Home Sweet Home

I know that it has been a long time since I have posted about my Dad, but to be honest with you, the situation was a little draining on me.  But guess what?!?!?  Dad was finally released from the hospital today to go home.  He was going to just come up to my place to be closer to the hospital, but it is imperative that he is not around anyone who is sick, and Bailyn developed a cold last night.  The past couple of weeks Dad has been fighting a lot of nausea and weakness.  He has also been having issues with his heart.  It is beating a lot faster than it should.  They were able to get that somewhat under control with some medications, but he is still taking them.  His heart beat does still get a little high when he is moving around.  I don't think any of us were prepared for the nausea that he has gone through with all of this, but it is seems to be under control at this point with his anti-nausea medication.  So obviously he hasn't been eating and so they did TPN.  When they decided to stop that they put a feeding tube in.  They put that down, past his stomach, into his small intestine because he had developed ulcers in his esophagus and they wanted to give the stomach a rest and decrease the acids in it in hopes that the ulcers would heal.  Slowly as the days and weeks have gone by, he has developed more strength, but still needs someone to help him get up and get in bed.  He is still not eating much, but is drinking ensure.  One of the goals for discharge was that he would be getting in 1000 calories a day and he is doing that, but has some work ahead of him.  During that past few days he has complained of not being tired and not being able to sleep.  This is honestly one of the ways that I realized he was ready to come home.  He was sleeping a lot when I would go and visit and it was hard to see that he was so tired and weak, but now he is ready to be out of the hospital and home!  During that past couple of weeks they also did  liver biopsy because of some concern.  The results came back that he has Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis again.  This was the disease he had that resulted in the need for his liver transplant.  At this time the doctors are treating this with medications.  I know that this has been a long ride for my Dad as well as my Mom and my heart goes out to them for all that they have done.  I love you guys!  Dad I hope you get better soon!  I do hope that now that you are home, the recovery process will fly by.  I hope that you will continue to regain your strength and develop more of an appetite.  You are definitely stronger that I will ever be! I remember when you first got diagnosed with cancer and were getting ready to start chemo, I found out that I was pregnant with Trevyn.  I think what you said was, "Two barf buckets, one good time!"  I know that this has not been a good time, but I am grateful that you would go through it so we can all spend more time with you!