New Year ER Run

I'm watching Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich argue.  Mitt Romney jumps in now and then.  These guys have got to be exhausted.  Months and months of the same discussions.  I wonder if they play Angry Birds when they get home from these debates.  It would probably do them all some good.

Mom was going to watch the debates from Southland tonight.  Dad was planning to watch them from his hospital room.  He was in the ER when I left him, so I hope he's settled in a room by this late hour.

He wasn't feeling well when we visited the wonderful Dr. R. today for Dad's three-month check.  Dad has not regained his strength since his bout with the gut bug two weeks ago.  He's been winded of late, just out of breath with the shortest of activities.  Dr. R. sent us for blood work right after our appointment.

At the hospital lab, the tech had trouble finding a good vein to poke.  After three sticks, the tech summoned his supervisor.  She was able to draw two vials of blood, and Dad was released.

On his way back into the waiting room, he felt faint and nauseous and had trouble walking.  Some very nice techs called for a wheelchair.  When Dad complained that he couldn't get his breath, the larger tech announced he was taking Dad to the ER, and off he went.  I scrambled behind him with Dad's walker.

In the ER, Dad was given oxygen and began to feel better.  Once gowned and bedded, he received an EKG, which was normal.  The doc came in and ordered tests and more blood work.  Dad was not looking forward to being poked again.  He was still wearing four stretchy arm bands from his visit to the lab an hour before.

So began the wait.

An hour later, my husband arrived, and I left to visit Mom and explain why Dad and I have been gone for four hours.  The wonderful Dr. R. checked in and said he was ordering for Dad a neuro work-up and a cardio work-up.  This means Dad will likely be in the hospital two or three days.

By debate time, Dad had eaten a sandwich.  The tests that had come in so far were all normal.  No new stroke activity, no heart attack.  This is good news.  I'll visit Dad in the morning and see if there are any new developments.   

When I got home after all the excitement, I found a delicious pizza our daughter had made for dinner, bless her heart.  It consisted of homemade dough, butternut squash, red onion, radicchio and chunks of mozzarella.  No tomato sauce, no pepperoni.  Very interesting and absolutely yummy.

I may commission her to make this every week.  God bless those who make dinner.

And strong, quick-thinking techs who can race a wheel chair through hospital corridors faster than I can blink.