Precious Time

It has been a really rough week for Daddy Cap as he was hospitalized last Monday with bad urinary pains. He didn't sleep very much Tuesday morning because he was in so much pain and it took a while to determine the right mix of pain medication to give him reprieve from the pain. It was thought that the source of the painful spasms was the urinary cancer. Initially it was thought it had compromised his bladder. The attending physician was frustrated by his failure to subside the spasms and pain for most of Monday night. He told us plainly that we should start considering a hospice as he felt the cancer had compromised the lining of the bladder and the muscles that cause the spasms. This really discouraged us as we all felt that we could not do anything more. It was an especially difficult day for me and I was fortunate that my father-in-law and Pastor (the spiritual rocks in my life) shared some wonderfully comforting words.

Also, early Wednesday my father's urologist decided to scope his bladder area to see if we could get some answers. It was confirmed that blockages with his catheter and occluded tubes from his kidneys to his bladder were to blame for the pain and infection. It was NOT the cancer. Also, it looks like the catheter has messed up his prostrate which left him susceptible to infections. They replaced his catheter, placed two stents to facilitate flow from the kidneys to the bladder, and well the prostate will heal with time. Dad is feeling only minor pain and we're hoping that we now understand the source of all the complicating infections and hope to have some weeks without going to the ER. He will hopefully go home on Monday.

Eventually we will all move on to something greater as our time here is finite. What we do with those seconds, minutes, hours, days...etc with those that surround us should be cherished and treated as a gift. That special time is not guaranteed nor promised to us. The time spent today with my Dad at his side in the hospital was priceless. Having him sit right next to me with his shoulder touching mine and we both reading together-him reading his newspaper and me my fitness magazine- not exchanging words just enjoying each other's company was a gift from God. I hope I never lose this perspective.