October 25th - A New Normal

The month of October has brought many changes for my Dad's health.  During the last week of September my parents went to Fairmont with good friends.  The last day there Dad started feeling quite a bit worse than usual.  He ended up having a bowel blockage.  He spent a couple days in the hospital during the first week of October.  We were all very relieved when we discovered that his partial bowel blockage was from an adhesion rather than from a cancerous mass.  Eighty to 85% of adhesions clear up on their own and that is what happened with that one.  Although my parents arrived a day late, our family counted it as a miracle that Dad was able to join us in Montana for a much anticipated family vacation.  All of my parents' children and grand-children were there and we had a wonderful time!

While we were in Montana we realized we were now dealing with a "new normal".  Dad only had a limited amount of energy in the day and he spent much of his days curled up on the couch with his eyes closed while chaos reigned around him, but he loved every second of it.  He did manage to exert enough energy to join us whenever we did one of our planned family activities.  However, towards the end of the week he was extremely dehydrated and at one point he seemed to have another adhesion.  Dehydration and adhesions/bowel blockages have been our two biggest challenges ever since Montana.  In the end, Mom and Dad left a day early and went to the first hospital they came to in Canada to get Dad hydrated again.  Then they went on to Calgary that night and Dad went to the Peter Lougheed Hospital the next day for more hydration.  From there arrangements were made to have a home care nurse come into the home daily to administer fluid directly into Dad's muscle tissue at home.  However, this process is tedious and Dad can only get one litre of fluid every 24 hours. He hates being hooked up to an IV 24/7, so, Dad's doctor set him up to go to the Tom Baker Centre 3X a week to get 2 litres of IV fluids each time.  That was this week, but by Friday, Dad wasn't doing well.  He had another blockage (which is actually the fourth partial blockage he seems to have had).  My parents talked to Dad's oncologist and she said to go straight to the ER, so they did that instead of going for fluids.  Dad was admitted to the PLC (Peter Lougheed Centre) last night and he is back on Unit 44, with all his favorite nurses. Just before my parents walked out the door to head to the hospital, Scott and Kirsten walked in.  My parents didn't know they were coming up from Idaho for the weekend, so that was a great surprise.  Jason, Jen, and Laura are also spending time in Calgary throughout the weekend, so Mom and Dad have a houseful and everyone is taking turns being at the hospital.  Last night was pretty rough, but Dad is feeling quite a bit better today.  His adhesion may have relaxed a bit, as has happened multiple times now.  

We know we're at the beginning of the end, but we don't know how long that ending will take.  There are still things we want to do.  For example, every second I can get with my Dad, I have been interviewing him and trying to write down his life story.  I'm only to 1979, so I have quite a bit more to go.  Right now, we are requesting that anyone who wants to come see Dad try to do so on weekdays, as we are trying to reserve weekends for my siblings who are coming in from out of town.  If you are able to visit, short visits are best (less than half an hour).  As one of Dad's doctor's said, "The right 10 minutes conversation can often be more valuable than a 2 hour conversation."  It is also generally a good idea if you call first, before you come for a visit.  Hopefully Dad will be out of the hospital soon, though I'm assuming he won't be out today.