Update on my Dad

As most of you know, my Dad has been very sick for the last few days. Here is the full story and a run down of his current condition.

Thursday evening he started getting a stomach ache. (I had a stomach flu on Wednesday but after a little medicine, recovered quickly, so we thought he caught what I had.) By Friday morning he was feeling really sick, could hardly eat anything, and spent the entire day in bed. Saturday, we took the bus from San Sebastian to Bilbao, Spain and he progressively felt worse. He barely ate a few spoonfuls of rice and ice cream, felt extremely weak and spent the day in bed again. My Dad is an extremely strong man and could eat a horse, so seeing him in extreme physical pain and not eating, Kim began getting very worried. He told us he needed to go to the hospital and we went right away, on Saturday night. He has been there ever since.

No one speaks fluent English at the hospital but a few people knew a FEW phrases. I could communicate for the most part with them on Saturday night. They ran blood and urine tests and took x-rays. The results concluded nothing but they wanted to keep him overnight in order to hydrate his body and run tests again in the morning.

By this time, Margaret was already on a plane headed for Rome. The doctors predicted he could be released on Sunday and my Dad insisted that I meet Margaret in Rome and they would be leaving Sunday as well. As soon as my plane landed in Rome, I called Kim when she reported that he was about to go into surgery. They thought there was a tear in his intestine but wouldn't know exactly until surgery. While in surgery, they discovered there Wasn't a tear but his intestines were paralysed. They hooked him up to a machine that drains his intestines and said they would begin to function on there own within a day or two. The surgery was on Sunday and it is now Tuesday and his condition has not changed. They are still paralysed. I have been in contact with Kim every couple of hours and he was able to sit in a chair and walk around a little bit today, which is a major improvement. As you can imagine, it has been very physically and emotionally difficult for my Dad, as well as Kim.

It has been really hard for me to be in Rome and not able to help them in Bilbao. My Dad, Kim and I agreed that it would be very unsafe for Margaret to be in Rome by herself and decided it was best for me to stay here. I am scheduled to leave Sunday, but we have another friend joining us on Friday so I will be returning to Bilbao on Friday.

There is Internet in the hospital waiting area but Kim cannot get her e-mail to work. The best thing to do is e-mail me and I can relay a message for you. If too many of us call her, it will probably become more overwhelming. I will post updates as I receive new information, as soon as possible. They are still struggling to find an adequate translator. Apparently there are translating services at the University but because of the holiday, no one is responding. Kim was advised to contact the US Embassy and we are hoping for a more immediate response! She also said the hospital staff has been extremely patient and helpful finding solutions for my Dad and working with the language barrier.

Thank you all so much for continuous support and prayers. This is a very difficult situation but God always has a plan.

Please don't hesitate to e-mail or message me!

p.s Rome is beautiful.