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my weekly RWP feature has been on hiatus for a couple of weeks--i just haven't felt like it.
dad went to the hospital today. my brother thought he might be having a stroke--he was asleep and my brother and mom couldn't wake him. when they finally woke him, he was glassy eyed and kind of incoherent, and after a few minutes he went back to the couch and fell asleep again. so my brother called an ambulance; my mom rode in the ambulance with my dad, and my brother went to the hospital in his own car.
i just heard from my brother (finally). the doctors don't think my dad had a stroke--they couldn't find evidence of recent/active bleeding in his brain, but they admitted him because his white count was extremely high. they don't know what's causing that yet--they'll be doing more tests in the morning. my brother said dad became very combative when he realized he was going to be admitted. he's afraid of hospitals--always has been (who isn't?). i think he's afraid of being held somewhere against his will and not being able to go home; he probably sees the hospital as a slippery slope leading straight to a nursing home, for someone his age. he really wants to die at home.
i haven't posted yet about the results of the MRI and visit to the memory disorders center that my dad had on october 5th. i'm still kind of processing it. the MRI showed substantial brain tissue loss and damage from multiple "mini-strokes" and vascular disease. he showed significant impairment in the cognitive exam they did at the memory disorders clinic, too--at one point the doctor gave him a quarter, dime, nickel, and penny, and asked him to add it up and tell him how much money was there. dad couldn't do it. (he used to be a mortgage underwriter--when he was younger he could practically do amortizations in his head. seriously.) so...the diagnosis from that doc--who explained the MRI results too--is that my dad has both vascular dementia and alzheimer's.
double whammy.
i've been going out of my mind worrying today, and i feel relieved but still tense after talking to my brother. we still don't know what's going on. an elevated white count--and his was very high--could mean anything from an infection to leukemia.
i'll know more tomorrow.
meanwhile,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
glaucon played some covers to cheer me up, including two covers of pink floyd's "comfortably numb." here's one of them, for your listening enjoyment. think of my dad while you listen, ok? (imagine him yelling at you to turn down that noise.)
and here's the one i'd have been listening to when he used to yell that at me for real:
dad went to the hospital today. my brother thought he might be having a stroke--he was asleep and my brother and mom couldn't wake him. when they finally woke him, he was glassy eyed and kind of incoherent, and after a few minutes he went back to the couch and fell asleep again. so my brother called an ambulance; my mom rode in the ambulance with my dad, and my brother went to the hospital in his own car.
i just heard from my brother (finally). the doctors don't think my dad had a stroke--they couldn't find evidence of recent/active bleeding in his brain, but they admitted him because his white count was extremely high. they don't know what's causing that yet--they'll be doing more tests in the morning. my brother said dad became very combative when he realized he was going to be admitted. he's afraid of hospitals--always has been (who isn't?). i think he's afraid of being held somewhere against his will and not being able to go home; he probably sees the hospital as a slippery slope leading straight to a nursing home, for someone his age. he really wants to die at home.
i haven't posted yet about the results of the MRI and visit to the memory disorders center that my dad had on october 5th. i'm still kind of processing it. the MRI showed substantial brain tissue loss and damage from multiple "mini-strokes" and vascular disease. he showed significant impairment in the cognitive exam they did at the memory disorders clinic, too--at one point the doctor gave him a quarter, dime, nickel, and penny, and asked him to add it up and tell him how much money was there. dad couldn't do it. (he used to be a mortgage underwriter--when he was younger he could practically do amortizations in his head. seriously.) so...the diagnosis from that doc--who explained the MRI results too--is that my dad has both vascular dementia and alzheimer's.
double whammy.
i've been going out of my mind worrying today, and i feel relieved but still tense after talking to my brother. we still don't know what's going on. an elevated white count--and his was very high--could mean anything from an infection to leukemia.
i'll know more tomorrow.
meanwhile,
glaucon played some covers to cheer me up, including two covers of pink floyd's "comfortably numb." here's one of them, for your listening enjoyment. think of my dad while you listen, ok? (imagine him yelling at you to turn down that noise.)and here's the one i'd have been listening to when he used to yell that at me for real:
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