Quick Update

Where do I begin? I hate January and February. Someone in my family always seems to get ill and/or hospitalized, and this year it's my dad's turn. After four days of a fever and worsening shoulder pain from a healing wound, he finally went to the hospital, on the advice of his doctor. Monday was a bit rough as my mom was incommunicado in the emergency room most of the day, not that she normally leaves her cell phone on anyway. She called me at work early in the day to let me know they were going to the hospital, and I didn't hear back until after 4. The best guess with his symptoms is that it's some sort of infection, perhaps connected with the wound, perhaps something worse. The combination of the fever and a spotty rash under his arms has the doctors concerned, as well as low red blood cells and high white blood cells. But it took them most of the day to get him out of the ER and into a room. It took like 10 people and a half hour before someone got me to where he was.

We're still waiting on results from the various bits of blood work while they monitor him. His biggest complaint is his shoulder, which he can't rest on for long without feeling sharp pain. The night nurse was very helpful and got him a morphine shot, which may have finally helped his biggest complaint in getting much needed rest. Other than that he's on an IV and acetaminophen, and they gave him some antibiotics and will be giving him his usual heart medication.

After a while, he got annoyed that we were staying well past visiting hours, and after days of complaining that he had “no pep”, he got aggravated and threatened to make a scene if we didn't leave. My mom wanted to stay, but she missed some of her medications by being there all day and it's bad enough that one of them is sick. Our other concern is that he doesn't hear well, and sometimes forgets specific details about his medications and ailments If we weren't there to fill in the blanks the nurse wouldn't have had as complete a picture of the situation. “You know a lot about your father!”

So, that's where we're at. I'm glad he's in a place where people can help him quickly enough. I worry when he complains about his lack of energy and not having any interest in anything, even when I offered to bring him a paper or some crossword puzzles. We definitely need to keep his spirits up and encourage him until we know what the problem is, and then even moreso. My mom told me her father died when he was a few months away from his 79th birthday, that she left him at the hospital one night and the next morning they got the phone call. So that kind of messed me up, though I quickly reminded her how long ago that was and how much better medicine is these days. I'm hoping that, if the situation were more serious, we'd have seen a lot more doctors. Right now I'm just doing my best to be strong for both of them, to maintain as much normalcy as possible, and pray that he'll be home and rested within a week.

If anyone else would like to throw prayers his way, they'd be more than appreciated.