Grumpy Old Men

Mum asked us to take her shopping today. The objective was to update from a video recorder to a HDD recorder. So off to Harvey Norman's we went. As a treat we called into Babyland after. Vince always carries his phone and if I leave mine in the car he also grabs that. I'm not sure if it is a fear of missing a call or them being stolen. Well Murphy's law prevailed and just as we were getting in the car Mums phone vibrated (she had knocked it on silent). It was Peter, my brother who sounded very stressed, a little frantic and somewhat upset. I was noticing a number of missed calls on my phone at the same time Mum was handing her phone to me, Peter having demanded to speak to me. So I knew immediately that he and Dad were either concerned about where Mum was and why the could not get hold of us or something was wrong.

Without fail Dad usually comes for Saturday early morning coffee on his home swing. This morning he had been telling us his plans about pruning the garden and a number of trees ready for a green waste collection on Monday. He was humming and harring about buying a new cheap chainsaw. When he left he had pretty much convinced us that he was going got stick with the hand saw option. Well it turned out that he could not go straight home without calling into Bunnings and given that the chainsaws were so cheap he had to have one.

Now back to poor Peter. It seems that he always cops the first aid situations, vomiting, grave illness and I won't go on. I am the Nurse and always seem to manage to avoid these. The reason for the frantic calls was Dad using his new beaut chainsaw and almost taking off two fingers on his left hand, wrapping them in a piece of dirty rag and wandering out to Peter who was cutting the lawns (he is the better son according to Dad, because he was there cutting the lawns. As I said I am the Nurse and I need to maintain my soft hands). There was blood. Dripping blood. So of course Peter tells him to put pressure on it and to use a clean cloth (being a good teacher who maintains his senior first aid). So Dad wraps them in a hanky and straps them with electrical tape. While Peter tries to get hold of me to get advice. Not being able to see the injury I of course sent them off to the emergency department and said I would meet them there. At triage when I seen the wounds they did not look to bad but agreed that they needed to be seen and Dad should have a tetanus shot. Turns out that he had severed a tendon and chipped the bone and would need plastic surgery. So poor Dad who hates hospitals, has a genuine phobia of needles and didn't have time to lay about because otherwise he would have to pay to take the green waste to the tip was admitted and put on the waiting list for theatre. He thought this would all happen quickly and he would be home by tomorrow. Having worked at Royal Perth for near on 13 years I knew that he could well still be there when I got to work on Monday and most probably still fasting. Of course I didn't share this and left him propped up in bed watching the TV, which he was extremely pleased that he did not have to pay for being a private patient (after all it is always Mum who claims on the health insurance he kindly pointed out, bout time he got some back). Having spent 5 hours being interrogated by nurses and doctors, being poked and prodded and told he could not eat or drink he was somewhat his normal grumpy self. Myself having spent 5 hours at work, shopping with Mum and having morning tea with friends, did not get any painting done today. But I would not have missed it for the world. Now it is going to be fun watching who cares for who. Oh and Peter is officially listed as Mum's carer, so he is the first contact. Dad was just glad it was not his right hand so he could still wipe his @%#&. All class.

Today we reached our 26th week. I have had great pleasure in putting together a care package for our surrogate and a thank you gift for Dr Meenakshi. I can post them on Monday.