At least it's not Monday!

It's been a bloody awful week. My father who has always been rather hypochondriacal and anxious about his health for years was rushed to hospital the other day after something rather odd happened to one of his kidneys. He woke up suddenly with a fever and severe pain on the left side of his abdomen and decided (sensibly) not to wait and see what would happen. After a bit of prodding and poking he was told he probably had a kidney stone, given some pain relief and sent home, only to end up back in about 12 hours later when the pain got worse. It turns out that he has actually had a 'renal infarction' or for the non-medical among you, a piece of his kidney has died. Just like that.

When I went to see Dad initially he'd had morphine so was feeling nicely 'floaty' but also very justified in a 'see, I knew something was wrong with me' kind of way. Hmmm. Decided not to argue with that one - except my father for years has thought that every headache or twinge of pain is a sign that he is seriously unwell and is not being diagnosed properly by his poor local GP.

Now, the problem is that the cause for this is a bit of a mystery. Often people who have these infarcts have a history of previous clots somewhere causing such things as heart attacks or have risk factors for clots such as atrial fibrillation - a condition where the heart beats fast and erratically. Dad doesn't have any of these things, or not so the medical team have discovered as yet. They have however, discovered some other problems on his scan which they suspect may be a kidney tumour. Cripes.

Further problem, the medical team haven't told him their concerns, they've told me in passing - as I'm a doctor! Great. So now I am in the position of not knowing whether or not to say anything to Dad. If I do, he'll probably become very panicky and upset and I might cause him unnecessary worry. But the other part of me thinks the medical team should have talked to him first, not me and that he should know what the current concerns are. At the moment I'm procrastinating, hoping that todays scan will be clearer and maybe, if I'm honest, that the medical team will do the job for me.

On top of all that - my big tomcat Oedipus has gone missing!!! He has never stayed out overnight in the 3 years we've had him and has now been gone for 3 nights. Came back from seeing Dad and at the end of the 120 mile drive was greeted with the news by Mr O. Have gone round to all of the neighbours, told the cat protection mob/RSPCA but no sightings as yet. Now Oedipus is the nosiest cat in the world and has been into everyone's houses and most of their cars, outhouses etc. Regulary climbs inside tradesmen's vans too. So - he could be skittled on a road somewhere, locked in a garage or halfway to Aberdeen! I've told the Duracell Toddler that Oedipus has gone on holiday to Africa to see his cousins the lions. He liked that idea.

Supposed to be going for a mini-break to Spain in 4 days, what is the likelihood of that happening?

Think I shall return to singing ABBA and go into denial -"Waterloo....."