Pardon that sound, that was my last nerve shattering.
What. A. Nightmare.
Yeah. So my father has been in pain for quite a while - vomiting, lying in bed, etc. There's been a nasty virus going around with the same symptoms, so naturally we assumed it was this.
On Monday morning Dad dropped me off at Nareen Gardens for my volunteer work, but instead of driving to the doctor's, he drove back home and told Mum he didn't think he could drive there (a fair way's drive). He suggested ringing and asking for a house call. Mum made the counter-suggestion that hospital via an ambulance was the way to go. Mum won. She usually does. Apparently once she described things to the people on the phone, they sent the ambulance out very fast, Mum could actually HEAR the siren begin. (we live right near the ambulance station).
So the first I learned of this was at the end of my volunteer shift when Val came to pick me up instead of Dad and told me that my parents were at Wyong hospital. I was told several times that they don't think anything's WRONG, it's just a precautionary measure, he's probably dehydrated. Oh, and Nicole's going to respite today, can you pack her suitcase since your Mum's in the hospital with your Dad?
Okay, can do. So I pack the suitcase and get to the business of stuffing my head full of the things I needed to know for the exam I had on Monday night. Mum got home at about 5:30 pm, exhausted, telling us that they were keeping him there for observation and doing some tests etc. Just before 6 pm, we got a phonecall.
An aortic aneurysm.
Holy fuck.
There was not much time for panic - I had to go and I had to go right at that moment in order to get to the exam on time. So I went, letting the teacher know about the problem. Got no idea how I did and I don't care. Once I finished the exam, Lyn picked me up, with some warmer clothes and drove me straight to the Gosford hospital, as they had discovered a 'slow leakage' and were transferring him to Gosford to be operated on RIGHT THEN. Well, fuck.
When I arrived there, I was surprised to see Jared from my church (a good bloke and a good friend) who gave me a big hug, and also there was his wife Symone, his sister Holly, our friend Sheree, and of course Val and Mum. And we sat in a nervous vigil, waiting. It was only a couple of hours but it felt like forever. It's been a long time since I was so afraid.
Dad wasn't in the op room for very long - from what we were told, they hadn't repaired the aneurysm yet (though it is indeed there and quite big and will have to be fixed.) The immediate problem was a duodenal ulcer (which we had no idea existed, any more than we'd known about this enormous aneurysm) and the ulcer had burst, so they had to saw that up and wash out his abdominal cavity. They can't do the aneurysm until they're certain that every bit of junk is removed from in there so as not to infect when it comes to the aneurysm, and also not until he's recovered enough from this operation and that'll be about three weeks. (Normally it would be closer to a couple of months but the aneurysm is pretty big.) At the site of the aneurysm the aorta should be 3 cm and it's 10 cm. So it's more than three times as big as it should be.
In a screwy way, we're actually incredibly lucky that the ulcer burst, because if it hadn't then we wouldn't have sent him to hospital and never discovered the aneurysm, and if that had ruptured while we were away on holiday, or anywhere but in hospital for that matter - well, I don't like to think about the result of that. I thought about it far too much last evening in that waiting room.
I saw Dad today properly for the first time (I did see him briefly last night as he was coming out of the OT but he was asleep naturally) and while naturally in pain, he's in reasonably good spirits considering. They seem pretty pleased with how he's going, anyway. And it was amazing - while Dad was in the operating room people phoned people, who phoned other people and emails went out and the result was that people were praying and thinking of Dad quite literally round the world. *dazed*
So, yeah. I'll keep everyone updated. Thanking you all.
Yeah. So my father has been in pain for quite a while - vomiting, lying in bed, etc. There's been a nasty virus going around with the same symptoms, so naturally we assumed it was this.
On Monday morning Dad dropped me off at Nareen Gardens for my volunteer work, but instead of driving to the doctor's, he drove back home and told Mum he didn't think he could drive there (a fair way's drive). He suggested ringing and asking for a house call. Mum made the counter-suggestion that hospital via an ambulance was the way to go. Mum won. She usually does. Apparently once she described things to the people on the phone, they sent the ambulance out very fast, Mum could actually HEAR the siren begin. (we live right near the ambulance station).
So the first I learned of this was at the end of my volunteer shift when Val came to pick me up instead of Dad and told me that my parents were at Wyong hospital. I was told several times that they don't think anything's WRONG, it's just a precautionary measure, he's probably dehydrated. Oh, and Nicole's going to respite today, can you pack her suitcase since your Mum's in the hospital with your Dad?
Okay, can do. So I pack the suitcase and get to the business of stuffing my head full of the things I needed to know for the exam I had on Monday night. Mum got home at about 5:30 pm, exhausted, telling us that they were keeping him there for observation and doing some tests etc. Just before 6 pm, we got a phonecall.
An aortic aneurysm.
Holy fuck.
There was not much time for panic - I had to go and I had to go right at that moment in order to get to the exam on time. So I went, letting the teacher know about the problem. Got no idea how I did and I don't care. Once I finished the exam, Lyn picked me up, with some warmer clothes and drove me straight to the Gosford hospital, as they had discovered a 'slow leakage' and were transferring him to Gosford to be operated on RIGHT THEN. Well, fuck.
When I arrived there, I was surprised to see Jared from my church (a good bloke and a good friend) who gave me a big hug, and also there was his wife Symone, his sister Holly, our friend Sheree, and of course Val and Mum. And we sat in a nervous vigil, waiting. It was only a couple of hours but it felt like forever. It's been a long time since I was so afraid.
Dad wasn't in the op room for very long - from what we were told, they hadn't repaired the aneurysm yet (though it is indeed there and quite big and will have to be fixed.) The immediate problem was a duodenal ulcer (which we had no idea existed, any more than we'd known about this enormous aneurysm) and the ulcer had burst, so they had to saw that up and wash out his abdominal cavity. They can't do the aneurysm until they're certain that every bit of junk is removed from in there so as not to infect when it comes to the aneurysm, and also not until he's recovered enough from this operation and that'll be about three weeks. (Normally it would be closer to a couple of months but the aneurysm is pretty big.) At the site of the aneurysm the aorta should be 3 cm and it's 10 cm. So it's more than three times as big as it should be.
In a screwy way, we're actually incredibly lucky that the ulcer burst, because if it hadn't then we wouldn't have sent him to hospital and never discovered the aneurysm, and if that had ruptured while we were away on holiday, or anywhere but in hospital for that matter - well, I don't like to think about the result of that. I thought about it far too much last evening in that waiting room.
I saw Dad today properly for the first time (I did see him briefly last night as he was coming out of the OT but he was asleep naturally) and while naturally in pain, he's in reasonably good spirits considering. They seem pretty pleased with how he's going, anyway. And it was amazing - while Dad was in the operating room people phoned people, who phoned other people and emails went out and the result was that people were praying and thinking of Dad quite literally round the world. *dazed*
So, yeah. I'll keep everyone updated. Thanking you all.