The past few days have been pretty rough with Dad. We don’t know what’s going on. When he was released from the hospital and a few days afterwards he was better than ever- just like his old self. Unfortunately, it was too good to be true and Dad has had some really bad days lately. In fact, he had an appointment with his neurologist on Thursday and we were barely able to get him out of the house to make the appointment. It took all four of us to get him out the door and in the car. Eventually on the way to see the doctor, Dad sort of snapped out of his fluctuating cognition; however he was still refusing to eat and take his pills, again. In a way, it was good for the neurologist to see him in a “bad” state. I think he was actually little shocked because every time he sees Dad, Dad is always “good” or putting on an act. This time, Dad still refused to take his pills for the neurologist and the neurologist spent quite a bit of time with us- he was genuinely concerned. The funny thing is that Dad wasn’t even as “bad” as he could be.
While we were at the appointment, the neurologist ordered a leg scan for Dad because it turns out while he was in the hospital NO ONE ordered this simple test to see if there was a clot in his legs. Apparently, this is one of the first things that should have been done. Thankfully, the neuro ordered the test and everything turned out okay. The neurologist said Dad’s “bad” episodes are just part of the terrible cycle of this disease. If he doesn’t get better, we might try putting him back on one of his old meds. In the meantime, the neuro is starting him on Namenda so hopefully that will increase his daily quality of life.
For now, it’s a constant battle to get Dad out of bed, dressed, have him eat and take his pills. He just wants to sleep all day and he’s losing heaps of weight- too much. We’re praying that he’ll snap out of his “bad” spells soon and get back to his old self. Until then, life is quite stressful and exhausting around here. Caregiving is hard, much harder than one can imagine if you haven’t been there before. My Mom bares the brunt of it and I can see it’s taking a toll on her. It’s hard on all of us.
In other news about Dad’s pulmonary embolism, his recent blood test rendered too high of a reading on Wednesday so the GP has halved some of his coumadin and he’ll be re-tested on Tuesday. Keeping his blood “even” is a bit worrisome especially since Dad isn’t eating. It’s important to keep his diet balanced everyday and having Dad refusing to eat isn’t helping.
