Daily Archives: July 8, 2007

July 8 – We thought we would have a nice quiet morning without the kids this morning so we slept a little late and wandered into town for a paper and fresh rolls. Frank actually cooked today (bacon rolls and tattie scones!) and we had peace while we read the paper. Then off to church. Normally, we wouldn’t bother – our rule for the summer is once a month and we’ve made our appearance for July – but we thought that it couldn’t hurt to say a prayer for Frank’s dad in a place that might have a special delivery system so we headed out to Holy Trinity church of the Scottish Episcopal church. Interstingly enough, the church we were married in was called Holy Trinity in Georgetown which we took to be a good sign. There was a guest celebrant today – a retired bishop which we also took to be a good sign. We made it all the way to the sign of peace when we got a call to head straight to the hospital. It was walking distance from the church so we got there first to find out that Frank had been moved to a private room and they were doing everything they could to make him comfortable but he was showing no signs of improvement and they now consider it to be “just a matter of time”.

So the whole family turns up and the death watch begins. He is still on oxygen and large doses of morphine so he lapses in and out of consciousness. He seems to be aware of his surroundings when he is awake but that isn’t very often. My mother-in-law, the three Cannon boys and the daughters-in-law then spent six hours admiring the sun outside the hospital window, watching him sleep and telling stories. The latter would have been far more enjoyable if the circumstances were different. Duncan and Gillian were still hanging out with Matthew and Leah and overdosing on PS2.

Eventually, we had to eat something so now I’m playing childminder while the others work out a visiting rotation. No one wants to leave until it’s time…..

/san/

[Pedometer: 13,264 steps or about 6.5 miles – most of which was probably pacing hospital corridors]

July 7 -We actually had some beautiful blue skies this morning so I laced up my shoes and did nearly 5 miles around the town this morning to enjoy the blue sky and fluffy clouds.  I woke the family up when I got back and we had some tea and toast for breakfast.  Then  down to the serious business of getting things organized.  Frank and I walked up to the town to get some basics:  a teapot and some morning rolls.

The flat we’re renting right now is really lovely and has just about everything we could ask for…. except a teapot!  I’m not good at this whole “making one cup of tea at a time thing” so we were off to the charity shops to get a lovely bright red teapot with “Typhoo” emblazoned across the side for 2.50!  A stop at the bakers yielded morning rolls and fresh  donuts then we headed back to see if the kids had actually gotten around to showering.  [NB:  Morning rolls are big soft white rolls that you by fresh every morning to use
as part of a bacon roll, sausage roll, roll and jam, etc.  They are not quite like anything we  have at home and we intend to consume LOTS of them!]

Duncan and Gillian had a lot of sorting out and unpacking to do so Frank and I headed to the supermarket to get the rest of what we needed. I love exploring grocery stores in other countries to see what is different to what we’re used to.  Here, there were lots of options for small containers but not many supersize packages.  It seems like there are hundreds of choices of yogurts but none of the servings are more than 4 ounces unlike the 8 oz containers I eat everyday.  The potato chip (crisps) aisle is also interesting because there are huge bags here but they all contain smaller,  individual serving bags; I’m not sure you can get a single bag with 12 ounces of Doritos if you wanted to!

After we put away the messages (groceries), we had soup and sausage rolls for lunch – yum!  Then it was time to go to the hospital for a visit. Frank’s dad, also called Frank, is in a “high dependency unit” – i.e. intensive care.  He went into hospital about two weeks ago for surgery related to his colon cancer (removing some lesions and scar tissue I believe) which was supposed to be relatively minor.  His colon cancer has been in remission for just over 5 years so this shouldn’t have been a problem.  However, all the smoking he’s done  over the years, including after being diagnosed with colon cancer, has damaged his lungs so badly that he hasn’t fully recovered from the surgery.  He’s lost about 25 pounds and is on oxygen and pain killers because he has a racking cough that is excruciating for him.  Since he’s in an ICU, there are very restricted visiting hours (2-3 in the afternoon and 6:30 -7:30 in the evening – only two visitors at a time).  Today was my turn to pop in and say hello – we decided that to wait before taking the kid’s so they stayed at the cousin’s house to play.  I’d like to say he looked fine but I’d be lying.  He’s on a feeding tube plus IV morphine and an oxygen mask.  Today he was particularly bad since he hadn’t slept much last night so he kept dozing off.  He’s alert sometimes and still tries to have a sense of humor but it has to be hard for him.  I feel for my mother-in-law, his wife of 54 years, who has spent all day everyday with him for about the last 15 years since they both retired.

After the visit, we picked up Duncan and Gillian to run some errands in the town then they went back to the cousin’s (with take away from McDonald’s in hand) to spend the night.  Frank and I went round to see his other brother and I hijacked their wireless connection (for yesterday’s post and some other work) and Frank took Una up to the hospital for evening visiting.  Later, we went out for a lovely italian dinner with Tom and Una before sitting up until the wee hours chatting.

/san/

[Pedometer: 15,384 or about 7.5 miles not including the 4.6 miles I ran in the morning!]