My sister she can be very good in a crisis. Fortunately, she's been to the ER a few times herself so she knows how it works. She was able to join Dad and deal with the doctors. I still received a few calls, however, when the anesthesiologist couldn't find her and needed to know if Dad had drug allergies and whether he had a health directive.
Its strange, with Dad becoming more frail and because of my hospice work, I've become more aware of health directives and DNR's. It's always difficult to think of it in terms of your loved one, though. I know that because of his religious and philosophical beliefs, Dad would not want huge measures to be taken for him. We even talked about it once on one of our walks.
He had his surgery, and spent the next few days in the hospital recovering as much as was possible. He was discharged on Saturday and brought home to his house by my sister; apparently a smile of relief appeared on his face as soon as he was brought into his room. When I went to see him Tuesday morning, I was shocked at how frail and wrung out he looked. The surgery, bodily dysfunction and hospital stay had clearly been very hard on him. He was healing, but he still didn't look well, and was clearly still uncomfortable. It was good to sit with him for a while, and I left feeling better that HE was feeling better. Unfortunately, however, Dad wasn't done with me yet.
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