, eating his favorite breakfast of grits and coffee, then a Boost, and sleeping in the wheelchair in the kitchen while the TV blares a "cowboy movie" His hearing was not healed...
I am so glad that he has returned to those things which he enjoyed before, just wish I could work it so he could work with wood again. He wants to go to help my daughter install a doggie door in the back door of my house as her Doberman does not fit through the Boston Terrier size door in place now. That will help him, I am sure.
He has started sitting on the front porch in the evening when it is a little cooler and enjoys getting outside. The neighbors came over to visit with us the other evening and I know he enjoyed seeing them both. I think we have resurrected a tradition of stoop sitting from long ago. New Orleanians spent most summer evening sitting on the stoop, or porch, to catch a breeze and to visit with the neighbors. It is a good tradition to bring back if the neighborhood is safe, it is a shame that some areas are too dangerous to enjoy your own front porch.
Okay, time to stop, I am on the soapbox and must get down before I get carried away.
I will try to write more often, it is great therapy, and it is free!!!
God bless each of you and your families
Karen
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