Visiting Dad

I just spent most of the week with Dad at Mom & Dad's house while he was home between surgeries in Houston & going back down for radiation/chemo. When he had first gotten home, the day after he passed out and hit the wall with his head since he was dehydrated from travel & anemic from loss of blood from 3 surgeries in 2 months. He was not supposed to pass out or hit his head after having his head opened up for surgery on his sinus through his brain cavity. Not so good! He started running a temp after that & Aunt Missy took him to the ER at Deaconess, but they did not have a bed for him, so he finally got transferred to Sacred Heart where they kept him longer than he would have liked. Finally, he was back home, but needed someone with him while mom was at work for pulling things together for the year end & meeting with CPA. I came over on Monday and he was still pretty weak. It was kind of shocking to see him so weak. Uncle Jim was there and then left & Dad & I finished watching a movie he had started & I worked on my laptop. An employee came to visit him who had lost his mom to brain cancer .Then mom came home and made Dad a steak since he had really been wanting a steak since he got home. :) Mom & I had left overs from Aunt Julie's dinner the night before & it was so yummy! She is an amazing cook.

The next day, Dad was pretty owly, but he wanted to get out, so we went to coffee at the Skyway cafe at Felts Field and met up with some of his friends, we then went to a machine shop that does the truck beds for the company & chatted with the father & son who run that. The son's name is Stacy, then Dad was getting weak. He brought an ensure with him & had that & we drove home and I made him lunch & gave him his iron & vitamin C pills, then I went back to work in the living room on the laptop. Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk. He took his cane & Dinky came with us. Dinky was so excited to get out & walk with Dad. He kept running ahead & running all over. Dad was only going to walk to the cul-de-sac, but we walked all the way down to Morris & back pretty slow, then he rested awhile & I went back to working on the lap top. David & Kiana came over to visit at night.

The next day, Dad was in a better mood. After a getting some work done, we went out again and stopped by Action Auto where his friend Bob works, but Bob was out running errands so we chatted with someone else there. Then we stopped by Spokane Rock Products and Dad talked with some guys there for a bit before we went to Winkler's Trucking where Dad & I talked to Brian W for a while. We were out for quite a bit & Dad did well with his Ensure snack for energy. :) When we got home, he watched a movie & I went back to work. We went for another walk later in the day & Dad was moving much faster & we walked farther too. He was howling at Aunt Julie's dog who was barking at us from a distance by the end of our walk. Aunt Kathy & Uncle John brought over a 9 pound lasagna with fixings. Yum! We chatted with them while the dinner was cooking. I went to the gym after dinner.

In the morning the next day, Dad slept in a bit more. He started watching a movie while I worked, then Aunt Kathy W., Jennifer, Grandma & Patty came to take him to lunch at Western Concrete. He was out for quite awhile, but his energy was getting much better. When he got back, he went back to watching the movie & resting. I had to work on a report, so we didn't get to do our walk before it got dark. In the evening, I decided to head out since bad weather was coming in the next day. It was hard to say good bye to Dad & I gave him a tearful hug goodbye & he kissed my hand & asked me to go to church on Christmas for him. I said I would do that.

Here are some quotes from Dad:
"it's my $100,000 hair cut."
"You wake up in the morning & say well, I don’t feel like I’m dying today."
"Live hard & die young"

“One day you’re a walking talking fire breathing human being and the next day some one hits you with a hammer.”

"Yolanda was my charge nurse. She was a big black lady. She was real nice. They had me read and sign all the list of things I can’t do and made Linda read and sign that she read & understood everything as a witness. When they got the meat rack wheel chair to take me out and I was sitting there at the door, I said “Yolanda, come here I’ve got something to tell ya.” When she came over I said, “You know when I was 5 years old, my mother beat me 20 times a day because I wouldn’t do what mommy said and I haven’t changed much.” She laughed and before I left she gave me a hug."

"This is my daughter, Carrie, she’s here babysitting me."