this has been on my mind for the past few weeks and it's the first time i had the time to post it here, to help me process my thoughts and also to serve as an advisory to PPC members.
last Dec 18 my dad had stroke.
it was a rather normal morning, my dad asked me if i had somewhere to go to, but i said no. he left the house as usual, as he goes to the wet market every morning.
9:30 am he was still not home, but i thought he was just chatting with friends, or went to his apartments for inspection. by 11:30 am he still wasn't home, so i texted him about his whereabouts. no answer. i got worried. i gave him a call. on the third call, he finally answered. his words were mostly gibberish, but he mentioned he was at his doctor, so i just waited for him to get home.
12:30 pm he arrived home via tricycle. i observed his gait. no problems that i could see. he hurried to the kitchen and got himself lunch. again, no problem. but when he took the pitcher of water from the ref, poured water ina bowl instead of glass and placed the pitcher together with the dishes, that got me worried. still, i thought he was just hungry and in a hurry. but when he started to count his meds, he couldn't, and that spurred me to rush him to the hospital.
at first i was thinking it was just his hunger and it was hypoglycemia, but a CT scan revealed bleeding in his brain (a more common form of stroke is due to block in the brain's blood vessels). he was then brought to the ICU for close monitoring. he was surprisingly alert, but had trouble recalling names of people and objects.
after 3 days he was finally released from the ICU to a private room, and it took 6 more days before he was able to go home.
at one of those days, the doctor told me that if i wasn't at home, if i wasn't cognizant of the strange behavior of my dad, if i hadn't decided right away to rush him to a hospital, he would have been at a much worse state - comatose or maybe dead.
it was so easy to brush away the symptoms as a result of fatigue or hunger, so the patients were often brought to the hospital too late.
anyway, dad's mostly fine now. he has no problems moving around, though he still has trouble expressing himself though verbal communication sometimes, but not that bad. i am thinking he will gradually improve over time.
so there, if you suspect someone - especially those who are old, has a history of stroke, has diabetes, a smoker, etc - is acting strangely (as if disoriented or confused), please have him or her checked at the hospital.
