Everyday, around 10 am, my mother and I have a grand old chat on msn messenger. When she hadn’t showed up by 10:30 today, I thought “Well this sucks, at 11 she’s going to go off to watch the Young and the Restless, so I won’t get to talk to her all day and I want to ask her how to get this stain out of my sock”. I remembered that my sister and her kids are staying over at my parents’ while their furnace is broken so I sent my sis a text message asking if they were home. No response, but 10 minutes later the phone’s ringing. My mom’s telling me that they had just gotten back in the house, that Ann had gotten my text message while she was driving and they figured they’d be home soon so they might as well call then. Bizarre that mom would call long distance during the day just to tell me that– why not go on MSN?– but whatever. Thinking they’d been shopping or something, I asked where they’d gone.

The hospital.

My dad was at work last night (5 pm – 5 am shift), and started getting awful pains in his back and stomach at around 3 am. Eventually he couldn’t even stand anymore and called the other guy who was working with him to call the ER. Now he’s in the hospital. Mom told me it was nothing, they thought that it was probably acid reflux or an ulcer (there’s been a lot of stress in his life lately, what with me going wacko and her other daughter getting separated after 13 years of marriage and 3 kids), and that he would be released today around 4pm after they’d given him a few more tests.

Yeah, well. I called home at 6:00 because I hadn’t heard from anyone. My sister told me that Mom and Dad were still at the hospital, no she hadn’t heard anything, maybe the tests were taking longer than usual, you know how it is with doctor shortages and all. Finally near 8:30 Mom called back; they’re not releasing Dad, they don’t know what’s wrong with him. They have had him all doped up since last night. He hasn’t been able to eat (which for him is rare– he’s the skinniest man alive, but eats like a horse, every half hour he’s snacking, I swear), and they’ve been doing all kinds of tests on him including one that sent a tube down his throat and into his stomach, blood tests, xrays… Tomorrow there’s more testing– mom wasn’t clear on what, beyond an ultrasound, would be done but the doctors who told her yesterday that he would be out today said today that now they couldn’t be sure when he’d be released.

This is not fun. I worry for my mom who is being all bright and cheery and “Oh everything’s fine” but this man has been her partner and the love of her life for over 30 years and I can hear in her voice that she’s terrified. Let’s hope that it all blows over and there really is nothing wrong. Please.