Dad Update...and All Things Parental

Had a long chat with Mum last night (gotto love the CAD0.024 a minute Skype cost!). Dad is still in the hospital. The 7 - 10 day stay has so far turned into a 16 day one. On October 10th he had an operation to take out another cancerous growth from his colon. Since this is a recurring issue they essentially took out a large chunk of the colon, closed it all up in favour of a life long colostomy bag. He was doing fine in his recovering but on day 7 post op he started vomiting. His stomach has essentially stopped working and they're having trouble kick starting it. Unlike last time when he nearly died, he doesn't have an infection, but he is obviously not doing great. He can't go home until he can feed himself and keep it down.

This has been really hard for Mum. She has had to take over responsibility for the business which has been a great physical strain for her. I hope it doesn't have an adverse impact on her pancreatic cancer which has been doing unexpectedly well.

On a brighter note it looks like they've sold the business with an expected hand over date of Dec 1,2006. I am thrilled for them both. They have owned a beach "kiosk" for the past 22 years. It's a very busy operation - the kiosk can seat 45 inside and 100 outside - and has meant dedicating their lives to it. Given their illnesses it's time to sell. Now they will be able to build that house they always wanted. Now they can relax and enjoy what time they have left to them (hopefully that will be longer than shorter)

I also took the opportunity to share the fact that I will be going for WLS. I hadn't mentioned it because she had so much going on. But it was time. She needs time to understand what I'm doing so that should something go wrong it doesn't come out of the blue for her. She needs time to understand both the benefits and risks.

So it was a good chat. I miss being close at times like this. I miss being able to help.