Too Doped Up

From the title of this blog, I'm sure you can guess what I'm going to write about.  Dad's too doped up.  He is on so much medication that he is losing his motor skills and is sleeping too much.  He is unable to feed himself now and he has resorted to crawling on the ground sometimes instead of walking.  When the staff told me about that latter incident, I knew we had to take action and that meant going to the ER again.  (meanwhile, the staff at Valley View suspended some of his medication because they were also concerned)

We arrived at the ER yesterday around noon and didn't end up leaving until after 4.  Everyone at the VA is so incredibly helpful and nice to my Dad, but the waiting just takes a toll.  My Mom showed up and took baby duty in the waiting room while I stayed in the ER with my Dad.  Let me just say though, Dad was 'with it' enough to get mad at me a few times yesterday.  Understandably, we were all tired of waiting, but Dad just wanted to pace around and kept going into the nurses station.  When I tried to stop him he said, "I'm not going nowhere.  Shut up."  I literally laughed out loud.  Wow!  That sentence made perfect sense.  Then when he noticed that I had resorted to just following him around the ER, he told me under his breath that I was pissing him off.  My response?  "You're pissing me off too Dad!"

Finally, we were sent to the Psych office.  The main objective was to get the dosage of his Depakote Prescription lowered significantly and that did get accomplished.  By that time, Emry was ready for her next meal and way overdue for a nap, so my mom and I switched duties and she got my Dad back to Valley View Gardens safely.

It's going to take a while for the Depakote to start diminishing in his system.  When I stopped by Valley View to drop off his prescription this morning, I found my Dad on all fours in the dining room.  He is so confused and once he's down there, he can't get up.  On the other hand, he is now able to pick up his fork, but instead of using it to eat, he tried to poke the nurse with it when she attempted to take it away from him.  If it's not one thing, it's another.  

On another note, The Alzheimer's Association had me come back to their office to speak to their Board of Directors on Monday.  After sharing my Dad's story, one woman said, "Wow, you're 29.  That's what we need.  We need young people to care about this disease."  I couldn't agree more.