Health Update

Loyal blog followers,

Another guest columnist today - this is Katie, Jerry's daughter.  Unfortunately, I write to inform you that Dad is no longer in a state where he is able to post to his blog.  But, in the interest of keeping the people who care about him the most informed, I'm going to try to give you an accurate update of his status.

To back up a bit, Dad married my brother Mike and his (now) wife Kris on Saturday.  Yes, that's right,  he actually married them.  This past Saturday.  By himself.  He performed the ceremony himself (beautifully, articulately, and heartwarmingly -- typical Dad) from his wheelchair.  On top of that, he was up until all hours of the night hanging out, chatting, reminiscing, and Dad-ing with the family.  He even outlasted my husband, who was desperately longing for sleep about 3 hours before Dad even considered heading to bed!

But his health has taken a significant turn for the worse since then.  Overnight on Sunday, he had significant problems breathing, and was having breathing-related panic attacks all night and for much of the day yesterday.  The hospice care nurses were in crisis mode yesterday dealing with this new breathing problem, and ultimately, the only viable solution was to give him enough morphine and other drugs to both help with his breathing and help him avoid the panic attacks that are inherently linked with breathing attacks.  The drugs were very helpful, and he was comfortable yesterday.  But today, again, his health has declined even more.  He's having even more trouble breathing and is highly agitated but not truly conscious.  The hospice nurse told us this afternoon that he has days left.

Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we go through this very, very difficult time.