My Poor Dad

This will be long...

I think I've posted before that my Dad is a brittle diabetic. He has been since I was about 3 years old. Now, my Dad isn't the best at doing what he's "supposed to do", as far as testing his blood sugar as often as he should. He does do his insulin every day, but, he almost goes off of "how he feels" because he's been dealing with it for so long. Well, even when he's doing things EXACTLY as he's supposed to, his diabetes is never under control. I can remember being a young child and having to call my neighbor asking her if I could come over to her house because my mom was preparing my dad for a trip to the ER due to his diabetes.

Lately though, things have gotten much worse. Literally, in the past 6 months things have gone down the drain. My dad's blood sugar has been dropping dangerously low, he's been having hallucynations (not sure how that's spelled), it's just been a mess. He's been in and out of the hospital, in and out of the doctor's office, etc. My sister and I have been doing everything we can to help him through this. We've FINALLY got him checking his blood sugar like he should be, especially before he drives.

Well. On Monday, after we found out about Miss Lias, I was waiting for my Dad to call me. I left him a message earlier in the day telling him we knew the baby's sex and I wanted him to call me ASAP. He usually calls me as soon as he's done with work...usually around 9:15 PM. 10 PM came, no call. I called him, no answer. 10:30came and I called my sister to see if he was home yet. Honestly, I was a little annoyed that he didn't call me. My sister said she wasn't home yet, but sometimes he stops at the restaurant across the street from work to grab something to eat. I told her to have him call me when he got home.

At 11 PM, my sister texted me that Dad still wasn't home. We talked again, she tried to call him no answer. We hung up, and not 4 minutes later, she called me back. She reached him, he's in the Emergency Room. Sigh. I'm thinking it's the normal story, he got done with work, wasn't feeling well, knew his blood sugar was low and went to the ER. Oh no, I was wrong.

At 3:30 PM that day, my Dad was working and felt pain in his abdomen. Work sent him to immediate care, suspecting he had a hernia. He was supposed to go back to work after Immediate Care. He left Immediate Care at 5 PM (according to his discharge papers) and went to his car. He says he remembers turning his car on because he heard music playing. That's the last logical thing he remembers. That is, until after 10 PM, when he was in an ambulance.

Apparently, he left Immediate Care, got into his car, felt "off", started to eat some crackers, attempted to take his blood sugar (we know this because we found an open pack of crackers and his test kit open and out on his front seat) and the passed out. Right in the parking lot of the Immediate Care he'd just been in. Not 20 feet from their front door. He says he remembers hallucynating while/before (not sure which) passing out. He described it like being in the movie "Transformers", when the Transformers change. He felt/saw his seat getting bigger, his steering wheel closing in on him.

Anyway, after FIVE HOURS, a police man, patrolling the parking lot found him and called for help. The paramedics gave him a dose of glucose and took him straight to the ER. Once there, they gave him food, got his blood sugar back to "normal" and did an EKG to make sure there was no damage done to his heart while he was unconscious. By 2 AM, my sister was taking him home. He's fine, besides being completely scared to drive and he says he's thoroughly embarassed because of what happened.

The after math though, Good God. The police, the paramedics and my family are LIVID with the Immediate Care Center. Apparently, the police when into the center to see if they could give any information on my Dad. They said they saw him out there all night, but policy is, "They're not allowed to leave the building". WHAT?!?!? So, you treat someone, you see them sitting in their car, likely with the car running, for five hours, and you don't even go to check on him? No one on a cigarette break or leaving for the night thought to just look into his car? Really? What if he'd had a heart attack? Diabetic comas are just as dangerous. My Dad could have died because no one in that center had the common courtesty to even pick up the phone, dial 911 and say, "I don't know what's happening, but...."

And furthermore, my Dad left work at 3:30 and was supposed to return back to work. You're telling me no one noticed he never returned? No one from work bothered to call his cell phone (we have his phone history), no one called my sister (his closest emergency contact), NOTHING.

I really couldn't care less about work. But, seriously, this Immediate Care Center? You're supposed to be a bunch of medical professionals. What happened? What happened to that oath you take saying you'll take care of people? How lazy do you have to be to not even pick up the phone to make sure someone is okay? My sister has already put in a request for the paramedic and police reports. It takes about 5 days to get each. Once we have those, she and I will be lodging formal complaints against the Immediate Care Center. It'd be one thing if no one saw him, but, the police were told that they DID see him in his car. For five hours. We're hoping the police are going to lodge their own investigation as well. We're not looking to sue or anything like that, as Dad is okay now. BUT, an apology to my family is very much deserved. Very much deserved.

Dad isn't allowed to drive with my niece and nephews any longer. In fact, right now, he doesn't want to drive AT ALL. I don't think we'll keep him from driving long term, as long as we can be sure he's doing everything he can to take care of himself. But, I fear we're nearing the point where we may have to take away his car, may have to find some kind of constant care for him. His body is just to fragile these days. He has a referral for a new Endocrinologist, who will be much more knowledgeable in caring for his diabetes. He will also being seeing a surgeon for his hernia.

Sigh. My Dad isn't even 60 years old yet. It's just so frustrating. And worrisome.