We are back in Seattle from our trip to visit my parents in NY.
Little did I know, it would be the last opportunity to see my dad alive. My dad was in pretty bad shape. He was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis in late September 2007, and then with a heart murmur (he needed an aortic valve transplant but was too weak to go through the surgery). He had been on oxygen since end of November, and without being able to return to work.
We were scheduled to come back on Friday, February 22nd, but, due to a snowstorm, none of the taxi cabs in the area would take me to the airport. So, I changed the flight plans. I cleaned my parents' cars free of the snow, and I shoveled the snow off the driveway. What a workout!
It was sooooo cold.
That afternoon, I went to a local Starbucks to check email, and my mom asked me to come home as quickly as possible, my dad wasn't doing so well and she was trying to reach his doctor. Then, I went to Target, and she called again to get me to come back, she was going to call 9-11 to have my dad hospitalized.
The doctors gave him the option of going on an artificial respirator (sp?), but he refused. That meant that he would eventually get too tired to continue breathing with the oxygen mask. No tubes - that was his wish. I couldn't keep my tears back when I saw him in the hospital. He told me not to cry.
The next morning, my mom went to see him, and when she got there, called me to come as quickly as possible. Thank God, she was there with him, during his last moments. By the time I arrived, he was gone. He had a pulmonary edema, which really killed him.
My dad was not an old man, just 71 years old. But he was a smoker for over 40 years, and he worked as an autobody painter for about 30.
I will miss him terribly.
Little did I know, it would be the last opportunity to see my dad alive. My dad was in pretty bad shape. He was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis in late September 2007, and then with a heart murmur (he needed an aortic valve transplant but was too weak to go through the surgery). He had been on oxygen since end of November, and without being able to return to work.
We were scheduled to come back on Friday, February 22nd, but, due to a snowstorm, none of the taxi cabs in the area would take me to the airport. So, I changed the flight plans. I cleaned my parents' cars free of the snow, and I shoveled the snow off the driveway. What a workout!
It was sooooo cold.
That afternoon, I went to a local Starbucks to check email, and my mom asked me to come home as quickly as possible, my dad wasn't doing so well and she was trying to reach his doctor. Then, I went to Target, and she called again to get me to come back, she was going to call 9-11 to have my dad hospitalized.
The doctors gave him the option of going on an artificial respirator (sp?), but he refused. That meant that he would eventually get too tired to continue breathing with the oxygen mask. No tubes - that was his wish. I couldn't keep my tears back when I saw him in the hospital. He told me not to cry.
The next morning, my mom went to see him, and when she got there, called me to come as quickly as possible. Thank God, she was there with him, during his last moments. By the time I arrived, he was gone. He had a pulmonary edema, which really killed him.
My dad was not an old man, just 71 years old. But he was a smoker for over 40 years, and he worked as an autobody painter for about 30.
I will miss him terribly.
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howard_al:
Sorry to hear about your dad. My dad only made it to 75 thanks to about 50 years of smoking. Then emphysema got him. After several years on oxygen he had surgery, but instead of helping him it made him dependent on a respirator until he died a year later. Hope you're doing OK. (Hug)
trauma:
creo que podre regresar a espaa. Mas quiero irme para sudamerica, pero la cosa con el loco de Hugo chavez me tiene con un pendiente...a ver si no se le ocurre empezar una guerra con colombia que puede desatar en todo sudamerica...