Disclaimer

This is dementia. It's not just a memory problem.
What you read in this blog is purely my own personal experience in dealing with Lewy Body Dementia every day.

This is not meant to offer any medical or legal advise.
I have no professional training in care giving or experiences in formal writing.
I'm just a woman that loves her husband deeply and wants to provide him with the best quality of life he can and chooses to have.
My prayer though this is "Lord, What am I learning from this; how can I use it help someone else and to glorify You?"
If just one person finds comfort in this public blog. I will feel like it was a success.

Showing posts with label Fainting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fainting. Show all posts

Saturday, August 18, 2012

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.