I will first get us caught up with a history of his condition.
He was brought in Monday the 29th of September. We found him on the floor in his living room and he did not know where he was and was hallucinating different things. Such as smoking a cigarette that wasn't really in his hand.
In the ER there were hours of waiting for many lab results to come in. His counts in his blood and urine added up to many different issues all happening at the same time.
1. Lack of food - they said he was in total starvation status. We believe he had the flu making him vomit the Wednesday to Friday prior to this. His roommates have not been around for a couple of weeks so there was no one home to cook or make sure he was eating. So combining the loss of food with the flu and the lack of food for recovery, we figure he had not eaten in over 6 days when we found him.
2. He was showing signs of internal infection somewhere in the body. They think it is because he possibly inhaled food (or vomit) and this gets stuck in the lungs and gets infected.
3. His electrolyte levels were completely off. They still have not balanced out.
4. He has a dark purple big toe on his right foot. They thought maybe he was diabetic. Turns out he stubbed or dropped something on it and it is a small fracture.
They moved him to IMC (Intermediate Care) on Tuesday evening. They continue to give him potassium on a regular basis along with magnesium through a drip bag. Of course he is constantly on sugar water to keep him hydrated. He is also getting a few drip bags of antibiotics to keep the internal infection under control.
He became slightly aware of his surrounding for the first time late into the night Tuesday (early morning Wednesday). He was still very confused about where he was, but he did feel hungry and that was the greatest positive sign of recovery thus far.
They gave him solid food for the first time Wednesday morning and then again at lunch. However, at lunch a physical therapist was in the room with him and he didn't like that dad would start coughing while swallowing. They are afraid that he could inhale his food and get it stuck in his lungs. This would continue the internal infection issues. So, they took him off the solid food diet until someone came in today to assess him. They have put him on a soft food diet as of dinner tonight. Good news!
He had his first physical therapy session yesterday. With 2 people helping him he was able to walk about 50 feet. Today however, he seemed in general much more tired than yesterday. (I think it is lack of food, but who knows) When the Physical therapist came in, dad only had the strength to pull himself up onto the walker two times before he felt very dizzy. His blood pressure had dropped significantly so they called it a day for PT.
This morning he seemed to be more confused mentally than yesterday as well. When the doctor came in we had a good talk about his condition as of today. This is what I learned.
When you drink alcohol as much as he does, for as long as he has, everyday you kill a bit more of your memory brain cells. He asked if I had noticed this happening over the years. I think anyone who knows him, knows he has been slipping with his memory more and more over the last 5 years or so. What they call this is his baseline. It steadily gets lower and lower over the years of abuse. However, this time coupled with the starvation his baseline decrease is very significant. At first the doctors were telling us that perhaps once they get his electrolytes leveled and get a real diet going then his confusion may correct itself. Today the doctor says he may not get a whole lot better than what he is right now. Also this sort of dementia comes in waves. Some moments he will know exactly what is happening and then with out warning he will be confused again. There is still a chance that as he gets stronger this will get slightly better but the doctor wants to prepare us for the worst case. The great news is that I have not seen him hallucinate anything since Tuesday night, so I hope that part of it really was related to his alcohol detox.
Our general conclusion is that he drank all his alcohol in the house this past weekend and was too weak to get to the store to buy more. This put him in detox. That is why he was so confused when I found him. FYI for everyone: Alcohol and heroin are the only two drugs that can kill you from withdraw/detox. It is so intense for a drinker like dad that there is no way he could stop drinking with out ending up in a hospital. They kept him sedated the first 2 days he was there to minimize any tremors and/or seizures that are common with detox.
Back to the doctor visit today. I asked why his electrolytes are not stable yet. He explained that until dad gets some fat built up on him that he has no place to store the electrolytes. So they are just keeping him healthy the best they can with drip bags until we get him to eat enough to produce a fat storage.
Where does that leave us now? He has to eat regularly, hold his electrolytes on his own then build strength to get through physical therapy sessions. After all of these things balance out we will know what will improve with him mentally. Until then they will keep him in the hospital.
The doctor did tell me today that his eyes are still not as focused as they should be which is a sign of some brain damage. That is why he wants us to be prepared for him not bouncing back a whole lot from where he is now. Lets all keep our fingers crossed and pray he gets a little better with the solid food diet.
Sorry this entry was so long. The others will probably be very short with any new updates. I will try to resend the blog link anytime I add something very important but please just save this link and check it periodically and I will try to keep you all informed.
Here is the hospital information he is at. If you would like to send cards or something it may help us remind him of people's names that are thinking of him.
5 comments:
Thank you Leanne for taking the time to write all this down. I know it was not an easy task. Of course your Dad is a fighter, and he will certainly do what he can to get back to good health. I'm interested in visiting hours for non family, and I'd be most happy to post what I find out...
Mark
Okay, here's a link to Brackenridge visitor info page ...
http://www.seton.net/locations/brackenridge/visitor_information
General visiting hours are from 10AM to 8PM, where specific areas may have different hours.
Oh my! Thanks for the step-by-step Description of Dave's condition. I know this is a trying time for everyone close to Dave. We will send a card for sure and try to visit. Hopefully he will be released from the hospital soon so he can recover at home (under supervision of course). Let us know how we can help!
Leanne, for future reference - info on Meals on Wheels
http://www.mealsonwheelsandmore.org/programs/
Thanks to volunteers like Manon :)
Leanne, we are so sorry you and your family have to endure this kind of pain. I wish his condition did not have to reach this point. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you. We will take care of the house. Terry mowed the backyard and I have started watering the plants. We will visit next week when Terry returns from out of town. We love Dave and your family and are here to help in any way we can. Do not hesitate to ask for help, Kimberly.
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