Adventures in Parent-Sitting
Jul. 24th, 2002 01:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomEver had to wrestle your father into taking his meds? I don't recommend it.
One of the quirks of my father's post-stroke condition is that if he misses too many meals and/or pills (mostly due to sleeping all the time), he gets groggy ... and thus is likely to miss more. Viscious circle. If I don't notice and catch him in time (which happens about every six months), I get to prod him awake and force him to take the pills he needs; and I do mean force, or trick, because while he is capable in this semi-conscious state of getting up, smoking his pipe, going to the bathroom and other complex tasks, he is utterly unresponsive to anything that doesn't fit into the grooves in his stroke-damaged brain. When prevented from going back to bed, he protests deleriously but with no comprehension of any answers or explanations. It's not hard, in his impaired mental and physical condition, to keep him upright despite his struggles, but it is tiring and frustrating.
Eventually, one of two things happens: I manage to get the pills down him, with or without some coffee to tickle his lizard hindbrain, or he gets a trip to the hospital and the meds pumped right into his veins. I was lucky tonight; I somehow got two pills through his beard (that he keeps saying he'll trim, but never does) and into his mouth. This took about an hour. In a few more hours, he'll wake up and be much more coherent, at which time I can ask him to take some more pills with food. And by tomorrow or the next day, things will be back to what passes for normal in this household.
Now if I could just do something about this heat.
[Update, 07/24 4:25 pm - Bloody hell, just had to do the same thing again. I hope he's really swallowing these pills. I spoke to him last night before I finally went to bed, but this afternoon when I came home he was fast asleep and non-responsive again. Sigh.]
One of the quirks of my father's post-stroke condition is that if he misses too many meals and/or pills (mostly due to sleeping all the time), he gets groggy ... and thus is likely to miss more. Viscious circle. If I don't notice and catch him in time (which happens about every six months), I get to prod him awake and force him to take the pills he needs; and I do mean force, or trick, because while he is capable in this semi-conscious state of getting up, smoking his pipe, going to the bathroom and other complex tasks, he is utterly unresponsive to anything that doesn't fit into the grooves in his stroke-damaged brain. When prevented from going back to bed, he protests deleriously but with no comprehension of any answers or explanations. It's not hard, in his impaired mental and physical condition, to keep him upright despite his struggles, but it is tiring and frustrating.
Eventually, one of two things happens: I manage to get the pills down him, with or without some coffee to tickle his lizard hindbrain, or he gets a trip to the hospital and the meds pumped right into his veins. I was lucky tonight; I somehow got two pills through his beard (that he keeps saying he'll trim, but never does) and into his mouth. This took about an hour. In a few more hours, he'll wake up and be much more coherent, at which time I can ask him to take some more pills with food. And by tomorrow or the next day, things will be back to what passes for normal in this household.
Now if I could just do something about this heat.
[Update, 07/24 4:25 pm - Bloody hell, just had to do the same thing again. I hope he's really swallowing these pills. I spoke to him last night before I finally went to bed, but this afternoon when I came home he was fast asleep and non-responsive again. Sigh.]
