Details I missed yesterday
By Mike on Wednesday 16 April 2008, 17:36 - Journal - Permalink
Dad has been hallucinating quite colourfully while he's been in hospital. He
said the following to Greg:
'Hah! I thought that elephant was real for a minute.'
'What are those buses doing in here?'
Last night he was able to drink from a cup and hold his own sandwich. The previous day he had needed a straw, but even that had been troublesome for him, and he had had to have his food held for him.
The shaking of his hands has apparently settled down significantly since the previous day.
He was able to remember his name and birthday when the senior doctor spoke to him yesterday evening.
Greg says that when he first saw dad in hospital, he looked so bad he thought he was going to die. I was also shocked at my first sight of dad, but this was after he had already got a lot better. The talk of resuscitation seemed very premature once dad had woken up and was talking, albeit poorly.
No answer from the psychogeriatrician to my fax of yesterday. I sense a closing of medical ranks against us. It is not pleasant, and perhaps unfounded, but I feel alerted to the possibility.
'Hah! I thought that elephant was real for a minute.'
'What are those buses doing in here?'
Last night he was able to drink from a cup and hold his own sandwich. The previous day he had needed a straw, but even that had been troublesome for him, and he had had to have his food held for him.
The shaking of his hands has apparently settled down significantly since the previous day.
He was able to remember his name and birthday when the senior doctor spoke to him yesterday evening.
Greg says that when he first saw dad in hospital, he looked so bad he thought he was going to die. I was also shocked at my first sight of dad, but this was after he had already got a lot better. The talk of resuscitation seemed very premature once dad had woken up and was talking, albeit poorly.
No answer from the psychogeriatrician to my fax of yesterday. I sense a closing of medical ranks against us. It is not pleasant, and perhaps unfounded, but I feel alerted to the possibility.
Comments
I think the "closing of medical ranks against us" is common and happens especially in three cases (and combinations thereof):
1. Medicine doesn't really know what it's doing;
2. Medicine isn't being careful about what it's doing;
3. Medicine forgets that the unMedical people who seem to be hounding it are, still and all, people, and deserve to be treated as such.
It's maddening. Sometimes I've fought it. Sometimes, mostly lately, especially if it seems that my mother isn't being harmed, at least, I throw up my hands in exhaustion and wait until I've recovered some energy before I try to pry open those "ranks". I understand that Medicine is so afraid of law suits that it feels a constant necessity to remain within a circle of wagons, but, funny, I just read an interesting little piece over at Medscape that indicates that when medical personnel are above board about mistakes, ignorance, etc., even when such circumstances are the cause of horrible problems, PATIENTS ARE LESS LIKELY TO SUE AND MORE LIKELY TO ALLOW MEDICINE THE LEEWAY TO ATTEMPT TO DEAL WITH THOSE MISTAKES AND THAT IGNORANCE AND TRY TO CORRECT, IF POSSIBLE, THE RESULTANT PROBLEMS WITHIN ITS FIELD!
This article was not one that was circulated to lay subscribers of Medscape, it was circulated to physicians (I'm signed up as a physician). Although I see no reason why lay subscribers shouldn't receive information like this, I thank the gods that physicians and other medical professionals are finally beginning to think about this. I'm just sorry that questioning the attitude that caused the study didn't happen a loooong time ago. If it had, maybe those ranks wouldn't be so quick to close against you, against me, agasint so many of us.
I remain your faithful reader, curious to see how you and your family react to "the possibility".
On a lighter note, I laughed at your dad's phasing out of a hallucination and realizing it was a hallucination. Good news! On the other hand, I'd love to hallucinate that Medicine is careful and helpful and not at all defensive or offensive...AND NEVER COME OUT OF THAT HALLUCINATION!!!!!
Gosh, it seems we are on the same roundabout. Mum with her Alzheimers is in a Nursing home. She has obviously lost more than 10 kilos while the staff were trying to tell me she only lost 1.5 kilos. I went looking for the weighing chair and weighed her myself. They all looked guilty after that. I wish I knew why she is losing the weight. Is the disease progressing or is she losing weight rapidly because she is not interested in eating? It seems that nobody knows the answers. If you get onto the Alzheimers Association hotline, and you speak with somebody there, you get the standard responses - the disease seems to progress differently with each individual. Where are the Alzheimers experts. Who can one speak with to get some sort of reassurance?
Last Sunday my dad was hospitalised with a chest infection. Again, try and get somebody to speak plain English when you ask what the prognosis is.
So around and around we go, where we get off, nobody knows.
Good luck as always and thank you for sharing.