A Little Bit of Deja Vu

Update: My dad was released from the hospital today (Saturday).  Hopefully there won't be any return visits in the near future.

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Apparently the dancing girls were a bit too much for my dad because during the drive back home from Missouri he suffered a stroke.  The event happened when he was in his hotel room in Amarillo.  Now, Amarillo may be the best place to find a good steak, but it's definitely not the best place to have a stroke!  I can joke about this now because my dad is mostly okay.  My dad's traveling friend (Ben) called the ambulance that took my dad to the hospital in Amarillo.  They said he was having TIAs and discharged him from the ER within four hours.  My dad and Ben caught a few hours of sleep, got up the next morning and then Ben drove like a bat out of hell to get my dad home and out of his care! The plan was to follow up this week with the cardiologist because my dad is having issues with an irregular heartbeat.

Fast forward to Wednesday night and my dad had another episode where his right hand became numb and weak and the right side of his face drooped.  The event comes on quickly and passes fairly quickly and my dad seems to recover in about a half hour.  So what does my dad do after he suffers this event on Wednesday?  Why, what any 77 year old health nut would do - he gets on his exercise bike and rides it for 47 minutes!  Then he proceeds to have another episode.  My sister, who is at the house with my dad convinces him he needs to go to the emergency room.  My nephew drives him there. My dad walks in and tells the front desk he thinks he's having a stroke and they rush him back and within a matter of seconds there are seven people in his room checking him out.  Hint: if you find yourself in the ER and want to bypass the eight hour wait in the waiting room ... just tell them you think you are having a stroke.

They admitted my dad to the Neuro-ICU - same place my mom ended up on more than one occasion.  Not a fun place to be and just a little too much deja vu for us.  They determined that he did in fact suffer a mild stroke and they said within a few months he should be back to his "normal" self.  The "stroke team" attending was flabbergasted that they discharged him from the ER in Texas. Her comment was "well, you are very lucky to still be here!"  He was supposed to be discharged today but he went and had three more episodes while waiting to be discharged. So, they are keeping him for observation.  He is being managed by the stroke team at Barrow Neurological Institute - about the only medical facility in Phoenix that is ranked nationally.  I'm comfortable with the medical team  - at least I'm comfortable with the attending.  How comfortable can you really be with a bunch of residents? As we head into the weekend, you know nothing will get done as far as figuring out what is going on.  They'll monitor him and if he continues to have these episodes, hopefully they'll come up with a plan on Monday.  If he makes it through the weekend without any episodes, they'll probably discharge him.  My dad is frustrated because (1) he doesn't like being confined to a hospital bed; and (2) he wants to know what the heck is going on and how to make it stop.  Our thinking is, if he's going to have more episodes, he needs to have them in the hospital, not at home because he'll just end up back in the hospital anyway. So, we wait.

Have a fabulous weekend my friends!