A Little Procedure

Funny Story: Yesterday, I'm lying on the couch in dad's hospital room watching reruns of One Tree Hill on his computer, when out of no where dad says, "Honey...I'm hallucinating."

"What's that daddy?"

"The three of us are pickin' peaches?"

"We are? When Papa?"

"In 52...53. The three of us are pickin' peaches out in Peach County."

"Really? You do realize I wasn't around back in 52, 53, right?"

"I know...that's how I know I'm hallucinating."

I nearly fell off the couch. Dad cracked a cute little smile, then winked at me, but he wasn't joking. The morphine patch was kicking in, and dad was three sheets to the wind...still is actually. They're doing this shunt procedure tomorrow to redirect the fluid in his abdomen back into his circulation. In the meantime, the fluid keeps building up causing pain...hence the morphine patch.

My aunts, all three of dad's sisters, will be here tonight. They're in route to help the youngest shop for furniture. I'm glad they're coming. It'll be good for dad to see them and vice versa. Of course, I'm excited to see them myself...it's been at least a year or too. We're all so spread out; it makes it difficult to coordinate. I wish they had time to meet Blake. Ironically, they've all met Owen at one point or another, but no Blake. It's just such a quick visit and it's no time for a family reunion. This is about Dad, as it should be.

Even as I sit here typing, Dad speaks every now and then, uttering words I can not understand. When I ask for clarification, he says, "I don't know." For instance, he just said, "they're like my underwear." I said, "Where's your underwear?" He says, "I don't know."

Dad used to do impresonations of Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor...quite well I might add. He's just a hilarious man. I'm thinking I get my sense of humor from him, wouldn't you agree? Anyways, even on morphine, he's still got it. He might not know that he's still got it, but he does. Witty as ever...that's my dad.

On a different note, Neil and I set up Skype last night and video chatted for a few moments. Owen had just gone to bed, but Neil insisted I get him up so he can see Daddy. Being the obedient wife that I am, I brought Owen (along with Big Bear, Blue Bear, Pablo, and Diego) to the computer. For a while, he just sat there staring at Neil, probably trying to figure out what was going on. Neil turns the computer to the train table, and Owen starts chattering on about his train. Maybe that's when it clicked to him that Daddy was at home. Today, in the car, he kept saying that he wanted to go to Mommy's house. I asked him if Daddy lived at Mommy's house. "YES." What about Blake? "Yes, Mommy." What about Reece? "Yes." "What about Owen?" "YEESSS." "You know that Mommy's house in Owen's house too, right?" "Yeah...Owen's House." It was the cutest thing.

On a different, different note: I've been updating dad's blog too. I just fill in his readers on how he's doing, since he can't. Yesterday alone over 450 people read his blog, and I can bet I don't know more than a handful of them. Several of them left me posts to say how much they love and respect my dad, and that they are keeping him in their prayers. It's truly amazing how he's used his battle with cancer to impact the lives of others.