Beach Trip and Doctor Visit

Dad and Mom joined our family at the beach for a few days. When we got here, Dad was full of energy and ready to go. He ate out twice and enjoyed two fish meals. We were so proud. By the second day here, his energy went downhill from there. He was sooooo tired and just couldn't get any energy. His face and lips however were improving by the minute. He actually wanted to stop taking all pain medication and went to plain old Tylenol. He really spent his three days here resting and napping. They left on Tuesday and on the way home, Papa mentioned he felt like he was dehydrated so they called the doctor and drove straight in to town to the office and got IV fluids. He immediately felt better. I talked to Dr. Hardacre and he reminded me that as we were noticing all the improvements in Dad's physical looks that his body was having to work really hard to do all that healing. He said it was like his body was running a mini marathon twice a day. Therefore, the tiredness and all the napping was to be expected. Putting it in perspective like that really helps. I just know how much if frustrates Papa to not have the energy that he is used to. My family prayed together really hard for Papa and his recovery. He had an appointment with Dr. Hardacre this morning and the first words out of his mouth were complete AMAZEMENT at his physical looks. He said that he couldn't believe how good he looked (that is the same thing we heard from all the doctors/nurses at the surgery) and that he didn't need to come back for 4 weeks! He said his healing looked about two weeks ahead of time! Praise God! HE is sooo good to us. Dr. Hardacre really stressed to us all the importance of Dad starting to eat more. As his body is healing it really needs a lot more than he is putting in. Realize that it isn't because Dad doesn't want to eat, it is just that the food still has such weird tastes and makes it so hard. He knows now that in order to replace all that has been destroyed and rebuild his energy he MUST try to eat...especially liquid (water) and proteins. We are on it...the Smith family mission to feed Papa! So join with us in prayer that Papa be able to eat more and more each day and that he continues to heal. Ultimately, that his PET/CT scan will come back "all clear" and we begin the next stage of rebuilding his teeth. God has been so good and so have you...all of our prayer warriors. We are so thankful.