Overview and e-mail sent out

Dear family and friends:

I know that some of you have heard and my apologies to those who haven't, but Dad has been really sick and not expected to pull through. For an overview, Dad had not been feeling well and when he went in for initial tests it was revealed that he had cancer which was definitely in the liver (not sure where it started and has been identified as "ampulatory cancer"). He was scheduled to speak with an oncologist for discussion of treatment and further tests, but before he was able to meet with him, he developed an infection and was placed on an iv antibiotic - because it was an iv, they had him go to Heritage Harbor (HH) nursing and rehab center. From this initial infection he recovered and he was looking pretty good, all things considered and we were looking towards getting him discharged, home and to the oncologist. Then it all began to unravel, HH thought he might have pneumonia, so sent him over to Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) for treatment. When he arrived there, they found out that he had an infection again and began treating that - no pneumonia, but fluid in the lungs. He then contracted sepsis - "sepsis is a systematic responses to infection, which causes organ failure and death in severe cases. But early diagnosis and appropriate treatment can greatly improve survival rates," http://sepsis.com/index.jsp. Followed by contracting ecoli, Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), there is yeast in his bloodstream and now a third or maybe even a fourth infection has set in. His body is not reacting to the antibiotics he has been on to fight these infections. His platelets continue to drop, his immune system is failing, a feeding tube was put in through his nose and he is discombobulated/disoriented. He has had to be put in restraints twice, once because he tried to get out of the bed and the second time when he pulled out his feeding tube. We have been basically told by the Dr.'s that the end is near. Janine and Mom are meeting with Hospice today to explore our options. The dr.s are saying anywhere from 2-3 days to 1-1.5 week for Dad to live.
I have a blog and have been updating it with Dad's condition and the news that we received. I have also written more stuff in my entry's but it is not necessary to read those, so don't be scared if you see a long post. If you just read, usually, the first paragraph you will have an update on Dad. You may leave any comments, prayers, thoughts in the comment section of any of the posts you read - I will receive an e-mail about these and will pick them up and let Mom and Janine know. I hope that having it in this format is not too difficult, but, please let me know if you find it so. When my Aunt Cathy was hospitalized and in rehab her family set up a site through this website called Caring Bridge - basically about the same thing as my blog but laid out in a better format and I can transfer things over to that and resend out a link. I am just being lazy since I have already been doing the updates in my blog and since we really don't know how much longer it will be.