My dad broke his arm on Thursday and was sent home in a sling. He has an appointment with the orthopedist tomorrow. However, I'm a little worried because he seems to be declining. The first day he seemed fine...very alert and "his regular self", but each day he seems to sleep more, and is even a bit "spacy", waking up from dozing off and thinking that things that were in his dream are for real. He IS on pain killers, so I'm thinking that they could be responsible. I also know that an major injury can cause some hallucinations in the elderly (he had a lot of them for about a month after he broke his hip a few years ago.) But he's also diabetic, so I worry a lot more about everything in his case. I hate to rush him to the emergency room just because he's a little spacy and sleeping a lot, especially when he will be seeing a doctor tomorrow, but I'm wondering if his behavior sounds normal. I've been trying to get hold of his doctor, but so far no luck.
Bobby L
talk to his doctor
barb s
I went through the same thing with my mom afew years ago. My mom was a type 1 diabetic. 3 insulin shots a day.
After she broke her shoulder, she totally changed personality wise. She went from being fairly active, to lazy & just weird.
In her case, it wasn't the pain pills as we first thought. It was her blood sugar levels. They went totally wonky. Sometimes they were so low, and sometimes they were so high.
The Dr's said the shock of falling triggered something in her system to cause her blood sugar levels to fluctuate. They even put her in the hospital to try & straighten them out.
She never did get over it, and died about 10 months later.
Has your dad got someone staying with him? If so, make sure that someone is testing his blood faithfully. I know any type of trauma can affect that.
Also the pain pills might be making him dopey & duh. If you're looking after him, make sure you dole out the pain pills, and not let him help himself. Sometimes the elderly forget what time they took the pills or what time the next ones are supposed to be taken.
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Orignal From: Question for medical folks about injury in the elderly?
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