Day One. The Day he Fell to Earth.

Sunday 11th August 6pm

Day Zero

Sitting in work, a call centre on yet another boring and non eventful evening in non-eventsville.  My mobile rang,  Bugger - we're not allowed mobiles in work and I'd forgotten to put it on silent.  I saw a missed call from home and ran out to call back, it must have been important to call me at work. I was told that my dad, age 82,  had fallen ten feet or so from a ladder. In a blind panic I ran out of work to the car-park - only to realise the car wasn't there - I'd walked to work.

When I finally got to my Dad's house (about five minutes away)he was still flat out on the floor.  My brother had waited 'five to ten minutes' for Dad to regain consciousness after falling off the ladder as he didn't know what to do.  Dad, who it now appears fell ten feet off the ladder due to a dizzy spell at the top, came round gurgling and with no recollection of where he was.  He told my brother to call someone at the church to tell him he would not be able to read the lesson that night (this was before thinking to call the ambulance), clearly highly confused.  Next Dad told him to go to get a retired GP who lived a street away (my brother had already done both of these before he called me). A neighbour had just called the ambulance when I arrived and they got there just after I did.  I went with the ambulance to the hospital at about 6.30pm and was shown waiting room where I stayed until 9pm.  They x-rayed him and told me he's broken his back and collarbone.  Dad is 82 - this is VERY bad news.

(This Leylandi on the left was the tree he was ten feet up a ladder against when he fell.)

My mate who had been in work when I was called out called at 9.30pm after the shift ended.  She came to the hospital from work and brought me a sarnie and some company for which I am eternally grateful.  They moved my dad to the clinical decision unit and I was able to go home.

This whole thing is like a gigantic cloud gathering over my head. Of course the broken back is absolutely terrible, but Dad is a HORRENDOUS hoarder and I forsee he'll never be able to live in his house as it is with a broken back.  The house is going to have to be safe for him to ever live in it again. This task is like a huge mountain which I know, will have to be climbed very soon. This was an unanticipated mountain and now a rather urgent mountain.

Tonight I just want to sleep.

Goodnight.