Saturday, April 16, 2011

WWDD or What Would Dad (want me to) Do?

10th day in intensive care with my dad. Acute renal failure brought us in, brought on by bladder cancer. He has so many different issues going on at the same time that treating him is a real challenge. I want, so desperately, to know what he would want me to do if he had all his faculties about him. The thing about hospitalizations with him is that every time he goes in for something, his vascular dementia gets exponentially worse til he gets back to the rehab facility which, sad to say (or thankfully, depends on which way you look at it) is like home to him right now. So do I opt for 5 weeks of radiation which would mean staying down here in the Texas Medical Center til treatment was done? And this is only if the infection in his left kidney can be lessened by a bigger tube that they're about to insert here in about an hour or so. Or do I "throw in the towel" as one doctor so hurtfully said? When the folks in Palliative Care talk to me, they say I need to do what Dad would want me to do and that there's a lot to be said for "comfort care". Dad does have a Directive to Physicians but it's a pretty broad document and mostly references life support, not really answering my dilemma of what to do right now. Decisions really don't get much harder than this.

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