I spent the day with Dad today. Mom phoned in the morning and said he was very upset and she was going to see him. I couldn't just sit at home when I heard that, so I drove down to the hospital. He was much calmer when I arrived. They stopped the morphine during the night because his blood pressure was low so he's not as happy a camper as yesterday. But today some nice things happened. My brother contacted my Dad's old Minister, who had moved to a new downtown church. It was his day off but he was in to see Dad this morning. When Dad saw him he burst into tears and hugged him. It was so wonderful to see. My sister also contacted Dad's old Minister from 20 years ago who lives out of town. He called Dad this morning and said he would drop by tomorrow. Also, the hospital Chaplain came to see him, the surgeon had put in the referral. Dad had a nice long chat with her and she gave him her card, told him that he could call her anytime during the day and in the evening he could call and another chaplain would come and see him if he wanted. She told us that Dad is a man of great faith who has so much left to live for and therefore so much to lose. She told him it was OK to be angry at God "throw whatever you have at him, God's heard it all before!" She said she'd come back tomorrow. So at about 3:30pm I'd had enough and said my goodbyes. It's so heartbreaking watching your father trying to puke into a little trough and he can't even do that! They gave him some medication to ease the urge to vomit. So, that's my day so far.
