Thanks.

I don’t like this whole, getting old and dying thing that seems to be happening recently. My Mom’s dad died at the end of January and now my Dad’s dad is very sick in the hospital. Until this year the only person that has passed away in my family was my uncle (Dad’s, sister’s husband) and he was dying of diabetes for a VERY long time so we were as ready for it as you could be. My Papa on my Mom’s side of the family was expected as well since he had cancer but it was still a bit of a shock that he went so quickly… we were expecting a few more weeks with him at the most, not a few days after placing him in Hospice.

My Papa on my Dad’s side has been in the hospital since September 16th when he fell in the bathroom and hit his head. After that everything went down hill, he was by no means “in good health” before he fell. He’s been suffering from small strokes and diabetes for some time now. He’s had to use dialysis for over a year now so he’s clearly not in good shape. After he was put in the hospital on the 16th he flat lined and was placed in ICU on the 19th then hooked up to a breathing machine since he couldn’t breath on his own. Since then there’s been a few ups and downs but he hasn’t really been “there”… he’s mostly out of it and even when he opens his eyes they are all grey and doesn’t seem like he can see anything. He does respond to you when you are there but just by shaking his head and trying to open his eyes. On Monday (27th) my family decided to take him off the breathing machine since you are only allowed to be on the machine for 3 days and he was clearly on the machine much longer. He’s been breathing on his own since then which is amazing but like I said before, he’s not really “there” and to be honest with you, my Papa hasn’t been himself for years now.

You may ask why I am blabbing about this on my blog but I was hoping that by everyone reading this and understanding everything that’s going on right now in my family’s life you could understand what to pray about. I know that everything is in God’s hands and so does my family but it’s still hard and frankly it still sucks. We found out today that the next decision to make is about the dialysis. We were told the only thing keeping him alive right now is the 13 hours of dialysis that he takes every night in the hospital… he can’t even except the IV of “food” anymore since his body is rejecting it. We all agreed that the best thing to do is end the dialysis and move him to the Hospice House so he can be comfortable and someone can be with him 24/7. We were also told that after he is moved there and the dialysis is ended he would live 14 days at the most. He moved their this afternoon around 5 and everything started getting much worse. (Side Note: The room my grandpa was put in is the SAME room that my other grandfather was in earlier this year... there's 31 rooms in this place and they put him in the SAME EXACT ROOM.  I'm still baffled by that!) I went to the Hospice House after dinner tonight and was told that he had a matter of hours.  He goes through periods where he stops breathing for almost a minute and then he will finally take a breath, it's incredibly sad!  I left at 10 tonight because I have to wake up early for work tomorrow morning... 

So with that… I ask for prayers for my grandpa and my family. I really appreciate it and I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life to help me through this. The messages I have been receiving on Facebook really have helped more than you know!

Thanks again, Cas