Next - News about Dad/Grandpa Gordon.....

After arriving home so late after the concert, I arranged to take the day off. At about 11 I got a call from Gloria that she needed help getting Dad to the hospital or clinic - he was having chest pains and didn't want to call the ambulance. I got ready as fast as I could and was off. I met Joe at their house and Gary arrived (must've been flying) from his job in Monroe. We'd each been called.

At that point, I called the emergency room and Gary brought the car to the front of the house. Dad was having a hard time breathing so we managed to get him to the back door and then into the wheelchair for the sidewalk trip to the car. After getting him into the car (thanks Joe!), we loaded the wheelchair and went to the emergency room. They didn't have a wheel chair big enough so we ended up unloading the wheel chair from the trunk again, loading him into it and getting him inside. Then things seem to happen quite quickly - blood pressure, pulse, EKG, chest x-ray, blood tests, and any other number of things.

Dad hasn't been taking his medicines or letting the doctor and nurses do what they need to do. He's avoiding some prostrate things that apparently are causing some of his problems. Anyway, the doctor called it angina or congestive heart failure - though he seemed to think it was more related to the added water weight and not directly his heart. At least that's what I got from it. It was rather confusing really. Dad seems to want to avoid doing some things that just need to be done and then blames the doctor for not feeling well. It's sad in a way....

Anyway, when Dad finally agreed to an overnight stay in the hospital (good for Gloria too!) Gary (back to work) and Joe left and Gloria and I went with him to his room. We stayed until about 5:30 and he was getting quite tired. We left and went down town to eat dinner. After that - she took over some of his meds (the nurses had asked for them) and I left for home. Hopefully everyone will get some sleep tonight.

I've made arrangements to take time off work tomorrow and go back down to help out with whatever I can. We'll see and I'll try and keep posting.

Best wishes!