tales from an ordinary world

1999-12-24

Janine said yesterday that when she was walking to work in the morning, it seemed like "earthquake weather" - not that we have them in Melbourne, but apparently she'd had similarly odd feelings before a few earthquakes back in New Zealand...

...then I woke up this morning and got a phone call from Mum saying that Dad apparently had a very minor stroke - he came home from work saying he'd been feeling kinda odd all day, and once they got hold of a doctor, he suggested that it'd been just that.

I wandered over in the afternoon, and we went to visit him in the Monash Medical Centre, where he was basically waiting for the doctors to do whatever tests they decided they'd need to do. Every time someone spoke to him it sounded like he'd be in there longer and longer - maybe even over new year's eve. We sat around the bed, just like I remember sitting around other people in hospital, making slightly awkward conversation and wondering if there's anything really useful you can do to help. As we were going, I asked "so like, how do you feel ?". He told me it's a bit like having a slight hangover - a bit of a headache and stuff...but also his left hand was feeling a bit odd, and maybe his left leg too. And his mouth feels a bit numb, kinda like when you go to the dentist. It could've been a lot worse. But all the same, it's...odd...

It's hard to know what to feel in these situations, and I tend to worry that, because I'm not really around much anymore, perhaps I'm not quite living up to my familial duties or something. I don't know.