Took my dad for his second round of chemo on Thursday, it has brought with it a few side effects, pins and needles round his face and lips, when he went for a walk on Friday he had pins and needles on his legs too. However, to be honest I didn't think he would make his walk on Friday.
I left dad at his house around 4pm,on Thursday he told me to go home and spend some time with my wee girl, he said he was fine and I was to go home have dinner. I phoned at 8 to check everything was ok, it was I was to stop worrying and go relax!
My phone went at 10.20pm - my dad was being sick and couldn't breath. I have never got dressed so quick I drove to his house terrified at what I would find -it took me 4 minutes, and felt like 4 hours! When I arrived, there he was sitting on the side of the bath, really breathless telling me every was fine,according to him I didn't need to be there!
So things settled down and I made a coffee,
I'd been in about 15 minutes when my dad started being sick again, I saw that he couldn't catch his breathe again. It really scared me as I didn't know what to do. Once he had stopped being sick I asked him if he would let me phone the hospital to get some advice, I was on the verge of dialling 999.
Couldn't believe it when he agreed but he admitted he got a fright too and might be best to phone.
So I phoned the emergency number, that we had been told to phone for anything we were worried about only to be told, you don't meet the criteria to be admitted, they offered no support or help other than phone NHS 24 and get a doctor to come out to give dad an anti sick injection.
I phoned NHS 24 and told her the events of the evening, a really lovely woman who understood why I was concerned but told me my dad was having a laryngeal spasm, thankfully his GP had written extensive notes and had actually stated that he was concerned that my dad could have a laryngeal spasm and his concern was how he would deal with this.
It's a shame noone told us the possibility of it happening or what we could do if it did happen!!
Finally, at 12.25 after no further sickness bouts a doctor appeared. Instead of an injection which would have been a lot easier on him he gave him tablets to dissolve under his tongue, to be honest I was just grateful that someone had come out, but after checking his vitals the doctor decided that dad was ok and left him the pills to take. He took less than 10 mins and was more interested in what was on TV.
Thankfully, dad had no further sickness. I stayed another few hours until he told me to go my gut instinct told me to stay but dad is so stubborn at times and this was one of them. So I went home and didn't sleep!
On Friday morning I text just after 8, then I phoned just after 9 and he told me he was fine. Just after 11 I went to his house to check on him to find he wasn't there, so I went down the beach (where he walks the dog) and lo and behold there he was as if nothing had happened!!
I'm not being a drama queen, I genuinely thought my dad wasn't going to see Friday when I saw the state he was in on Thursday night, it just goes to show you he isn't ready to give up the fight of this terrible disease, he has things that he wants to see and his list isn't completed yet!
