Daily Thoughts

[Zzzptm]

So which one's your son? I didn't see anyone that looked like an angry Ozzy in those videos.

Ah-ha! A hint... something involving percussion...  Hmmmmm...

Is he the cowbell player? 

[AnnoMundi]

He's not mad at you, he's mad at managers and booking agents that are ripping him off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnLKgTyqup0

Angry Ozzy is scary.

[Zzzptm]

Thought for the day...

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others. - Groucho Marx

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

My dad's not been well this last couple of days... he is 89. On Friday he didn't feel well and the on call doctor thought it was a urinary infection and prescribed some anti-biotics. Whatever the infection was doing it was making him a llittle unsteady on his feet and he needed to be helped around.

On Saturday he started getting severe pains in his side and neck, a phone call from the out of hours doctor suggested some strong pain killers so I went and got some over the counter co-codomol... which made absolutely no difference to his pain. We get the out of hours doctor to visit this time and he thinks his gall stones may have shifted (he's too old to operate on) causing his liver to shift causing him the pain... it's the evening now and I get a taxi to a late night pharmacy to get the new prescription for even stronger pain killers. Dad needs help getting out of bed to the bathroom etc.

Today comes and he's still in pain, the tablets only seem to help a little bit, he sits in a chair all day not moving much as it's too painful. We get the out of hours doctor again but he's busy and doesn't turn up until arounf 10 in the evening. In the meantime dad decides he wants to go to the bathroom which he can barely manage even with mum and my assistance. We then try to get him to bed but he can't manage the stairs even with our help, he's breathing heavily, can't speak coherently (it's not a stroke!) and is confused... mum calls for an ambulance and not long after that the out of hours doctor arrives, does a few checks and confirms that hospital is the best place for him he also speaks to the ambulance control to confirm this. He would like to have stayed until the ambulance had turned up so he could speak to the paramedics, but he's got more calls to attend to.

So now as I write this we are awaiting the arrival of an ambulance... which is taking its sweet time gettng here.

The NHS is great (none of this costs us anything other than our taxes) but dad's not considered an emergency so doesn't get the highest of priorities and we have to wait.


EDIT: It turned up at ZERO DARK 30!! Dad's been carted off (with mum) probably to be held in a queue for a few hours!

[Charger]

Oh sorry to hear that KDC!

I hope they can figure out what's wrong and treat him properly.

This reminds me of my grandfather...he got a bad urinary infection and things went along pretty much the same way. He was bit younger at the time though only 82 or so...but the sad truth was that he never returned home after that. It was a week or so at the hospital and assistant living home after that. But he also had Altzheimers though.

We're with you buddy on this hard time.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Thanks Charger, sorry to hear about your grandfather, although dad is a little forgetful I'm not sure he's got altzheimers.

Mum got home from the hospital about 06:30 she says they did some scans and checks and think now that he has a kidney infection, which would fit in with the urinary infection diagnosis. He's been admitted... they're just trying to find a bed!

[Jack the Stripper]

Sorry to hear about your dad Kilo. I'm sure it's been occupying your mind every waking hour of the day but at least he's now been diagnosed and in good care. Hopefully they've caught this kidney infection early and the antibiotics can do their thing and get him well and home soon.

Keep us updated.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Thanks Jack.

We're heading over there shortly, the latest is they think it's a number of problems stemming from his gallstones which may have blocked a tube and lead to the other symptoms

[Jack the Stripper]

That's nasty Kilo. A few years ago I had pancreatitis & cholangitis caused by gallstone blockage. Ended up in hospital very very sick. I let it go too long before doing anything about it which was incredibly stupid on my behalf. Doctor told me if I had've let it go another day it could've been fatal for me. Was the most intense pain I've ever had to endure.
Definitely treatable and a positive outcome if caught relatively early on though but given your dads age recovery could be a lot slower. 

Hope he is gonna be ok. Fingers crossed for him and your family.

[Typhon]

My thoughts are with you KDC.  From your description, it is highly likely that the gall stones are causing the problem.  Tough enough for a younger person to go through that, let alone someone your father's age.

@ Jack - You had prolonged abdominal pain and you were ignoring it?  Come on, Jack, you are smarter than that. 

[Zzzptm]

I've got a friend, he's 85, had an issue where his liver wasn't working properly and ammonia was backing up into his bloodstream. He's been in and out of hospitals for a month, and I wonder if he's near his end. I do hope it can be a soft landing for him, not with tubes running everywhere and hard decisions having to be made.

[Jack the Stripper]

@ Jack - You had prolonged abdominal pain and you were ignoring it?  Come on, Jack, you are smarter than that. 

I know, my wife was super pissed at me. I laid in bed in agony for 2 days, I would've went a day earlier but I remember there was a limited item that was going onsale on Metallica.com that I wanted as I was collecting a set, they'd go onsale at a specific time and would sell out in less than a minute and going to hospital meant I was going to miss out. Anyway I managed to secure the item I desperately wanted at the time of sale and then rang an ambulance straight after. Ended up in hospital for the following 8 days 

[Typhon]

@ Jack - You had prolonged abdominal pain and you were ignoring it?  Come on, Jack, you are smarter than that. 

I know, my wife was super pissed at me. I laid in bed in agony for 2 days, I would've went a day earlier but I remember there was a limited item that was going onsale on Metallica.com that I wanted as I was collecting a set, they'd go onsale at a specific time and would sell out in less than a minute and going to hospital meant I was going to miss out. Anyway I managed to secure the item I desperately wanted at the time of sale and then rang an ambulance straight after. Ended up in hospital for the following 8 days 

  Well, I don't know if to call you a loyal fan or a loony. 

[Charger]

@ Jack - You had prolonged abdominal pain and you were ignoring it?  Come on, Jack, you are smarter than that. 

I know, my wife was super pissed at me. I laid in bed in agony for 2 days, I would've went a day earlier but I remember there was a limited item that was going onsale on Metallica.com that I wanted as I was collecting a set, they'd go onsale at a specific time and would sell out in less than a minute and going to hospital meant I was going to miss out. Anyway I managed to secure the item I desperately wanted at the time of sale and then rang an ambulance straight after. Ended up in hospital for the following 8 days 

  Well, I don't know if to call you a loyal fan or a loony. 

I call it DEDICATION!   

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

UPDATE ON DAD:

Not much to say really, he's heavily sedated, on a drip, and slept for much of our visit this afternoon. Because of the sedation when he did wake briefly he was confused and incoherent, such a change from Friday.