Lord have mercy on all of us who call upon Him.
I humbly request your prayers once more for my father, John, who has apparently been in the ICU of a local hospital in our home area since yesterday, when he was found unresponsive and breathing with great difficulty. He has not regained consciousness, though the attendant I just spoke to said that he is likely to, if they can get the level of ammonia in his blood back down to non-lethal levels. The question is really what will happen after that, as he needs a level of help that it is beyond any of our family to give him, and because of the nature of the disease (which causes dementia-like symptoms), he is not aware that anything is wrong in the first place, and hence not at all likely to accept the reality that he needs to go into a long-term care facility. Worse still, he is known to become combative and threatening, both in response to suggestions that he needs to modify how he is living as a concession to the reality of his medical situation, and purely as a manifestation of the disease itself (e.g., thinking that others are 'plotting' against him, which was his charge against me the last time I mentioned that he needed to get into some kind of managed care).
I just don't know what to do anymore. He's absolutely out of control and has effectively cheated death several times already when it comes to this issue, and yet for some insane reason I cannot fathom he is still being given the veto over what should happen next, so it doesn't really matter that the entire family and everyone he knows (friends, former roommate, N.A. sponsor, etc.) are all in agreement on this; if he doesn't want to do it (which he doesn't), and thinks we're all 'against' him for even mentioning it (which he does), then it's not going to happen and he will be let free to be out in society like any normal person, even though he is clearly a danger to himself and everyone around him due to his frequent lapses (often behind the wheel) into a catatonic or psychotic state.
Help, Lord, Your suffering servants. I'll probably be taking a break from CF to deal with all of this, but I appreciate any prayers or remembrances.
