Dr Grumpy

In all of my married life, 31 yrs, Hubby has had maybe 3 ER visits for himself. broken ribs (fast shower half time of a football game), asthma attack and kidney stone (hated seeing him like that but funny as all get out when he got some loopy meds).
But in the last few months, Lewy had sent us to the ER 3 times.
Lewy Body Dementia presents itself with symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.
From the lbda.org website Parkinsonism or Parkinson's Disease symptoms, take the form of changes in gait; the person may shuffle or walk stiffly. There may also be frequent falls. Body stiffness in the arms or legs, or tremors may also occur. Parkinson's mask (blank stare, emotionless look on face), stooped posture, drooling and runny nose may be present.
Hubby lives with all of these symptoms and the one that scares me, is the falling.

As a matter of fact, it was the falling that made me decide to seek Home Health Care. The day I was gone from home and returned to evidence Hubby had fallen but even worse, Hubby didn't remember what he had hit. You can read about "That Wash Woman" Here.

Hubby had taken a fall in the bathroom the other night.
He's taken some doozies in the past but always was determined that he didn't need to go to the Dr. Our stubborn heads butted many times about this. He won all the times but 2. This last time he didn't even argue and agreed to a late night visit to the ER. You know it was bad when he said yes.

His complaint was his back, we called the ambulance for transport. I grabbed our Emergency Bag and the Folder I had put together with Hubby's info. See my folder items here.
When the ambulance arrived I gave them the short version of the situation and about Lewy. They loaded Hubby and turned to me for info and I smiled really BIG, handed them the folder and declared, I'm about to make your night! And apparently I did because the look of confusion went to delight when they realized the treasure trove of information they had and it was theirs to keep! They went on and on about it :)
Hmm, now I wonder if I should have been all smiles while they were wheeling my husband off to the ambulance for a trip to the hospital. #visiblyconcernedwifefail


Next stop the ER. I went inside to present Hubby's info as the EMT personnel carried Hubby to the back. I was informed that I would be notified when they had him in a room. I politely took a seat away from as many of the obviously sick wall to wall people in the waiting room. Seriously, the flu has hit our area hard. And a posted sign stated that the wait time for minor cases was going to be 3 hrs. ! People just kept coming as I sat there.

As I waited patiently to be notified what room Hubby was in, I overheard one man I truly believed was not a minor case as he spoke loudly and rudely to his grandmother on the phone. I doubted it wasn't his finger he needed looked at. It was obvious he needed a serious attitude adjustment, and quick! >:|

After a 20 min wait I finally walked back up to the desk and asked about Hubby's room. I was buzzed through and Hubby had already been to and back from X-ray.
Everyone that worked with Hubby or had contact with us was very kind and concerned and attentive. It surprised Hubby to learn that the man that came in and told us who the Dr would be and took Hubby's vitals was his nurse. 
Hubby asked "Who was that?" I explained it was his nurse and Hubby was confused and I laughed when he said "That GUY?" 
Yep Hubby, men are nurses too. LOL!!

Another man marched into the room. The results were in and they showed a very small fracture to Hubby's T12 vertebrae. The man held up his fingers to show the approximate size of the fracture. He gruffly continued, There was no danger of any spinal cord injury to worry about. It's going to hurt like crazy, but if you think he can tolerate the pain take him home and give him meds.  The man quizzed me on meds and I gave him a short lesson on Lewy and pain meds and what Hubby was already taking. At this point I'm deciding this must be the Dr. I didn't see a name tag so I named him Dr Grumpy in my head. Dr Grumpy told me to double Hubby's current meds for his pain, then he turned and marched out. No hello, no goodbye from Dr Grumpy.  

I didn't let Dr Grumpy or the circumstances distress me, I actually saw a positive in the situation. Since we have to live with Lewy Body Dementia I use every opportunity to educate about it. This was Hubby's first trip to the ER in the night. This meant a new group of people to meet and share. I did.
Hubby was discharged for home.

Between Hubby's shot of Demerol at the hosp and his pain meds at home he slept the rest of the night. Good for us both.
The next day Hubby did well, still in pain but he slept most of the day.
Then the night came.
Hubby was calling out every couple of hours, even in his sleep. Neither of us rested well. 
I have a call in to his PCP to see if we can do something else for the pain.
Of course I'm worried about meds and worsening cognition changes but after last night I'll do whatever we need to keep Hubby pain free. I'm praying hard.

Today Hubby is still suffering with pain and is extra extra needy. 
I'm afraid to touch him because he hollers out but he needs my help with everything. Like getting up to go to the bathroom, getting in and out of the bed and the wheelchair, covering up and most recently he called me to help him divide a piece of candy evenly for the dogs to share. Really Hubby?! :/ LOL!

Room Service

"Kathy!, You need to call home ASAP!" Not exactly the words you want to hear on your voicemail but the ones I got yesterday. I dialed home as I ran out on my workout. 

I tried to remain calm but I'm guessing I'm not real good at it. I sprinted across the parking lot and as I sat in my car to call and get the scoop a stranger walked over to me window to see if I was ok. I smiled and assured her I was. Bless the heart of concerned strangers.

Hubby had an unresponsive fainting spell while his aide was there. According to her, she had given him his sink bath and he complained about his neck, then just laid back in the chair. She couldn't get him to respond to her so she called the paramedics then called me. I didn't hear my phone when she called the first time and I had just missed her call the second, that's when I got the voicemail.

I met the ambulance at the Hosp and claimed the white socks I saw through the back doors. Turns out it wasn't Hubby but I had enough anxiety that I would have claimed the lady on the stretcher as my own and been concerned for her too.

What seemed like an eternity to me, eventually another ambulance pulled up and I saw bare feet. They were mine, I mean Hubby's. I checked him in and met him in the room. They were dressing him in a hospital gown because his pull ups were the only clothing he had on when he arrived.

My assessment was that this was an incident that has happened before with Hubby or incidents similar to this. Had I been at home we would not have made the trip but standard procedure for the Aide is to call emergency personnel. I understand that.
I educated again about Lewy Body dementia. I was oddly happy that our contact was with new personnel. :) ER Dr. was also grilled and he was knowledgeable about lewy.
ER Dr. asked Hubby some questions and he was able to answer a few, then ER Dr and I discussed what happened and I told him my thoughts. Hubby has had similar incidents like this before. You can read that story here.
So the plan for the day was to do a routine blood workup, and an EKG, ER Dr said unless he saw something out of the ordinary he didn't see any reason to try to do a battery of tests that would have Hubby hospitalized. The less stress on Hubby the better he thought it would be. I wholeheartedly agreed.
Youngest daughter came to join us and check on her Daddy. I stayed in contact with Sonny Boy and Oldest Daughter who offered to come. I assured them this was not a big thing and all was well. I promised to let them know if that changed for any reason.

EKG man came in and did a tilt test. Before he started he explained what he was going to do and asked about Hubby's shaking. Ahhhh, student number 4! He now knows that Lewy Body has Parkinson type symptoms resulting in a movement disorder. EKG man said it might be difficult to get an accurate reading due to that but we would do the best we could and see what the Dr had to say. Blood Pressure taken laying down, BP taken sitting up and BP taken standing. The easiest was laying down as Hubby needed assistance staying upright while sitting and complete help standing. EKG man called in reinforcements because he couldn't hold Hubby and push the button on the BP machine. It took several attempts to get accurate readings, Hubby's blood pressure appeared to be all over the spectrum, dangerously high to mortality low. They wrote the readings they could get and carried them away after settling Hubby back in the bed.

A few mins later a tech came in to draw blood and she was visiting with Hubby. He smiled and chatted away in what was his usual flirty self. A side of him I hadn't seen in a while, then he introduced us to the tech, He said "This is my daughter and this is my wife and I'm the proud husband and father." My heart melted that he remembered me as his wife, and Youngest Daughter and I awwed at his sweet words.

After the tech left, Youngest Daughter said, "You sure were being nice."

Hubby replied, "You have to be nice to the people that can bring you food."

Youngest Daughter and I laughed loud!

A few mins later a nurse came in and asked if we needed anything, Hubby emphatically  said "YES, something to eat!." 
Youngest daughter and I laughed at his request. 
A short while later the nurse came in, with a plate of food! 
WHAT?!! 
I'm still shaking my head. When do you get to order and have food delivered in the ER?!

ER Dr returned after a while and said everything looked good. He just had one issue with the EKG and he held up the paper. I cut him off at the pass and assured that the "blip" he saw was a normal part of Hubby. 
Hubby has a misbeat in his heart rhythm. He has had it for many many many years and it has never presented a problem for him. ER Dr felt comfortable that I knew what he was going to say and dismissed us for home with instructions to follow up with Hubby's Primary Care Dr. 

YAY we get to go home! Hubby was still eating his plate of food they brought him and I wondered what he would wear home! I had a bag in the car that had some extra pants and undergarments and socks but no shirt. I fussed at myself for not having a shirt then fussed at myself for fussing at myself. Now was not the time to beat myself up over a shirt. 
 I retrieved the bag and when Hubby finished his food Youngest Daughter and I helped him dress and they allowed him to wear his hospital gown home.

Discharge papers in hand , Hubby strapped in the front seat, Youngest Daughter kissed goodbye, we made our way home.
Got Hubby all settled in his own bed and the rest of the evening went fairly smooth.

I did however repack a bag with a shirt this time.