Progress

Well, it seems NOT going to visit my father may have been the right choice. He's doing much better now.

I just spoke with his nurse and she says they removed his drain today (Friday). The last time they were talking about removing the drain they expected to move him out of ICU the next day. So, by extrapolation, that means he could be out of ICU tomorrow.

I also got to speak with him for a couple minutes. He responds pretty well to yes/no questions. But still has trouble articulating. It didn't help that he had the hiccups when I called. I can barely talk through the hiccups.

One thing I've learned from all this (assuming, hoping and praying that the bad stuff is behind us) is that life is just too short.

I live halfway across the country from my father. The last time I saw him was at a cousin's wedding three years ago.

It's not that we don't love each other. Or that there's some sort of feud going on, mostly. It's just that "life" tends to get in the way.

We get too busy keeping up with the daily tasks and fail to plan "special" events like visiting relatives out of state.

Often my family's excuse has been, "we can't afford it" and "it's cheaper for him/her to come to us than for all three of us to visit him/her". Well, that just doesn't seem adequate in the face of the last few days.

Six weeks from today, we'll be heading to Europe to visit Der Deutscher's relatives, some of whom we haven't seen in 9 years. And now we're starting to plan a trip to the west coast to visit my father next summer.

I challenge you to visit, or at least call, a relative you love but haven't spoken with in a long time. Don't go through the misery I've gone through in the last few days.

God gave us families to support each other. With our modern lifestyle that's spread families across several states and countries that's not always easy. But, I've learned it's always necessary.

Nimitz' Lady