Crazy Week

Last Saturday, my Daddy turned 56. We were so excited to celebrate another birthday, when doctors did not expect him to reach his next birthday after diagnosis in December 2011. Not only did he reach his birthday in 2012, but then he reached his birthday this year in 2013. The fact that he still breathes is a miracle to me.

However, this Thursday night I picked up my fiance from the airport late, he had been in North Carolina for work all week. So Friday, I wanted to sleep in and then we were going to go down to my parents/ house and make Daddy lunch, like I do every day. We walk up to the house and the front door is cracked, I look down and Daddy is on the floor with blood all around his torso. He tells me that he had gotten dizzy and fallen and had been laying there throwing up blood for four hours.. Four hours.... Why did I have to sleep in? Why did I have to take such a long shower? If I hadn't I would have been there to prevent his fall, or at least to get him to the hospital sooner. This guilt is not going to go away... Well luckily Ken was with me, I had him get on the phone and dial 911 while I called my mother and told her the horrible news.... the only thing luckily that happened was Daddy was not moaning in pain from any kind of bone break, and it turned out he did not break any bones, I truly have no idea how... Well minutes later my brother walked in returning from a week at the beach, he was not prepared for what he walked in on, but I had him focus and start to pack a bag for Daddy to go to the hospital. Literally seconds later, we heard the sirens coming for Daddy, and before I knew it the paramedics were coming in to assess the situation. Daddy is a big and tall man, and he was stuck on the floor and could not help us help him, but we had to get him up, down the porch, and onto the sidewalk where the stretcher was. We got a neighbor to help us, got a tarp of sorts to put under him and pick him up, it took four of us, and we got him slowly down the stoop and onto the stretcher. Once inside the ambulance, the paramedics tried to get his heart rate under control because it was all over the place, they needed to put an IV in and get him some saline fluids, but Daddy has always been a hard stick. They ended up giving up on trying and we rushed to the hospital sirens and lights blaring. The rest will be saved for another post because I am truly exhausted from this weekend and it's going to be a long week...it's only Monday... ugh.