Marvin McCabe, Jim’s Dad
He is laying in a hospital bed right now, receiving “comfort care”. That means they are providing pain meds and as comfortable a surroundings as possible, while we wait for him to die. No more life saving medical care, no antibiotics or other medicines to help preserve his life, no more extreme measures. Just make him comfortable. It’s his wish; what his “Living Will” states, regardless of our personal wants and wishes. It is really painful to watch someone you love slowly die. I have a desire to run away and hide my head in the sand right now. I know I can’t. Its not what he or I need right now.
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| St. Patrick’s Day, 2nd time in hospital |
This chapter of our lives began February 26, when we received a phone call that my dad was in the hospital with pneumonia. At 95 years young, that’s a serious condition. We were on the road at the time, working for Wycliffe, doing partnership development in preparation for returning to the field. We prayed for his recovery and wisdom to know if we should go out to Wichita. Since I’m his closest family, I felt we should make the drive. So March 1, we drove back to our home in Tucson, repacked our suitcases and started driving for Wichita, KS. It’s about a 24 hour trip and God gave safe travel and good weather. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon just as he was being released. That was his first hospital visit. Three days later he was back in the hospital, this time with possible c-diff and still pneumonia. That was a 10 day stay. What we thought might be a two week trip is now approaching eight weeks. During his third hospital visit, picture below, my older brother Mike came from Hawaii. We fully expected he wouldn’t last long. He is now a in the middle of his fourth hospital visit. This is a Hospice hospital, Harry Hynes. There are a lot of government rules regarding how, when and for how long one can be entitled to hospice care here. We have been advised to make pending arrangements for long term care because he is not dying quick enough to remain on hospice care. It could be one day or one month, they can’t tell. Though today he does seem to be sleeping more and less talkative.
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| one week ago when the doctors said there is nothing more they can do |
So we are just waiting, sitting with him, giving him water when he asks, reading from the Bible and talking when he is awake. Yesterday his wife was here for 8 hours and just held his hand and tried to talk to him. He wasn’t very responsive.
We have been very grateful for all the prayers, visits and encouragement we have received from family and friends.
I started writing his eulogy and will add that to my tribute to my dad…next blog.
We have been very grateful for all the prayers, visits and encouragement we have received from family and friends.
I started writing his eulogy and will add that to my tribute to my dad…next blog.
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| Jim, Judy, Wilma and Marvin several months ago |
