MIA

I'll be MIA for a while.

Today was a cancer-treatment day for my sister. I said goodbye to my dad and picked up Sandi, and we headed for New Hampshire. I expected a typical 9-hour day, but nope. The really long bag/infusion was on backorder, so it was a much shorter treatment. I dropped Sandi off at her house around 2:00 pm and headed home.

And... there was an empty cop car parked at the top of our driveway. Not good.

It's a shared driveway. I certainly don't wish ill on my neighbors, but I admit to hoping maybe the emergency would be at one of their houses. No such luck. It was ours.

I parked at the next-door neighbor's house (so I wouldn't block the driveway), and I ran. The nice EMTs were hauling my dad up to the ambulance in the pouring rain. He was unresponsive, but I'm pretty sure he'd already been sedated. He'd experienced difficulty breathing and called 911 on his own.

After the police worked out who I was, they let me tell my dad I was there, and I'd see him at the hospital. I think a glimmer of recognition passed across his face. I squeezed his ankle (cuz that was all I could reach) and got the heck out of everyone's way.

I picked up Sandi, and we got to the hospital long before the ambulance. They loaned me a wheelchair and a spare oxygen tank for Sandi, so I could push her to the ER, and she didn't have to run her tank dry, waiting. Once my dad arrived, someone came and took us to "the quiet room" where a nurse would come and speak to us.

I rearranged chairs so Sandi could lie down. Someone saw what I'd done and came back with a big recliner. They were so very kind.

We were nervous, but yay! My dad is stable. His vitals all look good. He's still sedated and now intubated and hanging out in the ICU. He has fluid in his lungs. Could be pneumonia, but more likely congestive heart failure.

So, we'll see how it goes. There'll be hell to pay when he realizes his favorite shirt has been sliced in two.