Hospital stay leads to new confusion

White Crane

DH came down with what I call stomach flu Thursday,March 9th.  I woke up that morning to a mess in the bathroom sink.  Apparently he had gotten sick in the night.  He didn't eat anything all day Friday until supper and immediately threw it up.  I was up with him most of the night Friday night.  He was vomiting and then got diarrhea...at the same time!  He was so weak, he laid down in it as it was all over the floor.  I ended up getting into it too since I had to get him cleaned up.  Then I cleaned the bathroom.  We did that all over again at four in the morning.  He didn't eat on Saturday and finally took a bite or two for supper and immediately got sick again.  This time he was on the floor in our tiny downstairs bathroom and got wedged between the stool and the door.  I literally had to untangle his feet and pull him out.  He was too weak to stand on his own and sort of crawled to his recliner.  (sorry about the underlining.  My computer has a mind of its own.}  I called 911 and they took him to the ER.  He was dehydrated and it turns out he had aspiration pneumonia on top of the stomach flu.  The poor man.  He was so confused and didn't know what was happening to him.  It was hard for him to cooperate with the nurses or the doctor.  We were in the ER all night and finally got to a room at 7:00 Sunday morning.  He kept pulling the heart monitor leads off and trying to get out of bed.  I turned my back one time and he pulled out his IV.  He had no idea what was going on and it was so hard to watch.  While there, they also did a scope of his esophagus and stomach as he was having pain and difficulty swallowing.  It turns out he has been having severe reflux and I didn't know it.  I finally went home Sunday night since I hadn't had any sleep in two nights.  It was hard to leave him but he finally got exhausted enough that he fell asleep and I slipped out.  The hospital had a sitter stay with him during he night...that was a blessing.  We came home Tuesday afternoon and he just isn't quite the same as before the hospital stay.  He is confused and even asked if we had a bathroom on the second floor.  He thought he was still in the church choir...we haven't sang in choir in several years.  He asked about the lawnmower and thought it was in the front yard.  It's been in the garage for about five years.  And his eyes look confused. 

 I feel helpless and sad.  His memory was already so bad and now it's worse.  There isn't anything I can do about it and it's hard to accept this new confusion.  There are other things I didn't include in this post but you get the idea.  I find myself feeling shaky and unsure and a bit scared.  We have lost so much to this disease and now we are losing more.  I am losing more and more of the man I married.  My faith is strong and I know God is taking care of us day by day.  Still, there is this dark heaviness.  I think it's called grief.

 Brenda

Ed1937

Brenda, I'm so sorry. If I can offer a bit of hope, I think there's a good chance he'll come back to baseline within a couple of weeks. Keeping fingers crossed for you.

jfkoc

I agree with Ed. It is possible that you will see positive changes. Hold tight.

Judith

M1

So sorry Brenda--there's a norovirus epidemic sweeping through large parts of the country currently, I would bet that's what it is.  it landed my partner in the hospital a couple of years ago, it's a bad one. 

I'm sure the grief is awful, the suffering with GI illnesses is awful even for those of us not yet cognitively impaired!  Hang in there, I am wishing you both a speedy recovery if there is one to be had.  

Quilting brings calm

Hospital delirium.  It’s typically supposed  to improve after a few weeks back in familiar surroundings and routine.

Denise1847

My DH was in the hospital last year for surgery and he was extremely disoriented, trying to get out of bed and pulling out the IV.  It was so bad, I was in tears.   He did come out of it so there is a chance it will get better.

Joydean

Brenda I’m so sorry ! Praying he will improve quickly. Hope you are getting some rest for yourself during this time. The dark heaviness is grief, and it seems like we have to live with it every day! Sending you hugs.

ImMaggieMae

I was going to say the same thing as Quilting, hospital delirium. My husband had it after a hospital stay about a year and a half ago. It resolved within a couple of weeks. That flu or virus sounds awful. He’s probably still recovering from that too. My husband is better in a lot of ways than he was a year ago, probably mostly due to medications.

White Crane

 Thank you all so much for your replies and encouragement. I’m so hoping you’re right and that he’ll come out of it in a couple weeks.

M1, I think you’re right about the norovirus. I looked it up and it sounds exactly like what he had.