Lisa's Dad

Hi everyone,
(This blog is really from Lisa, borrowing Matt's blog.) This is a quick e-mail about some sad news. I sent an e-mail earlier to some of you, and then thought of the blog. My dad has had a stroke. It was a minor one, but it has started some seizures that will not stop. This began on Friday (7/8). The seizures are petit-mal (small), but are coming every 15-20 minutes. His brain is bleeding. They have dropped all the medications except phenobarbital in order to focus on stopping them. Right after the p-b goes in, they slow down for a little bit, but that doesn't last long.

He is beginning the last and final stage of Alzheimer's. One of the symptoms in this stage are the seizures. They start small, sometimes become grand mal, but when they are taking place over 50% of the time, death will soon follow.

A long time ago we made the decision to not prolong life, so he is DNR with no feeding tube or nutrition. If the seizures do not stop soon, he will not last long. If the seizures do slow down, then the focus will be on eating/drinking. Yesterday he was concscious (sp?) and swallowing water, today he is not either conscious or swallowing, but he's not in a coma.

We are all leaving the afternoon of 7/11 (not 7/13 as I said in the email; I was looking at the wrong month), and plan to arrive sometime Tuesday. As of now, we're planning to stay until about Saturday and then head home, though it's possible I will stay longer depending on what is going on.

I'll probably put Mark or Matt in charge of blogging every couple days. We'll also keep Dave&Amy and/or Dad&Norma informed by phone. Call if you'd like.

Lisa cell: 1-801-510-5473
Mark: 1-801-430-4601
Matt: 1-801-510-4629

Carmen Garcia's house: 1-505-523-9430

Thanks for loving us and keeping us in your prayers. I love you all. Thanks so much for loving me and being family.

LISA and family