Diplopia...

Went to visit Papa on Monday.  Did not see him Sunday as I was home trying to get completely well all day.  So, Monday I hoped in my little red car and trucked off to Georgetown. 

Found Papa in his bathrobe.  He was preparing himself some lunch.  I told him to go ahead and do that and asked if he would like to take a ride for a little bit.  With the bad weather and Claude and I being gone on our trip, Papa had been in his apartment for several weeks.  I now had his driveway completely cleared and it was safe for his unstable self to walk on it with his cane.  He was happy with the idea of a bit of a ride. 

While he finished his lunch and got dressed, I made sure his med boxes were filled and if he needed anything in the way of food.  What he needed was batteries for his smoke detectors.  They were really beeping.  He didn't have the right kind but I would get those after we finished our ride.  Papa talked while I did the little tasks that keep him going.  He complained his television was not working.  It has two pictures.  This was very strange.  The more he talked, I realized he was also seeing double.  When he got up to pour his water and missed the glass, I was sure I was understanding his explanation of what was happening.  

Now, Papa has dry eyes and does not like to use (and so he doesn't use) drops to help them.  When he reads his eyes get tired and then he sees double a bit.  After resting his eyes, he is fine.  I asked him if this was what was happening.  He said they were just seeing double all the time.  Hmmmm...

We finished getting him ready and loaded him in the car.  We had not gotten to the first turn in his street when he said, "Man, I'm sure glad I'm not driving.  I see two cars coming and two roads."  Hmmmm...again.  I asked him if riding was going to be bad for him, would he feel sick.  He said he didn't think so.  I told him, if he started to get a head ache or feel sick he was responsible to let me know right away.  He agreed, so we continued.

I found back roads to Midway, a town not too far away.  When we got to Miday, Papa said, "I think we should go home.  This is just no working."  I knew how to get to the Interstate quickly from where we were so I headed for I-64.  I did stop and get him a chocolate shake from McDonald's at the interchange.  Goodness, he just needs a little fun in his life sometime.  

We also stopped at Kroger and I purchased some batteries for his smoke detectors and some more sliced watermelon for his fridge. 

When we got to his apartment, I fixed the smoke detectors and we talked about his double vision.  The problem was clearly not with the television and was clearly seeing double all the time.  If he put one hand over one eye and only looked out of the other eye, he saw clearly only the item he was looking at.  If he looked through both eyes, he saw double.  If he took his glasses off it was even more intense and very double.  I told him I was calling Dr. Weckman.  He said he wanted to let his eyes rest and then he would let me know Tuesday if there was any change.  I agreed.  It is a little thing to let him have some control over his choices sometimes.

Tuesday morning I called him and he was still seeing double and he felt it was worse.  I called Dr. Weckman's office.  They talked with Dr. Weckman and he said to have me take Papa to the emergency room instead of his office.  I called Papa and told him to scrub up and I would be there to take him to the emergency room per Dr. Weckman's orders.

It was raining on Tuesday. Yuck.  Hate taking Papa out in bad weather.  We both feel the best thing we do to keep him healthy is to keep him out of bad weather.  But we loaded him in the car and drove to Georgetown Hospital's Emergency Room.  

Now, I've only been there once before.  It is not the world's largest hospital to say the least.  The nursing home sent Mom there in an ambulance when she was not well at the nursing home.  Papa called and Claude and I met him at the emergency room.  So we pulled up to the covered area at the emergency room and I let Papa out under the covered area with strict instructions to go in and sit and wait for me.  I had his wallet and all the information.  I would check him in after I found a parking place and came in.  He was happy about that.

He went to the door and I went into the parking lot.  Every spot was full. Every single one. And the rows for the cars do not loop around.  They are dead ends.  So I spent a lot of time backing up and turning around.  I finally went to the front of the hospital and found a spot on a back row.  Then I hurried to the emergency room.

No Papa in the emergency room.  I realized then my mistake.  I left Papa at the door for the ambulance.  I hurried around to that door and learned it wouldn't open except with a special pass of some kind that the ambulance drivers had.  Where was Papa?  I looked through the doors and didn't see him in there anywhere.  I hurried back to the emergency room admit window and asked if they had seen an 86 year old man walking with a cane.  They  had not.  One of them went back into the emergency rooms to see if they could find him.  Nope, he was not there.  I told them if he showed up to keep him and I would return.  I was going to the hospital check-in desk to see if they saw him.  

I asked the pink ladies at the check-in desk if they saw Papa.  They had seen him and one of the admission people had walked him over to Dr. Weckman's office.  Whew!!  I hurried through the halls that get you there without going outside and there was Papa sitting in Dr. Weckman's office.  He forgot we were going to the emergency room and thought he was headed to Dr. Weckman's office so that is what he told anyone who saw him and that is where they took him.  Thank heavens Dr. Weckman's office is in the building next to the hospital.  However, it is at the farthest place from the emergency room one could get.

I told Papa we needed to get back to the emergency room.  He got up and asked if I knew the way.  I told him I did.  We set out through the hallway from Dr. Weckman's office building, then the hospital hallways, then outside and around to the emergency room entrance.  Papa used his cane and I held his other arm.  I was very alarmed at how he just gets going forward and then almost runs.  I kept holding him back so he wouldn't start running and kept telling him we didn't have to hurry, he could walk slower.  He couldn't help himself.  I was so grateful to get to the emergency room and have him sit in a chair.  The ladies at the check-in window saw us and quickly got him a wheel chair.

Back to an examining room we headed after I got Papa checked in.  Gave them all the information they might need.  We explained how Papa fell while Claude and I were in Key West and he went for a walk in his neighborhood.  After walking back from Dr. Weckman's office, I can tell exactly why he fell.  The doctor came in and we told him what was happening.  He checked Papa and ordered a CT Scan and some blood work.  The CT Scan showed no sign of a stroke. This was very good news.  The INR showed Papa's blood density at 1.5.  It should be between 2 and 3.  I called Dr. Weckman and told his office about the INR results.  The ER doctor suggested our next step be an Ophthalmologist.  He thought it might be muscle related and sometimes that requires a minor surgery and an Ophthalmologist is who would do that.

As good fortune would have it, Donzetta Hughes is an emergency room nurse at the hospital.  She is also a friend that I trust.  She was at first concerned I had Claude in the emergency room.  I assured her it was Papa and took her in to introduce her to Papa.  I explained what was happening. She told me she used a great Ophthalmologist and gave me his information.  I called his office and they set up an appointment for Wednesday morning at 8:30am.  

I took Papa home and he was so very happy to be back in his little messy nest.   I told him I would take him to my home if he felt unsafe at all.  He really wanted to just be where he knew where everything was.  So I took a DVD for Wednesday afternoon at the nursing home and told him I would leave that with Bonnie and I was sure we weren't going to make it to the nursing home on Wednesday. He was happy about that also.

Wednesday our weather forecast was for the rain to turn to sleet and then snow with an accumulation of 14-22 inches.  The time for this to begin was 11am.  As I left Eagle Bend, the creek was flooded and the water was right under the bridge.  If it came up over the bridge, I would not be able to get home.  Hmmm... 

Got Papa together and headed to Dr. Richardson's office.  They did a very thorough examination.  Dilated Papa's eyes which only exacerbated his double vision.  The end result, well at least the guesstimate, for now is that with all Papa's medical issues he may have a tiny, tiny, tiny blood clot that has lodged between the nerve and the vessel going to his eye causing the double vision.  IF this is the case, it would actually heal itself in a few months.  However, because of Papa's age and medical issues, he felt he needed to get some additional blood tests to rule out one possibility that could be life threatening.  Okay....

Back to Georgetown hospital for the lab work to be done.  No appointment necessary, just take your place in the queue.  Fortunately, with the bad weather coming our way, people were trying to get done and get home.  We had a short queue in which to wait.  They took more blood.  

We headed to CVS pharmacy.  Dr. Weckman's office called Tuesday evening to say I needed to give Papa 6 mg of warfarin each day now to get the blood where it should be.  I assured them I was happy to do this but I only had 5 mg tablets and wasn't sure how to get a 1 mg out of a 6 mg to make that work.  So they called in a prescription to CVS for 1 mg tablets.  Fortunately it was ready.  I also purchased Papa an eye patch.  The theory being, if he had a patch over one eye he would see only one image and might be able to watch his television a bit.  

We got Papa back home by noon and the sleet was running a bit late getting here.  I might get home before it came.  I dropped off some items to a friend and then headed to Sadieville.  The creek in Georgetown was way over its banks by now.  That was an indication of what would happy with Eagle Creek.  Lots of water on the road and running across the roads.  I stopped at Pilot to fill up my tank before I had more snow to drive in after the storm.  Made it home and the creek was still flooded but not over the bridge.  I was home and safely tucked in with my hubby and plenty of supplies to weather the storm.  Papa was tucked in and very happy to be in his home with plenty of supplies.

Now we wait until next Wednesday when Papa goes back to the eye doctor to tell me what really is happening to cause him to still had double vision.  Then to Dr. Weckman to get another INR to see if his blood is at the right density.

Diplopia is the technical term for double vision.