More Bad News

My dad is in the hospital with pneumonia. Thank goodness my sister called him to say hello. He had been sick with a cold or flu, and told her he hadn't eaten in two weeks. He was having difficulty breathing and sounded confused, even delusional. My sister lives 9 hours away from him, so she called me (I'm 13 hours away), in a panic because she couldn't reach my other sister, who only lives 2 1/2 hours from Dad, to ask her to go check on him. I was able to contact Alesia, who dropped everything to drive up and visit my dad on Saturday. He had lost so much weight and was so confused and out of breath that she took him to the hospital emergency. They decided to admit him for testing, and to monitor his breathing. He's been subjected to every test imaginable, and more.

This is what we know so far. My dad has emphysema. It shouldn't be a suprise, since he is a lifelong smoker, and has had a bad cough for years. But he goes to the doctor regularly, and has never been told that before. My dad also has asbestosis. This is a big surprise. Apparently he was in contact with asbestos materials in the 25 years he worked at the winery. Both of these diseases are incurable, and result in difficulty breathing.

Dad also has a hard glassy sustance in the lymph nodes between his lungs. They don't know what it is. The possibilities mentioned are cancer, lymphoma, tuberculosis, and advance stage pneumonia. They will have to transfer him to a larger hospital. This one is too small to perform the testing procedures that will be necessary to determine what it is.

I need to go see him. But if it's only going to be a short hospital stay, it would be best to wait until he's home, so I can take a turn caring for him. Today they will do a preliminary test to determine where to send him for the testing. It's so hard to wait. It must be even harder for my sister Alesia, who left her kids home alone to come care for my dad, and brought only 1 change of clothes because she didn't know she would be staying so long. She can't really leave, because Dad is too confused to talk to the doctors about his condition and what's going to be happening.