He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage last Tuesday. They managed to stop the bleeding and he seemed to be responding OK, but now he’s picked up pneumonia. He’s 84, and was in pretty good health (though he’s had some problems the past year).
I couldn’t get down to see him this weekend (I offered, but my cousin was going to help out my mother and having two people in the house would have been difficult) and will be going down tomorrow. They’re checking today to see about the damage from the hemorrhage, but he’s not doing well.
Ouch! That sucks. My 68 (?) year old aunt had a cerebral hemorrage over the 4th of July. She was flown from one hospital to a different one with a neurotrauma center. Then operated, and the bleeding had stopped.
She’s just about recovered. She’s got a tiny bit of mobility loss in her left hand, but otherwise is about normal for her. We’re really happy with her recovery.
Hope things turn out okay. Pneumonia is such a bitch at that age. So hard to fight off.
Best of luck to your Dad. In our case, the nurses were really great about explaining what all of the various machines were monitoring and what the beeps meant. A lot of the things that sounded like alarms were just notices that ‘this medication/ fluid is about to run out’ – not an alarm that something was wrong. My rule of thumb has been not to get worried unless the nurses were worried.
Thanks, everyone. I felt a lot less stressed being able to vent this here.
Saw him today. He has developed pneumonia, but the antibiotics and Tylenol are kicking in, so his fever is going down. He was clearly responding to us, but his eyes are shut and he can’t speak with the tube in his mouth. He can move his right hand and foot, but not his left.
My 92 year old dad went thought the same thing a month ago after a fall. Initially lost much of his ability to speak but with no neuromuscular problems.
The sent home home after about 5 days in the hospital and a week in rehab. The speech therapy has worked wonders and the PT should help him avoid other falls.
One caution is to watch for depression. I am amazed that with all the great PT, OT and speech therapy, my dad was never once was evaluated by a mental health specialist. He is clearly depressed, sleeps all the time etc. His primary car Dr has started him on Zoloft, hopefully that will brighten his spirits.
I know that it is frightening to see your dad so vulnerable. Do try talking to him. I’ve been told by lots of people that the hearing comes back first before the ability to speak. You can help him make sense of his situation. You can also talk about things at home. Even talk about stories that he’s told you of his childhood. Sometimes those memories are the clearest.
Hold his hand for a while too. I think that most folks probably find that comforting.
Things are not looking good. They are talking about removing his breathing tube, but don’t give much hope he’ll be able to breathe without his lungs filling with fluid. He had indicated he didn’t want to use the respirator indefinitely, so we’re deciding when to remove it.
I held his hand, talked to him and played some music for him, but he’s barely opened his eyes since I got here Tuesday.
