When a senior checks into a hospital, the staff there is extremely well-trained to treat the obvious ailments. In some cases though they might miss a problem that is not so obvious. Since they have no history with the patient, the staff may not know about the existing mental condition of the senior. This was the case for my father. Although my father was always a little bit crazy. He’s always been a very rational man. After his stroke and release from the hospital, everything started out fine. Then my father started acting totally crazy. He pulled out his catheter which is equivalent to having a baby with no painkillers. After that he just kept saying that he would have gotten away with it if there had not have been so much blood. He continued to call me by my sister’s name and talk about how much he wanted to go for a drive. When we checked him back into the hospital, he was mostly fined during the day and at night he attacked an orderly and tried to get in a car and drive home. He turned into a kind of caveman whose single focus was to drive home. Since the hospital had no history on his mental status, they must assume that he was just like that. Because a family member was there, we knew that there was another problem. We continue to tell them that this is not normal and after three days of insanity, they finally ran a test to find that he had an infection. After talking to several doctors and nurses, we found that this was a very common problem with senior.

Seniors deal differently with infections. I’ve heard it from several different sources since then that when a older adult gets an infection, it can cause temporary insanity. Most of these infections can be easily treated with antibiotics. The big problem here is that it takes a family member or expert staff to realize that there is an unseen problem that should be tested and medicated. The results of my father’s tests originally came back with the extremely mild elevated white blood count. Still this was enough to make him a psycho fruitcake for about three days. If you are the son or daughter of an aging parent, keep in mind that there is no one better to review and assist in the medical care of family member. I can’t stress this enough. Everyone needs someone not associated with the facility to guarantee the best healthcare. I just hope that when I’m older that I’m still close enough to my son and daughter that they will be able to check on me and make sure that the facility is doing everything right.