(30minutes before transport was due) to voice his concern that no one had picked him up yet.
Screw the VA and their not enough parking! Seriously! I had to park several blocks away then climb that damn hill, and just as Im cresting it the office manager calls me to guide me into the correct building.
Hes in a room waiting for me while the Doctor is reviewing his record....wearing his dead friends nightgown over his street clothes which is a total jinx. I'm finding him a sweatshirt and taking that thing away. This is a new doctor... Dr White...looks like he just got born yesterday he is so young, and hes wearing a UCSF id badge. I think he might be training as at the end of it he went to confer with Dr Glass and they both came back in together. Dr. Glass redid some of the movement tests that you will see in the video and they talked shop about it saying that is definitely a 2-3 because if it was a level 1 then...blah blah medical terms I don't understand and choose not to remember.
When this starts he was just beginning and testing his eye movement.
His blood pressure was his normal 144/86 ish...when he stood it dropped to 100/68ish. This is about the same as it has been.
He left to confer with the other doctor. Their mutual main point of interest was his blood pressure. Apparently the carbidopa (this is dopamine) messes with your blood pressure, and his carbidopa protocol was unusual....most take instant release not time release.
So the consensus end of this appointment was to rehaul his meds. All instant release carbidopa, no time release, and to decrease the amount he was taking as well. I dont see it in my notes, but I swear there was also a further decrease in the ropinerol to 1 tab a day instead of one tab twice a day. This is the one we already reduced from 2 tabs twice a day.
Things we are supposed to be monitoring after this adjustment are dizziness / blood pressure, hallucinations, and tremors.
They IX-nayd the botox explaining that once injected it diffuses and they didn't want to interfere with his swallowing issues or therapy. He was fine with that. He wakes up to a pool of drool on his pillow.
He asked that he return in 1 month so we set another appointment for November 7th 9am.
Left that building and went across the street to the clinic side (where PCPs are) and called his transport which is on a bat phone you just pick up and connect. He wants me to go down to the cafeteria with him so we followed the maze of hallways until we got there. This very closely resembles a vail mountain cafeteria with different stations of food...but the REAL reason he wanted me to go there was the view. This is taken out the glass wall of windows in the eating area. They also have a duty free shop full of weird items...cuisenarts, digital cameras, underwear, woolite, peanuts...that ought to give you an idea....
Shared a Chai Tea while we waited for transport and when they come I asked if he wanted me to pick him up some lunch and meet him back over there. He said no. Then I mentioned that I was going back to that awesome dim sum place he sent Carolyn and I to (its on the road out) and he said oh yes please...Carolyn, the shrimp didn't hold a candle to the calamari!
When I got back to Tunnell with some for him, he was sleeping unusually hard. I had to do a sternum rub to wake him up and he whispered a response to me and fell back asleep as I was explaining what was in the box. I left him alone.
Got a handwritten note from the doctor regarding med changes and went over that with Adella the awful nurse. She put it in his records. I also asked her why he was comotose. She essentially shrugged. Also saw Igor the social worker as I was walking in and let him know we were expecting to have a meeting with everyone tomorrow.
I forgot to look at his roommates bed, but I believe he left for surgery today so he may be alone in the room again.
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