Quick Dad update

I will start by saying something positive… 2 weeks and 2 days…or to put it more simply - 12 more days to go … and better yet - 3 more chemo treatments…can you tell that we are counting down the days?  The end is in sight and the recovery will begin.  But you gotta love those twos… with every set of twos there is two sides - for this message the good and the not so good.  As you probably heard, Dad’s eating ability has deteriorated in what felt like an instant. One moment he was eating fine, and the next he could not eat.  He is still drinking water, but eating is very difficult.  His intact of calories and nutrients these days is via his feeding tube.  And on that note, the second part of the story…

Last Thursday, Dad was in some discomfort during the evening and into the next day.  On Thursday his feeding tube was leaking, and then on Friday nothing went in... it all went on the floor.  They put in another feeding tube on Friday but it went into the stomach lining instead of the stomach, and it had to be pulled out... yanked out is more the word for it.  A person would look at that he say… not very good news (which is true, but it only gets worse the rest of the day)…so they worked on it some more. … then little bit worse …. they tried 5 more times to put it back in place…talk about pain... then a little bit worse news, they ended up doing surgery to re-insert the feeding tube back in place.  All of this happened on Friday afternoon.  The good news regarding all of this is the fact that my sister Linda was already planning on going up to stay with Mom and Dad until Wednesday… talk about perfect timing.  She can give mom a much needed break, cook some meals, and help with Dad. 

With that being said, you gotta love help…and from a previous email I sent, "...we worked as a team, but we knew when to move over and ask for help."  We have continued to ask for help from God and our friends, and we continue to ask that your prayers join ours.  Mom and Dad continue to look to the four of us for support and each of us give it in our own way.  It is truly interesting to me to see how each of us is handling this.  Four siblings with four different approaches to dealing with stress.  The end result is that we are figure out a way to help our parents through our outpouring of love and actions.

So in conclusion I will say that by Sunday Dad was feeling better.  He got up and took a shower and even Mom made it to Easter services - dad was still to weak.  Life is "back to normal" for another day.

12 more days to go….