I just got a call from my mother that my dad, Bill Harris, is now receiving
morphine every 2 hours. I knew as soon as I saw the caller ID that something
was wrong. It's not unexpected nor a shock but even when you get the call,
you're not quite sure where to put the information.
It looked like my dad, who turned 86 in September, was going to die right
around Thanksgiving. He had been in the hospital and some 'doctor' thought it
would be a good idea to send him home on Thanksgiving. Late in the afternoon
my oldest brother Logan brough him home from the hospital. Dad made it to the
chair in the living room and stayed there. He barely opened his eyes the whole
day. He's on coumadin, a blood thinner, which makes him feel cold all the
time. He only spoke to say how he was freezing.
He made it to bed that night but fell the next day. My mother, Paulina, who is 82
couldn't get him off the floor, neither could my sister's husband, Dave.
Finally Logan and my other, also older, brother DAnny cam over and got him off
the floor. An ambulance was called and he was taken back to the hospital.
He had had a heart attack.
He has diabetes, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure. For some
reason, he decided to get a pacemaker in early November. This was something he
had refused to do for at least the last five years. Well, because he had the
surgery he contracted MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and
they put him on antibiotics.
It looked like he was going to pass after Thanksgiving and he was receiving
hospice care in the hospital. But then he started to do better.
He was moved to the county home where my sister, Paula, a nurse works. He's
been doing ok and I was hoping to see him on Christmas. But I guess yesterday
was a bad day and now he's back on morphine every two hours. I'll be heading
up to Mercer today to see him.
And why do these posts never publish the way they look in the preview?
