Need Some Prayers and Positive Energy

Might I be so bold as to ask my blog friends to keep our family in their thoughts and prayers over the next little while.

My dad is not well. As I have stated in previous posts he is 88 years old and recently he has been unable to swallow due to a severe overgrowth of Thrush in his mouth and esophagus. He has suffered for years from GERD and a hiatus hernia, so this problem is just adding insult to injury.

He has not eaten any solid food since June 21st and is managing to get down ginger ale & thinned down Ensure, but only about 25-30 eye dropperfuls a day.

I have been with my mom and dad quite a lot over the past two weeks of his illness and have watched him lose an enormous amount of weight and go from sitting at his PC writing for 6-7 hours a day to lying in his bed or sitting for short periods of time in his favourite lazyboy chair.

This is not the dad I remember who has always been a very disciplined and driven man.

At his age, I fear that he will never recover completely from this.

Today he made a decision to give up his writing ministry - "Operation Balance" ... something he has loved for many, many years. To his credit this ministry has gained worldwide notoriety in religious circles. This is a life altering decision for both him and my mother who has edited the hundreds of thousands of words he has written over the years.

This feels like he is finishing the final chapter.

As our parents age, we all need to prepare for the inevitable conclusion of their lives - it is indeed the circle of life. But it is hard to watch the deterioration of a parent that was once so vibrant, so full of life and jokes and an extremely hard worker.

So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next while.