STRESS Test.....

Tom had his stress test...... which so far they said his heart looked good.  I haven't heard the full report yet.

We were not expecting it to be such a long drawn out ordeal BUT on the other hand.... Tom said he wouldn't have gone if he had known that......

I'm sure some found him entertaining as he would nod off and start his hand movements..... the one where he "mimes" smoking a cigarette is kinda obvious.   Other times when he would reach his hand out I would take it and hold it like that was his intentions.... I don't think we fooled anybody....

While it took Tom a little longer to come out of the "drug induced" part the Dr. rambled about sleep apnea....... Tom puts his own little twist on the story but in a positive way and has agreed to go to his testing.... yippee!!!! I am so excited about that little adventure.  Hope they give me a bed.... I don't do well in those really big comfortable looking recliners covered in vynal...... I have a tendency to slide out the bottom?

Tom actually THANKED everyone with sincerity when we left..... so I decided to take that guy home with me as I haven't seen him around in a long time..... kinda missing him........BUT once the van was in motion and we were headed home I soon realized "AL" ( Mr. Alzheimer) was messing with me....... and Tom was gone.

Since Tom's hospital stay he has lost 18 lbs, goes for walks everyday, cut up the trees that are down in our yard, worked on the garage..... went bird hunting.....
all from his kitchen chair.  He's an amazing man...... wished I could do that!

Update

Fall came to us with a blast of brutal reality ....... The temps have been hovering in the 80's forever...... than yesterday it turned on us..... in the middle of the day.....the old north wind brought some pretty cold stuff  pushing the warmth of the summer out of here.  The big old dark clouds of fall rolled around  in the sky like tumbleweeds blowing in the dessert........

Tom sits in his chair at the table... leaning forward to rest his belly in his lap.... cup of coffee freshly made sits to the side of his ashtray where a cigarette rests burning while Tom tells someone on the phone in his gruff excited voice..... "yah and it's suppose to snow tomorrow too!

AHHH Geeze.... he neglected to tell "ME" so I can put the lawn mowers away and dig out the snow shovels and blower...... Tom seems to go for "drama" these days... as I listen sometimes to him talking into this newly attached appendage on his ear. 

He mostly calls everybody to see "what are you doing?"  But he also loves it if he has some drama to tell... like it's going to snow!!!!    He neglected to say the weather man used the word "flake" with the word snow.

Toms health has improved some since he finally decided to listen to me some.....
"coffee is not a fluid.... there is Gatorade in the fridge. ( he won't drink water...juice..)
You have Charley Horses because your potassium is low (tested at the hospital" )DRINK !!!!! "

"Your feet are swollen because you don't walk...... Tom... sitting in your chair is not an exercise..... nor is riding the 4-wheeler.   YOU NEED TO WALK!"

His phone conversations go like this..... "I've only eaten a few green beans and a little piece of chicken..... NOPE... that's all.... I have to loose all this weight the pills put on me...... yep!.... I drank some Gatorade and ate some raisins... they are suppose to be good for you..... I've been working in the garage all day... I just came in for a cup of coffee....."  OH MAN... I have way more energy since I quit taking them pills and my back and legs are getting better every day...."

I got the wires run in the garage... I had an electrician friend stop in and tell me what to do.... The day I run them Tom came out to the garage... yes he walked.....  took "his position" in the garage..... he has a table and chair out there.

I ran the wires as Tom sat at the foreman's table... "Now mark the wire that goes to the breaker box with the word HOT"..... I let out a sigh of relief when I heard snoring behind me.....

So that is pretty much how the inside of the garage is going.... when I get close to being done with something he will say he needs to go take a little five and heads for the house.... later he informs everyone he calls of the progress HE has made on the garage.

I do chuckle to myself as the snoring is a dead give away behind me when he is trying to look like he is coaching me.  I have tried to get him to cut a board or hold something in place for me but he says "take a brake" and the break never gets over so I go back to work and he goes back to sleep.

I have adjusted (AS HIS CAREGIVER) to the way he has become.... others still hang onto the hope of what he tells them to be true..... I have had to let go of trying to convince them that the disease is taking him down this path NOT me doing everything for him..... nor the "pills" .......

The wind knocked down five trees in our yard...... everyday he is going to cut them up......
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9-18-11

Tom had a follow up visit with his own Dr. from his Hospital visit......  I had the hospital fax the records from that stay to Tom's Dr..... and because I have to watch what I say I sent a report to his Dr. ahead of his visit......

It really helps to do this as the Dr. can cut through the bull and I don't get my head bit off..... OKAY... I DID!   ....... get my head bit off.

I SAID..." Tom struggles for air when he sleeps at night and has periods of not breathing."  hence a sleep study test.  It went down hill from there..... starting with a nice word " LIAR! "

Tom IS doing fine.... all his physical/health problems stem from his inability to get off his butt........  smoking, lack of fluids, exercise and sodium intake......

Tom IS doing his best to help himself BUT the disease limits his ability to follow through.

Tom has a stress test coming up to see the heart is fine.... the Dr. doesn't think we will find anything there but we must make sure........

There are times in life when everything you attempt will seem to go wrong. Your faith may be strong and your commitment deep, yet adversity will come knocking on your door. The power of prayer will strengthen and stabilize you. But you can't pray away life's seasons. God has a purpose for not allowing you to be fruitful all the time. Real growth requires seasons of struggle as well as seasons of success

                                                                              ANONYMOUS

Field Trip.......

Friday Tom and I went on a field trip.....It wasn't a planned trip but we've always been known for our "spontaneity"  ...........it certainly was NOT what I had planned for the day.  I figured that was my first mistake to mentally plan my day..... Tom has a way of ALWAYS making a drastic change in MY plans.... not intentionally..... it's just "par" for the disease.

I had RUN to town and got some needed items and hurried back.....  Tom usually sleeps the morning away so we were good there.  I planned on doing some house cleaning as in changing sheets, laundry....... when I do this I seem to have a bigger mess than usual?

Now Tom on the other hand got up when I got home and posted himself in his one and only spot he sits when he is not in his bed.... the kitchen table.... from there he drinks coffee, smokes cigarettes and calls everybody he can think of to see what they are doing.....

Well that day was Toms 3rd day where his feet and legs were puffy from water retention...... I have seen this in different severity on other people but it was something new to him and he was "upset" about it......

After some nudging from others I took him to the clinic.... There we run into our Neighbor Norm.... sitting in a wheel chair being pushed by his wife.

It appeared Ol' Norm fell off a ladder and broke his foot..... so while waiting to see the Dr., Tom & him joked back and forth and I of coarse scolded him for being on a ladder.

Tom was shortly called in to see the Doctor on call.  He was new to us... He was young and OH BOY... to the point kind of guy....

Swollen feet... shortness of breath... chest pressure?..... He gave Tom a nitro pill and after a long search they found an aspirin in the clinic which has a pharmacy to give him as ordered by the doctor while he was waiting for a chest x-ray......

That was followed by an EKG and shortly there after, Tom was asked if he would like to go to the hospital by ambulance or have his wife take him?
 
I said "WHAT? ..... ARE YOU SERIOUS?????"......... The only exam he did was looked at his feet..... didn't listen to his lungs OR heart?

Tom was admitted for observation.......or do I say Tom & I ....... yep... I always said we were like a pair of shoes... where one goes the other on follows........

Tom was charming.... the nurses love him..... they poked needles in him.... hooked wires all over him.... checked vitals OFTEN.... weighed him 2-3 times..... gave him pills and shots...... drew blood periodically.... did ekg's ........

By the middle of the night Tom was getting tired of NOT getting to sleep.  When they were not bothering him he was getting up to pee because of the diuretic they gave him.

That's when the cigarette craving HIT him..... he was going out for a smoke.....I was able to calm him down till morning.  A different Tom was now there patient. 

I AM GOING HOME AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME!!!!!! 

I kept him as compliant as I could.  Warned the nurses NOT to play into his disgruntle attitude.  I could deal with him..... They were grateful......

They drew me from the room to chat with the Dr........ A She Doctor this time...... We discussed what was going on with Tom and why.......

She then came in and talked to Tom about his health..... and set his discharge in motion..... Tom unhooked his wires, got dressed and went out for a cigarette.....
Of coarse I stayed with him and the nurses just smiled as we passed...... They were great!

We soon were able to leave ..... "GET ME HOME!!!!!" was all he had to say.........

Our girls?....... Daughter Sanj & her son Mitch spent the night with them.... I guess it was quiet the sleep over with them all sprawled on the floor together..... Sanj said she now understands why I don't get much sleep/  lol
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Unfortunately Tom's symptoms are a result of the damage the disease is doing to his brain....  I understand the confusion some people have over the fact Tom is convincing in his stories and goes out of his way to prove there is nothing wrong with his memory as he and everyone else feel there can't be anything wrong because he "can remember"...............and his stories ARE convincing.

HELLO!!!!!!! To those who have NOT bothered to learn anything about Alzheimer or any related dementia live in the false belief we are discussing "MEMORY ISSUES ONLY"

With Alzheimer,  memory is one of the first symptom that makes you realize what the issue might be..... That's usually after living with and dealing with or not , with the behavior changes that creep in ........

What else you might not know IS that the first symptoms of dementia start out looking like Alzheimer and as it progresses the symptoms than appear or not that points to a variant of another dementia and or an entirely different one.....

Diagnosis is largely made by an experienced neurologist base on symptoms......and what skills and functions they are losing....  and in what order.

ALL dementias take you down the same basic road of loss of brain function to the point of death.  Rate at which one travels this journey varies...... the path it takes through ones brain varies.....medication to help through the symptoms varies....... What is inevitable is DEATH.

So that is where we are..... The parts of Tom's brain that is damaged by what ever dementia Tom has, which now is appearing to be different than Alzheimer or a variant of another with it..... What ever the case is the result of the diseases is .......  apathy, sleep issues, anger issues, inability to reason, lack of judgment, he shadows....... the list goes on BUT for all that he has lost,  his memory is better (BUT not good) than it should be if it was Alzheimer...... and his stories are SO BELIEVABLE!

So what is killing him?  In the past year he quit doing what little he was that may have given him some exercise.... He now walks from his bed to the kitchen table and the bathroom.  (We have a small home)..... out side he gets on his 4-wheeler that he parks by the door to go anywhere in the yard......

He has a cigarette in his mouth day and night except for when food or drink is going in his mouth.  When he can't breath he grabs a cigarette, same with chest pain or anything else......

The rest should be self explanatory.... No oxygen =- heart damage = heart failure.....

No exercise = XYZ  

The results of the tests at the hospital showed he did NOT have a heart attack or congested heart failure.... his oxygen ran low.....his sodium and potassium were a bit low....... And he more than likely has emphysema as his lungs were diminished.

ON discharge he heard..... No heart attack.. no congested heart failure, the swelling was gone ...... he was in GREAT SHAPE and could go home and smoke all he wanted and drink all he wanted and his salt intake was no big deal.....because he was just fine!  Here is where I bang my head against the wall.

Tom has a follow up with his own doctor, stress test was ordered and a sleep apnea study.  All we can do is see where this takes us..... You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink........

Tom blames his weight gain on medications.....

He went on Aricept in 2007..... his weight gain started 5/26/10 he weighed 223 lb and by 9/17/10 he weighed 240 lb.......4/21/11 he weighed 261 lbs  and now weighed out at 271 with water weight included........

His other meds that he claims put on ALL the weight was started in Jan. of 2011