A Bump in the Road

Well family & friends,

It was a difficult day at the Vergeer house. Monday was a pretty normal day for Dad, he got up a few times, sat in the chair a bit & took a bunch of naps. In the evening, he was very emotional & only mom could comfort him. The night started out fine, Dad got up twice & the second time he was very emotional again & asking for mom around 5AM. She came down & stayed with him until it was time to get up. Tuesday morning Lori came by with her son Jack to visit Opa & do some gardening. Dad wanted to see what she was doing so he got up & took a short walk out into the garden which he hadn't done in a while. In the afternoon, Theo & Jopie called, and while on the phone Dad suddenly needed to vomit. But it was more & worse than normal (not regular vomit) & it really scared mom. I had gone home in the morning, but I drove straight back when she called & we had the hospice nurse come out STAT. Ed & Kristina were over in less than 10 minutes. Turns out it wasn't life threatening but a side effect of the TPN (feeding in his IV) that will become more frequent if we leave him on the feeding. We kept Dad on the feeding as long as it wasn't hurting him, but his body is starting to reject it as seen by the increasing hardness in his abdomen, the swelling in his legs & now the vomitting. The medications were helping to keep Dad comfortable despite these symptoms up till now, but they are becoming less effective. So it was a hard decision, but the nurse said it was best to stop the TPN and keep Dad comfortable. We just want him comfortable.

The nurse also offered to put a urinary catheter in so Dad would not feel like he has to run to the bathroom & because he's developed some pain during urination. We have urinals & a bedside commode, but he clings to privacy until the very end, he always wants to walk to the bathroom, even in the middle of the night. So for comfort & safety, they put one in. But it has not helped the comfort aspect. Dad hates it so far. We're supposed to give it some time to see if it's pain that will go away in a couple hours. I can't tell if he's confused on how it works or if it's not right for him & needs to come out. It does cause him a lot of pain & we had to give extra medicine. We'll give it a little more time.

Mom is wiped out today, that episode really scared her. She went to bed before 8pm. I will sleep with pop again tonight, but I'm fearing that he's asking more & more for mom lately & that soon he will want only her to help him. That will be such a strain on mom, but she would never turn him down. Only God knows what's ahead... God please help my parents. -- Christy