Tweet
On Sunday, my Dad had been having diarrhea all day. In the evening it got worse, and he started feeling weak and having trouble with his balance. He has ataxia, but he was really having trouble walking.
I was going to drive him to the emergency room, but he got stuck on the toilet and couldn't get up. So I called 911. We were in the ER for a few hours, but they couldn't find anything particularly wrong, except some dehydration, so they gave him a bag of normal saline and sent him home.
Monday night, same thing. He was going to go to bed early, but fell when he was changing his clothes. He wasn't injured, but I couldn't get him up so I called 911 again. The paramedics and I had to convince him to go to the hospital, one of the guys saying "I don't want to have to come back in the middle of the night when you've really hurt yourself."
That time I made sure to say to the nurses and doctor that I wanted him to stay at least overnight. That night they did a stool culture as well as blood work again (which came back normal).
It took until this morning for the culture to come back. Turns out he has C. Diff colitis. (Clostridium difficile) Usually people get it after a round of antibiotics, but Dad hasn't been on those recently. My theory is he picked it up visiting my Mom in the hospital.
It's possible he will come home tomorrow. I have used this opportunity to let his doctor know about the memory issues he's been having. He's going to request a psychologist talk to my Dad tomorrow, but any kind of dementia testing will have to be done outpatient.
Meanwhile, Mom's doing well with her physical and occupational therapy and should come home sometime next week.
I was going to drive him to the emergency room, but he got stuck on the toilet and couldn't get up. So I called 911. We were in the ER for a few hours, but they couldn't find anything particularly wrong, except some dehydration, so they gave him a bag of normal saline and sent him home.
Monday night, same thing. He was going to go to bed early, but fell when he was changing his clothes. He wasn't injured, but I couldn't get him up so I called 911 again. The paramedics and I had to convince him to go to the hospital, one of the guys saying "I don't want to have to come back in the middle of the night when you've really hurt yourself."
That time I made sure to say to the nurses and doctor that I wanted him to stay at least overnight. That night they did a stool culture as well as blood work again (which came back normal).
It took until this morning for the culture to come back. Turns out he has C. Diff colitis. (Clostridium difficile) Usually people get it after a round of antibiotics, but Dad hasn't been on those recently. My theory is he picked it up visiting my Mom in the hospital.
It's possible he will come home tomorrow. I have used this opportunity to let his doctor know about the memory issues he's been having. He's going to request a psychologist talk to my Dad tomorrow, but any kind of dementia testing will have to be done outpatient.
Meanwhile, Mom's doing well with her physical and occupational therapy and should come home sometime next week.
Comment