Part 2 of 2
December 3, 2009 - Dad was still having hallucinations, pain, etc. I spoke wtih a nurse at Fraser Health about this as she asked about his fall, etc. when they called for a follow up. She told me she was going to speak with another nurse, and had the nurse call me. The nurse told me that I would have to take dad back to emergency, that something was not right and they would have to run more tests. I was fully prepared for them to come back and say that he had a stroke, or that he had dementia, or something mad like that.
When we were finally admitted into a bed in the emergency room, they had patients lining the hallways. A heart patient from St. Paul's arrived, and they didn't have a bed for her, and couldn't get her hooked up to the heart machine as soon as possible as it was already in use. When they brought her in, the toe of her guerney was lined up with the foot of with dad's bed - no privacy in the hospital - and she started to throw up. Dad was about to lose it, so I quickly jumped up and pulled the curtain.
I spent that afternoon/evening at the hospital with dad. They kept him in overnight, and were going to do a CT scan in the morning. By noon the next day, I hadn't heard from them, and started to worry that the length of time it's taking means it's bad news. Then again, it is the hospital, and everything happens in slow mottion. They finally called, said they were backlogged, and were going to monitor dad's situation.
I went in in the afternoon to see him, and he had been moved to a bed in the emergency room hallway. Again, there was no privacy. Another older gentleman was in an "isolation room" about seven feet away from dad. Nurses were suiting up in full disposable scrubs and face masks to deal with the man, not creating a whole lot of confidence in us.
The doctor came a while later to assess dad to see if he could go home. Asking dad some questions, I noticed that dad was very confused. In turn, I was confused as he seemed to be progressively getting worse after being admitted to the hospital rather than improving. A little research at the nurses station revealed that they had been giving him Tylenol 3 for his pain, despite my instruction to the contrary. With Parkinson's medication, we have found that he cannot take anything stronger than regular Tylenol or iburphen to manage the pain. Antibiotics are out, as are most other medications that interfere and cause confusion and hallucinations. I informed them of this, and asked them to please stop giving him the Tylenol 3. I also had to be on top of them about administering the Sinemet for the Parkinson's, as that has also been missed. Poor dad, he wasn't getting his Parkinson's medication on time, as well as being administered Tylenol 3 which was causing him confusion.
The doctor wanted him to stay in one more night for observation. I left him there on the bed in the hallway that night with a heavy heart. Overnight, I became very frustrated with the whole situation; the mix up of pills, dad sleeping in a brightly lit corridor in a narrow bed that he couldn't turn around in due to his physical limiations. I went marching into that emergency room the following morning, determined to have him released into my care. As I entered the sliding ER doors, I realized dad's bed had been facing the action all night long. There he was, sitting on the edge of the bed, forlorn. Fortuneately, he was dressed and ready to be released... so I didn't have to put up a fight. I got him out of there as soon as I could.
As I was whisking him out the door, the Elder Health doctor on duty caught up with me. Discussing the pill mix up, confusion, etc. she commented that with young children and the elderly, it's a tough balance to get the medication balance correct. To avoid all prescription meds, if possible. To which I wholeheartedly agreed. I was learning something in all of this!
Prologue... We managed dad's pain with doses every four hours of regular Tylenol. It built up a "cushion" for him, and got him through the next few weeks of recovering from a cracked L1 vertebra.
It was around about this time that I retained the services of the Nurse Next Door...
To be continued...
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