Saturday, March 25, 2017

Update on Dad

Dad's been in and out of the hospital for the past two months (I think?). He fell a few times in February, which caused more brain bleeds. Earlier this month, he had an appointment to get another CT scan and it was discovered that the blood was completely surrounding his brain and causing a fair amount of pressure, which explains his change of behavior (mostly inappropriate and child-like). He was admitted to the hospital and had tubes put into his head to drain blood from both sides. Obviously, the tubes caused a bit of brain trauma, so his behavior fluctuated as his brain healed. He was put into a rehab facility for two weeks after the tubes were removed in hopes of creating healthy daily habits (feeding himself at the table, getting dressed, using a walker, etc.). 

The day he was to come home, two blood clots had formed in his left leg, so he had a blood filter inserted into the artery of that leg. Once he was home, he had pain in his leg (side-effect), but after a day or so, his leg swelled up twice the size of his right and he couldn't walk on it. Normally, my dad is one to hold back if he's in pain. "Pain is for sissies," he would say. However, he was obviously in pain to the point where he made groaning sounds and would lose his breath if he tried to stand to go to the bathroom. Emily and I took him to the emergency room because his leg was incredibly huge last week. After blood work to search for an infection came back negative, he was sent home. He had a followup appointment earlier this week, so Mom brought him to the doctor's office. Before even getting to the doors to get him a wheelchair, Dad passed out from the pain. He was taken by ambulance to the emergency room and was put in ICU for observation.

Tonight, he was moved to a room, so Zac and I went to visit him and let him say hey to the kids. Unfortunately, Dad had a reaction to one of his medications and his mood was incredibly altered for the worse. He was agitated and angry and confused. We couldn't stay long because he was being too aggressive toward Mom and the nurses. He managed to calm down for a few minutes, so the kids told him goodbye and Mom sent us down to the cafeteria for dinner. I went back to bring her back her debit card and Dad was acting violent again. He thinks he's at home in his chair and wants to leave the hospital bed to go to his bedroom. He also thinks he has a project to do (build a model train engine) in the garage... He kicks Mom and yells at her, tries to hit her or grab her. He also tries to pull his tubes and wires from himself in anger and managed to pull out his IV. The nurses had to put him in restraints. It's upsetting. I know the medication is altering him and that's not really him, but it's still him and it's hard to see him like that. He kept shouting at Mom to "Get the hell away from me!" and "Once this is over, so is our marriage!" She's upset, but she's coping as best she can. 

Meanwhile, Dad's got a few cysts on his kidneys, he's been peeing a lot of blood, and it's likely he has some sort of internal infection from the filter. The doctors have done blood work but can't find anything. His body is behaving like that of a diabetic, even though he isn't one. His blood sugar keeps dropping and his heart rate keeps increasing. I can't imagine what it must be like from his perspective. I'm sure it's beyond frustrating when you think you're somewhere or some place in time you aren't, being told you can't do this or that, etc. I hate seeing him like that and am hoping peace comes soon.

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