Really proud of myself tonight . Stood up for my dad against a geriatric physiatrist that put my 75 year old father on haldol 2 mg twice a day who has known muscle weakness and dementia . I fired her. He was only taking this medication for 5 days before things started to go down hill he was administered an IV tonight to help flush out the haldol and is doing better THANK GOD. We have to protect our loved ones from these pill pushing dr’s sometimes . Hope everyone is doing reasonably ok it’s hard out here for caregivers . Love you all 💛
My Mom passed away in January, age 93. I was her son and caregiver for a number of years. She was in her home of 61 years right up until the day before she died. That day, she was acting out of the ordinary, very agitated. I called her Dr., who suggested getting her to the ER for observation. I did so. She was diagnosed with a UTI, which the ER team began treatment for. While in the ER, she suffered a short TIA (mini-stroke) which added to her stress. She came out of it, and said to me, "Please put on my sneakers, and let's go home." I explained that she needed just to stay the night, and I would return in the morning to take her home. Since we lived just a mile away from the hospital, I considered staying overnight with her, but since she had calmed down, I decided to go home.
The call came early the next morning that her condition had deteriorated just minutes before. I rushed into the ER and blurted out "What the hell happened?" She never regained consciousness, and for the next few hours, I held her hand, sang some songs, and watched as she completed the journey to the sunset of her life.
I'm big on having written records, so I requested and received details on what happened from the time I left the ER to when I returned the next day. I found out that Mom was not calm during that time, and in fact she was given a low dose of haldol. When I read up on what is does, I immediately called the ER and her Dr. for an explanation. I was told the drug is sometimes used to calm seniors in certain situations.
I know I was a good caregiver to my Mom. I kept her well fed, clean, and content. It was a hard job, but she never complained, and when she would smile, so would I. If only I was there during those hours she was in the ER, maybe she would have felt more comfortable, and would not have been the given the haldol. There was no indication it contributed to her death, as it was another issue that developed (in addition to the UTI). My decision not to stay the night still haunts me.
I was always asking questions as her caregiver, so I give you kudos for being your Dad's advocate as I was for my Mom.
The doctors aren't evil, but they don't know your dad like you do. They have the book learning, but you have the common sense, and ideally together you make the care team for your dad.
I was the one who finally decided we weren't doing hospital trips any longer. My mom was in the hospital twice in that last year, and hospitals and dementia don't go together. After the last trip I said we're treating her at her memory care as best as possible and focusing on the quality of life from then on. It made life better for her and for me, because the constant state of being on alert was removed. I put her on hospice, and she lasted another seven months, including a bout of Covid, and died peacefully when it was her time.
Yes, you need to be an Advocate for ur LOs and yourself.
How is that being addressed?
I've been in caregiving for a long time and have seen so many clients being overmedicated to the point were they basically became vegetables. It's outrageous.
Rather than give an old person with anxiety a little Ativan, or valuim, or Xanax they'll load them up on Halidol and Klonipin and other anti-psychotic drugs because they're worried about an addiction forming.
Does it matter when someone is an old invalid if they gets dependent on a drug?
Haloperidol at 2 mg is a high starting dose for an ambulatory elder, and clearly was problematic.
Use of any antipsychotic medication in elders is controversial. However, the agitation and paranoid symptoms can be so awful that the 'lesser of 2 evils' is low doses of antipsychotic.
However, haldol has many uses - works very well in the hospital for calming an agitated patient who is at risk of harming themselves or is preventing staff from performing essential treatments.
Haldol also works well to treat nausea - better than compazine, ondansetron, etc. for some people.
Physiological dependence is a concern with benzos (but not antipsychotics). Need to calculate risk/benefit for individual elder. Persistent agitation and paranoid beliefs that others are trying to poison you, etc. are very troubling for the elder and those who care about them.