So I got home at six this morning… And then woke up at around eight to indulge a panic attack. I had snuck a few drags off of a friend’s cigarette and could feel the smoke expanding in my throat and lungs. Thank the gods I finally passed out again. Only to be woken up at 10:30. My dad was sick and needed to be taken to the hospital.

I had seen my dad really, really sick only once before. Very recently. He was huddled in bed, with fever and the chills, and was moaning in pain. It hurt seeing him like that. I put thick blankets on him and rubbed his back. Within a few hours, he was up and about as if nothing had happened.

Today, it looked like it was happening all over again. When we were finally ready to leave for the hospital, he was back to kidding around. But he didn’t dissuade us from bringing him to the hospital either so we figured he must still be in pain.

They ran some tests as soon as we got to the hospital. While we waited for the results, my dad went to sleep, having been kept up all night by stomach pains. My mom and youngest brother, Robin, went out to run some errands.

As I sat in the waiting room, I could feel my head start to spin from lack of sleep and food. I nipped over to the Mini Stop next door to see if they had anything I could eat. Um… let’s see… doughnuts, ice cream, cookies, chocolates, fried chicken… Everything I love and everything I couldn’t have. I was so hungry that I started to consider which was the lesser evil. I picked up a box of chocolate-covered macademias and read the label. If it just said milk chocolate and macademia nuts, that would have been breakfast but it listed all these other things that I gave up and went back to the hospital waiting room.

Later, as my hands were starting to shake from hunger, my mom returned with some bananas for me.

When the test results came back, the doctor said that my dad had dengue fever and needed to be admitted so that they could monitor his platelet count. I asked if it could be a false positive and she said that he exhibited all the symptoms: the fever, the chills, and his platelet count was low.

As we waited for a room, my dad got the chills again. I wrapped him in two hospital blankets and lay the thick towel we had brought from home on him. I also put my jacket over his head then rubbed him to keep him warm.

My eldest brother, Ricky, showed up and offered to stay with my dad till the evening so I’ve gone back to my parent’s house to gather some things to make my dad more comfortable.

Before leaving, however, my dad and I declared to the doctor that he’d be well the next morning. The doctor said that she was glad that we were optimistic but that it was unlikely and she didn’t want us to get our hopes up.

Tonight, though, we got the strangest call from my brother. He said that the doctors now think that my dad might NOT have dengue.

So I’m getting my hopes up that my dad will be fine by tomorrow. But it’s back to hospital duty for now.

Update: 18 Sept. 2011

It doesn’t seem to be dengue, but another infection. His platelets are up, although not yet within the normal range. We brought him home from the hospital this afternoon at around 3 PM where we will continue to keep him hydrated and monitor his health. His fever is intermittent but that could be because of the infection, for which he is taking antibiotics. But at least he’ll rest better at home. In the hospital, it was next to impossible, with him being woken up almost every hour for all sorts of different tests.