11:45 pm 4/2/06 - Update
I am numb. It's been such a roller coaster ride. Last night we ate Jimmy's spaghetti and meatballs and sausage at Mom and Dad's house. Besides the siblings, we were joined by June and Jonathan Tate, and Lori and Rickey Lynn Gans, and Loni and of course Jimmy. During dinner we received a telephone call from Dad's surgeon. He felt upbeat and we all went to bed with hope in our hearts. ~~ This morning we were shot down from that high by a cannon. They were getting Dad ready for his now-daily dialysis session, and the nurse said she expected him to go into cardiac arrest within the first 15 minutes. Basically, she told us to go in and say goodbye. But Dad rallied and not only survived the procedure but improved incrementally to the point that they did another dialysis procedure later in the day, removing a total of three liters of fluid in a little over 4 hours. He still has a huge battle to fight, but he is surprising the doctors by rallying every time they expect him to give up. They are giving him huge amounts of painkillers because of the excruciating pain he is in, so that is keeping him very sleepy, but when they let up the dosage to see if he is still "there" he responds to every command. His mental capacity is not diminished. He is still there 100% and is fighting with all he has to survive. He had ups and downs all day, with one system getting better and then another system failing. Then that part improves and the first one gets worse. He is battling kidney failure, plus pneumonia, plus a staph infection, plus now his liver is starting to fail. Oh, and did I mention he went through open heart surgery with a full heart valve replacement just a week ago? Nonetheless, through all this, he finished the day a little better than when the day started. We choose to receive that as good news.
Uncle Richard telephoned again - wish you were here with us. And today June came to the ICU to sit and wait with us, and it was a comfort to see her sitting there with her dad. Every one of us has been in such emotional upheaval but we have all found comfort in one another. Mom sat reading her bible and encouraged us all to be strong... She has been incredible. I don't know how she holds up.
Rick and I spoke on the phone over an hour this evening... It feels as though we have talked more in the past week than in the past decade, and it feels wonderful to just pick up the phone and call him. We've been leaning on him for love and support, and he has been leaning on us for love and support. That's what family is all about, though we be thousands of miles away physically. ~~ Aunt Edith is continuing to fight the good fight. Right now the worst part is the pneumonia which has reared its ugly head again with a vengeance. But she is a lot tougher than her tiny frame would have you believe, and armed with so much love, so many prayers, and her ever-strong faith in God, how can she do otherwise than prevail?! Rick is with her almost constantly, and his great humor has helped keep her spirits up. In spite of the horrible coughing fits she is enduring, she is able to laugh at the comic humor he's brought to her bedside: she was worried about a sign that said "Warning" on her bedrail... it actually said, "Warning: Do not lean on bedrails" but all she could see from her angle was the one word, "warning." She asked him about it and he oh-so-carefully explained to her that it was a warning that you would not receive good care in that hospital if you did not have a good perm and haircut... After a while he even had her propped up in bed watching "I Love Lucy" on a little DVD player he brought in to her. The big news is that today they got her out of bed and had he walk about 14' -- great progress, even though she was racked with coughing and vomiting. She's been coughing so violently that it's been causing her stomach to go into convulsions, but she got up and walked anyway. GO, AUNTIE, GO!
All of us want to thank everyone for all your good wishes and prayers on behalf of both Tom Tate and Edith Hern. We're trying to just take it day by day at this point, and sometimes hour by hour or minute by minute.
Uncle Richard telephoned again - wish you were here with us. And today June came to the ICU to sit and wait with us, and it was a comfort to see her sitting there with her dad. Every one of us has been in such emotional upheaval but we have all found comfort in one another. Mom sat reading her bible and encouraged us all to be strong... She has been incredible. I don't know how she holds up.
Rick and I spoke on the phone over an hour this evening... It feels as though we have talked more in the past week than in the past decade, and it feels wonderful to just pick up the phone and call him. We've been leaning on him for love and support, and he has been leaning on us for love and support. That's what family is all about, though we be thousands of miles away physically. ~~ Aunt Edith is continuing to fight the good fight. Right now the worst part is the pneumonia which has reared its ugly head again with a vengeance. But she is a lot tougher than her tiny frame would have you believe, and armed with so much love, so many prayers, and her ever-strong faith in God, how can she do otherwise than prevail?! Rick is with her almost constantly, and his great humor has helped keep her spirits up. In spite of the horrible coughing fits she is enduring, she is able to laugh at the comic humor he's brought to her bedside: she was worried about a sign that said "Warning" on her bedrail... it actually said, "Warning: Do not lean on bedrails" but all she could see from her angle was the one word, "warning." She asked him about it and he oh-so-carefully explained to her that it was a warning that you would not receive good care in that hospital if you did not have a good perm and haircut... After a while he even had her propped up in bed watching "I Love Lucy" on a little DVD player he brought in to her. The big news is that today they got her out of bed and had he walk about 14' -- great progress, even though she was racked with coughing and vomiting. She's been coughing so violently that it's been causing her stomach to go into convulsions, but she got up and walked anyway. GO, AUNTIE, GO!
All of us want to thank everyone for all your good wishes and prayers on behalf of both Tom Tate and Edith Hern. We're trying to just take it day by day at this point, and sometimes hour by hour or minute by minute.
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