Update on my father.
He is still with us physically, but can no longer speak. We think he understands when spoken to or sung to because he smiles in response, and he responds to yes/no questions by raising his eyebrows once or twice. He has hung on far longer than anyone expected since he stopped eating on the 15th of June, and started refusing water on the 18th. BP is down to 80/50, and he has lost a lot of weight. My sister says the doctors think his endurance is probably due to the treatments he received directly after his surgery. They were loading him up with fluids, packed red cells, and albumin in an effort to flush the anesthesia from his system and shore up his low blood pressure...so he got a big boost just before they moved him to hospice.
My sisters and I have been debating if he is holding out for the 4th of July. His second wife died on the 4th several years ago. They were famous in their 40+ years of marriage for always trying to one-up each other.
As for the funeral, the decision was made (pretty much by Texas sis, the oldest of us three) that we would NOT gather to bury him. Texas has been spiking, and her recommendation was to "take care of the living". It's not an easy choice for any of us. Our plan is that when it is safe to travel again, we will join with our cousins and celebrate the lives of our father, and their mother (my mother's best friend - she introduced her to my father's brother). The two families have always been close.
In the meantime, we maintain vigil (one sis at his bedside, two sisters at a distance).
He is still with us physically, but can no longer speak. We think he understands when spoken to or sung to because he smiles in response, and he responds to yes/no questions by raising his eyebrows once or twice. He has hung on far longer than anyone expected since he stopped eating on the 15th of June, and started refusing water on the 18th. BP is down to 80/50, and he has lost a lot of weight. My sister says the doctors think his endurance is probably due to the treatments he received directly after his surgery. They were loading him up with fluids, packed red cells, and albumin in an effort to flush the anesthesia from his system and shore up his low blood pressure...so he got a big boost just before they moved him to hospice.
My sisters and I have been debating if he is holding out for the 4th of July. His second wife died on the 4th several years ago. They were famous in their 40+ years of marriage for always trying to one-up each other.
As for the funeral, the decision was made (pretty much by Texas sis, the oldest of us three) that we would NOT gather to bury him. Texas has been spiking, and her recommendation was to "take care of the living". It's not an easy choice for any of us. Our plan is that when it is safe to travel again, we will join with our cousins and celebrate the lives of our father, and their mother (my mother's best friend - she introduced her to my father's brother). The two families have always been close.
In the meantime, we maintain vigil (one sis at his bedside, two sisters at a distance).
