NPO

For the past week and a half, I have been away from my husband and children to return to my parents as my dad becomes more and more frail.
His health has been in decline for over 3 years, and when I left my home to return to Wisconsin, I wondered if I would be in time to say good bye to him.

As it turns out, he is over the crisis, though not out of the woods.

NPO looks like a simple set of letters, but what it means for Dad is that he can no longer eat or drink. He told the nurse last night that being denied water was torture. Since he is mostly unable to speak, that word haunts me today.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that because he has become non verbal, his mind is elsewhere. Dad knows what is going on and still has his opinions. One of them right now is that he wants to go back home.

I pray that he can do that.