Harder day

This is the serious post. I will write it as it comes out, I am a bit shaky.

I was tolerating little bear and his Dr Who card collection and OH had taken evil cat to see the vet when there was a knock at the door. Darling father had collapsed in church and an ambulance had been called. I grabbed a bag, put some shoes on my feet and almost threw little bear at the next door neighbour.

Darling father had been out for fifteen to twenty minutes by the time he came round to recognising me. He was woozy and disorientated and quite pale. He was put in an ambulance and I went with him.

By the time he got to the hospital he was much better. He had a lot of colour back, and he was making sensible conversation. So we got put in a bay in A&E and waited. And waited. Apparently Sunday is a busy day and there are a lot of people who collapse in church. And eventually we got seen. It was becoming obvious that darling father was not in immediate danger.

It seems that darling father has a very low heart rate. I don't understand exactly what was going on, but he was being monitored and his heart rate, his blood pressure and his pulse were all very low. At the church they had not been able to find a pulse, which had been frightening, but it had been just too low to pick up.

So from the ambulance taking him in 'to be safe', to 'just checking with a doctor' we then progressed to 'move to another hospital and keep overnight'. I did a lot of the check in, and felt very frustrated. Darling father may be eighty but he runs rings around me, so I was stressing that yes, he lives with us, but he is not an invalid and moved here for company - 'social reasons, not medical' is the way I phrased it.

From the way that the admitting nurse in the second hospital carefully and firmly wrote down visiting times, I get two things. The first thing is that he is not seriously ill, or they would let me see him whenever. The second is that the normal feeling is that he will be in for a few days.

When I left him he was looking (after a day of enforced rest!) nearer sixty than eighty, and ready to settle down for the night.

Little bear was at OH's sister's house for most of the afternoon. He was well behaved and polite and came home bearing goodies. He is tired, but fingers crossed he will have a good night.