Venting

[Guest guest]

Jim has another UTI. Seems like every 3 weeks now. I am angry, but I pulled my

composure together and talked professionally to his doctor at the nursing home.

It gets me farther than if I lose my cool! A week plus a few days ago, I knew

Jim had a UTI. I know his behaviors well and I went to the head floor nurse and

requested that a urinary test be done to check for a UTI. I don't know why, but

the fax for the request was not answered for days and I had to bring it up again

and the nurses act like they are scared to request again to the doctor, because

the doctor does not like to ok many requests, but they faxed again and the

doctor had questions like what symptoms does Jim have that would give a clue

that he has a UTI. Aggressive behavior plus extreme confusion and delusions does

not seem to be in the doctor's vocabulary as a symptom of a UTI. It needs to be

cloudy urine or Jim complaining of pain. Well, I demanded for Jim to have a

urinary test, but it came back negative, I was told. Again it's the scale of

numbers they go by at the nursing home and lab and if the test doesn't hit above

a certain number,

it is considered negative. Jim is so sensitive to a UTI that when it is just

starting out, I know he has one. On Father's Day, I went to visit Jim after I

spent the day with my Dad and Jim had one of his black out seizure type

behaviors and a low grade fever. Plus he was very restless. Jim very rarely has

fevers, even with a UTI. When he went to bed, the nurse gave him Vicodin and he

fell asleep and seemed to be resting peacefully and I went home. I went in

early  yesterday morning to visit Jim, because I wanted to see how he was doing.

He was still in bed at 10:30AM, but the CNA said he was tired, so she let him

sleep and said nothing more, so I don't think she observed anything to be wrong.

I woke Jim up and sat him up and he was soaking wet all over his back from a

fever. His entire body was HOT and when I sat him up and got him in his

wheelchair, he had another black out seizure type of behavior. He has had these

seizure type behaviors, but

usually about one a month, not back to back. I was so concerned, I strapped Jim

into the wheelchair and ran to get the floor nurse, by the time we got back to

the room, Jim was out of the seizure thing, but she took his blood pressure and

it was 90/70 and then she called the doctor, because I requested for Jim to go

to ER. I couldn't take him in the car this time, because he was too weak to

stand and get in the car. Jim's BP fell to 88/60, but she said she could not

call 911, unless it fell to 85. She did call the paramedics, but it wasn't under

a 911 emergency call, so it took them some time to get there. I hate all this

" Red Tape " they have to go through.

Anyway, Jim got to ER and it turned out he has another UTI. All this stuff

happened, because it wasn't caught in the beginning when I knew he had one. So,

as I said at the beginning, I spoke with the doctor today and I asked about that

low grade antibiotic. It starts with an M, but I can't remember the name of it

and he can take it daily and maybe it will help Jim to have less frequent UTIs.

We shall see. I know, some people's LOs are on this antibiotic. I have heard

some say, it really doesn't have any effect on their LO, they still get UTIs

anyway. If you know the name of the medication that starts with M and have

anything to say about it let me know. I don't know much about this antibiotic,

but when I spoke to the doctor about it, she thought it was a good idea to try

it.

I sure hope it is something that will work for Jim and keep the number of UTIs

down that he is getting. She will start it when he is off of the antibiotic that

he is on now.

Take Care All.....................Jan

[Guest guest]

Jan,

thinking of you!

Manatee Carol

Caregave for mother-in-law(age 81) who was the third of three sisters to die of

LBD.