My Father's Fight For Life...Robert Joseph Fraga: December 25, 2009

Friday, December 25, 2009

December 25, 2009

Christmas Day 2009! Dad remains in ICU and everyone has gone to their homes to spend Christmas. Mom spends Christmas at home with Tammy, Taylor, Leah, Sheri, Brittney, Megan and Karlie. They try to enjoy what should be a joyous holiday, but everyone knows that things aren't as they should be. Every one's thoughts are with Dad. Ed,myself, Eddie, Joey, Tommy and Kelsey plan to visit Dad today. We are closest to the hospital, so we are fortunate that we can visit today. The kids are excited to see "Papa" today. We arrive and he smiles as always and we spend an hour or so talking and discussing the upcoming surgery for tomorrow. Dad continually tells us to go home and enjoy Christmas Day, but that just isn't possible and we know that he is only saying this because he is concerned about us and concerned that our lives should continue unchanged. We begin to prepare to leave and the nurse comes in to say that they are going to move Dad to a regular room! We are told if we wait, we can stay and visit with him in there for a while as the visiting hours are longer and not broken up. ICU visiting hours are every 2 hours on the hour: (10am,12pm,2pm,4pm,6pm,8pm,10pm) visiting (10-10:30am and so on). Regular hours are 10-8 continuously. We wait for the transport team to prepare him for the move. With all the tubes and cords connected to him, it takes quite a while to prepare him, but we make a little train of all of us and follow as he is moved to his new room on the 3rd Floor. It took so long to get him moved that by the time he reaches his room, we are needing to leave. Guilt sets in and we prepare yet again for the sad good byes. We all know that we may not see him again and this is nearly impossible to handle, especially on Christmas Day. The kids all kiss and hug Papa and Ed says good bye as well. They leave, but I must see him one more time. He is scared and anxious about the surgery tomorrow. I promise him that we will be there in the morning waiting for him to come out and that he will be fine. We pray together softly and say good bye for now. I love my father so much and try to control the tears. I don't want him to worry and seeing us upset only causes him more pain.

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Dad's Story

Dad's Story...Hello everyone. After nearly 10 weeks, I finally felt it was necessary to start a website for Dad where everyone can check on his condition and see what's happening in our lives. I hope to be able to update this often and my goal is to not only provide everyone with information on Dad, but to also allow Dad to see just how many of you love him and care about what is happening in his life. It has been quite challenging to keep everyone updated and our family is so thankful for all of you. We hope that everyone understands that making phone calls to each of you has become impossible and it is my hope that this will allow everyone to be kept abreast of the day to day changes with Dad. Thank you all for your love, calls, letters, cards and especially your prayers. And so here begins Dad's story: As many of you know, Dad was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer in December 2006. He underwent surgery to remove the tumor in February 2007 and the surgery went very well. The surgeons were pleased and since Dad was in such great shape at that time, he recovered pretty quickly. During the next nearly 3 years, Dad underwent radiation and chemotherapy. He suffered as many do with the side affects, but rarely complained. During this time, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior which was the answer to our prayers. His continued growth in the Lord has been a joy to share with him. We continue to cherish our time with Dad and thank God for every day he remains with us on this earth. Dad followed up with his doctors during the next 3 years and continued to receive positive reports on his remission. He and Mom celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary April 2009 and we threw them a big and wonderful party at their home in June that many of you attended. He had the time of his life that day and we didn't have any worries...except that his weight was low and that caused somewhat of a concern. Following this time, his weight continued to decline, finally reaching an all time low of 109 pounds. He was continuously having difficulty with eating in that he would eat or drink and then would cough the food or liquid up. He met with different doctors and was diagnosed pnemonia and Valley Fever, but things weren't adding up and his energy continued to decline. He scheduled to see his surgeon at Stanford that did his surgery 3 years prior; Dr. Whyte on 12/14/09. He and Mom went to Stanford and had the PET Scan necessary to see what was happening. They stayed at my home that night as they had to return to Stanford the next day to have an Endoscopy done to look into the throat. That night Dad ate a bowl of rice crispies that Ed prepared for him and I watched as he savored every bite. He was so weak that he never left the couch that evening. Whether or not he kept it down, I don't know, but I was thrilled he ate something! I planned to be at Stanford with them for the 12/15 procedure. I arrived just after the surgeons had finished his procedure. They came out to talk with Mom and I and said that there was a leak and that Dad would have to have surgery to repair it. They called it a Fistula. The stomach and lung had actually merged and food would enter his lungs through his stomach, this we were told was the contributing factor to his discomfort and weight loss. The doctors explained that they would schedule the surgery for a later time. I then explained to the doctors that my sisters and I were gravely concerned about Dad's sudden and severe weight loss. They told me that they were also concerned and felt the best course was to insert a feeding tube into Dad and send him home to gain weight. We would be trained on how to feed Dad through the tube. the hope was that he would gain weight and then have enough strength to have the necessary surgery. Inserting a feeding tube meant surgery immediately and I was very concerned that Dad would not agree to this. I was pleasantly surprise when he looked at me with those big brown eyes and agreed. He knew that this was the only option he had. He was just too weak at this point to undergo a surgery, I mean he couldn't even cough! That night Dad was admitted to the hospital and scheduled for surgery sometime the next day, Wednesday, Dec 16th, During the surgery to insert the feeding tube into his intestines Dad went into respiratory failure. The plan had been to insert the tube and send him home to put on weight, but instead Dad ended up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) It is here that we begin Dad's long and painful journey of regaining his health. More than anything we want him home with us.

We ask that you keep Dad in your prayers.

My Father's Fight For Life...Robert Joseph Fraga

Friday, December 25, 2009

December 25, 2009

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