I haven't posted for some time let me explain my very stressful situation.
Almost two week ago my husband (stage 6) had three seizures, three hours apart & three falls the last one down the stairs. He suffered a concussion with blood on the brain and a broken collar bone. He now can't walk, feed himself and is wearing diapers in rehab. His agitation is out of control and the rehab is having trouble controlling him. He's been pulling out his catheter and can no longer urinate on his own. The nurse practitioner want him to see a urologist but I don't see the point as he now has dropped down to stage7 +/-. His liver enzymes are escalated and he is jaundiced.
In the hospital after ICU the hospital required me to provide 24 hour care. He got turned down at several rehab including one whose specialty was AD. The one he's in now required a night sitter for a few nights. I stopped the sitter a few nights ago as his rehab doc prescribed a heavy does of sleeping aids. My husband is a big strong young man with eoad.
Tonight two nurses could not control him. My fear is that they will kick him out and make me take him back home. I'm afraid I may have a heart attack trying to care for him as heart disease runs in my family.
Any advise on how to move forward would be appreciated.
Laws regarding this situation vary from State to State. It's unlikely that they will make you take him home. They may transfer him to a hospital Geri-psych ward to adjust his medications. I would suggest meeting with the rehab director to find out what your options are. Then I would call the doctor and insist on talking directly to him. Ask what he can do with medications to get the situation under control.
There are other members with much more experience with this than I have. I am sure that they will be along soon to help. I do know someone who knows a lot about this, but it's too late at night to call her now. I will call her in the morning.
trish this happened to us, exactly. They tried to make me take him home as he was settled down a bit after we had him admitted , through emergency. Good advice talk to the social worker! I adamantly refused saying he was out of control and there was no way I could take care of him , mainly his constant falls and I could not pick him up.
My guy also is a strong young guy with EOAD. At the time he was in hospital, for one month, many would remark on "how good he looked". He could barely walk. Within a short time he could not walk, talk, or feed himself. As horrible and as stressful as it was, I did the RIGHT THING getting him in there. Also no home would take him as they said his care was "one on one" I eventually had an Adult Foster Home that stepped up and are doing a good job.
Most hospitals have a ward especially for things like this. Hang on. Don't cave in.
You have him in there, that is the first step. Please get a hold of the social worker.
there should be a resident doctor on call for this sort of situation. the nurses wont hesitate to call for his input if a patient gets out of control. they cant risk danger to him them or any other patient. I would think they will want to transfer to a geri psyche hospital to iron out medications to get him compliant sooner or later. some of the meds they do give we know from experience here can make them worse and produce the opposite effects of agitation instead of sedation. its in your best interest and his to allow them to evaluate him under this controlled atmosphere. by no means would I accept his discharge to come home either. just refuse say you fear for your safety and his, and by all means get with the social worker to find advice.
Yes, this happened to my husband as well. He was 6'2", weighed about 185 and retained strength from years of yoga. The staff at the hospital did attribute many of his actions to the meds. I'm sorry I can't remember the names of all of them but I do remember that Ativan (lorazepam) and Keppra (levitracetam?) which was used for the seizures were "blamed" for some of his actions.
He, too, was young and I don't think he was eligible for admittance to a geri-psych facility. It would have to have been a general psych and anyway it didn't happen.
I agree with the advice to work with the social worker. If you need to go outside the facility, maybe consider the services of ombudsman? They are usually funded by the state or by a combination of state and local contributions. I don't think they can charge for services. (And this is my personal, highly prejudiced opinion- please don't confuse ombudsman with care managers- who charge plenty.)
I know how extremely upsetting this can be. They do try to push the patients out. I felt almost attacked sometimes, and of course it was when I was the most vulnerable.
Please keep us posted!
edited to add that somewhere- perhaps here- I have heard that the keywords are something like this: "I am unable to provide a safe environment for him."
Trish--I agree that a geripsych unit would be the appropriate place to treat your husband. My husband was in one twice in 2011 and in our state, I was told they could not release him from that unit until a facility placement was worked out. However, they also said that at a certain point, Medicare would no longer cover the stay in the hospital. In other words, if I didn't want to take him home and hadn't found a facility, I would have to pick up the bill for the remaining hospital stay. Fortunately, I didn't have difficulty finding a facility so that never happened.
The unit he was in didn't have any age restrictions. He was 66, and there were younger patients than Steve there. They did a remarkable job with him the second time and got his meds and behaviors under control. Two years later he's still on the same meds and is a happy and easy patient. Good luck.