Could this be catatonia? He is even able
to stand in the bed either on his hands
and knees and balance himself or try to
get out of bed. one of his nephrologists
told us that it could take a very long
time to get the toxins out of him. What
can we do?
"Current medical status: Regarding my
father. he has renal failure and just
recently had 2 heart attacks. Then he
might have coded. the records are kinda
shady from the hospital. Tests show his
heart is still pumping pretty well and
everything else is stable. Dialysis is
working pretty well. Mental status has
improved, but still not speaking.
everything else is coming back slowly.
they gave him so much sedative
(propofol)while on the ventilator and so
many other sleeping meds and anti-anxiety
meds some of the doctors think it could
take a long time to get it out of his
system. Some say he could have brain
damage. he seems catatonic to some of us.
Now his eye-hand coordination is back to
almost normal. his eye-brows go up and his
eyes open wide when some people say his
name from across the room.
Current medical treatment: He is in the
CCU and improving. They removed the
ventilator and stopped the sedative. At
first he was just laying with eyes open
just a little and only moving legs. looked
like a lot of anxiety and or restless leg,
which he does have both issues. a day
later his eyes started to open and the
rest of his body was moving. no speaking
yet. next day he was extremely aggitated
and we did try to ask him some questions.
i asked him what he was doing in an angry
voice and he said under his breath in an
angry tone, "NOTHING." he also said no a
few times. since then we havent gotten a
word, but he has had the feeding tube in.
the last few days he has acted more like
himself, but still not listening to
commands and not speaking. Brain CT came
back normal, but we are waiting for them
to do an MRI. they will have to give him
more meds to get through that."
Catatonia is a psychiatric disorder, a
kind of schizophrenia, wherein a person
takes bizarre body positions and keep them
for a long time without fatigue and
doesn’t communicate with other people.
According to your description of his
symptoms, it doesn’t sounds like your
father is experiencing catatonia. The
condition appears to be more like a
psycho-motor weakness due to the sedatives
he's taking in combination with the bad
condition of the kidneys and heart. You
can’t do anything but to wait while he
is recovering in the CCU.
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