Til Death

  On June 16th at 10:20pm, my father was pronounced dead. Cause of death was a particularly aggressive cancer that invaded his bones and liver. Chemotherapy wasn't an option. It would've killed him even faster. He died peacefully in his bed. I watched as two guys from the funeral home removed his body from the house. I followed them out to the driveway and watched them load him into the hearse. When the Hearse door closed, the finality of the situation hit home and I broke down. Mom took his death hard. Now it's just the two of us until John and Annie move in.

  On a different note, on June 22nd, an ulcer in my gastrointestinal tract started bleeding. I was spewing bloody vomit and diarrhea and had to be rushed to the hospital. The ambulance trip was quite harrowing. I was gripping the gurney tightly as we sped to the hospital. When we arrived, a team of around a dozen people frantically began working on me. I had lost quite a bit of blood and was still vomiting in the ER. A bunch of IVs were hooked up, and blood was pumped directly into my femoral artery. I was a human pin cushion. They had to insert instruments down my throat to stop the bleeding.