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Do These Symptoms Ring A Bell.....?

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jackthehat | 20:00 Sun 13th Oct 2019 | Body & Soul
30 Answers
My father is currently in hospital.
It was thought he had a stroke. The scans and tests (CAT and MRI) have shown he hasn’t. In fact, there is nothing wrong with his head at all although he has a bit of left-sided weakness and slight double-vision at the periphery of his sight.
He is, however, being treated (with hefty Anti-Bs) for an unidentified infection and given oxygen.
This manifested itself as seemingly sudden onset pneumonia leaving him unable to speak or take a proper breath which is why he was originally blue-lighted into hospital in the small hours of Friday morning.
In just over a fortnight he has experienced momentary complete blindness, momentary aphasia/dysphasia and similarly short-lived total deafness and visual distortions.
He has been vomiting and coughing to the extent where he has burst a blood vessel in his throat.
He is greatly confused and very restless.
He doesn’t recognise the bed/ward and asks to go back to where he was previously and then he’ll be more settled. (He was previously in ITU and was the only conscious patient in there). He’s barely eating and drinking (not helped by the really unappetising food he is being given) and even a freshly made Costa Cappuccino held no appeal for him.
He’ll probably be moved from the Stroke Unit tomorrow which is not unreasonable given he hasn’t had a stroke.
My Mum is very concerned about him as he doesn’t appear to be improving and in many ways she thinks he is deteriorating; the chap in the next bed informed her that Dad had had a ‘bad day’ when she arrived at visiting time.

Do these symptoms ring any bells with anyone?
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Oh jack sorry to hear about dad.
Several of his symptoms are similar to my dad and that as you know was a fast growing brain tumour, but if they had scanned him I’m sure they would have seen it xx
Does he suffer from arrhythmia, jack......

My Mater has just had a big attack, found collapsed in her Home bathroom, thought to be a TIA (mini-stroke) as her head was on one side and her left cheek 'jowl' was collapsed....into the hossie on Thursday pm. I was there when she arrived and said, 'No TIA'....

Triage, Ecg, X rays, CT scan and nowt....Bloods showed the start of a UTI (urinary tract infection) and this could have caused her to overheat and go down.......treatment antibiotics..... It takes time to recover if a serious arrhythmia, sleep essential.
It is nice to read a well typed history to which a reasonable response may be given.

A normal MRI and CT scan does not rule out a TIA which on the surface seems to be the obvious diagnosis.
However brain tumours are excluded with normal MRI scans.

There may well be a reason why your father is having antibiotics based on the result of blood tests or chest X-Rays.

I cannot give a better answer than that and i assume that it will be a matter of "monitoring the situation" until a more positive lead comes to the surface.
and do you have his blood pressure results....The Mater was 60/40 at the Home, 80/50 in triage at the hospital and two hours later 130/80.....

She has advanced Alzheimer's.....I'm in the throes of writing a book about it from a carer's perspective (2/3rds written now) a bio, tips and humour involved, to be published on-line by the end of November.
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Thanks, RR. xx
The head-scans put our minds to rest about anything terrible going on with the fabric of his bonce.
DTC - They had him wired to all sorts of machinery and everything seemed to be bleeping and buzzing where it ought and the traces were all well within limits.
as Sqad said, bloods and chest x-rays? They would be looking for infections......
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sqad - They seemed to have ruled out TIA; I'm not sure which of the tests proved this.
I do hope they get to the cause of why your dad is like this JTH, Hopefully he'll feel well after the anti biots and be soon home with your Mam xx
Can offer no help but sending thoughts to all family.
The Mater had anew CT scan from a recently installed machone, it only takes a few seconds to go through, and the doc in A&E took me through what it showed, the atrophyism of the brain from Alzheimer's very extensive but the blood vessels showing no signs of any new TIA as in no clottings, these leading to the vascular dementia.....they can even get some idea of the ageing of the blood clots as well, which is really quite remarkable.
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dtc - He does have an infection and they are treating it. They just haven't, or haven't been able to, identify it, yet.

I wondered whether the accumulation of the symptoms would lead any ABers to believe they might know the cause.......from experience if not from medical training.
Yes TIA...the T stands for transient and you father's symptoms are certainly more prolonged than that.

They certainly must have good evidence that his symptoms are due to an infection before putting him onto high doses of antibiotics.
But where is that infection?
As I said this is a matter of monitoring the situation.
Just the experience from here, I'm no doctor but have had a wide scientific education and professionally - my 'guesstimate' from kidneys down to the bladder...or bowel.
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dtc - He is catheterised and an eye is being kept on his 'output' with regular testing.
I've not slept much since he was admitted so will bid you all goodnight with thanks for your responses and will look back in tomorrow.

Thank you.
Night...try and get some sleep yourself....you'll need it for him....
Would scans detect TIAs? I would have thought that the mini clot might have long since passed through the brain before it can be detected on an MRI etc but the effects of it would still be there.
I hope your fathers health improves soon .
My sympathy. May good news come soon.
I am not a medic.

Has he got any pre-existing health issues, might be a minor problem? Could he have accidentally been poisoned?

I hope that the doctors can identify what the problem is. It must be a nightmare for all of you.

Dr Google can be helpful but it may also come up with some whacko results.
I was thinking UTI, as well. Dehydration, possibly. Is he on a drip?

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