I Got It!

I went to visit Dad this week and you may imagine how delighted I was when I arrived to see him: 1) sitting outside in the fresh air, sun, and flowers, and 2) wearing the little cowboy hat!  I was able to take a picture this time.

I never know quite what to think of the progression of Dad's disease.  I'll visit several times and he'll be sleeping and frail-looking and the caregivers will tell me he doesn't want to walk anymore, and I'll think that it can't be much longer before he shuffles off this mortal coil.  Then I will come over and he'll be sitting up with a little cowboy hat on, feeling kind of cranky with his arms crossed.  With this disease, who knows?  And that's probably one of the most difficult things about it - the unpredictability of it all.

I was able to speak with Greg the owner and asked him to share with me all the symptoms and behaviors that Dad was exhibiting, even the unpleasant ones, because it helped me gauge the progression of the illness.  I know what I see but hearing about the fact that Dad still gets angry a couple of times a week, hates showering and being managed, and wakes up agitated in the night lets me judge, with some accuracy, where he might be in his journey.  None of us can say with any certainty how exactly the disease will progress or how long it will last, and that makes me sad and frustrated.  I don't want to lose my dad, but I do hate to see him living like this.