University, Family and Life in general
It's been a while for sure but I definitely have a lot to update about. For University, I passed all of my courses for this last semester of University which I'm extremely happy about. hah! I got one C+, two B's and one A-. ;D I also got a 100 (full points) on my American Courts paper which made me extremely happy! Also for my Soc Theory class, we had one last paper to write as well which I got a 97/100 on too! So yay me!! Now I just have to wait for my diploma to come in the mail which *crosses fingers* will be in March...but probably won't be until April *pouts*
And that's about all for Uni besides my graduation this fall (yes my University has a winter commencement). My parents, brother, Uncle and his girlfriend, my two cousins, best friend and her mom and another friend all came to my graduation so it was super nice to have them all there! Especially my dad...which I'll explain in a moment. It was so amazing being on the floor, watching everyone else graduate and then my name being called to shake the Dean's hand? Awesome because it was just so surreal. I could not believe that I was there. hah!
But back to Thanksgiving. It was super nice! And it was good to see my family and get together to make dinner and eat it with them. The only shocking part was seeing what my dad was going through. He had liver cancer and with your liver not being able to get rid of the toxins in your body, ammonia can build up and affect your mind. So my dad, on Thanksgiving, had that affect them and then on Friday, the next day, we had to take him to the hospital because he was in an "altered state of consciousness" which was really scary. I was never used to him acting that way...it was so unusual! So I stayed an extra day to be with my mom and help her get my dad from the hospital on Monday. I went back to school and it felt like every week after that, he was back in the hospital because of something. So the Wednesday before my graduation, December 18th, he was back in the hospital because of dehydration (not ammonia build up this time!) but was released the same day because the hospital was able to give him fluids. But they were able to make it to my graduation on Friday but he ended back up in the hospital the next day. And his kidney's were failing this time :/ But he made it once again and we came home Christmas Eve. And one might wonder why he couldn't have a liver transplant? Because his heart wasn't strong enough. He already had a heart attack in his mid-50s which hurt one of the main arteries to his heart. On Christmas day, the whole family, my uncle, my uncle's oldest son and his girlfriend, uncles youngest daughter and her husband and my uncle's youngest son were all the plus my parents and brother. It was so nice to have all the family around the table again because it was quite a bit of time since we were all gathered together.
And my mom only had to make a pork roast and rolls. The rest of the family brought the rest of the food so my mom did not have to be more stressed after getting my dad all settled from his hospital stay.
Then this past Monday, my parents received a call from my dad's liver doctor in San Francisco at the Sutter Health for Liver Disease and Transplant Center about having us come down to have my dad's health evaluated to see if he could get a liver transplant. We traveled down to Rohnert Park which is about an hour North of San Francisco and were planning on staying there for the night...but once we got in the hotel and all used the bathroom, my mom decided that my dad just was not acting right...so we drove the rest of the way to California Pacific Medical Center's ER and found out that my dad's blood pressure was extremely low which resulted in his heart rate being low and he was having a hard time breathing...they put IV's in to help his blood pressure and other issues he was having...and also put a breathing tube in. That was probably the scariest moment of my life and it just got worse...My mom and I went to a hotel for the night (morning actually since we didn't leave the hospital until 2:30 Tuesday morning) and we went back to the hospital the next day where we talked to a colleague of my dad's liver dr...and he said we needed to get my brother there (he lives in Ohio). So my brother flew in Wednesday late morning, we picked him up and drove back to the hospital where we told my dad that we loved him, we would take care of each other and that it was ok. We would be strong for him like he had always been strong for us in the past. The liver dr. came in around 2:30pm and said that it was time, his numbers weren't improving and we agreed. My dad did NOT want to be on artificial life support and we knew that. And that's what he would have been on because they were giving him the max amount of blood pressure medicine and he was not breathing on his own. He was also on round the clock dialysis and his numbers just were not improving. So we agreed that it was time to take him off of everything and make him as comfortable as possible and this was around 3pm. Four hours later, 7:12pm, my dad died on January 1st, 2014. He was 71 years old and my life will never be the same without him. But he no longer has to fight with liver cancer, no longer has to deal with the side affects of it and he no longer has to worry his family even though we will greatly miss him, we are happy in a way.
On this coming Wednesday, we are having a Celebration of Life for him and today, my mom brother and I were looking through all of the photos we have of my dad from various travels, birthday parties, years, etc. and are going to create a slide show for people to view. It's going to be held at my mom's work which is a huge relief and weight off of her shoulders and the community surrounding us is wonderful and there is pretty much nothing we could not ask for that people would not mind lending a hand in helping. My dad also is being cremated so he can be buried with my grandfather's coffin which is down in Southern California. Meaning that my mom, brother and I will most likely be going down in May because that's his birth month.
But...it's still hard and I will always miss my dad. And I will never be able to call him again but I know the fun memories I have with him highly, outweigh the hardship. Especially considering that he was healthy enough to come to Europe to visit me, come to my graduation and enjoy Christmas with us.
And that's about all for Uni besides my graduation this fall (yes my University has a winter commencement). My parents, brother, Uncle and his girlfriend, my two cousins, best friend and her mom and another friend all came to my graduation so it was super nice to have them all there! Especially my dad...which I'll explain in a moment. It was so amazing being on the floor, watching everyone else graduate and then my name being called to shake the Dean's hand? Awesome because it was just so surreal. I could not believe that I was there. hah!
But back to Thanksgiving. It was super nice! And it was good to see my family and get together to make dinner and eat it with them. The only shocking part was seeing what my dad was going through. He had liver cancer and with your liver not being able to get rid of the toxins in your body, ammonia can build up and affect your mind. So my dad, on Thanksgiving, had that affect them and then on Friday, the next day, we had to take him to the hospital because he was in an "altered state of consciousness" which was really scary. I was never used to him acting that way...it was so unusual! So I stayed an extra day to be with my mom and help her get my dad from the hospital on Monday. I went back to school and it felt like every week after that, he was back in the hospital because of something. So the Wednesday before my graduation, December 18th, he was back in the hospital because of dehydration (not ammonia build up this time!) but was released the same day because the hospital was able to give him fluids. But they were able to make it to my graduation on Friday but he ended back up in the hospital the next day. And his kidney's were failing this time :/ But he made it once again and we came home Christmas Eve. And one might wonder why he couldn't have a liver transplant? Because his heart wasn't strong enough. He already had a heart attack in his mid-50s which hurt one of the main arteries to his heart. On Christmas day, the whole family, my uncle, my uncle's oldest son and his girlfriend, uncles youngest daughter and her husband and my uncle's youngest son were all the plus my parents and brother. It was so nice to have all the family around the table again because it was quite a bit of time since we were all gathered together.
And my mom only had to make a pork roast and rolls. The rest of the family brought the rest of the food so my mom did not have to be more stressed after getting my dad all settled from his hospital stay.
Then this past Monday, my parents received a call from my dad's liver doctor in San Francisco at the Sutter Health for Liver Disease and Transplant Center about having us come down to have my dad's health evaluated to see if he could get a liver transplant. We traveled down to Rohnert Park which is about an hour North of San Francisco and were planning on staying there for the night...but once we got in the hotel and all used the bathroom, my mom decided that my dad just was not acting right...so we drove the rest of the way to California Pacific Medical Center's ER and found out that my dad's blood pressure was extremely low which resulted in his heart rate being low and he was having a hard time breathing...they put IV's in to help his blood pressure and other issues he was having...and also put a breathing tube in. That was probably the scariest moment of my life and it just got worse...My mom and I went to a hotel for the night (morning actually since we didn't leave the hospital until 2:30 Tuesday morning) and we went back to the hospital the next day where we talked to a colleague of my dad's liver dr...and he said we needed to get my brother there (he lives in Ohio). So my brother flew in Wednesday late morning, we picked him up and drove back to the hospital where we told my dad that we loved him, we would take care of each other and that it was ok. We would be strong for him like he had always been strong for us in the past. The liver dr. came in around 2:30pm and said that it was time, his numbers weren't improving and we agreed. My dad did NOT want to be on artificial life support and we knew that. And that's what he would have been on because they were giving him the max amount of blood pressure medicine and he was not breathing on his own. He was also on round the clock dialysis and his numbers just were not improving. So we agreed that it was time to take him off of everything and make him as comfortable as possible and this was around 3pm. Four hours later, 7:12pm, my dad died on January 1st, 2014. He was 71 years old and my life will never be the same without him. But he no longer has to fight with liver cancer, no longer has to deal with the side affects of it and he no longer has to worry his family even though we will greatly miss him, we are happy in a way.
On this coming Wednesday, we are having a Celebration of Life for him and today, my mom brother and I were looking through all of the photos we have of my dad from various travels, birthday parties, years, etc. and are going to create a slide show for people to view. It's going to be held at my mom's work which is a huge relief and weight off of her shoulders and the community surrounding us is wonderful and there is pretty much nothing we could not ask for that people would not mind lending a hand in helping. My dad also is being cremated so he can be buried with my grandfather's coffin which is down in Southern California. Meaning that my mom, brother and I will most likely be going down in May because that's his birth month.
But...it's still hard and I will always miss my dad. And I will never be able to call him again but I know the fun memories I have with him highly, outweigh the hardship. Especially considering that he was healthy enough to come to Europe to visit me, come to my graduation and enjoy Christmas with us.