Yesterday as I was getting ready for work, I knew it was going to be a long day. I had a meeting at 8:00 a.m. to start it off, and I was going to need to attend the Legal Studies Advisory Board Meeting from 6:00-7:30 after work. I knew what I was in for as I was getting dressed, so I wore comfortable shoes and dressed comfortably.
At lunchtime, I needed to take Connor my car and have him drive me back, so that he would have a car to get to work. I am in the middle of a few projects at work, so I stayed pretty busy which made the day seemed to fly by. At 4:30 Eli called to tell me he was on his was and would be there to get me at 5:00. The plan was for him to pick me up, so that I could ride home with him and then bring the truck back for my meeting.
When we got home, Tanner was in the living-room by himself. I asked him where grandpa was, and was told he was in his bedroom. When I went to say "Hi!" dad was sitting in his chair, and he looked really pale. I asked him how he was doing and he told me he was dizzy. I asked he was dizzy while he was sitting down or if he got dizzy when he tried to stand. That's when he told me he was dizzy so he couldn't stand up. He just looked really bad, so I tried to take his pulse, but couldn't feel one. I thought he might be dehydrated, so I went to get him a drink of water. As I was getting the water, I told Eli about dad. Eli came back into dad's room with me, and suggested we call 911. As Eli was talking to the lady on 911, she told him not to give dad any food or liquids, so I skipped giving him the drink of water.
We live so close to the Fire Station that the paramedics were here in just a few minutes, and when they checked dad's pulse and blood pressure they were really low. They suggested that either they take dad to the ER or we drive him there ourselves. They had parked their ambulance behind our car, so we waited for them to hook dad up to an IV and then followed them to the hospital. At first we couldn't find a parking space, so Eli dropped me at the walk-in entrance to the ER while he went to find parking. As I walked up to the desk, I could see the paramedics wheeling dad in through a window in the door...already he looked WAY better. The IV really made a difference.
By the time the doctor came around to see dad, his blood pressure and pulse were back to normal. He asked a bunch of questions to try and figure out what might have caused the dizziness. He asked if dad had fallen and hit his head, and just as Eli and I were saying no, dad said "I fell on the freeway the other day." The doctor just told dad he should stay off the freeway and went on with his questions. He told us he wanted a run some tests in order to try and find the cause. After having blood drawn and giving a urine sample, a tech came to take dad for a CT scan. He also asked if dad had fallen lately, and just as I was saying no, dad started to say he fell the other day "when I was on the..." and then I remembered. Dad had fallen in the driveway...highway, driveway same thing right? After the CT scan they did an MRI and X-ray.
While we were sitting there waiting for the test results, I started reading an information sheet they had on the wall. It said that the average ER visit took 2 1/2 hours. After reading the sign I figured that we had been there 2 hours, so I mentally made a note to see if our visit was an average visit. About 15 minutes later the doctor came in and said all the test results came back normal. He mentioned that one of the tests showed that something with his liver was a little high or low (I can't remember), but that that could...could be a sign of dehydration. A few minutes later the nurse came and disconnected dad from all the machines, and we were on our way...2 1/2 hours after arriving.
We arrived home at about the same time I would have if I had gone to my meeting! Today dad is doing much better!
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