h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Almost every Sunday I go out to my father's house and we eat out together. When I arrived yesterday afternoon, everything seemed to be the way it usually was. When it was time to leave for supper, however, my father said that I would need to do the driving, as he had fallen in the bathtub that morning and hurt his back. He seemed to be in pain as he slid into the car. Sliding into the booth at the restaurant was just as bad.

When we had finished eating, my father said that I should take him to the emergency room at the hospital. This was easy enough. The hospital was only three or four miles away. I had gone there many times, as my mother had popped in and out of the place frequently with one ailment or another.

When we got to the hospital, do you think my father went into the emergency room entrance? If you do, you'd be wrong. He went into the *regular* hospital entrance, then circled around to the emergency section. Here's a man with a sore back who won't take the easy way even though it would be less painful for him. It was around 6:00 p.m.

An hour and a half passed as we sat together in the waiting room. There were four or five people ahead of us, and the doctors had not gotten to them yet. My father decided to go back home and try the hospital Monday morning instead, but the nurse had already screened him and would have none of this. Then my father suggested I leave him there and go back to the house to wait for further developments. Maybe they would admit him to the hospital overnight, or maybe they would ask me to come get him.

Some time around eleven p.m. I got a hone call saying that Dad would be staying the night in the hospital. Twelve hours later I called and learned that he would be in the hospital a second night. I called my sister, who was willing to come out on Tuesday if they released Dad then. Then I went back to my own house....

I shan't speculate as to what it may be.

I hope he he makes a speedy recovery.

Probably a bruise where he hit the back of the4 shower stall. if anything is broken or sprained, that would be more serious. But the fact that he was walking afterward seems encouraging.

Could he wiggle his toes?

Anyway, he sounds like a tough guy, and I hope you have inherited his tenacity, which can't be a bad thing. However, when you get older, tenacity becomes pigheadedness. A fine line divides the two!

Wish him better and may you have many more lunches together.

parents! huh! can't tell 'em owt can yah

wishing him a speedy recovery

to your father

I'm *already* pigheaded. Now all I have to do is fine-tune and polish my act

Best wishes to your father and he make a speedy recovery.

Best wishes to you all - hope your dad is soon up and about.

My sister brought him home from the hospital today, but he threw up violently and had to be brought back to the hospital. We are waiting to see what happens next.

That sounds bad. Maybe some of the medication they gave him didn't agree with him.

Painkillers can do that to you

Some diseases thrive in hospitals. That's why you hear about someone who was never sick a day in their life, but going to a hospital led to a fatal infection. On the other hand, my father has been a patient there many times, with nothing fatal yet. [Crosses fingers.]

Paul, I wish him a speedy recovery!

I'm going out tomorrow [Thursday] to see him. My sister and her husband are there today. I'm waiting for a progress report from her.

So he's still in hospital. Give him our love, even if he is becoming cantankerous old so-and-so, and wish him out of pain and in good health soon.

From my own father's last days, I can only urge you to keep his interest awake in life outside his own little world. As long as someone is interested in other people's little problems and their lives, they are in good health and on their way to a good recovery.

The nausea was found to be a result of a kidney infection, for which Dad is being medicated with antibiotics. Hopefully he'll be okay to come home this afternoon. I expect ton stay over tonight and go back to Boston on Friday, weather permitting. We may have a hurricane on Friday, but no one seems to be sure what track the storm will take.

glad they've sussed what what causing your dads ills and taking the appropriate action

I visited him in the hospital today. At least his appetite has come back -- I watched him eat his supper. His back is still very sore. He's sufficiently worried that he has broached the subject of having a home health aide come in three times a week to help him in his home.