Prayers for my Father

[Dragon Lady]

Last year I lost one of my heros, my Uncle Roy who was a vet of WWII, Korea, & Viet Nam, he was also a POW in Germany.

Last night I received a call from my sister that my father is doing very badly. He has COPD, which was brought on by years of smoking and the damage from emphezyma (sp?). He is also suffering from Congenitave Heart Failure. So you see, it doesnt sound good.

My Papa is a Vet of Korea & Viet Nam. Although he never served in those arenas. He was Air Force, just like me. He was a telephone lineman. He would go in to help return communications and helped bring both Germany & Japan up to the modern ages. He received a Purple Heart when he fell from a pole and broke his back in Japan in 1968.

Even with this massive injury he managed to come back and continued to serve his country for a total of 20 years. He is the one who taught me compassion. He taught me my work ethics, that just because it doesnt go the way you want, you stick with it and make it work. He was the one who would bring home G.I.'s from the base hospital at Yokota for Sunday dinner at our house. The holidays were always filled with people. We had 7 kids, what was a few more appetites?

I know that the chances he will recover are very slim and these may be his last days. If that is the case then please pray that he goes gently into that cold dark night. But if this isnt his time, then please let him heal that we may all benefit from his smile and positively contagious personality!

This is so hard! I was ready when my mother passed. She was sick for so long and we all knew and prepared. I'm not ready for this!

It hurts.

I Love You Papa!

[BLUEHAWK]

Go easy DL... easy now.

All prayers for you and your Dad... there will come a time for his peace, and he pretty much knows right when it is to come, and it is his choice, would be my guess.

I'll venture this one more idea, as we are all together here and now... did you ever or constantly say to your Dad that you did NOT want to talk about the end time when he was trying to bring it up gently?

[SparrowHawk62]

My thoughts are with youself and your Dad.

[DMZ-LT]

Baby steps , girl , baby steps. Don't worry what ain't happened yet. Be sending angels his way. Keeep movin. Peace

[Tina]

you and yours are in my thoughts and prays..
but like LT said take it in baby steps..

prays are on there way..
love ya
your friend and God Bless,
tina

[Arrow]

DL,

Your Papa is quite a man. He sure gave you a magnificent code to live by. I know he is proud of you. One day at a timelittle girl. That's the best you can do. Stay strong. My heart goes out to you. I'll pray exactly as you asked. It is always the better way to hold them gently because we know they are not ours forever and yetit maybe that we will see their smile a bitlonger than we anticipated.

Arrow>>>>>>

[Stick]

Prayers going up.
Father, show our sister and her Papa the Light and shine it on their path to You.
DL. It's not a dark cold night but a bright warm homecoming to the Father that we all strive for.

[catman]

DL...prayers on the way, keep your head up now and let us do some of the work.

Trav

[Dragon Lady]

Thanks Everyone,
Papa and I have always had an open and honest relationship. We've talked about this many times. He even told me he decided to leave his body to science. I may not agree with that, but I listened and it is his decision.
I'm just not ready to lose him. Daddies are supposed to be 12' tall and bullet proof. Chasing the evil monsters from under the bed (I still sleep with my legs curled up!). They are not supposed to be 5'6" (and shrinking), frail people.
I'm taking each moment. It's just so difficult to take in all at once.
I know my mom is waiting for him. They were always in love; for over 50 years they were together. I've felt her presence this weekend and I know she is trying her best to smooth things as she always did.
I'm just not ready to lose Ol'Papa Joe. I don't know one human being who has ever met him that has anything bad to say about him. Everyong loves this man and I don't know if he knows that or not. To be so rich in all that is most important. He's certainly not perfect but he is everything I have ever wanted to be. I have tried so hard to tell him that and to show him how much he means to us, to me.
God gave me an extra special Christmas present this year when he made sure that my dad was in good health so he could travel to Seattle for the holiday and his birthday. Because it was then that he met my oldest child for the first time and she told him that he was going to be a great-grandpa. I wish I could have seen his eyes.
I'm doing it again, I'm rambling and I need to get busy.
Thanks for being here and allowing me to vent some of this.
Thank you too for your prayers.
DL

[revwardoc]

Dragon Lady,

While I've never been particularly religious, I'm sure God won't refuse to hear my prayers to take care of a fellow vet in his time of need.

http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/iipcache/390.png

[reeb]

DL,

My prayers go with him and you.

will not be awarded the Purple Heart as they clearly were not injured as a result of enemy action, but rather by their own negligence.

As i just put on here,

How in reality did your dad receive the PH? You said that he fell from a telephone line. Why and How, and never in combat areas.

Just curious !!

enough.........

[MORTARDUDE]

May God Bless !!!!

Larry

[Dragon Lady]

Reeb,
I honestly don't know how dad got that PH other than the story he told us.
Only two things I can think of...
One - Somebody put him in for it and was able to pull some sort of rabbit out of a hat trick.
Or
Two - He got it for some other reason and just won't tell. There were many times that Dad went out on remote tours or TDYs to odd places. I always thought he worked on telephones...who really knows.

One thing for sure, he never flaunted it or was especially proud of it. In fact I never knew about it until I came acrossed the medal stuffed in some old dusty box in the attic. His uniform had the ribbon on it among a few others, but I never really had a reason to question him.
I do know that he really did serve because we spent many years travelling from AF base to AF base. And lets face it Base housing certainly isnt an exclusive neighborhood estate.

Someday I make look closer at his service record, but not today. I would rather believe he is my hero than have my dreams shattered right now. It certainly isn't all that important.

[Dragon Lady]

Update:

First of all thank you to each of you for your heartfelt prayers and well wishes.

As for Pops, well, yes he is experiencing congestive heart failure. but now he has other issues. He has pneumonia and "a dark mass" on his lung. Doc doesn't know if it is A) Tumor; B) TB; or C) Valley Fever. So they are doing a biopsy tomorrow (wed) morning. My sister called the VA and told the "kid" who answered the phone that she understands that Dr Whosie Whatsits doesn't work there anymore but she REALLY needed to speak with him and is there anyway she could get his contact info? The "kid" connects her directly to Dr. Whosie Whatsits direct line. Turns out he is one of the HeadDudeWhatsInCharge at the VA in Tucson. All she had to do was say, "hi its me". and he knew exactly who she was. (I Love My Sissy!) She told him about how dad and he told her to bring him in, that he would have a team of doctors waiting for them at the door. Guess what...they did! He is resting much more comfortably now that he is receiving treatment. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. He is a high risk for surgery. But he is pretty stubborn, hmm wonder where I get that from?
I wish I could go down but I'm fighting off a bad cold at the moment and I certainly don't want to pass that on with everything else the poor guy has. So I sit and browse the airlines for the best flights.

Thanks again everyone. Dont know what I would do if I didn't have your collective shoulders. I appreciate it, really I do.
DL

[Keith_Hixson]

I'm praying for YOU! and your Father.

Thinking about his PH. My guess is he got while on assignment in a combat Zone. 1968 = Vietnam. The telephone pole may be correct and the broken back correct but the location was probably Vietnam and something happened while under fire.

Anyway, praying for you father.

Keith

[Dragon Lady]

Well now that I've had a chance to catch my breath and wrap my head around this mess. I'm doing a bit better. Thanks again to everyone for putting up with my panic attack.

It turns out that Pops is in Stage III of "non-small cell lung cancer" and he is exhibiting three out of the seven classic symptoms. The docs at the VA in Tucson are well versed in the ways to treat this awful disease. His outlook is still rather ambiguous...life expectancy is anything from 6 weeks to 6 years. I swear they are taking pointers from the weather guy who calls for 2"-12" of snow!

They cannot operate on him because his lungs are so bad from the 50 years of smoking. So they are going to try other methods. Hopefully they can improve his quality of life. The tumor is causing him coughing fits and a great deal of anxiety. They are treating the coughing to quiet it down so he can at least sleep.

So, I'm planning on taking a little trip to the warm country. I wanted to say again,

THANK YOU!
DL

[DMZ-LT]

Angles on your 6 DL. Opa the orphin

[MORTARDUDE]

DL :

Please call me anytime at home 901.386.7244.

My mother is 80 years old. She takes 14 kinds of meds each day. She has severe COPD / emphysema ( is on oxygen 24/7 ) has cirroshis of the liver ( auto immune..not caused by alcohol ), gout, borderline diabetes caused by the meds she is taking for COPD, and some other ailments. She trusts in God and is one of the most holy people I know. As I stated many times, she prayed me out of Vietnam and Cambodia intact.
We joke that she has a direct line to God, and I believe it. Until a person gives up totally, there is always hope. She may live another 20+ years. My best friend from high school was told last February 2003 he had 3 - 6 months to live due to aggressive prostate cancer that had spread to his spine in only 3 months. he is a still alive over a year later and the cancer has STOPPED spreading. he is also very religious. God answers prayers. Just believe it. I would urge you to get a video camers and a tape recorder and start recoding everything you father has to say about his life. My greatest regret in my 55 years is that I did not have time to tell my father I loved and appreciated him when he died. I can still see his face as I waved at him in ICU the day before St. Patrick's Day in 1986. You and your family are in my prayers !!!

Larry

P.S. : My wife's uncle was a telephone lineman / electrician for the US Army in Vietnam in 1968. He contracted a rare form of spinal cancer 7 years ago, and he was supposed to only have 6 months to live and he is still alive and in good health....

[Dragon Lady]

Larry,
Thank you for your very kind words of encouragement. I think now that the shock of it all has worn off and we are starting to work on the issues at hand; it is getting a little easier to deal with.

I guess the hardest part of all is the fact that I work for one of the country's leading medicinal chemical research labs and I can't even cure my own father. Its not for a lack of trying. These guys are working 70+ hours per week on all sorts of stuff but it isn't easy. It takes so many years to take a compound from a few milligrams of raw material to an efficable product for human use.

In the meantime we can work with his doctor to come up with the best combo of treatments to make his life better. Anything has to be better than his continuous cough and gasping for air. Its so unnerving when he jumps up gasping like he's drowning. They are also treating him for anxiety which I now understand is common in COPD and lung cancer patients. I can't say that I blame him for that. If I couldnt breathe I would be rather anxious too.

God Bless you and your mother. I hope you have many more enjoyable years together.

Thanks again,
DL