Dad has an Episode

We heard from the cardiologist today. She said that "she thinks that whatever we've been waiting for is going to come through and that she will be placed directly from the hospital."

We were elated! But today posed a new set of challenges as we actually allowed Dad to call Ma in the hospital. He had been bugging us all weekend to let him talk to her. So we thought, just let him talk to her. We actually videotaped it. At first he didn't want to talk to her and even told us to tell her he was sleeping. They finally got to talk and we thought it went fine. We thought, that went well, so, next time, why don't we just let HIM call the hospital himself?

Well, time went by and once more he said he wanted to call her again. In fact, DH showed him the video of him talking to her and Dad insisted that that was not today. I was upstairs resting when I heard them raise their voices. I quickly came down and saw him all dressed up with shoes on, ready to walk downtown. I dialed the number and he called her for a second time and this time it seemed like she was barking out orders at him. She had him look for things for her and he ended up trying to find whatever items she was telling him to find.

I told DH, "I don't think I'll be able to handle him by myself. I think "K" should take him to daycare in the morning." My SIL in Oahu called just in time and was able to talk to him and calm him down. A little later he had a nice surprise visit from his son and that went well.

He then wanted to call the hospital again. This time I wrote the number down on a sticky note and told him to call and ask to be connected to her room. He did that and they were talking for a while. Everything went well until he found out that she had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner. He asked to speak to one of the nurses and spent a LONG time talking to them and demanding that they give hre a healthy dinner. I felt so embarrassed for him! But I am sure the nurses understood that he has dementia so they just patiently listened. This is not a good idea, I thought. What if he does this at the nursing home? I know they are not going to stand for that. So I took the sticky note out of his journal and decided that we need to monitor the calls.

One thing we had asked the hospital to do was to get a psych eval done. But when the Dr. returned my call later in the evening, she told me that that may jeopardize her placement into the home. They will tolerate dementia, but psychological and behavioral problems was another issue. We both agreed. We shall see what happens tomorrow.