Got a phonecall at ten to seven this morning from my mother saying that my dad wasn't waking and had ignored his alarm. That's enough to cause alarm, and he also wasn't responding to her. Told her to call an ambulance and made my way over. I got there before the ambulance, not that they were tardy. He recognised me and called me by my family nickname but lapsed straight back into sleep.
He'd been complaining the night before of a headache and shoulder pain, and he went to bed early but he'd had a long day at work. None of this is terribly unusual, he gets terrible arthritis type pains in his shoulders and has terrible posture.
Ambulance arrived, and they didn't have a clue. He seemed to be asleep but was responding to requests, he squeezed both hands and moved both feet, so the immediate stroke fears were somewhat allayed. He was taken to A&E and after some tests and a CT scan they told us he had a sub-arachnoid bleed.
Throughout the day he has been asleep, and it is more like sleep than being genuinely out. He woke twice desperately conveying the message that he needed to pee. Aside from what he said to me first thing, and him telling a nurse to stop pinching his ear (she was trying to wake him) he hasn't really said many words or strung a proper sentence together during his brief awake spells.
That's what I have so far. Shower, food and back to the hospital. My elder brother, his wife and my mother are there.
