Delirium

Wow. How things can change so quickly. Long story, and a painful day cut short, Dads mental state took a major turn for the worse. One word....Hemodialysis. Dads Hemodialysis that was started early this morning put him in a state of DELIRIUM because removing too much fluid and/or removing fluid too rapidly basically causes shock to your entire body. All your chemical balances are thrown off. DELIRIUM is a very scary thing to watch.

All morning Dads nurse was assuring me he was just confused and it was normal after anesthesia. Yep, I know that.....but THIS was not normal and his mental status changed out of know where!! I tried stressing to her a million times that yesterday Dads mental state was good. He was silly, but mentally he was there. This was clearly delirium, not confusion. I guess she finally got tired of me being "the squeaky wheel" because they ended up doing a CT scan. It came back fine, which reinforced that Dialysis is likely the cause of the new onset delirium.

I asked her if they would draw labs to make sure Dialysis didnt emergently screw something up. Of course her response was that all his vitals are fine. I understand that, but.....I'm sorry, once again I snapped. She just kept using the word "confused" and it pissed me off. There is a big difference between confusion and new onset delirium!!!Battle cut short, she called the doctor and Dad had STAT labs back within half an hour.

Labs were all fine. As fine as they get for a Dialysis patient anyway. That was GREAT news. Hemodialysis is the explanation for the delirium. What a HORRID thing Hemo dialysis is, especially after a MAJOR surgery!!!!

Did I mention my Dad didnt sleep all day because the nurse wouldnt give him morphine or percocet? Dad said he didnt have any pain, so she didnt give him any. I understand that.....but after SO MANY hours of us trying to keep him in bed and away from pulling out tubes in a delirium state, SOMETHING would have helped him sleep. The man couldnt stop moving for goodness sakes! She didnt care. She told us we were encouraging his "confusion" by hoovering over him... Funny, I remember silently sitting in the chair beside him, holding his hand and ignoring his pleas while my heart was breaking. I knew we couldnt talk sense into him. I didnt even try. All we could do was ignore the crazy questions and keep his hands away from his tubes and keep him from climbing out of bed. We gave reassurance when he needed it most. He could have rested his whacked out mind if she would have relaxed him with some morphine. She chose not to because he was just "confused." I think she needs a big slap in the face.

Anyway. I'm in love with my Dads night nurse. (the same one dad pleaded was so mean) He spent an hour talking to us tonight about lab results, going over his progress notes and encouraging us to speak up if we feel something isnt right. He has been Dads night nurse for the last 3 days so he agreed Dad was WAY off from yesterday. He is very concerned, as are we. You can bet the hospital will be getting a letter of appreciation in his name from me. This man is AWESOME and he CARES more than any nurse ever has. If I wasn't so fried in my brain at the moment I would tell you all about him. Unfortunately, today was a major emotional overhaul and I cant even add 2+2. Trust me, this man is an angel.....

Tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully todays meanie dumb dumb nurse will not be back. Hemodialysis is only done every 3 days so hopefully Dads imbalances and shock to his system will be settling down in between. Now I just pray that he can resume his old way of Dialysis when Monday comes so that this delirium doesnt continue or happen again. I miss my real Dad. Delirium is a crazy thing.