dad progress
No real progress today as far as my father sleeping less or communicating, although my mother and I met with his various doctors and his day nurse for the next three days.
I got a printout of all the meds my dad was on for the 24 hour period before we went to the hospital (11:30 am). He had been given a sleeping pill last night and painkillers in the morning. As of this morning (before we got there) alert enough to be fed some breakfast and take his pills.
He was given a swallow xray/test to see if he's having trouble swallowing and if what goes down is going where it should be (it is for the most part--when he's awake and alert). He's being put on purees for now so that everything goes down smoothly with little effort--and there's a big note behind his bed to everyone that he should only be fed when he's awake (you'd think it's obvious but no)...and I'm very glad for this.
He has been given a constant flush of his catheter which seems to be helping stop his bleeding. The physical therapists came in but since he's still so out of it he couldn't work with them. The neurologist came in (finally!) and asked a lot of questions about how my dad was before the surgery and we discussed (my suggestion) that the the pain meds were sedating him too much and (hopefully) this is why he's not responding fully or really staying awake. The doctor wants to give him an EEG (originally he said MRI but because of the hip surgery it might be too painful/difficult to maneuver him).
My mother is very stressed out, and me less so but I am worried that he may not get any better. The anesthesia might have really screwed with his brain. We really don't know at this point and can only hope that with the sedation out of his system, even if he's in some pain, he'll respond more and we'll know that he's coming along.
Even before the operation he's been forgetful at times, but he was getting his own breakfast, dressing and undressing himself (the latter is when he fell), taking showers and going to the bathroom himself, reading the newspapers, playing gin with my mom, and stuff like that, even if his speaking isn't great.
So it's just waiting and hoping he improves.
thank you everyone for your continued outpouring of concern.
I got a printout of all the meds my dad was on for the 24 hour period before we went to the hospital (11:30 am). He had been given a sleeping pill last night and painkillers in the morning. As of this morning (before we got there) alert enough to be fed some breakfast and take his pills.
He was given a swallow xray/test to see if he's having trouble swallowing and if what goes down is going where it should be (it is for the most part--when he's awake and alert). He's being put on purees for now so that everything goes down smoothly with little effort--and there's a big note behind his bed to everyone that he should only be fed when he's awake (you'd think it's obvious but no)...and I'm very glad for this.
He has been given a constant flush of his catheter which seems to be helping stop his bleeding. The physical therapists came in but since he's still so out of it he couldn't work with them. The neurologist came in (finally!) and asked a lot of questions about how my dad was before the surgery and we discussed (my suggestion) that the the pain meds were sedating him too much and (hopefully) this is why he's not responding fully or really staying awake. The doctor wants to give him an EEG (originally he said MRI but because of the hip surgery it might be too painful/difficult to maneuver him).
My mother is very stressed out, and me less so but I am worried that he may not get any better. The anesthesia might have really screwed with his brain. We really don't know at this point and can only hope that with the sedation out of his system, even if he's in some pain, he'll respond more and we'll know that he's coming along.
Even before the operation he's been forgetful at times, but he was getting his own breakfast, dressing and undressing himself (the latter is when he fell), taking showers and going to the bathroom himself, reading the newspapers, playing gin with my mom, and stuff like that, even if his speaking isn't great.
So it's just waiting and hoping he improves.
thank you everyone for your continued outpouring of concern.