My Dad is in Hospital

Dad when he was almost 82. He is now 86

Early yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from my sister Julie to let me know that Dad has had a fall and Vicki found him on just before lunch lying on the floor in his bedroom. Vicki had phoned for an ambulance and was waiting for them to arrive.

I phoned Vicki to see how she was. She gets very stressed, very easily and I knew that she would need to hear some calm reassuring words. She was waiting for the ambulance and was worried that they hadn't arrived yet. Vicki had phoned for the 20 minutes earlier. I let Vicki go so that she could wait for the ambos and check on Dad. His Anglicare worker who comes over to cook Dads lunch was there talking to him while Vicki was on the phone with me.

I phoned my niece, Kylie, (Vicki's daughter) and she had just arrived at Dads place a few minutes earlier. She told me that the ambos thought Poppa (my Dad) was okay and that they didn't want to take him to the hospital because he would only be sitting there for hours waiting.

I phoned Vicki again about 20 minutes later to check on everything. She said she was going to give Dad something to eat and would be taking him to his GP just to be on the safe side. I also spoke with Dad who didn't make all that much sense. I guess it rattled him a bit and he just kept changing the subject and spoke about other things. It was almost like he was behaving like it hadn't happened. He didn't seem able to answer simple questions about himself. He just said that he had the sniffles and asked about Mark & the boys.

Late last night Julie sent me a text saying the GP send Dad and Vicki to the hospital because he didn't like Dad's irregular heartbeat. Dad had been admitted to hospital. He was dehydrated but that was all she knew at the moment.

I phoned Vicki this morning mainly to check on how she was. She told me that Dad had x-rays yesterday and he has pneumonia in his right lung. They put him on antibiotics. The doctor who assessed Dad has said that he doesn't want Dad to live on his own. Vicki is really distressed over this at the moment. She thinks that she wont cope if Dad had to come and live with her. I asked her if she had spoken with a social worker yet. I told her that when she does she is to tell them exactly how she feels. I made Vicki promise to look after herself. There is no use in her getting sick on top of all of this.

Vicki was waiting for Julie to arrive so that they could go to the hospital together. She said she'd send me a text to let me know when to phone her to find out what's going on because she didn't have much credit left on her mobile.

After I had spoken with Vicki I phoned the hospital to have a chat with Dad. The poor dear. He has no idea what is going on. He thought that Vicki and Julie were picking him up today to take him to lunch in Gawler and that he needed to meet them out the front of the hospital. I explained that they would be there later and that they would come to him. Dad thinks that he will be released from hospital today and he will be going home. I doubt very much that he will be discharged today at all.

Now I just wait by the phone to hear some news.