Hospital, Hearts and Horror Stories

It has been another quiet, uneventful week in the World of Williams.

I am of course being sarcastic, as the major event was a worrying turn of events for my Dad.  He went into hospital on Wednesday for a routine operation, which involved a bit of keyhole, his liver and some graphic detail best skipped over here.  All appeared to have gone well, and he was back on the ward recovering.

You always know when your phone rings at 2.20am that the news isn’t that good.  My Mum phoned me asking if I would mind taking her to hospital, as they had just phoned her, saying that he was having some chest pain, and had been taken to the coronary care unit.  Dad has a history of heart issues, and has had a stent fitted in the past.  Fearing the news to be less than good, we travelled the few miles to hospital in double-quick time, and once on the ward had both the nurse and doctor tell us that it looked like he was having a heart attack, and that he would be going across to Manchester Royal Infirmary to have an angiogram.

Being full of morphine following his op, Dad was pretty oblivious to everything but the pain he was having, and we were advised to go home, let him go and have the procedure and call in the morning.

To cut to the chase, it turns out his stent had moved and/or got a bit blocked, hence the heart trouble.  They sorted this, and he was fine.  So he’s staying in over the weekend, but looks good to come home early next week, and begin his recovery from his operation.  As I said, another quiet week then!

Many of you will “know” my Dad if you have read the trip reports in which he features.  Whether it be The Six Gain Flab in Disney Tour (2004) or The Back, Sack and Hi-Jack Tour 2005 or the more recent The Chronicles of Nana (and Grandad) in 2008 you will have gathered that he is somewhat of a character, and a gold mine for someone like me looking to find amusing incidents to write about.

Hopefully then with this operation out of the way, and his stent fixed he can get himself right for the upcoming golf season.

I have to say, seeing my Dad in that situation is not going to make it into my all time Top Ten things.

Speaking of holidays (what a seamless segueway), I haven’t done that much planning this week, other than reading a few trip reports from others who have done the Keys, Naples thing.  I also thoroughly enjoyed Bonzo’s report which was based in and around Orlando, but still flagged up something we will hopefully do in our few days in the area.

Bonzo made me aware of a Segway tour of Celebration which looks great.  I had half an idea to visit Celebration again anyway, so the added attraction of doing it on some sort of big boy’s toy has sealed the deal.  I mentioned this to the girls, and they burst into hysterical laughter.  Once they had composed themselves enough to talk, I asked why they found it so funny.  A simple answer….”The thought of Mum doing it!” they said, and again collapsed in laughter.

Anyone who saw Louise’s attempts at boogie boarding at Vero Beach may indeed agree that the potential for calamity when you mix Louise and a Segway is quite large.

Emily was glad of the light relief as she is currently buried in coursework for her GCSEs.  This week, the main thrust was Media Studies, as she had to have all that submitted for Friday.  I will say that her planning skills and time management left something to be desired, but she somehow got it done and in just in time.

One of the main things she had to do was to film, edit and produce a film trailer.  Being a big horror film fan, it will not surprise you to see the work of art below courtesy of YouTube.  It stars Emily’s friend Kirsty as the main character (victim) and Rebecca as “the baddie”.

Bless them, it took hours of filming in freezing temperatures to get enough footage to make the minute and half’s worth of trailer.  It also involved Rebecca wearing a lovely mixture of jam and water all down her face for hours on end!  My O Levels were slightly less interesting, with me spending weeks learning about truncated spurs and the French Revolution!!

So here is to a quieter week next week, with Dad home and healthy, and I’ll settle for work being tolerable.  Emily is moving on to her English essay, and I shall moving onto her back to make sure she doesn’t leave it until the last-minute again.

I hope all yours are healthy dear reader, and as usual,

Till the next time……