Mom has a stroke last June.
It has been a long battle back to this point. But, her energy levels have been good most of the time since September.
Now, an abrupt change. She is noticeable more tired every day. But, there have been a couple days she was so tired she could hold her own weight to stand. I mean..right after a good night sleep!
She has seen the doctor. She has even been taken to ER.
No one can explain this. Today she couldn't stand at all. She couldn't lift her head. The ER ran just about every test they could think of. Ruled out every type of infection, etc, etc.
Anyone had this happen?
Any ideas?
My parents were also in their 90's, and they were tired quite a bit, always napping.
I wouldn't give up; try a different hospital and different ER.
There is some suggestion that this could be a worsening of her vascular dementia, which proceeds " stepwise", as opposed to gradually. My mom also sleeps more when she is fighting of an infection, so maybe that's it.
Keep in touch, we learn from each other here!
But, yesterday, again, she was so tired she couldn't lift her head.
I am going to try to get a heart monitor for her. The ER doc said that even if the problem is her afib running away...she is already on medication to control it..and it will cause lower blood pressure. Her blood pressure is on the low end of normal..he thought if it is increased it will cause her BP to drop to dangerous levels. Basically, he was asking the old question...even if we determine it is that...there is no point, as we cannot treat it. I have heard this argument before, When asking if she had maybe another stroke...the doc said there was no point to doing a head scan...there isn't any treatment beyond what is already being done, so there is no point to doing more diagnostics.
Since ER ruled out everything else...I still want to get s monitor. Then we will have recordings to prove it is or isn't events with afib that precipitate the extreme tired events.
We were there 10 hours while they did every dianostic they could come up with.
During that time, Mom recovered and was feeling pretty good when we left.
Toprol also can lower BP.
There's a new procedure to reduce A-fib stroke risk: Watchman. It's not appropriate for everyone though. A cardiologist raised this issue with us just last week.
If you don't have a regularly treating cardiologist, find one. You'll get more specific results and advice from someone who can run more tests (including a MUGA and others) than are done at the ER.
Mom has expressed to me a DNR. But, medication to provide longer life...as long as she is able to get quality of life...yeah, keep doing it.
She isn't like this all the time. This just started in the last 3 weeks. She has a couple days a week where she cannot even hold her head up. Then..a few hours..she snaps back. Not all the way..but, energy level up a lot. Then in a day or two it happens again. But, I have to say, her energy level over all has dropped noticeably even on the good days.
On goof days, she get out to her various therapies. Goes out with me to a store, maybe the bank. We drove up on the Mesa just sight seeing last week. So..not bed ridden or anything.
It sounds a lot like Mom. The mesh...surgery? Mom has expressed to me in the past that there will be no more surgery.
It feels like this is the beginning of the end. She is also having a lot of confusion and doesn't seem to know anything about the last 4 months....like time stopped back in July.