It started fairly well - we went to G's parents' farm to help with rolling hay. But even there it started to go slightly awry - enough to unsettle G. And just as we were to finish and have a meal, mum called that something's wrong with my dad. I called them an ambulance and g and I hurried over to get to them. Dad was in a weird state - I've seen him much worse, but he was a mess. You can never tell and I still can't, whether it's a mild urinary infection or we'll be planning a funeral tomorrow. His health is absolute. It's either there or it's gone completely. he's gone through strokes, epilepsy, heart attacks and septic seizures from zero warning to a full-blown life-threatening emergency. The ambulance came and we got this weird sense that we have to try and convince the healthcare workers that it's serious. It was such a weird vibe.
Because of the Covid, only one person may escort him and even then I had to sit (or I stood) in the waiting room while he was first tested and then taken into the ER... And I waited .. and waited ... and waited ... An hour passed, two, three... It got to 5 pm, at which point he has to take his blood thinners, and still nothing. I started asking people if they have it on supply or should mum bring it. nobody would talk to me. Dismissive, flippant people. Acting like they were brutally overworked when in truth hardly anyone came through the ER - perhaps half a dozen old people feeling nauseated, a girl which OD, some man with his toe chopped off and a few people with allergic reactions to season hayfever. They all came and left while I sat. They allowed me at some point to go check on him, because he needed to pee and hasn't drunk anything for four hours - he has diabetes.
At 5:30, three and a half hours after having been brought to a near-empty ER, a nurse finally takes pity on us and checks his chart and they take him to an office, where they decide he doesn't really belong in the COVID section. A nurse who signed him in hurries over to say he's already been checked. really? By which doctor? What did they say? Oh, they said he doesn't really belong in the Covid section. AND?? And he was supposed to be taken to the non-Covid ER section. Which he wasn't. He was left in the hallway for three hours. An 82-year-old man.
I told the nurse they are damn lucky he wasn't having a stroke or a seizure. She said they're not really the ER. I said: We came in a fucking AMBULANCE. With symptoms of a septic seizure!
Mum arrived and the doctor went outside with me to take his history. She assured mum that he doesn't need blood thinners, to which mum and I thought, oh, good, because he only takes them for the flavour and everyone knows nothing bad happens when you suddenly stop taking them. It's not like 25-year-old doctors can be wrong. Well, she told us to wait and linger for a few more hours as they wait for results.
Starving - it was near six and I haven't eaten yet, mum and I offed to the closest food vendor, where we were eventually joined by sis and her man. My sis can go full Goebels on shitty people, even strictly asking nurses and doctors to give her their full names and so on. We decided that at 8 pm, she will go in to ask if they offered him any water, taken him to the restroom, given him any of his medication. but a few minutes prior the doctor phoned mum to say he's been moved to the infection ward.
That is where we are now. I'm wondering if maybe dad was stung by something, but would he have a fever then?
G has in the meanwhile successfully transported one of his father's wayward swarms, having to wait just a little while when we spoke last, to get all the bees out of the car (the dog had eyes like saucers and kept perfectly still the whole ride). He was using his dad's old crate, which obviously had some gaps :D
I am SO tired. The terrified adrenaline of dad's condition subsided into exhausted, frustrated weariness and I am beat. He kept asking for mum, her presence giving a centre to every situation - same as I feel about G. Fuck. I have to sleep some now and we'll see what tomorrow has for us.
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