My father had a stroke.

I wanted to wait to post this, until I knew for sure what had happened. Yesterday my father had a stroke. It wasn't as serious as it could have been. According to what the doctors told Mom, it was about a 2, 15-20 being serious. This bit here is a direct quote from Mom's blog. She's better with words than I am.

"So: what I knew when writing the first part of this, at 11:08 on Friday night. He had a small stroke, maybe a 2 on the hospital’s how bad is this scale but not a 15 or a 20. It has affected his speech center, but that may all come back, or mostly come back. When they did the CAT scan, they found evidence of several [many?] previous TIA’s [transient ischemic attacks, or mini-strokes], chiefly in the part of the brain that affects balance. Which would explain a lot. He will be on some sort of anticoagulant for the rest of his life. He’s in the neurology wing, and this morning they will do an MRI. His blood sugar, at least for the moment, is normal.

He was in the car with LittleBit when it happened; she was driving. When they got home, he couldn’t get out of the car under his own power, and she couldn’t get him out, and he stopped breathing. One of the maintenance men did CPR and got him going again until the EMT’s came and took him to the ER."

Rose(Littlebit) told me that not only was he not breathing, but he had no pulse when the EMTs got there. He was resuscitated in the ambulance, and then transported to the ER. He seems to be stable now, and they have put him in Neurology for further observation.

My eldest sister is taking this opportunity to try and get Dad to sign over power of attorney so that she and her husband can take the reins to make sure he gets proper care. He doesn't seem to quite understand what she's asking though, since when she asked he was very casual about it, saying "Yeah sure."

I feel rather like an ass since I thought he wasn't taking his medicine, and I've attributed the warning signals (reduced coordination, jumbled thoughts, memory loss) of his mini-strokes, solely to his diabetes. He has apparently been taking his medicine for the last week or so, because his blood pressure, and cholesterol were at the proper levels. I also learned that he was simply choosing not to eat before because he didn't take his insulin, and his blood sugar would spike when he did eat, for obvious reasons. That was what led up to his first hospitalization.

As my family continues to update me on his condition, I'll note it here. I don't know how much time he has left, but he very nearly died permanently yesterday. I want to remember exactly what happened, if he passes soon.