Started the day early, we got up at 0500 for the 0600 departure to the airport. The limo was late, he arrived at 06:09 which complicated the entire trip.
Checking in at the airport was a little slow, there were significant lines. The security lines were really long, that took about an hour to get through. All in all we got to the gate after they had boarded our zone.
K went to McDonalds to get an Egg McMuffin and a cup of coffee. Main 1 was almost boarded by the time we boarded. The overhead bins were full for three rows back so I had to put my bag almost 5 rows toward the rear of the plane. My CPAP didn’t fit under the seat so it went into the bin across from us. (That later proved to be fatal because we never retrieved it.)
The weather is cooler than Atlanta, quite comfortable to be outside except in the middle of the day.
Both my parents are a bit frail and need a little help with the larger tasks of owning a home. A good benchmark for a reference is that they cannot take the garbage can out without using the car to pull it.
We have a little experience with long distance help because of N’s move off of her farm. It feels overwhelming to try and help them sort and simply their lives to where they both are able to sustain themselves without help. Virtually every horizontal space is occupied within the home and the garage with piles of stuff/unfinished projects.
K and I had cereal and the parents had pancakes and coffee for breakfast. I filled the sprayer with roundup to knock down the plants on their land. (It’s not grass, maybe weeds, but it looks more like shrubs.)
We have a Doc appointment this morning at 09:30, we’ll be moving into the car about 09:00.
We were going to stay in the “Toy Hauler” but the Air Conditioning died. The fallback was to stay in the garage but it has a pretty strong oil smell I haven’t located yet. We slept on the living room pull-out bed last night. It was comfortable and we slept pretty well cept for not having my CPAP for the first time in 5 years.
Delta Airlines said fill out a lost item form, so I filled out one and submitted it yesterday. It would surely be helpful to have my CPAP for tonight!
It appears that F doesn’t drive much, P is quite rusty, we had a couple close calls coming back from the airport yesterday. Dad will often fall asleep when he settles down in a chair.
Went to the doc and received some news about the cancer. F has small cell lung cancer, which is linked to smoking. This kind of cancer spreads quickly, usually found after the cancer has spread to other organs, responds well to chemotherapy and cannot be completely “cured”. Chemotherapy can stop the cancer from growing for maybe 8 months and then it will come back resistant to the previous treatment.
We do not know what is in the lump about the size of a hunk of silly putty on the top part of dad’s head.
Dad has one ear that resonates with his voice, so he talks softly. He believes the eardrum is perforated.
Dad’s left hip causes him pretty severe discomfort when stressed and makes getting into and out of cars quite difficult for him.
Dad’s right side is quite sore where his liver is. (Also where the biopsy was taken.)
Oxygen bottles and concentrator arrived today, ordered by the doctor for 24hr use to improve his blood oxygen levels.
If things go as planned, we are headed to the hospital tomorrow just before lunch to start chemotherapy. Yes that’s tomorrow… We’ve tossed the idea of dad being in the hospital for 3 to 5 days since F is so weak. We are not sure if P has the energy to stay with him for some part of the day. We are discussing staying in Vegas until the Chemotherapy is complete. That has some benchmarks like getting a CPAP sent out here by Saturday or I’ll have to go home as planned on Tuesday.
Big day tomorrow, M
