Mr. W and I spent late morning into the early evening with my dad at the hospital. He was walking around, eager to go home, cracking jokes with the family of the guy who shared his room about the “food” at the hospital. “Food” is in quotes because the joke is that they’re starving to death being only allowed to eat liquids, i.e. chicken broth, jello, popsicles and water. My mom had asked me to sneak in some food for my dad, but after my doctor friend Lily just happened to call me on our way to the hospital, I was convinced not to. She said that since they’re still trying to diagnose what’s wrong with my dad, they’re keeping him off solids in case something happens and they make a split decision to get him into surgery. If he had food in his stomach it could interfere with the op medication (anesthesia, etc.), and if he were semi-conscious and throws up on the operating table, the vomit could go back into his lungs and cause pneumonia, or he could choke on it. She said to let the doctors and nurses do what they need to do and not interfere with their feeding schedule. My mom’s concern was that if my dad’s dizziness had the same cause as last time, then he’s bleeding internally again and they need stool samples to see if there’s blood. Lily said that if he’s bleeding, the blood clots will come out either upwards or downwards and whether or not he has solid food. Plus, if he’s been throwing up already, it’s best to take it easy with the solids while they’re trying to figure out what’s wrong.

The good news is that they’ve ruled out hernia, internal bleeding, brain issues (stroke), and heart issues. They’d done a CT scan, several EKGs, and some scan of his carotid arteries and his brain. Everything was normal, so the doctor believes that my dad had simply had a virus that infected his inner ear, leading to labyrinthitis. The doctor thinks the virus has already run its course and after warning my dad that it’s not uncommon for a recurrance of these dizzy spell symptoms in another month or so, the doctor signed the discharge paperwork. My dad happily left the hospital earlier this evening.

I want to thank everyone for their concern and phone calls and many check-ups on me, and also for all of Vanessa’s offers to “do anything, bring food to the hospital, anything.” I probably could’ve taken advantage of the “anything” cuz my laundry’s still sitting in 5 sorted piles in my bedroom waiting to be washed. 😉