I made it back to Nantucket

I am back on Nantucket exactly 3 weeks from the day I left, and I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind thoughts, your text messages, and your prayers. They definitely helped. My dad is not completely better, but he is better than before.

When Shay, my sister-in-law (usually a pillar of strength and not one you would want to cross...!), called 3 weeks ago, I could hear her shaking over the phone and I knew I had to go. My dad has been diabetic for over 2 decades, had congestive heart failure several years ago, and has been on dialysis thanks to kidney failure for the last 18 months. His heart normally functions at around 67% capacity ejection fraction....for those of you who don't know, 0% means you're dead and 100% means you're a miracle....and it was at 31% when I got there. He was so weak that the muscles used to swallow food had stopped functioning and we were forced to put him on a feeding tube. He was also incoherent some of the time. Talking to people that were not there and not even recognizing me some of the time. The doctors ran every test they could think of, but were not able to discover the reason for his sudden and rapid decline in health. They adjusted his medication and by the end of the first week, Dad was feeling better. He was even joking with the nurses. For instance:

Nurse, "Tom, you're looking better today."

Dad, "I ain't never gonna look too good."

Nurse, laughing, "Well, you look better than you did yesterday!"

And he did look better. So he was released from the hospital and I became his 24/7 nurse. He was embarrassed at first, but I was happy to do it. He took great care of me as a kid and I told him so. Each day he got better. I made sure he took his medicine, ate his food, hooked up his dialysis machine each night, and got some physical therapy each day (which usually consisted of walking across the yard, hopping in the pickup, and going for a long drive).

Unfortunately, he started getting nauseous by Sunday and after throwing up all night long, we ended up back in the hospital exactly one week later. Well, I spent another week in the hospital and he improved again. He is still in the hospital as I write this, but only because the doctor wants to make absolutely certain he won't be getting nauseous again. He'll be out by the end of the week.

It was nice to be able to go home and help out so much. I have two amazing parents. I was shocked at the number of phone calls, and visitors Dad received. He is a longtime AA member and has sponsored more people than I can remember. So many of those people called to lend their support and to tell me that he saved their life. How cool is that?!? It makes me proud to be his son.

I do wish he was better than he is and I feel guilty about coming back here to Nantucket. But my mom and brother said it was time for me to go, that I was a Godsend. I don't know about that. I'm real happy to be back with Michael again and we do really need to make as much money as we can this summer...but I'm ready to fly back at a moment's notice.

Thank you so much for all your kind thoughts. You really helped me through this.

-Ernest