dad

[arguchik]

my dad was taken to the ER in an ambulance yesterday--my mom called 911, but now she won't tell my sister what made her call. it must have been bad, because my mom has been sternly warned to call the ambulance whenever my dad has one of his "spells" or "bad days," but she never does. she and my dad are all about hiding things from us kids and from their doctors. anyway, the ER doc couldn't find anything medically wrong with my dad, but he was apparently raving psychotically about how he and my mom are definitely going to die in 3 days, that he had the information straight from god, etc. the doc submitted involuntary commitment papers, so my dad went to a psychiatric hospital an hour or so north of grand rapids. he'll be there at least 72 hours.

i hate being so far away. i hate imagining him in a strange place surrounded by strangers with tranquilizers. admittedly, my image of psych wards is straight out of one flew over the cuckoo's nest. and terminator 2: judgment day.

i'm not sure they'll let him go home from there. this isn't all that much worse than some of the other crazy shit i've heard my dad say and do over the last couple of years.

can alzheimer's give a person symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia? because that's what my dad sounds like to me sometimes...

i'm still absorbing and digesting this information. it doesn't seem real to me yet.

Comments

[seanmoon.livejournal.com]

So sorry to hear this. Not sure what else to say other than that. I dread the day my parents health fails...

[ms-violet.livejournal.com]

I am so sorry to hear this, honey.

For whatever it's worth, the last time I was in a psych hospital, the food was excellent and it was very comfortable.

[swingchickie.livejournal.com]

*hug* i'm so sorry, hon. i hope they can figure out what in the world is going on.

[jennaxide.livejournal.com]

All of my love to you and your family right now, S. Take care.

[superannuated1l.livejournal.com]

Hi. As a result of that methadone overdose case, I have recently learned the following:

--Paranoia and delusions are pretty common in Alzheimer's.
--Patients with severe psychosis (as opposed to patients with other psychological symptoms) tend to have a lot of improvement with antipsychotic drugs.
--It's fairly common for the psychotic symptoms fade as the disease progresses.

So, drugged does not necessarily = bad.

Not that anything in this situation = good.

And as you've observed before, old age is no place for sissies.

Has your brother snapped out of his denial yet?

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

i don't know if anyone has talked to my brother yet. he wasn't answering his phone last night.

i know rationally that there are very good drugs to treat symptoms like this, and that it will be good for my dad to be more carefully evaluated, etc. as his daughter, though, my response also has a visceral component. imagining him in distress feels like i'm being punched in the stomach. hard. and i know he will find the strangers (i'm talking about the professionals, who will be asking him lots of questions, not the other patients) and the drugs distressing. it's just more fodder for his paranoia about people trying to take advantage of him, trick him out of information and money (like he has much to be tricked out of), and drug him into compliance with their nefarious schemes.

the thing about watching other relatives age, get sick, and die that has been most distressing for me personally has been the loss of their dignity. that hasn't always happened, but it is especially hard to see someone like my dad, for whom self-sufficiency and independence have always been strong motivators in his life, become so helpless.

he has been a royal pain in my ass at various points in my life--and i, his. he has also always been someone i could trust in a pinch, someone who always gave sound advice when it came to mechanical or financial matters (not so much in the realm of the personal)...and i was his sidekick when i was a little kid.

i miss him and i'm worried about him and i hate seeing him suffer.

[glaucon.livejournal.com]

both of my grammas got really paranoid as they lost their marbles. I don't know of any outright delusions, but I only saw them once or twice a year for a day or two at a time, so I wouldn't necessarily know.

[costco77.livejournal.com]

I agree with superannuated - as the mind deteriorates, its hold on reality becomes more tenuous, thus the paranoia and schizophrenic symptoms...

:( I'm sorry...

[malafrena.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so sorry. I hope he gets some helpful treatment at least. . .

[rojonoir.livejournal.com]

:(

and i was his sidekick when i was a little kid

You wouldn't believe how special that is to a dad... *sniff*

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

it's also really special to a little kid.