Difficult Times...

The air conditioning has been fixed, my phone has been replaced, and I have my van back...however all this has paled into utter insignificance by an abrupt decline in my father's health. He is 87 years old, and while he has been showing his age more and more the past few years, he has always been very healthy and able.

In the past few weeks he has lost interest in food, become weak and infirm, and fallen once. He was not injured, thankfully, and he has been intelligent and sensible enough to immediately put down his car keys and grab a walker and be consistent about using it. He is showing also cognitive lapses in memory here and there, though he remains over all lucid and intelligent. He has been seen by his Dr whom we all feel is being a bit cavalier about the whole thing, and a second visit and more blood work has been scheduled, with Dad more inclined towards being a bit more aggressive about finding out what could be wrong. The fall was a bit of a wake up call, he's not so much in denial anymore.

We have been going over to see them and visit and impart company and cheer as we can, and I spent today running Mom and him around for errands. This had its challenges, as Mom has severe untreatable back issues and is herself on a walker or in a wheel chair. She is actually managing to care for him and his basic needs, as she is now abruptly the more able of the two of them, but its difficult for her. Of course, if he falls or something goes very wrong, she cannot manage that. So I was playing musical walkers and wheel chairs all afternoon, helping them get things done - fortunately we all have good senses of humor and even had fun.

Mom did express privately to me that she is frightened that this is a decline that he may not be able to recover from, and I have to agree with her. That is my own fear. However, it may also turn out to be treatable. We don't know what's really going on yet.

Looking back, I realize now that at the Greek Festival we attended in town three months ago, he didn't eat all day - and that is shocking, because my Dad loves food in general and would never have passed up good Greek food. He's not been eating much if at all for months, we have just realized. A few weeks of not eating enough will not totally enfeeble you like this and there is more going on than just loss of appetite or lack of food.  It goes back that far, and I should have seen that, but hindsight has much better focus. This is something that has crept up gradually, this situation did not just pop out of the woodwork over night. Even though it feels like it did.

So, my blogging has been yanked sideways the past few weeks, with all this. And truthfully, this is a short post, as I am very tired myself from today. And I get to go do it all over again tomorrow. Which is a privilege all the same. When I was a child, for 5 long years I was in a wheel chair, a leg brace, spent time in a body cast, hospital stays...and through it all, Dad wrestled and wrangled wheel chairs and crutches and medical situations with unfailing good cheer, patience and love.

Its my turn, Dad. 

I love you! 

Mom and Dad at the Greek Festival in 2014 - the picture below them in
the picture is of them on Dad's high school graduation day in 1944,
which was also their first date.