8 January 2009
Thursday, 10:00 AM
I am sorry I have not posted anything in almost 2 weeks. It seems that I ended up trying to better deal with David’s decline by avoiding writing about it.
Since I last posted at Christmas, David continued to gradually decline. His appetite became less and less and it became more difficult to get his medication administered on schedule. His morning alert time became shorter and the level of alertness went from his right eye being fully open with his left eye partially open down to the point where only his right eye was partially open. The muscles on the left side of his neck began to constrict and his head started to pull down to the left.
His ability to show us some recognition also declined. On Christmas morning, David gave Mom the “OK” hand signal when she wished him Merry Christmas and Sabine told me he gave her a raised eyebrow expression when she gave him a kiss. He slowly lost his ability to squeeze that he still had in his left hand.
By Tuesday the 6th of January, it became too exhausting to David to move him from his bed to the living room and the decision was made to leave him in bed. By this time, he had lost all ability to use his legs to help with getting out of the chair and his head was no longer pulling to the left. He had become completely limp and unable to assist with eating or drinking and as of noon we were no longer able to get his medications administered to him. He continued to rest comfortably and looked completely at peace.
I had been over at Mom’s Tuesday the 30th of December through Saturday the 3rd of January every day, but then it became necessary to get some personal things done. I was in contact with Mom and Dad every day and had instructed them to call me immediately if there were any changes in David’s condition. That time came yesterday morning. Dad called me at about 9:00 AM and said that David’s breathing had changed and become very shallow so I should come over. I told him I would finish taking care of a few things I was working on in my job search and that would allow me to let the dogs out one more time a little later and I would be over between 11:00 and 12:00. Dad called again at about 10:30 and said David had a fever of 106 degrees. I quickly finished up around the house and was at Mom’s just before noon.
As I arrived, Fr. Charles Brock was here and had just finished administering Prayers at Time of Death. David’s breathing was very shallow and erratic. David was given some Tylenol to attempt to fight the fever, but at 2:00 it was still 105.1 degrees. Over the next few hours, David’s pulse was 135-150 beats per minute and his blood pressure gradually started to decline. His fingers were turning blue because with his breathing being what it was, he was not getting enough oxygen. At one point his breathing was quite shallow and his breaths were quite far apart, but then he started breathing much more deeply and with not nearly as much time between breaths.
At about 5:45, Missi had already arrived, so we were all here and I think somehow David knew. Earlier in the day, I had placed my hand on David’s chest to feel his heartbeat. It was easier than using the blood pressure machine. I am not sure why, but something told me to place my hand on his chest to see what his heart was doing. It had been pounding for hours at this point. I was unable to feel anything, so I tried the blood pressure machine and was unable to get it to give me a reading. I had Mom try it, but she also had no success. We tried the machine on ourselves and it worked fine, so we knew at that point the end was near.
David was surrounded by the love of his family and we held him and told him that it was okay to go now. That we would be okay and that he had fought long and hard and most importantly that he had many, many people on this earth that were glad he had been here and that he had helped since his diagnosis through his work and his website. His breathing had become shallower and there was still no sign of a pulse. David’s breathing slowed until at 6:22 PM he drew his last breath, his eyes came slightly open and he was gone.
We stayed with David and talked to him and were amazed at how peaceful he looked. He had the little grin that we saw from him in recent weeks and just looked totally at peace. As the evening progressed, Mom, Dad and I talked about David and what he had brought into our lives and the lives of so many others and were all struck by the sense of relief we shared that David didn’t have to struggle or fight any longer.
Arrangements are being finalized today and will be made known as soon as possible. We hope to have that done later today.
Mike Welch
