One of the Team

I was allowed to leave work early today, so I took the paperwork to the skilled nursing center Bob is now at.

It's a nice place but there are no signs anywhere telling you which wing is which.

I found his room and he was of course asleep. A nurse was there to take his blood pressure.

He woke up and I changed his TV to METV so he could watch EMERGENCY!.

I spoke with his therapists.

One of them went to his room and she asked him what my name was and he answered correctly, then she asked who I was and he thought for a moment and said "one of the team".

Bob in the Hospital

I visited Bob yesterday. He was asleep most of the time. He could not remember my name and told the nurse I was a good friend.

They had brought him lunch but he could not stay awake long enough to eat it. He would fall asleep and then make weird faces like he was talking or reacting to something in a dream.

At one point he was asleep and Emergency! came on, he did not wake up but reacted to it in his dream with a big distorted smile.

At one point he woke up saw the cookie on his tray and started eating that, but would fall asleep, wake up eat some more, then fall asleep (repeat).

I spoke with a doctor and a nurse. They indicated that they thought he was being abused. I told them what I knew about him falling and how people are with him at his facility and they accepted what I told them.

I do not think he is being abused as his bruising does not seem to be from being beaten or from defending against (or blocking) abuse.

Bob Keeps Falling

Bob is in the hospital again. He has fallen 3 times in the last week or so. This time he hit his head and bruised his arm.

I asked the care providers why he keeps falling and they said "He forgets he cannot walk". In other news Bob can no longer walk.

Information out of the Blue

Today 4 letters arrived from the hospital Bob was in, in August. They contained MRI, X-ray, and CT scan results.

Some of the highlights (stuff in parentheses is my comments):
Misshapen thoracic aorta (aging and hypertension could have atherosclerotic disease).
Extensive bilateral periventricular and other deep white matter hypodensities (problems walking and thinking)
There is diffuse volume loss as evidenced by prominence of the ventricles and sulci (losing gray matter)
Chronic lacunar infarcts are identified within both thalami the right basal ganglia, and the left putamen (cognitive behavioural and motor problems caused by strokes)
A chronic lacunar infarct is also identified within the superior left cerebellum (coordination)
Vascular calcifications (calcium buildup in brain blood vessels)
There are patchy and confluent areas of T2 / FLAIR hyperintense signal throughout the supratentorial white matter (bright areas caused by reduced blood flow)
moderate ventriculomegaly disproportionate to the degree of parenchymal volume loss.
Diffuse white matter disease and left cerebral and cerebellar chronic micro hemorrhages may relate to hypertension or amyloid angiography (plaque in the brain).
communicating hydrocephalus.

Basically Bob has multiple signs of strokes, hardening of the arteries, he is losing brain tissue, parts of his brain are not getting enough blood, and plague build up in the brain.

This is causing motor control problems, cognitive and behavioral issues, depression, coordination issues and dementia.