Emotional Roller Coaster Ride

Watching Dad muttle through each step of his illness is enough to break one down. I don't know how he does it. Yesterday was difficult. He had an appointment with the urologist to determine why his body is not functioning properly without the catheter. Well, the result of the appointment was to send him home without it to see what happens. Again. I'm a layman and that reasoning is pooty even to me. They have him scheduled for some kind of scope on Monday to see if there is a blockage. Okay, today is Thursday and you mean to tell me they couldn't set up an appointment for something this urgent on Friday? We have to get through Thursday night--without calling paramedics--then Friday and the weekend without urine backing up into his kidneys. Couldn't they have taken the catheter out after the test when they have a better idea of what's going on? You see, he had the catheter taken out only a few weeks ago. We were more or less advised to wait until he's at the point of extreme pain, which means a toxic level of urine is backed up in his bladder. Late that night he pushed the button on his first alert necklace to summon the paramedics. He was in excruciating pain. At the same time he was also, if you will recall from earlier post, dealing with hiccups from hell. When in ER, they emptied a toxic amount of urine from his bladder, had him comfy in a bed with an IV that contained medicine that calmed, then rid him of the hiccups he'd had for days, and he was able to find some relief and peace in sleep. But that didn't last long. Around 1:00 a.m. in the morning they woke him up, attached another catheter, and kicked him out. Hiccups returned as soon as they stopped the drip. So you see we've already been there, done that. Damn.