In my last post, I told you about my dad who was so weak after numerous falls that he needed a mobile wheelchair to make life easier. He’d gone downhill in the last year and was getting progressively worse – so much so – that he scared us all to where we thought we’d lose him anytime.

And the nightmare finally happened when I took him to the doctor’s office on Tuesday. He was extremely tired and wheezing so badly that we used a wheelchair rather than let him walk. As soon as his doctor saw him, he ran out of his office and returned in a few minutes with an oxygen monitor and the tank.

His reaction scared me. But what scared me more was when he told Dad that he was a very sick man and needed to be in the hospital. Terror struck, when dad made excuses, hesitating to agree. OMG, I hated to force him to do anything he was against until the doctor warned him, and was obviously speaking to me too, that because dad wasn’t getting enough oxygen, he wasn’t clear-headed enough to make this decision.

So, I used his love for me by playing on his emotions. By saying it could be an easy fix. And if he let the doctor call an ambulance, get him in hospital where they could give him a checkup, just maybe they would be able to cure whatever had been happening to him over the last while. How sweet it would be if he could go back to his home, healthier and able to manage like he used to. I talked him out of his hatred for having to go back to hospital for the third time in as many months and promised I would be here with him, no matter what.

Long story – short!

After he got to the hospital and they took a bunch of tests, they couldn’t really find the underlying cause for his problems. Until his very smart doctor went back into his old files and found that dad had suffered a blood clot in the past. When they checked it out – miracle of miracles – that is exactly what has been happening to him again. With medications to shrink the clot and oxygen to build him back up, he walked around the whole ward twice today. He will be released on Monday and he feels better than he has in such a long, long time.

So…

What’s my best, most absolutely favorite Christmas present I could ever get?

The good Lord bestowed it to me this year.

More time with my beloved Papa John.

~*~*~

p.s. The Christmas village I display so proudly every year is made from stain glass by my talented father.