Thursday, July 19, 2012

Meds, Meds, Meds

 (Wish I knew what was going on in that head...)

Anyway, so many developments in the last 48 hours.  Mostly good in the sense that we have solutions to the problems for now.

I was kind of afraid to visit Dad's home alone because the Head Nurse was clearly very annoyed with me on the phone even though I did what she asked (refill the Xanax) and could do nothing more until it arrived.  In her defense, I didn't return her phone call the other day mostly because I had no news for her, but I know that added to her frustration.

Our conversation with her was a mixture of confusion and frustration on the part of all involved.  Turns out, they have Xanax.  I was so bewildered... what does she want from me?  Isn't that what she wanted?  After 10 minutes of the most dizzying conversation both my Mom and I said, "But you have Xanax?  We don't understand?"

Bottom line is that the Xanax is not working and they were so mad that we were not there to take him out of the home and to the Mental Health Department.  Turns out the VA does have an urgent care Mental Health Office that will take Walk-Ins.  So, I promised we would take him the very next morning.

When we arrived at the Mental Health office the next day, I was informed that they don't take walk-ins.  But here I was, young lady with a baby and a Dad with Alzheimer's and I told her that his home could possibly kick him out because of his behavior.  They took pity on us.  Plus Emry kept smiling at every person that passed by.  How do you say no to that?

We were seen pretty quickly and everyone was incredibly helpful and NICE.  That makes such a difference.  I gotta say, I'm really starting to Love the VA. 

After we started going through all his medications, we found out that his Seroquel had been discontinued.  This drug helps with anxiety, sexual behaviors, sun-downers etc.  Dad had been doing so well on it and I have no idea why his Psychiatrist DC'd it.  

(The psychiatrist it turns out has really screwed things up.  We had talked about discontinuing ONLY the Xanax at Dad's last appointment.  It looks like he did the Seroquel instead.  BUT, Valley View Gardens has hand-written notes from the Doctor saying that he discontinued the Ambien.  What the heck.  Get it together!)

Long story short, because I really could give much more detail.... we got that medication reinstated for now.  Although, when I got it refilled, they only gave us 10 pills.  So, now I need to figure out how to get more.  Plus, Valley View Gardens still needs a bunch of paperwork from the Doctor's.  So, I called Dad's Primary Care Doctor but they had no appointments until August.  This morning I called twice asking if they had any cancellations and viola! we got an appointment for 2:00 this afternoon.  I'm determined to get this all behind us, get Dad back on the right meds, and keep the peace with Valley View Gardens.

Below is a pic of Grandpa and Emry and a video of Dad....






1 comment:

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