Those were the days my friend...

Papa is beginning to slow down. He has slept most of the time the last two days and is reliving by-gone eras and experiences. His dreams are focusing on the past like the Phoenix convention last week, the trip on the rented Cabin cruiser the other day and the " Idaho Springs" dream the other night. All of these events were a part of Kenny's life years ago as a top NAPA salesman, when he attended many conventions (we have enjoyed the stories about those conventions for years) or when Larry was young and they had the Trojan Cabin Cruiser that gave them many wonderful weekends of family fun. The "Idaho Springs" dream reminded me of his stories about when he was a young, wild stud in the hey day of his youth in Denver. I know that those days were much more exciting than today. I don't blame him, I'd go AWOL too.

Mercy Hospice gives the family a very well written booklet to help us prepare ourselves for what is ahead and what to expect. It has been of immense help to us. We are beginning to realize that Papa may not be with us as long as we had hoped. Please keep all of us in your prayers as we enter this new phase of our lives and his. It is our hope that we will be a comfort to him and that he will not face death with fear but rather with a sense of expectation.

Yesterday he accidentally pulled the nephrostomy tube from his kidney in an effort to move himself up in the bed. The doctors decided today not to re-insert it. One reason is that he would have to be hospitalized to do it and that in itself is a danger to him. Everytime we take one of these stop gap measures, it compromises other areas of his health. Also, the nephrostomy was not draining much urine from the kidney which may indicate that the kidney is beginning to shut down. The bladder is still functioning well so I do not think they anticipate a bladder challenge at the present time. Today, like yesterday, he ate and drank very little, and slept most of the time. He is constantly in conversation with either his dreams or visions that he alone sees. (I would not dare say that he is imagining these things. I just simply cannot see them.)

Tomorrow may be more of the same or it may bring new developments and/or challenges for him and for us. Please pray that we will be up to the challenge.