Hi all.

What a nightmare. Alan was discharged from Maimonides after being there for a few days. No more fever. He exploded in the men's room. He was dehydrated, blah blah, so they discharge him. He comes home, the next night he gets up from the bed, falls to the floor and breaks his nose.(Yeah, I know, it's called syncope (or something like that). I call 911, they bring him BACK to same ER and all they do is tell me he has a broken nose(they did a cat scan of his upper region and an x-ray of his ribs). They told me he broke his nose but didn't break a rib). LIE!!!

They discharge him. He comes home and the same day he's discharged, (now it's nighttime) he walks out of the bathroom looks at the refrigerator and goes down to the floor. I go WTF. He goes WTF, he's sitting on the floor and I said "Stay down there". He goes "Give me my milk". I give him the milk and as he's just sitting there, he falls off his seat. I said "that's it". He was not unconsious but we were both confused. I had no phone service to i banged on my landlord's door to call 911 yelling "He's having another seizure (which I was wrong, because as soon as the paramedics came, they hooked him up to machines, etc". And told me He didn't have a seizure.

They tried to make him stand up so they could put the chair underneath him and he could not make it. He's a BIG guy. So the paramadics said "Let's put him down again, he can't stand'. They call another ambulance and more guys and gals showed up, they carried him down on some incline thing and we all went to a different ER. BIG DIFFERENCE. Omg, when we arrived he had 20 people cutting off his clothers and working on him (he was fully awake all the time). He kept saying "OMG, such attention". They asked me all the questions. Does he smoke, what are his meds? I just handed them the discharge papers from the previous hospital. They were glad to get this.

So they had him in the ER and he was examined by every medical team who were amazed at his toe and his finger and his psoriasis all over his body. Toe is almost healed and psoriasis is GONE. They don't know why. I do. He has had body scans and I think it's the radiation but what the heck do I know.

He has A FLUTTER (similar to A FiB). They did a lopressor push and his heart rate came down. It's been good since. They do seem to know what they are doing.

They have ruled out hear, brain and now they think it's the combination of prostate meds that he was on that caused him to faint.

He was originally taking Jalyn and had no problem. His insurance won't pay so he is on a combo of Tamluosin (sorry spelling) and finasteride.

They took him off of this and put him on another one. So far so good.
Today he had a physical therapist walk him around. He will get one hour a day and the physical therapist signed off on rehab after he leaves the hospital. I hope this is so because I can't lift him and take care of him while he is in this condition. I have to take care of myself. This has been so very stressful I can't begin to tell you. I have slept on a chair beside his bed for over 7 days. Forget my back. I came home to sleep last night and I had muscle spasms in my thigh during the night. Good Grief.

Anyway, will go back to hospital tomorrow and see what's up.

Just wanted to update all of you and get your input

Melody

G'day Melody,
Gosh what a time you and Alan are having.
Just saw your latest post and wanted to tell you I'm thinking of you.
Look after yourself too!

Melody
Have been following your posts - what a terrible time you're having of it. I understand your frustration with the ED dept's - at least Alan has you to fight his corner for him. Hang in there. I had to learn to do it on my own having no family nearby and am still scared that next time I have to go in they'll get it wrong again. Weekends and evenings are the worst where I live because there are no specialists on and the ED staff think they know everything. Will be thinking of you and please take care of yourself.

Hi. just wanted to update you all on where Alan is right now. He is in a short term rehab facility at Lutheran. He started physical therapy and O/T today. They immediately realized he doesn't need O/T and are concentrating on the physical therapy. He still has a foley. He has not been seen by a urologist as of yet. He has a consult coming up. Because he is in a nursing home, it's not like a hospital. The urologist makes his appearance when he makes his appearance. Today for the first time, (and he was not supposed to do this but he did it anyway), he got into his wheelchair, I wheeled him up to the bathroom, he stood up, went into the bathroom and did his thing. He is quite regular in his bowel habits. Thank goodness for that. I told the nurse and she said "OMG, please don't do that, call an aide and she will wheel him". Alan said okay. But the thing that matters is that he GOT UP and went by himself. Hasn't done that in quite a while because he is embarassed to be seen with a foley. We don't know what's going to happen when the urologist comes and sees him. The neurologist told us (back at the hospital) that his prostate is not that enlarged and that Alan might have a neurogenic bladder. Makes sense because he has had neuropathy for 23 years (Idiopathic). I'm just hoping this is not the case.

Oh, when he was doing physical therapy he told me they were following him around taking his blood pressure. He hasn't collapsed in quite a while since the last time (they attribute this to his prostate meds). He only takes proscar now. But he's peeing into a foley so what does this mean?

I'm just curious. When they ultimately take out the foley, how do they know if he has a neurogenic bladder or not?

I wonder how long this short term rehab will take? Perhaps two to three weeks? It's anyone's guess. I've been going back and forth every day but at $22.00 a day for cabs, this is not good. I'm not going tomorrow because he said he will have 4 hours of rehab. In my reading up on neurogenic bladders I read about all the treatments and oddly one of them is B-12. How interesting.

So I'm trying to hold up my end here.

Any input is welcome.

Thanks much

Melody

Can they do bladder training and take out the foley?

A foley can mess up a normal bladder.

Hoping it is not neurogenic bladder.

I have no idea because he just started physical therapy today. He collapsed over a week ago (can't remember when) and they said it was the tamsulosin. They said it's common when people take this, it drops their blood pressure. So while he was in the ER and was off the tamsulosin, he kept having to pee and when they put the foley in, OMG, he filled two bags with urine.

So he just finished his antibiotics (due to his having cellulitis). That's all gone. Now he's doing P/T and hopefully will be seen by a urologist who will tell me what's what. And yeah, I hope it's not a neurogenic bladder too. That's all he needs. Good Grief.

This has been a nightmare because we have no one. We are all we have.

Well, we have an update. Alan just phoned me. He was seen by the urologist. The urologist said "you need to be on FLOMAX", they are starting him on one pill (whatever that means).

I asked Alan "Didn't you suggest that you might not have to take the other blood pressure meds because this one lowered your blood pressure?" Alan's response "I don't know anything, I wish you were here".

What the hell is wrong with him? He didn't thing to ask this urologist (who we have been waiting to make an appearance and he has him right in front of him and HE DOESN'T ASK THIS IMPORTANT QUESTION???

Of course when he does P/T tomorrow, they will be behind him taking his blood pressure, etc.etc. They are taking the foley out next week. I gather they have to give the Flomax a chance to work.

My husband NEVER had a blood pressure problem. He was put on metoprolol because he has a stent since 2007 or so. His blood pressure is always perfect.

Is there a possibility that he can be taken off metoprolol if he is on Flomax?

I know nothing about these things so that's why I'm asking.

I asked Alan if the doctor thought he might have a neurogenic bladder and Alan said "No, I don't have that".

Well at least we know that!!!

Any comments are welcome, believe me.

Melody

Melody,
Check to make sure that Flomax isn't the same med he was on that caused his problems.

http://www.rxlist.com/flomax-drug.htm


It's really a challenge to keep things straight when you're in these situations.

Flomax IS tamusolin. Same med. But... he was on other meds and severely dehydrated. He is on one pill of flomax now. Nothing i can do til tomorrow when i go to the nursing home

Will update.

Melody