| The Last Day I Saw My Dad |
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It was the morning of August 31st. I had brought some oatmeal to my dad in his room. He was on 10 meds for two weeks since he was out of the hospital the second time. We were waiting for his appt. with the Lung Specialist to see what was wrong with him besides the fact that he had burned his lungs with chemicals. As he picked at his oatmeal he said Cellina I see 3 black shadows. I asked him if they were good or bad. He replied that he didn't know. He just knew that they didn't like what he was watching on T.V. I asked what it was that he was watching. He said that it was Court TV and murder investigations. So I told him not to watch those shows anymore. So I read to him David and Goliath because he wanted me to read something out of the Old Testament. Then he fell asleep. I went to clean the kitchen and my mom came home. It was lunch time and my dad was craving a carne asada steak with tortillas. So when he was up I gave him insulin and he went into the living room huffing and puffing. I cooked him steak, strawberries, and tortillas with a sugar-free jello. All healthy foods all the time and organic, to heal his liver. He didn't even really eat a lot of it which was unusual. So he went back into his room. Then my mom tried to get him to take a shower. He refused. He told us that he wanted to go to the hospital ER again for the third time. I knew it was serious because the other two times we had to force him to go. My mom put a clean pair of clothes on him and his red ball cap to hide him from the sun which he couldn't go into. As she put his slippers half way over his swollen feet He said to my mom "You know that I love you, but I'm not coming back here" Then he said the Lord's Prayer in Spanish. He walked down the hall and into the kitchen and stopped and said "This is the last time I will see this house" He recited the Lord's Prayer again in Spanish. We just thought the medicine was making him go nuts. We drove to the hospital which was an hour away and through a really windy road. There was a huge car accident and two cars flew off the cliff in this canyon road. We then finally got to the hospital and waited 6 hrs for a bed. Of course because of Labor Day Weekend and all of the drunk drivers. They finally rushed my dad into a bed because he threw up half a grocery bag of blood in the waiting room. I was scared. Then when he got into a room they told my mom and I that his organs were shutting down. His lungs were still burned from the chemicals so they gave him an oxygen mask. My dad still didn't complain about any pain that he was having. The tests all proved otherwise. He was suffering this whole month and never told anyone. I felt guilty like I should've known. The nurses asked him "Sir, Sir have you ever had any Heart Problems?" My dad replied after catching his breath, Yes once my cow died! That was my dad and that was the last joke I ever heard him say. After two hours they got him to be stable and said that it was good that he was urinating. That doesn't usually happen. My mom and I had to leave, but my brother wanted to stay with him. We had to go to take care of the restaurant for the next day. It was about 3:00am. I had kissed my dad and said that I was praying for him and that is why he was urinating with bad kidneys. He nodded with the mask on. The doctors told us in another room that they were going to put a ventilator on him and comitose him. I never thought that that was going to be the last time I would talk to my dad. In Loving Memory of Rigoberto Moreno Palomo born Aug. 12, 1961-Sept. 14, 2007. |
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