My Morning

Hospitalized or not, my dad calls me at exactly 8:10 every morning. He is just like that. If he says he will do something, he does it.

Today, he did not call at 8:10. Right away, I knew something was up. Most likely he'd been taken to x-ray or was doing physical therapy in the hallway, I thought.

At 8:30 his doctor called. Heart-failure-wise, he had made great improvement. Infection-wise, things are clearing up.

But..,

We all know that there is ALWAYS a but.

He was confused and disoriented.

But then, aren't we all?

He hadn't been able to breathe well for days and had been fighting an infection,

and was also sleep deprived.

Sleep deprived?

I've seen my dad when he is awakened from a deep sleep. He CAN be a bit disoriented. This happened two weeks ago when I woke him up from a nap.

That was NOTHING like what he was like today. NOTHING.

If it wasn't so scary, it would have been funny.

I got to the hospital expecting to sign him out and drive him home.

What I found was a confused and disoriented dad trying to figure out where he was.

He thought he was at a school, but didn't know which one. He could not remember the who, what, when or why about getting there.

He was seeing numerous things that I was not seeing. Condos being built, murals being painted on walls, animals in cages, to name just a few.

The hospital had him on a 'bed watch' as he had been found wandering the halls during the night looking for my mom.

At one point he tried to crawl under the bed, because he could not figure out why it was up like it was.

And, he tried to take apart the bed tray because he insisted that there was a fork stuck in it.

Of course, there was NO WAY I was taking him home in that condition. I hope to NEVER ride in the back of a police car again, looking for a parent.

His nurse went over his medications with me, and nothing seemed to be enough of a change to cause this.

So, they labeled it 'sleep deprivation'.

He didn't even look to be a teensy bit tired.

If you know my dad, he is a man of few words. Very few words.

Except for today! He was extremely talkative and entertaining.

Two nurses settled him into bed after lunch. I turned off his TV and closed the curtains. Then, it seemed best that I leave so he would stop talking and GO TO SLEEP.

I went home. Wrote my sisters an email. Curled up on the couch with my cat and went to sleep.

Tonight, THGGM talked to the night nurse on duty at the hospital.

Was dad doing better?, he inquired.

MUCH better, she said.

They now believe it was an adverse reaction to AMBIEN.

AMBIEN??? He cannot TAKE sleep aids! EVER!

Hmmm. Seems this should have been on his chart when I talked to the day nurse this morning!

And, now it all makes sense.

I am going to bed. I am going to read. I am going to sleep.

Soon, I shall be listed as one of the dangerous side effects of Ambien.