I received a phone call last week from the PCH where my dad lives -- well someone called and I wasn't home so Dennis tookt he message and relayed to me to call them back.
It was the nurse practitioner.
My heart always does a little bit of a jump when I have to call the PCH as it is and when it is the NP that is calling it does a double flip.
She was calling to tell me about Dad's "new behaviour" (which really wasnt new but they finally took what I have been telling them to heart and started documenting it). He has been calling out more and more (big surprise), he has been much more agitated (no kidding) and he has just generally not been too happy about things (**shock** followed by **sarcasm**).
I am trying hard to be understanding and allowing that there are many others at the PCH, but when you have a few residents that are TOTALLY incapable of doing anything for themselves, you would hope that they would take things more seriously when a family member (the only family that the resident has that visits regularily {or at all really}) repeatedly reports seeing something that is making the resident unhappy!
Anyhow... apparently they monitored and recorded what they saw over the last 2 weeks and have seen that Dad gets quite vocal (yelling and swearing) when he is uncomfortable. So when he is in his chair (his new chair that was ordered without my knowledge AT ALL)and he starts yelling, they will transfer him to bed -- and when he is in bed and he does the same, they will move him to his chair. This move I am sure will be a lot longer in coming as his room is almost at the end of the wing he lives on and is far from the nurses station and the common area. (basically I think once he is in bed ... that is where he will stay until it is time to get him for meals) I will give the staff the benefit of the doubt tho and see how it goes.
The big issue that really got me is that we are now uping a few of this med's. It is all in Daddy's best interest but it was (and still is) a big tear jerker for me. He really isnt on too much (we were able to ge thim off of alot of unnecessary medication over the last few years) mostly just tylenol for the pain of alwasy being in a chair (or bed), stuff for BM's and a low dose for depression. The tylenol will now be replaced with something that will not do damage to his kidneys (a bonus) and it will work on the pain issue (double bonus), we are uping the depression meds to help with his moods and maybe help with the yelling and calling out -- but it may make him a bit too lucid (in my opinion) but again we will have to see how it all goes!I know it is hard to see why giving Dad higher meds that all seem to be bonuses is hard to take, but all that keeps coming back to me is what the doctor told us when he was in ICU in Edmonton 18years ago. Dad will live with his BI (no time line was given) and start to regress before he ....
It hurts my heart that this could be ... the beginning ... of the end? I dont want my Daddy to be in pain or live a life that he is not enjoying, but it is hard to watch this decent -- even though I have been watching it for 18yrs. Maybe I just need to get a grip and deal....
2 comments:
Why would they listen to family...that would make sense. Prayers for your family ❤
Hi, I feel your pain and it saddens me to read this, but I have to tell you when I did read it, maybe it's a long shot but my first thoughts were that his brain is trying to get out some not necessarily new information but perhaps things he has not thought about or done for years. The brain is a crazy organ and even though the receptors can 'break,' and can't be 'repaired' it is still possible for them to re-wire themselves. That's what came to my mind when I read your blog. It is possible that there has been some re-wiring lately.. brain injured doesn't mean brain dead right?!!!
I know at the start of my journey with this, there was one day when I was with my brother, my father and my mother and my poor parents, I shouldn't have had them in the room when I was asking but Ryan didn't remember my dad, or my mom, didn't remember what dad's occupation was or mom.. didn't know anything but he knew me. When he woke up from his coma all he could say was when is Danielle coming, why does she live in Alberta, and then everything was Danielle and I had already been there for 3 weeks in a coma and had to fly back to take care of some work business before i packed up the truck and drove out again to Ottawa.. It's been a crazy year and I remember the swearing and screaming and such that you have described about your dad. We also tried to take Ryan off as many meds as possible and one was too quick so he had a seizure.. and then another one actually a couple weeks ago so it's still a loooooooooooooong road for me and my family. Anyways I just wanted to tell you my immediate thoughts about the 'change in behaviour' of your dad.. a possible re-wiring and this could be a good thing!!!! a really good thing!!!! Go see your dad and give him some hugs and kisses. Even if it doesn't do anything on the outside, I am sure it is working wonders on the inside.. I am sure of it!!
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