October 31, 2010

Dad has had a few weird trips to the ER in the past few months.

In the month of June, all four of us were over taking Dad to lunch.  He was very lethargic and leaning to one side in his wheelchair.  He said he'd been vomiting earlier that day.  We started to wheel him down the street to Subway when he said he thought he was going to vomit and wanted to be taken back to the care center.  So we turned back and decided to bring lunch to him.  He ate, but was acting really strangely and when one of us mentioned his speech seemed slurred, I figured those were all signs of a stroke and decided we might need to call a nurse and see what they thought.  So that ended up in a decision to send him to the ER to be evaluated for a possible stroke.  After several hours in the ER and a CT scan, the doctors said there was nothing wrong with him and no signs of a new stroke showing in the CT scan results.  So we had the care center transport come pick him up and he went back...

On October 4th at 5:07 AM the care center called me and said they were sending Dad in to the ER again.  Man, I hate those calls.  I had just been to visit him the night before and he did seem very tired and was slouching to the side a lot and I could barely understand him.  But, oddly enough, this time I didn't think much of it in the way of it being another stroke.  So I just gave him a piece of cake and attempted to talk to him as he fed himself, but my understanding of the conversation was hit and miss.  I went home thinking Dad was either very very tired or was losing his health slowly but surely.  When I got the call, I was not surprised, but mad at myself for not sending him in the night before.  Same as last time though, the CT scan showed no new signs of stroke.  Blood work was all normal except he had a slight sign of a UTI infection.  The doctor spoke to us about admitting him to the hospital to watch him, but in light of what had happened the previous ER fiasco, I opted to just send him back to the care center.

A couple weeks after that, they called and said they were wanting to send him in to the ER again, but I told them to hold off and just have the doctor come examine him.  It was my thought then that it could be the meds he was on.  They had recently added or increased the dosage of Cymbalta (an anti-depression medicine).  So I asked the nurse to tell the doctor he didn't need any meds for depression or for sleep. 

In subsequent visits, he has seemed more normal and lively, so I think we were right about the meds being the cause. One thing that is not good is the fact that Dad is nearly 200 pounds.  He was 163 when we admitted him to the care center here in Utah.  We have been feeding him way too many chocolate covered peanuts from the neighboring Sunflower Market that Dad has started calling the "Mayflower" for some reason... :)

We have a meeting with the care center staff on November 3rd, but I am sure it will be uneventful.  Dad sees no improvement nor decline.