LIFE - My dad's stroke
If my blog has been "off" for the past few entries, I have had a major distraction in my life; June 3, 2006 was probably one of the worst days of my life--and it wasn't even for something that happened directly to me.
Before I woke up that day, my father left the house per his routine to get the newspapers and have lunch.
While he was out, he had three separate car crashes. I still don't know all the details of what happened--his memories of the car accidents are fuzzy, no one was with him, and the police reports are confusing and contain errors. The first accident happened around 1 in the afternoon in the parking lot or coming out from the lot of the supermarket where he gets his newspapers. The second was in the parking lot of Grumpy's (a restaurant he frequents). The third was elsewhere in the town of Orange Park.
I spoke with the owner of the car he hit at Grumpy's--she is an employee of the restaurant--so I have more details of that crash, despite not having a police report for that accident. While the police report for the first accident claims it happened at 2 PM, Grumpy's closes at 2, so the time on that report must be wrong. I am furious at the cop who responded to that second accident--that cop knew my dad had been in the earlier accident (he mentioned the ticket from earlier as the reason why he didn't issue another ticket), and he should have seen that my dad was exhibiting some symptoms of a stroke at the time--including fuzzy memories of the crash that had just happened and inability at the time to remember his own phone number of 15 years; however despite all this, he did not call the paramedics, though he did call the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to start proceedings to take away my dad's license. (I am not a big booster of the local police lately--and consider the "to protect and serve" slogan to be a lie.) The lady from Grumpy's also told me (informed by the officer, who is another regular at the restaurant) that the third accident happened on U.S. 17; though the police report for that one says it happened in a residential neighborhood three blocks to the west. (Since we don't know anyone in that area, either the report was mistaken or my dad was lost and disoriented from his condition.) The car was not drivable after the third accident, but is reparable--the total damage was $3700.
When the tow-truck driver brought him home (you read that right--the police didn't even take him to the hospital after the third accident--they sent him home in the tow truck), he was obviously shaken, but there was nothing that pointed to anything beyond a fender bender by that time. I asked him if he wanted to see a doctor, and he didn't. However, about an hour later, he said he felt dizzy. That turned "do you want to go to the hospital?" into "We're going to the hospital, now!" The hospital kept him for observation until Monday the 12th. Much of that time was because they placed him back on Coumadin, so they had to wait until the INR was in the correct range. They also did a battery of tests, which confirmed he'd had a stroke.
My dad is probably giving up driving; however, we need to talk with an elder law attorney to tend to other matters, and have decided to ask the lawyer how to proceed with the state's demand that he retest for or surrender his license. One bright spot in the whole affair is that my dad was the first to suggest the idea--even if he ultimately returns to the road (the big question in that regard being how great is the risk for another stroke), I'm proud of him for considering the possibility--so many older drivers don't have the intellectual honesty to consider giving up driving when they should, thereby endangering themselves and others. My dad was and is able to take an honest look at his ability.
Considering his and our family's cardiac history, his age, and that he didn't get prompt treatment when he first had the stroke, the prognosis for him is very good. However, he needs to be on Coumadin now, and he had problems with that blood thinner in the past. He also continues to have some trouble finding the right words when he's speaking--a question when he sees the doctor next week will be whether he'd benefit from a speech therapist. I'm hoping and beginning to think he's out of the woods at this point, but I'm still worried for him and would appreciate it if you kept him in your thoughts, hopes, and prayers.
Before I woke up that day, my father left the house per his routine to get the newspapers and have lunch.
While he was out, he had three separate car crashes. I still don't know all the details of what happened--his memories of the car accidents are fuzzy, no one was with him, and the police reports are confusing and contain errors. The first accident happened around 1 in the afternoon in the parking lot or coming out from the lot of the supermarket where he gets his newspapers. The second was in the parking lot of Grumpy's (a restaurant he frequents). The third was elsewhere in the town of Orange Park.
I spoke with the owner of the car he hit at Grumpy's--she is an employee of the restaurant--so I have more details of that crash, despite not having a police report for that accident. While the police report for the first accident claims it happened at 2 PM, Grumpy's closes at 2, so the time on that report must be wrong. I am furious at the cop who responded to that second accident--that cop knew my dad had been in the earlier accident (he mentioned the ticket from earlier as the reason why he didn't issue another ticket), and he should have seen that my dad was exhibiting some symptoms of a stroke at the time--including fuzzy memories of the crash that had just happened and inability at the time to remember his own phone number of 15 years; however despite all this, he did not call the paramedics, though he did call the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to start proceedings to take away my dad's license. (I am not a big booster of the local police lately--and consider the "to protect and serve" slogan to be a lie.) The lady from Grumpy's also told me (informed by the officer, who is another regular at the restaurant) that the third accident happened on U.S. 17; though the police report for that one says it happened in a residential neighborhood three blocks to the west. (Since we don't know anyone in that area, either the report was mistaken or my dad was lost and disoriented from his condition.) The car was not drivable after the third accident, but is reparable--the total damage was $3700.
When the tow-truck driver brought him home (you read that right--the police didn't even take him to the hospital after the third accident--they sent him home in the tow truck), he was obviously shaken, but there was nothing that pointed to anything beyond a fender bender by that time. I asked him if he wanted to see a doctor, and he didn't. However, about an hour later, he said he felt dizzy. That turned "do you want to go to the hospital?" into "We're going to the hospital, now!" The hospital kept him for observation until Monday the 12th. Much of that time was because they placed him back on Coumadin, so they had to wait until the INR was in the correct range. They also did a battery of tests, which confirmed he'd had a stroke.
My dad is probably giving up driving; however, we need to talk with an elder law attorney to tend to other matters, and have decided to ask the lawyer how to proceed with the state's demand that he retest for or surrender his license. One bright spot in the whole affair is that my dad was the first to suggest the idea--even if he ultimately returns to the road (the big question in that regard being how great is the risk for another stroke), I'm proud of him for considering the possibility--so many older drivers don't have the intellectual honesty to consider giving up driving when they should, thereby endangering themselves and others. My dad was and is able to take an honest look at his ability.
Considering his and our family's cardiac history, his age, and that he didn't get prompt treatment when he first had the stroke, the prognosis for him is very good. However, he needs to be on Coumadin now, and he had problems with that blood thinner in the past. He also continues to have some trouble finding the right words when he's speaking--a question when he sees the doctor next week will be whether he'd benefit from a speech therapist. I'm hoping and beginning to think he's out of the woods at this point, but I'm still worried for him and would appreciate it if you kept him in your thoughts, hopes, and prayers.
Labels: LIFE
posted by John at 6/15/2006 07:18:00 PM
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