So........FIL went back to his group home Saturday which just happened to be the same exact day as it decided to snow 12 inches in our area. We couldn't get out there so the owner of the group home who had a pickup truck signed him out with our approval and took him back to the home and settled him in. Of course, FIL had no clue who or where he was and 5 minutes after he was back in the home, he had no clue that he had even been in the hospital.
So today we started home care to monitor his blood counts (he has 2 small blood clots in his lungs and a large one in his leg). They are giving him Coumadin to thin his blood after we vetoed a drug that would have cost us wholesale $100.00 per shot plus the cost of a nurse to give it to him. We chose instead to put him on the oral drug which Medicare does cover. His blood count today was double what it should be so we have to hold a dose, decrease the amount he is getting, and redraw in a week.
I got a call this morning from the owner of the home who said FIL had been up all night long crying that he had lost his wallet. With 4 dementia patients other than FIL in that house, I am not surprised. We have found a rosary, a toothbrush, and a purse in FIL's room before and a bracelet in his pocket of his pants. The dementia patient does this - takes and hides his stuff and takes the other people's stuff. FIL would not be consoled though. So one of the caretakers gave FIL a wallet to hold which satisfied him for a bit (until he forgot he couldn't find it). The owner wanted me to know what was going on and to bring him a wallet when MIL went there today. So I called MIL to bring a wallet and told her that FIL had said the pictures in the wallet were 'wrong' and he needed the right wallet. MIL told me there was only the picture of someone that came with the wallet. FIL thought it was his family and wanted that picture back. Kinda reminded me of that one episode of Friends.
So BIL decided to spend the day with MIL cleaning out her room. Mind you there was no place to walk into her room anymore and the half of the bed where FIL slept was filled with 'stuff'. After 10 hours, BIL did 14 loads of wash with another 20+ to go. They were all filthy and smelled like urine - human urine. There were over 25 packages of Fruit of the Loom underwear and undershirts that had never been opened with price tags that stated the 3 undershirts were $3.00. Me thinks that was bought a while ago - a long while ago. He also found 20 bottles of vitamins that she probably got on sale - too bad they all expired 10+ years ago. He made a dent into the room but only half of it. I don't think he appreciated my comment of asking when he was going back to finish. I kinda thought it was appropiate and explained that I didn't want her to have time to 'restock' the room.
In the meantime, MIL doesn't think her pills for controlling her urine are doing anything as she is still going to the bathroom. I told her going to the bathroom even 10 times a day is normal for someone on a water pill. She thinks that is too many times and wants me to call the doctor to get another pill to work better. I said a better idea would be to consult a urologist to see if there was a problem with her bladder control. She didn't like my idea so she said she wasn't going to drink any more than what she had to swallow her pills then. Well I know that she has to take at least a glassfull of water every time she swallows even one pill so knowing she takes over 20 pills, I said that was ok, knowing she would still be drinking at least 20 glasses of water per day.
After MIL insisting she didn't have FIL's wallet or watch, hubs remembered that she was given those items at the ER when FIL was admitted and she put them in her purse. BIL checked and sure enough, there they were.
So I called MIL tonight after talking to BIL to see how things were going. She was upset. I asked why. She stated that she had a 'system' and now she won't be able to find anything. I reminded her about the wallet and that her system obviously didn't work. She didn't appreciate my comment.
**sigh**
Someone either needs committed and/or I need Prozac!
