Jim Parker - RIP

My stepfather, Jim Parker, passed away last night. It was a surprise or maybe it wasn't a surprise. He had been in two hospitals over the last five weeks after surgery to try to find out why he was having breathing difficulties. It was pretty much determined that he had fibrosis (can't remember the proper name) that may have been the result of being exposed to asbestos in his younger years working in construction and in housing units that he helped maintain for the city. From what I know about asbestos exposure, it is a nasty way to live after it makes itself known. There is no cure.

Both he and Mom had their surgeries the same day. She had gone in to repair a broken wrist, just day surgery. Jonnene drove her to the clinic for her procedure and I drove Jim over to LSUMC for his surgery. I hate, now, thinking that when we drove away from their house that it would be the last time Jim would ever see it. I had a suspicion of the possibility but I was hoping for the best. In fact, all during the time Jim suffered through the recovery from the surgery I felt he would get to go home at some point, even as late as yesterday afternoon. This past week had started hopeful as he was being weaned from his oxygen and starting some therapy. He was happy to get out of that hospital bed and move around a little bit. But Friday morning his CO2 levels were very high and it was hard to wake him. He was put back on oxygen in an attempt to purge the CO2's out of his blood.

Jonnene went up to check on him during her lunch hour and he was rousing some, recognized her being there. When Mom had gotten the news that morning she was upset but relieved some when she got Jonnene's call and update on his condition. I went up there to see him later in the afternoon and Mom had already been there for a couple of hours. His breathing was labored and you could hear him trying to cough up the gunk in his lungs but he didn't have the lung capacity to get enough air to cough it up at all. We were able to talk to him, he wanted to know where his glasses were but didn't want to put them on. Mom and I talked about things regarding Jim and his condition plus some other things.

I left around 4:40 pm to go pick up a couple of items at Target and I thought he was going to improve after he'd had the weekend to recover a bit. I was already thinking we'd get him out of the hospital for a day over the next week. He looked so sad and so tired...we knew that the only thing he wanted was to just go home, even for a short while. Was that so much to want?

Anyway, Mom left soon after I did. She gave Jim a kiss, he kissed her back, and they told each other that they loved each other. She went to the grocery store to get a few things.

I was home with Jonnene when we got the call around 5:45 pm to come back to the hospital because there had been a change in Jim's condition. That's not good news. Then Mom called, upset. She was still in her car when she got the call and wanted to know if we knew anything. We didn't and soon we were on our way back to Willis-Knighton.

When we had gotten those calls the staff on Jim's floor was working to resuscitate Jim. His nurse, Jonathan, had been at the front desk making notes of Jim's condition by checking the monitor there. Jonathan told us later that as he looked at the screen Jim went from having a pulse to virtually no pulse, just like that. It stunned Jonathan for a second and he and others were in Jim's room in seconds since it was just 15 feet away. They tried for 15 minutes to bring him back. We met Mom in the parking lot and went upstairs where they told us he was gone.

So, anyway, this bear of a man who liked to sing and dress as Santa Claus for kids was gone. Now we have to deal with the funeral arrangements and trying to keep Mom in one piece. To say she is sad is an understatement. At the time of this writing there are no plans in place but we'll take care of most of that later today.

I had been hoping we could sneak him home for a while to see his dogs and be in familiar surroundings. I don't think the remainder of his life would have been of any kind of quality that would remotely resemble anything good. At least he's not in pain anymore and the last 26 years with Mom was probably the next closest thing to heaven he could have ever wished for. Mom's face was the last one he saw and I think that would satisfy him.