Putting Together the Pieces

Dad has not been feeling well this week. Actually, it’s been over a week, since food stopped tasting good over a week ago. He was attributing his problems to a stomach bug. Wednesday when I talked to him, he was feeling some better, but had been sleeping quite a bit. He mentioned that he needed to drink more water, as his diuretic didn’t seem to be working. When I talked to him yesterday, he was drinking more, and while he was now urinating, he also was struggling with diarrhea. I’ve been calling him daily this week to check on his well-being.

I began to think about how long this had gone on, and the fact that his kidney function isn’t the best, and the weekend is approaching. I recalled all the hours that had been spent with him in emergency rooms on holidays and weekends waiting for him to be admitted to the hospital. I called Sister and Brother. Brother had no idea Dad has been sick all week. Dad had told him not to pick him up to take him for blood work that morning, explaining he was having some problems with diarrhea. Sister made an appointment with the doctor this morning, and Brother agreed to take him. I have just talked to them both. Dad’s blood work is out of whack, and depending on the results of some stat blood work the doctor ordered, he may be admitted to the hospital today.

It’s at times like this I hate being 150 miles away. I’ve been weighing my schedule, my to do list, and Daughter’s stability, trying to figure out when (or if) I can make a trip up there to see Dad and take some of the load off Sister and Brother. Daughter still isn’t stable, so I’m reluctant to disrupt her routine. Brother flies out on a business trip tomorrow morning, beginning several weeks of travel. Sister is balancing teaching first grade and the needs of her 3 year old daughter with the needs of our parents. She’s been dealing with Mom’s health issues this week, and has switched Mom’s doctor after yet another screw up by the nurse practitioner who was seeing her in the cottage.

So, I waited by the phone and ran through various scenarios in my mind. I visited the saints in the nursing home and waited for my phone to ring. It rang, but not with news about Dad. Daughter was having a low blood sugar and I needed to go pick her up from the workshop. I rushed through my last two visits and went to get her.

Dad was admitted to the hospital at 8:00 this evening. Brother flies out early tomorrow morning. Early Monday morning Daughter and I will head up to see Dad. We’ll come back on Tuesday evening. It’s newsletter week, which will make the rest of the week stressful, to say the least. Hopefully Dad will be discharged while I’m there and I’ll be able to handle getting him home and settled.