Okay, gang, cross your fingers *really* hard.

Finally called the hospital, and got transferred through to Dad.

The Good News:

• They won't have to operate on his knee, but just put it in a massive splint


• His heart rate has come down to normal


• He's just as cheerful as ever

The Bad News:

• In the course of a routine chest X-ray, they found a "spot" on his lung.

He no longer smokes, but until he quit, some 25 years ago, he was a heavy smoker. His sister, Jean, died of lung cancer a few years ago. And he's had a shallow dry cough, in the mornings, for a while now, that he'd just assumed was post-nasal drip, or something. But maybe not.

The nurse was coming in to take him for the biopsy during the phone call. So I hung up and came to make this post. On the positive side, from the sound of things, it sounds like a small spot, so they may have caught it early enough to do something about it, and besides, we won't know if it really is cancer until the biopsy comes back anyway. Of course, this being the weekend, it will be several days until the results come back.

So, he'll likely spend the weekend in the hospital. At least, I know which buttons to push when I want to talk to him, now....