Too soon our last day at Disney World was upon us. My brother-in-law J and nephew J had to leave as they had another baseball game to play. That left my mom, me, Lulabell, my sis L and nephew C to pack up and check out. We took a last look around at our home for the last 2 days and I regretted not getting a chance to swim in the beautiful pool - Lulabell was upset at this too but we just didn't have time. We checked out and found our way back to the real world and stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast on our way home, which is a treat for everybody, right? We didn't get home until about 3 PM or so, which didn't give us much time to relax before we had to scoot over to my sister's house as Lulabell and I were having dinner with them and my dad that evening. I had seen my dad briefly on Thursday night and what I saw worried me a great deal. I had known that he had lost weight but when I saw him Thursday night, I was a little shocked. He has basically wasted away. The weight loss does NOT look good on him as he has always been a robust guy - not hugely overweight, but stocky and healthy-appearing. I instantly became suspect at his denials that he was "fine" because after 20 years in the medical field, I know he is not "fine". My dad has always had a thing about doctors and I know had not seen one in many, many years prior to his current situation. Now that he is on Medicare and medical insurance is not such a big issue, I hope that he is taking care of things. I noticed he had some lacerations and bruising over one of his arms and when I grabbed his arm to take a closer look I was shocked at how thin and frail his arm felt. We compared strange skin lesions (I have a patch on my leg that two doctors have yet to diagnose) and he showed me his legs and again, what I saw worried me. He definitely has some circulation issues, to say the least. In contrast, my dad's SO (significant other) M looked like a shining star next to my dad, and she has her own health issues she deals with, but looked at least 10 years younger than my dad! In short, my dad's health is definitely an issue and my sister and I are beyond worried. We are both in the medical field and we can tell, just by looking at him, that he is ill. The bad thing is, he won't tell us what's wrong with him and basically blows us off. That evening we all met up at my sister's house and my sister had a lovely surprise for me - a new bag! (my backpack had basically disintegrated at Disney World). She had given the exact bag to my mother for her birthday and I fell in love with it - especially as it is my signature color (lime green). She saw how much I liked it and she went and bought me a new one! THANKS! We all headed to the beach for dinner, with Lulabell and I riding with my dad and Lisa, M and C in the other car. It felt a little stiff trying to talk to my dad, what with the white elephant of his health just staring at us in the face, but we made small talk and parked and walked towards the restaurant. It was lovely and we sat the two kids together at a table on the patio and we took a table nearby. Dinner was nice, although the food wasn't what I would have expected a nice place on the beach - but we enjoyed ourselves and decided to take a nice walk on the pier just outside. We walked and talked a bit but then my dad was getting cold (this in and of itself is a huge thing - my dad is NEVER COLD) and so we headed back to the cars. I kind of expected that they would come back to L's house to visit some more but my dad wanted to get home and so we said our goodbye's right there on the beach. I wasn't sure how to feel about all this but my sister had been dealing with it for sometime and we both feel that we won't push him, he will tell us when he is ready. We all headed back to L's house with a quick pit stop at the store to get some dessert. My brother-in-law and J soon arrived from their game and we sat and talked a bit and had dessert. Then, it was time to say our goodbye's as Lulabell and I were heading home in the morning - it was over too quickly and we were sad to put an end to our visit (Lulabell cried in the car on the way back to grammy's). We had a fantastic time with them and I renewed my resolve that someday my sister and I would actually live near one another in the future. Back to grammy's for Sunday night TV and relaxing, washing our clothes to get ready to pack them up for the (sniff) trip home. Tomorrow, day 5 of our trip and the fun of traveling with a sick child - UGH!
No comments:
Post a Comment