I noticed he was acting very different, no personality, not answering phone, completely different from 2 weeks before.
So I got a listing of his medications and they had added 2 alzheimers meds (he doesn't have alzheimers), a diuretic, an anti-histimine (which he is allergic to codeine and his body reacts badly to allergy meds), also they added an allergy med, (they were trying to dry up a chronic nose drip) they also added vicodin ( his body reacts badly to this). He already is on 20 medications! and now they added these within a 2 weak period. He is like a dead man.
Now I have to wait for them to get in contact with the doctor to remove the meds and they are fighting me on it.
It is like they are determined that he have alzheimers. He has some problems with thinking when he first wakes up and because he is on so many meds. Also he has problems when his sugar get really LOW. Otherwise he is as clear and sharp as I am.
I am not in denial. His mental problems are related to his medications and his depression over his now sucky life.
I could have kept him off all these latest meds if I had known they were being added. They did not tell me anything except
"your dad is a very sick man" (diabetes 77) as an excuse.
My dad is a resident in a VA Home.
The only other excuse I see for making it into a hassle is its just easy and fast for them to Rx whatever they think should work and not worry about the consequences, and they are pretty well swamped and depend on overworked physician extenders to boot. A thoughtful discussion of effects and side effects takes a little time, as does an intelligent medications review. Both NEED to be done though, and we need to insist sometimes, our loved ones may do a whole lot better once it is straightened out and notes made of what does not agree with them. I think everyone should keep an ADR (adverse drug reaction) list as well as an allergies list. Sure, there are people who make mistakes about what really gave them problems and end up saying they are allergic to 30 different things, so this is not foolproof, but most people are pretty realistic.
It took me months to get them to give my mom a med I knew would give my own patient in a heartbeat for a specific condition she clearly had, and it finally worked when they did...the one doctor would not do it at all, another agreed but started a differnt med. There were somewhat good reasons at first to do that - needed a little antidepressant effect as well as pain relief - but in the long run, my pick was the better one for her adn would have avoided some hallucinations that she got as side effects. And I never did get my dad's headaches treated, though the doc was otherwise very good and took him off everything he did not really need. We should try very hard not to underestimate side efects - they may not be behind everything that is going wrong, but may be behind some very severe problems at times. I watched my mom end up with an ER trip when trying an Alzhemier med (she has vascular dementia, it was a long shot and I did not mind them giving it a try, since the increased irritability and resulting combative behavior was a very unusual turn of events, and they stopped it pronto after that. My dad got serotonergic syndrome when given the SSRI they usually use in this one ICU he was in, not adjusting the dose lower for geriatrics which they should have done. The nurse seemed to feel I was intruding to complain about his being beet red and miserable (no he wasn't on vanc) even though I have medical POA too. Maybe it was because my license was from out of state...but they did fix that one too after I insisted this could be serious and I wasn't leaving til I talked with someone. Just getting a list of meds can be a hassle - I had to literally get my POA papers out and point to the exact line that said I could get it from a nurse with a bad case of HIPAAphobia once!! That was at the same place they refused to treat her neuropathic pain - not suprisngly she did not do well in therapy there and we had to move her out shortly therafter.
This smells like malpractice to me. As his MPOA, they should consult with you about any medications and their side-effects before administering them. Make sure they know that.
Although you already have a listing of the medications added, ask them for the monographs you can "better understand how to cope with possible side effects" [how they're turning him into a vegetable to make things easier for them]. Heck, ask them for a copy of his chart in its entirety. Paper trail baby, paper trail. In our highly litigious society what you say and claim isn't nearly as important as what you can prove. If you don't have it down in black and white, it never happened and push comes to shove it's going to be your word against theirs.
Like Gilly said, contact the ombudsman and calmly raise your concerns. If you feel he/she isn't helping, take other calculated measures so you don't let your emotions cloud your judgment and do something stupid like slapping the taste out of someone's out just because you're overstressed. After you've exhausted every option, your last resort is the court system.
All of us here want you to be balanced and happy, so keep us posted on your progress. We're glad to help.
Always at your service,
-- ED
Took a 5mg Ambien last night, and am still having "senior moments." My eyes are open, but the brain's still napping and I feel run down. I'm going back to bed to "detox." Good night family.
-- ED
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