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Our daughter dressed in traditional Chinese drumming attire waiting for her school drum performance to start.
Our son celebrates his 8th birthday today. Happy Birthday big guy!!! So how does he celebrate his big day? He loses his big tooth while eating breakfast this morning!!!
Just wanted to post a very quick update that I’ll be flying back to the US tomorrow evening to visit my parents. My father is currently in the hospital and we are not sure how much longer he has left, short of a miracle. I do not have a return date to Taiwan, so may be there for a while. Please keep Daphne and the kids in your thoughts and prayers as they will remain in Taiwan for the time being. And please do extend a prayer for my dad!
Thank you!
Update (03/21/12)
When I arrived on Friday evening the discussions that were going on were focused on deciding if we should have a feeding tube inserted into my dad’s stomach to give him nutrition since he wasn’t able to swallow liquid or solid foods and trying to find a hospice to send my dad to for end of life care. My mom told me that he wasn’t showing much progress, slept most of the day, and wasn’t able to do much of anything. My mom shared that after his 3rd stroke in October his quality of life had been greatly affected and he didn’t seem to really enjoy life like he usually did. This last stroke was a hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain).
However, when I actually visited my dad the next day, he seemed to have made progress, being able to speak, remembering my name, my age, etc., and was able to move his head, arms, legs, etc. When my sister arrived the next day, the doctor told us that she thought that we should give him another chance at life, and so we consented to have the feeding tube placed, cancelled the appointment with the hospice folks, and actually found a skilled nursing facility (SNF) for him to be placed into. When my sister went to visit my dad with my brother in law, my dad looked like there was still some fight in him. My dad was placed in a local SNF on Monday evening so we’ll see how things progress. My dad is in a very precarious situation because he has been on a blood thinner for the last 14 years because of his artificial aorta. He has had his aorta replaced twice in those 14 years and also had bypass surgery under his stomach area because of a frozen leg. He has been through a lot to say the least. He currently is off his blood thinner medication so the doctor said that he is high risk for a stroke near his heart because of the artificial aorta. They will start his medication again tomorrow, but then the worry is that he may suffer from a hemorrhagic stroke again. So definitely a marathon for him, and an emotional time for our family because we basically have swung from a position of getting ready to say our goodbyes, to now hoping that he can find some joy in the extra time he has left, but still thinking in the back of our minds that something still can go wrong at any moment.
Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers and for the thoughtful words of encouragement!
Update (04/05/12)
My father continues to do rehab at the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF). Physically speaking he is in stable condition. He is learning how to swallow at the SNF and they hope that he can discontinue the tube feeding in the next week or two. He also has physical and occupational therapy 6-days out of the week and they are teaching him to walk with a walker, how to get himself out of bed, and just general exercise to keep his muscles moving. Mentally speaking, he is still having some difficulties due to the brain damage he experienced from his stroke. The best I can describe it, is he has symptoms that are similar to an Alzheimer’s patient. He often refers to the past and his short term memory has been damaged. If you can imagine, this doesn’t bode well for him and his therapy since he can easily forget what they taught him the day before. He is also having issues with his motor skills, so even though he knows you are telling him to move his leg, he is having a hard time telling his leg to actually move.
Not much we can do except pray and continue to hope that the therapy will get him to a place where he can eat on his own without the feeding tube and that he can learn to master some basic functions such as getting out of bed, etc. Since my father is physically stable and since I have been apart from my family for the last three weeks, I have decided at this point in time to return to Taiwan. I believe that my father is in good hands with my mom and our extended family in the immediate area to continue to look after him and encourage him in his rehab.
Blessings!