Phillip and Jaci

I’m sad to say that I will have to leave for Tampa this weekend as my father was admitted to the hospital ICU last night. My sister found him in his bed and he was unable to maintain bowel control and had an inordinate amount of blood in his stool.

The doctors surmise that he had become dehydrated and his colon has become perforated as a result. In a healthy individual pumping them full of fluids tends to fix the problem as the colon is very resilient. However, my dad has been the victim of multiple heart attacks and has lost more than half of his heart tissue to scarring from the events. This causes fluid to gather around the heart cavity and to flood the lungs. Needless to say we’re in a Catch-22.

The other option is to remove his colon entirely, only to live life on a colostomy bag; however this is a 12-14 hour surgery and even healthy individuals have an incredibly difficult time surviving and recovering from this surgery.

The last option is to manage the pain and call hospice and wait for the inevitable. At this point we are praying for God’s intervention – but we have known that this choice may come in some form for quite a while. After 3 strokes, 2 heart attacks, and countless hospital visits in the last 5 years we pray only for his comfort and whatever he wishes. He is a believer and we are confident of his final destination regardless of the outcome; however please pray for my sister Kristen, and for Jaci and I during this time.

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