After Thanksgiving Day

In an hour we are heading out for our Thanksgiving Dinner without the Patriarch Bill. He will remain hospitalized at least a couple more days. All of us will do our best to keep the atmosphere joyous for the kids but I am certain most of us will have an aching for who isn't there. Who may well not be there for another Thanksgiving.

The doctor, an hour ago, gave him and Bev an update. The heart has much infection and he said there are two choices. One: With the pic line in his neck he must go to a rehab and stay for 6 weeks (Bill couldn't stay in the hospital overnight without Bev) and then remain on antibiotics for the rest of his life which he figures to be about one year. Two:  This Tuesday they could remove his defibrillator which is covered with the infection and replace it with a new one, but could not guarantee he would survive the surgery in this condition.  Bill thinks there is another option. Three: He wants them to remove the device and not implant a new one believing he would have a better short term quality of life than a prolonged one with so much attached to it.

Tomorrow, Bob and his sister will go meet with them at the hospital and hopefully come up with a decision as time is of the essence. My heart goes out to all of them. He is a retired lifetime truck driver who made many difficult long hauls and experienced so many stories we love to hear. We want him to stay. We want more from him and for him.

A Day of Hope

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving today. Hope. That is what we are expressing and feeling today as one of our loved ones was rushed to the hospital yesterday with breathing difficulties. He is 84, rigorous and full of life and political opinions.We've gone the rounds with respect and laughter. He has a pacemaker that has failed a couple of times but this time it was a fever and breathing, They admitted him and today did an ultra sound on his heart and found it infected. He will begin antibiotics, they said "for the rest of his life" which seems unusual to say and starting nebulizers (breathing treatments) every 3 hours all day today. Worries as that speeds the heart a lot. He expects to come home tomorrow but Melanie was there and is not certain it will happen.

Of course we have postponed Thanksgiving. He is the Patriarch of my daughter's in-laws. They took us under their wing when Dan and I lost his mom and dad, my dad and both foster parents within 3 years. We suddenly had no where to go and were planning a restaurant visit for that Turkey Day back in 2003 when Bev and Bill (Mel's in-laws) insisted we come over. Since then, every year we go there for Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve for dinner with their entire family, each whom has welcomed us and now treats us as if we truly were.  We are blessed.

We are hopeful this day. We are grateful for what we've been given. We pray for a special day of Thanksgiving this year that heals and returns Bill home.