Unexpected Month Away from Blog...

Life can be like a waterfall, speeding over the edge without notice. Just when you think you are ironing life out and getting back on track, it throws you a loop-de-loop that wasn't there before. And gets stuck in the cycle.

So, I mentioned in one of my Sunday Posts, that my dad was in the hospital. The short of it... he had serious surgery to remove a little more than half his colon. The result, he had colon cancer. After testing, they found it did hit four of the twenty lymph nodes they removed. The good news, they feel they got it all and it had not spread.

Unfortunately this was pretty much a whole month process at the hospital with recovery for my dad. As many of you who've been here for a while with me know, my dad is handicap. He had a severe stroke almost 19 years ago that left him paralyzed on the right side and unable to speak. His health has slowly been deteriorating in the last year or two, which makes healing for such a serious surgery harder.

He was on intravenous food for a while. He just got off that and we are trying to get him back on regular food, but he's just not eating much when he eats. I don't know if the struggle was that he's tired or the pain medicine, or both. But it's a real struggle. I saw improvement in him yesterday, so it leaves me hopeful.

He went into the hospital on February 2nd, had surgery on the 6th, and released....well, as of today he's still there and I'm hoping he'll be released to the nursing home in a day or two. Until I get him back to the nursing home he was in, I won't be on the blog much.

I know some people go to the hospital and have time to be on the computer or read. I don't get to experience that with dad. Sure he has moments when he's sleeping and I can get on the computer, but that's usually only an hour at the most. When he was on pain medicine, oh wow that was some serious stuff, I was paying attention to his stats and trying to help keep him calm. I had a few moments to work on a few photos as I am behind on getting those out too, but when I'd start I would get off track with dad needing something. He was in ICU from surgery on the 6th to the 17th. So I really didn't get much done.

I was there for him, and that's what I did. I helped him as I could to make him comfortable and let nurses know when he needed them. Now, he's alert and hits the nurse call button and knows what's happening. So he's doing much better, but for a while there it was touchy.

He's looking better and things are looking good for him now.

Thank you for sticking with me through all that's happened and my absence. I appreciate all the great friends here and look forward to getting caught up with everyone again soon!

Take care!! (The photos as just two of many I took at Niagara Falls earlier this month, before dad getting sick. I thought I'd share the two that I got to touch up.)