Dad

Last night, I get a call from mom at 5:30 telling me to come over immediately. I knew she must've just gotten home and found something wrong with dad. I hurry up there after getting stuck behind a car going 20 mph half the way. Dad is on the couch downstairs, tons of dark blood in his nose and mouth and around him, but mom had already cleaned a lot of it up. He's sweating, his pupils are pinpoints and his breathing is gurgling - more of that blood stuff is probably in his lungs. Mom couldn't get him up and wanted me to try. I pinch him hard, I force his eyes open, etc., but he is totally unresponsive and I tell mom she has to call 911.

Pretty soon the room is filled with firemen, EMT's and eventually the ambulance paramedics. They think his heart may have stopped and do a little CPR. He has a very high pulse. They want to know what prescriptions he is taking. We go look at his pills and one of the bottles is totally empty; it looks like he may have overdosed on some pain medicine. Apparently, if you take too much it can make you goofy and not realize what's going on or how much you've taken and next thing you know you may have finished them off.

He go after him to the emergency room and my brother calls our uncle to inform his parents, etc. I'm getting ready to head back up there today, he's in ICU. He's on a breathing tube, his lungs are damaged from that stuff in it. If he was that way all day he could've had some brain damage from lack of oxygen. He had lots of bleeding in his stomach - tons of it. Apparently one of the doctors got him to squeeze his hand early this morning but no other movement so far.

I guess we're not totally surprised this happened, he hasn't been taking good care of himself for a long time. Last night they did a CT scan which is not a test for brain activity, but it is a static image of the brain. They found a few abnormalities, one of them apparently an old stroke no one knew he had had, and the other they have no idea - maybe multiple sclerosis or maybe something from childhood or something they just have no idea of what it might be.

Jeff and I are both fine, mom is having a bit harder time. I'm heading up there soon to hang out with her.