Wake up call.

Figured I'd give a little more detailed explanation of yesterday's events with my father, since I have some more time (and more info available).

So, yeah, yesterday morning, around 10:20, I got a call from Vicki, who works with my dad. She didn't have a lot of information available - she was simply the messenger, and (I'm assuming) was not actually present when the ambulance was called. Basically, she was simply going down the list of emergency contact numbers from my father's list, trying to contact people.

My mom was non-reachable at the time because she was (ironically enough) at a doctor's office, and they had a "no cell phone" policy, so she'd turned her phone off.

Anywhat - Vicki told me all she knew, which wasn't much: That my dad had had an ambulance called, that they had administered oxygen (but that that was standard procedure), and that he was in good spirits when they left. I gave her my mom's cell phone number, she gave me the number to the hospital my dad was going to (although, she said, he probably hadn't arrived yet), and her own number (!!) and we hung up.

I immeadiately called my sister, but got her answering machine. I left a brief message and ended it with, "I'll call you when I know more."

About 5 minutes later, the phone rang. It was my sister, saying that she was at work, but her husband had gotten the message and called her, telling her to call me for more info. I relayed what little information I knew, and while that was going on she got yelled at by her supervisor for being on the phone!! (Sheesh! A family emergency doesn't warrant a relaxation of some stupid phone rules? Whatever.) We commented on the fact that my dad (most likely) in the hospital due to his hiatal hernia. (I don't think I blogged about it, but when my folks first moved to Arizona, my dad had an episode with his hiatal hernia then as well)

Long story short, yes. That's what it was. My father has been working 7 days a week (until just recently, when he's finally decided to start taking Sundays off), and doing a lot of manual labor. It caught up with him yesterday.

My mom called me today at work and gave me more of an update. The hernia did cause the fainting/dizzy spell that put my dad in the hospital to begin with, but he's home now. The doctors have ordered him to start exercising, and my dad has said that he's going to quit drinking coffee altogether.

Scary stuff, but everything is okay.

Thanks, everyone, for your concern for my dad.