Scary stuff

[nwhiker]

Aunt is not doing well. Physically, she's fine. Mentally... nsm. To be clear, this is a totally new development, tied no doubt to a physical issue (not a stroke), and truly scary.

She didn't know the date. She didn't know she was in Vancouver General Hosptial ER. Oh, she remembered when I told her -for at least a little bit-, often snowing the MDs, but mostly she thought she was in an airport. Or in Seattle. Year as 1922. Scary.

The neuro MD had signed off on her, saying that she needed to possibly stay overnight and be seen by someone who could coordinate home care and be discharged the next day. When the ER doc told me that, I got a bit irate, trying to impress on him that I felt that neurology should NOT be done with her, so to speak, that this level of cognitive impairment was BRAND NEW and profound, compared to just a few days ago.

Neurology doctor came back a while later and.... admitted her to neurology.

After spending almost 30 hours in the ER, 11 of them in the hallway, she finally got a room. I just got back to her place a few minutes ago. I'll go back as early as possible to try to catch rounds.

Comments

[camelsamba]

I'm glad you were insistent and got people to pay attention. Everyone needs that kind of advocate, but many people don't have one. I saw in a later post that she's home again; I hope the underlying issues can get addressed and resolved!

[nwhiker]

Thank you. That means a lot. It was a difficult day. She's doing a lot better, I just hope we can get a meds routine cemented.