Dad

weather	:		mostly clear
outside	:		9.5°C
mood	:		...

The word on Dad is, sepsis. A severe infection resulting from a routine diagnostic biopsy procedure. The bacterial infection could not be contained with the usual pre-op/post-op antibiotics they normally prescribe for the biopsy*. It spread wildly. But he's stable now. They know what class of bacteria it is now and he's on different, stronger antibiotics. He's still being monitored in Critical Care.

I guess it's officially No Big Deal™. But that was only the most positively terrifying, horrific, heart-wrenching No Big Deal™ I have EVER had to face in my life. Dad has never been in the hospital for anything in his life either, so I imagine this is the worst No Big Deal™ for him as well.

It started with my Mom's garbled, "Dad's in ICU, COME QUICK" phone call.

I was trying to be overly optimistic while I was battling the brutal Friday Vancouver traffic out of downtown, laden with perpetual road construction. I'm a realist by nature, optimism doesn't come easy for me to begin with.

I was holding up reasonably okay in the car, until I got to the hospital. Dad burst into tears when he saw me. The pain from holding it together just pushed me over the edge.

I spent the rest of the day with him, trying to help make him comfortable. His mouth was very dry, but he couldn't drink very much at a time. One sip every five minutes was all he could manage. He should have been napping, but he couldn't sleep, so instead, we chatted. He told me about my brother and I told him about the stuff I was doing at work.

He did drift off to sleep a few times while I was there. I found myself crying when he was asleep.

Anyway, we all left to let him get some rest for the night. His blood pressure is back up to a decent level now and he has a fever which is a positive thing.

* My dentist has a passionate rant about what the human race has done to ourselves by overusing antibiotics. I've heard it several times. Maybe when I'm feeling a bit better, I'll write that one up.