Categories: uncategorized
Date: 18 May 2008 19:38:23
Last week was long and busy, and at the end of it I needed a bit of a lie-in. So yesterday morning I didn't roll out of bed proper til about 11.45, which was lovely. Then I switched my phone on, and things were less lovely.
I had a voicemail from Tina asking me to ring her when I got the message. It had that sound of "not an emergency but kind of serious" in her voice. Then there was another voicemail from my mum telling me what had happened. Dad had had a heart attack, but it was comparatively minor and he was in hospital and doing OK.
After leaving a message on mum's phone, I rang Tina back and told her that I'd heard the news, and she gave me a bit more information that she'd got from talking to mum. She and Spike were already on their way up to Cambridge to see the patient, and I asked Tina to give mum an extra big hug from me. I would have asked her to do the same for dad, but I figured there would probably be tubes and wires and equipment in the way and it might not be ideal.
Mum called me back a bit later and told me the whole story from the start. Dad had been complaining of pains in his chest and back on Friday, but he thought it was just indigestion. Then when he woke up on Saturday, he started to feel much more intense pain and asked mum to call for an ambulance. Three paramedics were there quickly and soon had him stable, and then he was taken to hospital and was sitting up eating his breakfast by 9.30. Mum was given a bowl of cornflakes too, since she hadn't had breakfast in all the ensuing chaos.
The last update was last night; dad's doing well, but is being kept in for observation and rest and all that for a few days. Mum had said I shouldn't drop everything and head back this weekend to see him as it wasn't that severe and she knows it's not as convenient for me getting there from Birmingham as it is for Tina and Spike coming from London, but when I spoke to her last night it sounded like she was assuming I was coming to visit next weekend. As it happens, I had a much quieter weekend in prospect this weekend than next, but if they're expecting me then I'm sure I'll go anyway. A few weeks back, when I heard about Richard's situation and the party being thrown in his honour, I rang mum straight away and she said that they had been planning to go away that weekend, but she'd talk to dad and see what he thought. Apparently the moment she put the phone down, dad turned to her and said, "we'll cancel the weekend if Steve needs us; family comes first". And given how much dad's put himself out for me over the years, I couldn't really not go and see him just because it's a little inconvenient.
I'm just glad that it wasn't more serious, and that he's already well on the way to recovery. Much as I don't really miss the area I grew up in these days, I do miss my family, and it's always at times like this that you realise just how much you value them.
Love you, dad.