Apparently earlier that evening one of the caregivers at his memory care home noticed that he had slipped out of a chair and didn't really seem like himself. They also noticed that his stomach was quite protruded and his appetite was not normal. They notified my mom and she came and picked him up and took him to the ER (thankfully it was only a few mins from my house).
Not more than an hour or so later my mom calls me back up hysterically crying that I need to come over to the ER now. So I rush over there as fast as I can. I go into the room where my dad was being held temporarily and my mom informs me that she just found out there my dad has a terminal diagnosis called "dead gut." The doctor came in to explain to me that from the recent scan he had done at the ER it showed that his gut was dying fast and he would only have 3-5 days to live. She explained that he would slowly just get worse over the next few days until he eventually passed. There was no need to feed him or give him fluids because that would just prolong this process. So after we cried for a while together, we started getting the word out to family in case anyone wanted to see him. He also could not stay at the ER because they didn't have any rooms to keep people in, so they were in the process of moving him to the nearest hospital where he would supposedly be made comfortable until he no longer was alive. Around 3am he finally got transferred to Swedish in Edmonds and my mom and I both went home to get a few hours of sleep before the next few days of "hell" began.
The next day we visited my dad at the hospital and he still seemed pretty out of it, but the protruding stomach seemed to have gone down a little since the previous night. My brother was contacted and booked a flight to arrive later today. It was such a blessing to have him come up, since he hadn't seen my dad in over a year!
As we spent our days in the hospital my dad oddly continued to improve. There was no decline each day like the ER doctor said we would see. In fact, my dad was nearly himself again and not wanting to stay put in bed. When we walked in with a water bottle he grabbed for it like he was very thirsty, so we got permission to give him water. And then it became ok to give him a regular diet of food again. And before we knew it he was up walking the hospital on his own, trying to take off all of his clothes and attempting to go in other patients' rooms to the point that the nurses couldn't keep him in his bed. Our days were spent watching him improve and pushing him around in a wheelchair just to keep him busy.
We asked for a second opinion from this hospital and sure enough they took off the terminal part and said it was just a blockage in his intestines. We don't really know if this was a miracle that happened or what, but prayers from everyone really did work!! After 6 days in the hospital he was discharged back to Pacifica and living his "normal" life again on July 10th.
Talk about a rollercoaster of emotions we were put through. But the most important part was that we didn't have to say goodbye quite yet! We were not ready!!!
Right after getting admitted to the ER on July 5th
(see the lump in his stomach?)
How he looked when I arrived to the ER
What I thought was the girls' last visit with their Gramps
I wasn't prepared to lose him
My parents
Still pretty out of it on July 6th
My brother's first visit to the hospital to see my dad on July 7th
(and this was the day he seemed like he was getting better)
Smiles on July 9th
Trying to keep him busy in a wheelchair
Cammy thought this was the greatest job ever!!!
He got to come have lunch with us in the waiting room on his floor
(restraints were on him because he didn't want to stay seated)
More pushing all around his hospital floor
Testing out the bed while waiting for Gramps to get discharged
We feel so blessed that this story went the complete opposite direction than we were told it would! God wasn't ready for him and we weren't ready to say goodbye.
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