A Steady Decline

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you for the continued support and prayers. Words can't begin to express how grateful we are for the outpouring of love that has been shown to our family over these last few months. And we're going to continue to need that support as Dad continues to decline. 

Starting today palliative home care workers will be at the house from 8:30 am till 4:30 pm seven days a week. The overnight care also continues 7 nights a week. It's an adjustment to have someone else in the house for so much of the day, but I know Mom really appreciates the extra set of hands when they need to get Dad up out of bed, or help him shift positions. He got a new hospital bed last week, one with a support bar on the top for him to help pull himself up when he needs to. Although, his strength is continuing to wane, and so he can only use it about 50% of the time. He also got permanent ports put into his left arm and thigh yesterday so that Mom doesn't have to try to get him to swallow pills anymore. She was shown yesterday how to administer liquid medication through the ports, and gets the pleasure of doing that a few times each day. In another life, she would have made a great nurse! 

Despite Dad's decline in health, though, we still have many things to be thankful for. The nurses have told us that patients with this sort of illness often become very irate and rude towards the end, lashing out at family or friends and even swearing at them. Thankfully, we have not seen that in Dad at all. While he sometimes gets annoyed at the constant regime of pills (which will be alleviated now with the ports), he is still very much the gentle, loving man that he has always been. We've even seen hints of his sense of humor still, which is such a blessing. We are also very thankful that he is still able to remain at home, where we are free to visit with him as often as we like and don't have to brave the cold weather every time we want to see him. He's also not in any sort of pain, which is a huge relief for all of us.

However, there is still the reality hanging over all of our heads that Dad is not getting any better. He is slowly declining and unfortunately, there is nothing we can do for him, short of keeping him comfortable. As Christmas draws near, we're all finding it a little difficult to be our usual cheerful selves. Christmas is normally such a happy time - a time for celebration. But our journey this year seems to be taking us down a different path - one of sorrow and of loss. It's so hard to find the joy of the season when we are slowly losing one we love so much. But, thankfully, there is One who loves us even more than we love Dad. Jesus Christ, who came as a baby at Christmas, to one day die on the cross to save us all - He gives us the hope and the strength that we need to keep going forward. Knowing that Dad walked so closely with Him brings a small measure of comfort and the peace of knowing that Dad will join Him in Heaven. 

And so we continue to ask for your prayers. Prayers for strength, and of peace and of God's love and comfort. We need to feel those things so desperately right now. Pray also that what will most likely be our last few weeks with Dad would be good weeks for our family - that we would continue to love and support each other in our hurt and our grief. And please continue to pray for Dad - that he would continue to be comfortable and without pain at home. And that he, too, would feel God's love during this time.