2014-12-12 Taking Care of Father

Karen and I flew back home to Seattle on Tuesday, 9th, to help take care of Karen's father. He's been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer.

It was great to see Dick, but sad to see that he's changed so much since we left in September. He's gotten older.

Karen's brother, Vern, has been taking care of Dick and he has set up a downstairs room for Dick to sleep in. Additionally, he has rearranged the attached laundry room and he is installing a walk-in shower.

After a few days here we have fallen into a routine of care. I stay the night and take care of Dick's needs when he wakes up 2 or 3 times each night. Karen sleeps at home and then picks up food, clothes, or medicine any of us might need. She comes over and stays til 9pm.

Vern is working on upgrades to his place for Dick. He also needs to work on his construction business. We took the motor home over to Dick's old home and cleaned out the gray and black water tanks. The motor home is now parked here at Vern's house and we'll winterize it.

I've been going through the motor home and cleaning it up and removing personal papers that are in there. I've gathered Dick's mail and organized it for our future needs.

Karen and I take care of Dick during the day, make the meals, help him get onto his walker, play gopher when Vern needs our help, keep our families informed of Dick's condition, and work with Hospice on Dick's care. After dinner we all seem to take care of him.

It feels so good to be retired and to be able to spend this time taking care of Dick. We had our 3 months out on the road, we got to see the Rogers' in Texas, and now we'll comfort Dick and help the family as we all deal with this disease.