I am a full time carer for my Dad (67) who has had rheumatoid arthritis for 30+ years he has cardiovascular disease, COPD, severely ulcerated legs, to be honest the list just goes on, he used to smoke heavy but he quit six years ago after a lengthy stay in the hospital due to septic shock.
Well what's bothering me now is how fast my fathers cognitive decline has come around I took him in for an angioplasty of his leg to help increase the blood flow to hopefully heal his ulcers (seems to be working now) this was a week before Christmas, well let's just say I took him in my dad and fetched him home a completely different person. He was at home for 3 weeks before he went back into hospital again, with sepsis again and pretty much since then he is struggled with remembering anything at all. He knows his name and his date of birth and who I am. He dont recognize his own home, he don't recall ever being married or having kids (despite him knowing I'm his son) he cant remember any of his grandkids and he was heavily involved in their lives. I should add that after he got discharged from hospital he was home for less than 24 hours before I had to call for an ambulance to take him back, it turns out dad was refusing any treatment at hospital and they didn't even asses his capacity so they sent him home.
Well after he went back in this time they said he has got something called Delirium as it shows the same symptoms as dementia and that hopefully he will show an improvement in the coming weeks or months, this was back in march time and he is not shown any signs of improvement he is hallucinating alot keep seeing cats and other animals. They put him on anti psychotics which seem to have worked as he don't mention seeing things that's not there as much now. He finally returned home today after a long stay in hospital I told them that I cant deal with my dad on my own anymore so they arranged 2x carers to visit 4x a day. There is so much more than I could write to this but I've already gone on and on. I think he has Dementia of some kind, I'm calling the GP tomorrow to get the ball rolling about his memory again. They said to me they don't usually start the dementia pathway until someone has problems for 6 months.
I just feel so alone right now like no one is or has experienced the same as what I am, I know there will be but whenever I have spoke to someone they don't know what to say it's got me so down I struggle to sit with my dad anymore as it's just not what I remember. I should add he is not really got any worse in this 6 months but has certainly got no better. Anyway I'm sorry for rambling on I just thought writing it out helps a little and hope I can seek some comfort in knowing I'm not the only one in the situation. If you made it this far thankyou
