We often go and visit my wife's father. He's going to be 94 soon. Until last year he was doing pretty well, but last spring he contracted pneumonia and, although he recovered physically from that, it seems the stay in the hospital knocked out his mental equilibrium.
Now he often doesn't know what decade he is in. Often he is 16, back in the town where he was born, looking for his neighbors. Sometimes he is fifty and waiting to be picked up to play golf. There are lots of other disorienting things. It's sad that brains tend to shrink with age and then confusing things happen.
Would it have been better if he stayed more involved with others and had more interactions to keep him alert? He was never that naturally social. His wife did all the arranging. Once she died he slowly withdrew.
But, I don't know. He's 94. What can you expect?
At the doctor's recommendation we gave him Zoloft. We gave him one pill at a sub-therapeutic level to try it out. The next night he was up all night making phone calls, mostly to people who had been dead for twenty years. He called 911 because his wife was missing.
We didn't give him another pill.
Really, he should come and live with us, but we have too many stairs and we are not home enough. (I'm saying this just in case my kids read this.)
At 93 I'm buying a motorcycle. If I remember.
3 comments:
My grandfather died in his 90s and my grandmother decide she was going to do thing she had wanted to do but had never done. She made my cousin take her for a ride on his Harley. It was awesome watching her riding and enjoying life at the age of 88. Her kids had a fit but the grandkids and great grandkids cheered her on.
I hope someone is staying with him?
A great post, very sad, but also true. It hurts to see those we love fail, doesn't it?
Yes, get a motorcycle, I like that plan. :)
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