Dad in March

In the seventh week, Dad finally had a feeding tube placed. However, feeding him through it didn’t work: his digestive system was not functioning enough to take the food. In the middle of that week he was overcome with pain unlike anything he had experienced before and went into the hospital. He had multiple dramatic events, including atrial fibrillation. The hospital did a few days of detective work to try and sort out what had caused the emergency pain, but didn’t find anything that they could treat. He was unconscious a lot, his pain was difficult to control, and when he was awake he was delirious, paranoid, and agitated.

In the eighth week, he again rallied from that low point. When we brought him home on Monday, March 7, he was lucid and comfortable: still very weak (barely ambulatory), but able to enjoy our company and the early signs of spring through the living room window. During the day we had precious conversations about what he wanted and did not want, medically. The nights, however, were very hard, with a lot of pain and waking nightmares.

After just a few days, he didn’t wake up anymore. He was at peace when he died, and I was with him.