Status on GPa Scott Day 5, Sunday, 4-20-08

My body alarm goes off this morning at 6, so not much sleep, but enough. I get ready to go to church and at 8 I am at the hospital planning on being there for about 45 minutes to visit dad and then off to church for sacrament. When I arrive at his room, there is a nurse just beginning to make another attempt to set a PIC line. She tells me that I can come in the room but that I will need to wear a mask since it needs to be a sterile room while this takes place. So I put on a mask and she says that I can help by holding dads hand to keep him from moving and making it difficult for her. He is still quite groggy, much like last night. He responds to requests with either nods or short answers. The nurse gets everything ready and makes the first poke. She is in the vein and takes the next step by inserting a wire which makes it about 3 inches in the vein before stopping. She pulls it out and sees that it is bent. She pulls the needle out and resets. She goes above the initial poke and tries again. No success. Resets and tries a third time and by now it's 845, time to go. But I can't. The nurse decides to try the other arm. Wow, they usually give up way before now. But not Susie. I get to know a little about this lady and who she is, what she believes, and what's important to her. After she cleans up everything and moves to the other arm, she replaces all the sterile necessities and begins again. First poke in the left arm, she doesn't even hit the vein. You need to know that each time she sticks dad with that needle, I have to turn my head because of the pain that it causes him. He winces, and I squeeze his hand and encourage him to keep enduring. When she fails to even hit a vein, I offer up a silent prayer. She resets and makes the second attempt. She hits the vein. She begins to insert the wire. It takes about two seconds. Incredible. She says something along the line of Praise the Lord. I said to her, "You must have said a prayer." She responds that she indeed had said a prayer. The conversation continues in more religious tone as she continues with the rest of the procedure in setting the PIC line. She calls for an XRay to check the placement. As she finishes cleaning up and the XRay people show up, I express my gratitude for her extreme efforts, and prepare to leave the room. She says that she would like to pray with dad and I. I quickly agree and we decide to wait until after the XRay. I go to the waiting room and ponder. I return to the room and she asks if I would still like to pray with her. Again, "Absolutely". She offers a prayer that is quite touching. As she concludes the prayer, I begin to express thanks for prayer, she is quite moved as well and gives a caring hug. As I return to the waiting room, I ponder what has happened this Sabbath morning and determine to write a letter and give Susie a Book of Mormon. As I finish the letter, Brooks and the children arrive. They visit with Grandpa and I prepare to go to the local chapel to get the book that I will give to Susie. As I go to leave, the Kraus' arrive to lend support. What a wonderful surprise. Soon, Greg and his boys will soon be arriving, and dad is watching the clock awaiting that. He is still quite groggy and it seems pretty bleak. I leave and make a trip to the chapel, and then to the airport. When I return, Grandpa is again still groggy, but very much aware of who is around him, and tries to answer, even though they are short answers, they are very much answers that he would give normally. We spend most of the rest of the day visiting together with him until Brooks leaves with the children. Saying your last goodbyes to your Grandpa or your father-in-law is not an easy thing. We are very uncertain what tomorrow holds, and it doesn't look very good.