News about Don....

I havent written much here about the situation with my Father in law. Mostly because it feels so private and painful that I dont want it to seem trivialized on a blog. However, the few times I have posted something I have received numerous comments with words of encouragement and offers of prayers. I know that there are some of you out there that care deeply about the Shannon family and may not get an update without seeing it here so I decided to post this tonight with a little more detail than usual.

Don is home now. He went into the hospital last week because he couldnt move his bowels and it was backing up into his stomache. This caused him to become septic and he was barely breathing. He was put on a ventilator and things looked grim. A couple of days later, they were able to take him off of the ventilator and he was breathing on his own and doing better. They were pumping antibiotics into him to control the infection. Unfortunately the good news did not last and the doctor basically said he would have to keep going on and off the ventilator and he was too weak (white cell count almost nothing) to have the surgery needed to give him a colostomy bag...which would have allowed him to go home and keep him from becoming septic again. With that news Don decided he did not want anymore life preserving treatment and he just wanted to go home. He is home now with hospice care and the feeling is it will only be a matter of days. We are extremely saddened by the situation but know that when he passes he will feel so much relief to be out of his sick and broken body.. Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers.....