My dad is 80 years old. On the Saturday before Easter, dad fell in the bathroom and couldn't get up. My B-I-L was able to get him up and into bed.
Dad was too weak to get up but it took 10 hours to convince him to go to the hospital. At the local hospital, he was tested for strokes, heart attacks, etc and all they could find was an irregular heartbeat. The doctor decided to have him shipped to a large hospital in Charlotte.
After 4 days, the doctors determined dad is suffering from congestive heart failure. His heart is only pumping at 40-45% efficiency and he was still too weak to stand or walk. There is no additional treatment the docs can prescribe because dad is already taking the drugs they would normally use.
The only recommendation the docs had was moving dad to an "assisted living facility" for physical therapy. It took 2 days to get a bed in a place close to me and my sisters that wasn't an absolute E36 M3hole.
Dad is lucid and in good spirits, considering the situation, but it doesn't look like he will be able to live alone again once he is released from therapy. My sisters and I are trying to figure out what to do next because none of us is able to give him 24 hour care.
I haven't been able to visit him for the last week and a half because I was laid-low with some mystery crud. Said mystery crud wasn't satisfied with emptying my entire digestive system but also decided that I only needed enough energy to handle the evacuations. Sitting upright and watching TV was too much of a strain. Needless to say, I wasn't about to become patient X of a plague responsible to taking out all the residents at Dad's facility.
While dad was in the hospital, one of my favorite aunts died. We didn't find out until after her burial. We didn't even have a chance to send flowers.
Today's fun happened while working on my ever-growing/never-diminishing project list at work.. I was making some code changes while chewing on a straw (to keep the nicotine demons at bay) and managed to knock a big chip out of one incisor.
I guess things could be worse. Dad is alive and sorta well, I'm getting over the crud, I had a couple of great top-down days and the chipped tooth isn't hot or cold sensitive (pizza and popsicle tested).
Sorry for the long rant, I just had to vent.
