Change of Plans

It's been an eventful week. Did I say that Dad would be staying with us over Christmas? Well, how quickly plans can change!

Sunday was Warren's birthday and we had planned to go to his place for lunch, my other brother was coming, plus Mum and the kids. Around 7.30am I got a phone call from Julie saying that they'd put Dad in an ambulance, he was vomiting blood. So after a quick coffee and shower, I was off to Wagga much earlier than planned and ended up spending 12 hours in the Emergency Dept with Dad, while he had various tests done to find out where he was bleeding. By the time I left that night they still didn't know the cause of the problem.

I had Monday off work and spent another few hours at the hospital, speaking to doctors and nurses, and finally a doctor said he needed a camera down his throat to see what was going on, but because he had a slight chest infection, they couldn't give him an anaesthetic until his breathing was better.

I went to work Tuesday, left at 3.30pm Wednesday so I could get back over to the hospital, worked yesterday, and I have today off again. Dad is scheduled for the exploratory operation this afternoon and I plan to be over there.

Julie has done a backflip about having Dad staying there: she can't cope with it all, so after he's discharged from the hospital he'll be coming home with me. We've had to do some major reshuffling here and I've borrowed a friend's caravan (thank God for friends) and he's set it up in the back yard this morning. Carly will be moving out of her bedroom and in to the van so Dad can be in the room across the hall from me. Carly was none too pleased to start with, but she's warmed to the idea and is now looking forward to some redecorating in the van. It's a pop-top so should have plenty of air flow, and we have shade trees. I have no idea how long this arrangement is for so for now it's one day at a time.

Dad is the best I've seen him after 5 days in hospital and is anxious to get out of there. Much will depend on the results of the tests, and may involve a biopsy as well so it might be Monday before any decisions about a course of treatment are made. From what the doctor said she's expecting the worst but we'll wait and see.