My husband had had episodes of syncope or loss of consciousness several times in the last two days. He had been to the ER twice and sent home. Today, he fell asleep in the car coming home from church and would not wake up. Right now he is out for almost an hour. Or he may be asleep. At the hospital they said come back of he gets worse. Today is Easter and I am at a loss at what to do.
First you to need to shake him to see if he is asleep? Has he done this in the past or just the last two day? Did they do any test when he was at the ER? How old is he? Does he have a bad heart? Did you get any report from the ER doctor in charge. Have you called his regular dr? If not I would suggest you do that ASAP and tell him about this or the dr. taking his calls?
I know this must be very frightening when you don't know if he is asleep or what is happening. Please keep us posted.
Judith's advice is good. Call your family doctor, or whoever is covering for him. Is your husband usually easily wakened? You could phone ER, too, and let them know what's going on and ask for their input.
medications, blood pressure, heart conditions, circulation issues, and or drops in glucose levels can be culprits, but like the others say you should call the dr who is primary for his care and dosing his meds. hope they find out whats causing it soon. divvi
maryd, I hope you were able to get in touch with a dr for help yesterday. Please let us know how he's doing. My hb has had 2 episodes of syncopy and both were attributed to his medications-seroquel the first time. Trazadone was the culprit the second time. Scary to go through. Both times he was admitted to the hospital and several tests later they really couldn't find a reason for the episodes other than the meds. Hope today is better.
Today, after several more times of DH falling asleep and not responsive I called his internist of and spoke with the triage nurse who said to take him back to the ER, that if I brought him to the internist and that happened they would call for an ambulance to take him to the ER. My kids wanted him admitted to the hospital. That did not happen. The hospitaliist came to talk to me and said he would get worse if he were admitted that he might get delusions. He also said it was time to place him. These problems started very suddenly. On Thursday we spent 2 hours at the DMV waiting for me to get my license renewed and him to get to get an ID. Later that day we went grocery shopping and still later went to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. He was fine that day. This seems like a dream. I will not take him to the ER anymore and will start looking to place him. I do not think he will be able to go back to his day program. His EKG was fine and his blood work was fine. He had a head CT which was normal.
So sorry maryd for your sudden problems with your dh. Things can change on a dime with AD. My dh never had the problems your dh is having, but once he started down hill various and different things took place almost on a weekly basis and at the time it seemed to me like they came at me full force with no time to prepare for anything. Wish I could give you some helpful suggestions at this time, but it would seem the ER dr. has the best suggestion. Know we are here for you when you need to vent and support.
I remember seeing "syncope" on my husbad's chart notes. It was grouped more with epilepsy, myoclonic seizures and status epilepticus than anything to do with cardiology.
In my husband's case he was always admitted to the neuro floor and sometimes to the icu and flooded with ativan and then tested until there were no more tests to be done.
Once Dc the situation was never better; his anger was always intensified.
I am very interested in how you feel about the hospitalists advice about not admitting him at the risk of more delusions. So, so different from anything I experienced!?
maryd, I am surprised the hospitalist would not admit him, because as I mentioned above my hb was admitted both times he experienced the syncopes. I will say, however, the hospitalist who treated him during the first hospital admission refused to listen to me that this was a sudden event not a chronic condition associated with his dementia and basically didn't want to treat him and give him any tests. And yes, when hb was admitted his behavior became worse and he was very difficult to manage, but that's the hospital's job to manage and treat them. The hospitalists job is to control costs and get them discharged quickly, or not admitted at all. It all has to do with the Medicare stats on readmissions and withholding payments if there are too many readmissions.
My husbands blood work, EKG and head CT were all normal. That was one reason I was given that he was not admitted and I image he would have been worse if he stayed because I could not stay there all the time. I am going to try to take him to his neurologist tomorrow. I told the nurse it was hard to determine when he would be asleep. I think he is better with me at home, but I do not think I can do it long term. It is hard to even get a shower for me. I was able to shower him today. I will be looking at long term care. My children were pushing for admittance to the hospital. I was glad my son was there when we talked to the hospitalist.