It’s been a little while since I posted.  Things have been pretty good...until this week.  I drove in on Monday afternoon this week primarily because Mickey had an appointment with his cardiologist on Tuesday.  At the same time, I have been working on insurance forms, getting care plans finalized, and managing other things.  I made an appointment with his primary care doc so she could complete the insurance forms needed and talked with his neurologist about the insurance forms needed from them.  All of this was as planned.  Even when Mickey showed his primary doc his fingernails and it appears that there may be a fungal infection developing - no problem.  She referred us to a dermatologist and we saw her at 7:45 Wednesday morning.

The real monkey wrench came when the SJP nurses told me that Linda has had a couple of aggressive episodes and has hit Mickey.  I didn’t want to believe that - this behavior may be typical for Alzheimer’s patients, but it certainly is not normal for the Linda we all know.  I called her neurologist to ask for help and spoke with the nurse, who graciously worked us in.  The neurologist said that there are behavior meds that can help and he sent a script to the pharmacy...but we had to go and get lab work done.  Linda was coughing and even though it is probably due to her reflux disease, he wanted to be sure that there was no other issues.  We had to have blood drawn and give them a urine specimen.  The bloodwork was no problem, however the urine specimen was a challenge that we eventually got through.

After getting Linda and Mickey back to SJP, I planned to pick up the meds, give them to the nurse, and leave for home.  Before I could leave for the pharmacy, the neurologist called and told me that the hospital lab notified him that Linda’s potassium levels are dangerously low.  Those were his words...dangerously low.  He said to have her eat a banana immediately and that he would call her primary doc.  The banana alone is not enough to alleviate the problem, but it helps.  The primary doc called in yet another script, this time for potassium.  She said that over-the-counter supplements do not provide nearly enough potassium for hercondition.  SJP staff got her a banana, I got the meds around 7, the nurses gave her the new meds, and the day finally ended.  I did not leave for home until Thursday.

So - Linda’s frustration leading her to hit Mickey, caused us to go to the neurologist, who noticed she was coughing and ordered bloodwork, which identified a potassium deficiency that was dangerous, but corrected with medication. It’s funny how things work out.