Catching Up
First Entry - Getting the background in
January 4th - Dad complained of feeling clumsy. Foot not moving where he wanted it to go. Hand not moving right either.
January 6th - Mentioned the issues to a co-worker and she suggested TIAs. I called my doctor's office, nurse line triage and she said get him in asap. Called my sister and she agreed. Get Dad in asap. Her boyfriend also agreed. He saw this with his mom. TIAs are a "warning shot across the bow".
Convinced Dad to go to hospital, I chose Abbott Northwestern due to the Heart Hospital they have and his own history. (Quintuple bypass in August 2011, and stent in August 2012.)
MRIs definentely showed stroke on the left side. CT scans showed blocked left carotid artery. 50% Dad's right side was affected, hand drifted and leg step sideways when walking.
MRIs also showed evidence of right stroke, not as severe, right carotid not blocked.
Plans were made for home eval with PT/OT to ensure I had the house as safe as possible.
Had a carousel of doctors, neurologists and vampires (blood draws) doing a round robin of testing. We had constant questions of does Dad have A-fib? Not as far as we know.
Dad ended up having a tube down his throat to see how his heart was working from the inside. Considering he is a 75 year old man, it's working really well. No issues to be seen outside the heart.
Got told that he would have to be on Coumadin/Warfarin. Which caused a certain amout of hissy cat for our family. (Family legend/rumour has it that his mom had two docs that did not communicate about her dosage. She took too much and started bleeding internally. It caused enough brain damage that she was placed in a nursing home and she died there about 6-9 months later.)
Dad was discharged on January 9th with a heart monitor to see if it could catch whether he was going into A-fib and a plan for nurses to come by and check on him. His driving was put on hold.
January 16th - Dad and I with a friend of mine were having dinner. I called Dad to the table to get dinner. Next thing I know he's taking a header for the table. Tried to catch himself with his right hand and that was not working again either. He's pitching towards the left and my friend caught him. We eventually switched places and got a chair under Dad. 911 is called and Dad is being taken to the hospital again.
More MRIs are done and now it's revealed that his carotid is more like 80% blocked. His left was out of whack, but recovered nicely. His right was set back a bit, but still workable. His heart is conveinentely in A-fib which nicely proves that theory. We have a date set for a carotid endarterectomy (roto rooter) for January 29th. The nuerologist would rather have it done sooner rather than later, but the thought is to let Dad's brain recover a bit and then go in.
The following week Dad and I go walking at a local mall, to get exercise and get out of the house a bit. He's not supposed to leave the house without someone with him, falling risk and plus it's too bloody cold a times. He tries to walk through the storefront. (Some of the mall storefronts have supports, like pillars, just outside and you can walk between them and the door of store.) He missed the fact that there is a window there and clocks his knee on the window. The next day I call the neurologist and ask if this is normal and I'm told that it is, the strokes may have affected his perception and it's something that will be relearned.
January 24th - Dad and I drive to MKE to spend time with my sister and her kids. Dad keeps a promise to his grand-daughter to go to a science lecture. He's confused a bit with directions and we end up relying on Ehlixz to get us to the U of WI. We take the kids back to their Dad and head back to the rental apt. Dad and I stop to get dinner and then go home to meet up with Auntie Mari (Mom's sister). Dad starts unpacking the meds and then I realize that he's trying to open the sharps container. I ask him what he's doing and he tells me that he's unpacking dinner. The next day we spend some time with my sister. We have lunch out and he asks us constantly where his coat is. We go back to the rental apt and watch a movie or at least, Dad listens and my sister and I go and talk about what's happening. I take Brenda home, come back and get Dad to bed. The next morning, I watch Dad get lost and not able to find the bathroom. We get things sorted out and we head to lunch for Brenda's birthday. Dad's is not firing on all cylinders. He tries to eat the paper from the muffin. Dad and I head out for MSP. He unlocks the seatbelt multiple times and I have to grab it and put it back in place. He acts as if he's going to open the door. (Thank heavens I was driving a rental car and not his or mine.) Finally he's able to tell me that he needs to use the restroom. I stop at a truck stop and get him towards the mens room. I glance in and realize that he has not made it to a stall and is about to drop trou and take a leak against the bricks. I move in quickly to push him into a stall. He eventually comes out but is trying to button his jeans with his coat snaps. We get home and I call the nurse line of the home care that has been coming in. The nurse tells me that I need to get Dad to the hospital asap. I then spend about 45 mins getting him back into jeans and to the hospital. In the mean time he's talking about sifters and not making sense. The docs get him settled and admitted. They are just going to keep him until his surgery on the 29th. I ask if this is something I should have recognized and seen to do something about it sooner. I'm told that I can't take responsibilty for this. Even if he had needed to go to the hospital in MKE, there would not have been anything to be done. I was giving him Lovenox shots to thin his blood to bridge to the surgery. He would not have been eligble for the emergency shot.
January 29th - Dad has his surgery. He had glitch coming out of of the procedure. His right side was not working. We waited a little longer and then we had good news. The surgeon, commented that he was much happier with this situation, but reserved the right to get unhappy if something changed. I was challenged by the fact that he did not know which daughter I was. He was asked what my birthday was, and he gave my sisters. Eventually that got solved out and my identity was established.
February 4th - Dad gets moved to Sister Kenny Rehab. A very intense rehab attached to his hospital. He consistently thinks he's in MKE. He is convinced that he's right by the apt where he lived for 10+ years with my mom. He has 6 days of rehab with ~6 hours a day of therapy.
Dad is discharged to home on February 16th. He needs someone to be with him for 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the next 30 days. I apply for FMLA and it gets approved, I also yell for help and I get a couple volunteers.
Over the next/past 30 days, we've had some ups and downs. He still gets confused with where he is, especially when we're leaving rehab. Otherwise he seems to be doing well. I need to be with him if he's taking a shower. (Thank heavens I'm not body shy.) He can zap something in the microwave, he can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He can go to the bathroom on his own. He can get dressed on his own, there are occaisional moment where clothing get's turned around. Head through the sleeve or twisting a coat around as it's being put on.
We're still challenged by his vision. The plan at one point was to get his eyes checked and see if he could get a cataract surgery. He's got amblyopia on the left. He asked about Lasik and they would not do it because he did not have a "back-up eye". His left quadrant seems to be not functioning well. But we'll have to let the neuro-opthalmalogist look at it. He can read some. He made a obvious connection today when we when grocery shopping. He likes the Suddenly Salads. He wanted to go down the pasta aisle since they are pastas. It was a good thought, but those are found in the box dinner aisle. But I was happy he made the connection and tried it.
One of the challenges is Dad's perfectionist streak. He gets very frustrated when he does something wrong. That is part of his upbringing. His dad was not a nice man. I'm sure part of it is struggle from the stroke, but part of it is his upbringing. If he drops the remote on the floor as he was aiming to put it down on the table, I hear a "d*mn stup*d" or "clumsy idi*t".
That's the skinny up until today. We'll see what the next few days bring. Next time I'll talk about the Adult Day Services.
Jeri B.
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