Update

My dad is now in a Hospice Center about 5 miles away. He had a real bad day on Sunday and I called the Hospice nurse. She was at our home within an hour, and after seeing him, recommended the center. He can only be there for a maximum of 2 weeks. She told me that she didn't know if he would be with us for that long. Of course, I agreed with her recommendation and he was taken there Sunday afternoon.

He is on oxygen, receiving breathing treatments, and taking diuretics for the swelling. Yesterday, from what I could tell, he was up for about 2 1/2 hours before he went back to sleep about 12:30 pm. I was there for breakfast and lunch, which he ate. I was told he ate about a 1/3 of his dinner. We went back over about 6 pm and he was already asleep for the night.

The doctor, nurse, social worker, medical student, physician's assistant and I were all in his room together after breakfast. After their assessment, it was said he was in respiratory distress possibly due to congestive heart failure - although his heart is beating regularly. Go figure. Tom and I have said that in order for him to come back to our home, he has to be able to be more mobile and we have to be able to get him up from a chair/bed - just one of us. For now, it takes 3 of them at the center to get him up. So the goal is to do that - get him more mobile - meaning getting him to be able to walk without so much distress. We're hoping that by getting rid of some of the fluid he is retaining, it will help his breathing and that will help with his mobility.

So in the meantime, we're taking it a day at a time. Our house is pretty quiet and it seems weird that he isn't here. I've had 2 really good night's sleep. I didn't work yesterday, but am going back to that routine today. We are going to have to start working on discharge planning because before we know it, the 2 weeks will be up. I know there are lots of things to think about, but for the past two days, I haven't done that. Maybe just a bit, but I keep putting it off. I guess I will have to start that process. My dad appears to be pretty comfortable. He is not getting up to use the bathroom anymore, so the stress on his system for that activity is gone. He knows he is not at my house (or somewhere) because he told me that he would "stay here awhile and get strong". He cordially spoke to the chaplain at the center and told him he was active at the parish down the road, Saint Roc's church (in Michigan). The chaplain is going to arrange for the priest from my parish to visit him and give him the sacrament of the sick. My dad told him "that would be lovely".

I would have had a real hard time making it through this past weekend without Hospice, my hubby, my friends Jean (who dashed over when called), Roxanne (who brought over a motorized lazy boy type chair that my dad used once), and Laura (my rock of a friend). Thanks!