Yep. Exactly as it says on the tin.
A summary:
For some time now my dad has had a bit of a catalogue of issues. Primarily polycythemia vera (too many red blood cells is my layperson’s understanding), gout, I’m sure I was told he has COPD (but my mum says not, so who knows where I got that from - his breathing is fucked, basically), vertigo, a leaky heart valve and probably a couple of others that I’m not aware of/have forgotten.
This normally presented as him getting tired quite quickly and not being able to walk very far. He got a blue parking badge three years ago (renewing it was fun - I am positive the system is designed to make people give up, but that’s a separate rant).
In November 2022 they were in Florida (they have a house there). As they’d go for three months at a time, I’d speak to them on FaceTime once or twice a week. They’d just been on a cruise for a week so I hadn’t spoken to them for ten days or so. My brother messaged me saying ‘FaceTime dad please and moan at him to go and see a doctor. He looks like crap. I’ve told him, mum’s told him…’. I was at work, and then they weren’t answering, so I couldn’t get through until the evening. He did indeed look crap, but just kept saying he needed to lie down until he felt better (this was his usual coping mechanism and usually he was indeed better the following day). Essentially I had to shout and then cry to get him to go and he agreed to go to the local A&E.
He was an inpatient for I think 11 days. This being America, they ran an absolute barrage of tests. Meanwhile we were wondering if we should go out, when, would it help mum or not, etc etc. They discovered he had another leaking heart valve and said they would operate the following week and he was told ‘you’ll be like a new man’. Yay! My friend who used to be a nurse said to me that they wouldn’t operate if they didn’t think he was a good candidate for it for fear of litigation. Heart surgery is relatively straightforward these days. All looked well. (‘Well’ = ‘fucking terrifying’, but positive steps in the right direction. We couldn’t FaceTime when he was asleep (which was fairly often) and mum didn’t want to step out of the room to speak to us in case she missed the doctor(s), so all communication was via WhatsApp, which was fine but obviously slowed things down/hampered clarity a little.
Then one of the tests showed a tumour on his lung and the hospital was basically like ‘What shall we do about it? You might want to think about a biopsy’ Mum: well obviously can you do that please? So they biopsied it and boom, it’s lung cancer. Not only that but they’re discharging him and saying he’s ok to fly home, pick it all up with your doctors there, but they have said they can no longer operate because he’s fit to fly. WTAF? What happened to making him into a new man etc etc?
So he was sent home (to their house in Florida) with these rechargeable oxygen tanks. Meanwhile we’re looking into stairlifts and ramps etc etc. He’s incontinent, barely eating and as a result they wouldn’t let him on their scheduled flight (we’re now at 11 December). This meant having to get a Fit To Fly certificate from a quack doctor and they flew home 24 hours later.
They came home to no heating because their not-to-code wiring in the house had shorted the boiler. Plus a wasp infestation which was extra fun because my mum is genuinely deadly allergic. But the stairlift was in (note: you think it’ll be a bit like a fun ride but actually they are INCREDIBLY slow) and he had a GP appointment for the same afternoon. We all went. GP obviously prioritised the cancer referral but also made one for the heart issues. Dad had an indwelling catheter which was causing him immense discomfort - cue next stop A&E here (after a return visit back home for a code brown). Doctors here said he should never have flown with it. Marvellous.
/end part one
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