My poor old dad has pneumonia

[counterofbeans]

He's 93 and has also had alzheimers for a few years so he's in right state, poor old thing.

The hospital are giving him fluids and antibiotics but I have to admit I'm not entirely sure how bothered the NHS is about 93 year old patients these days (more funding blah blah blah)

How likely is he to actually make it home? Any similar experiences would be comforting to read about, at the moment..

Thanks

[Wobbegong]

At the other end of the scale my son was 3 when he had pneumonia. Unfortunately we thought it was just a cold but then it turned bad very quickly and he almost had a collapsed lung

He lost a lot of his weight (dropped 3 stone to just 2stone 2) and it destroyed his confidence which I think was the worst thing. He is fine now (exactly a year later funnily enough) and is just under the weight he was last year pre-pneumonia but is slowly gaining! We've noticed that coughs and colds seem to affect him a lot more and will result in a very chesty cough but the doctor did warn about that.

How severe is your father's pneumonia? Have they caught it fairly early or is it quite developed?
My son was able to come off air and the drip after about 6 days.

Good luck to you both and hope he recovers quickly.

[Cheib]

Very sorry to hear that...I had pneumonia three years ago so have some idea of what its like. The fact he's in hospital and is no doubt under the care of a Consultant/Specialist is a good thing. Mine got bad because the GP didn't catch it quickly enough...I was off work for six weeks and took a long time to get over.

It will take a long time to get over and he will need to rest, even mild doses in the fit and young and you're looking at a couple of weeks before you feel okay again.

[FlyingMeeces]

counterofbeans said:

He's 93 and has also had alzheimers for a few years so he's in right state, poor old thing.

The hospital are giving him fluids and antibiotics but I have to admit I'm not entirely sure how bothered the NHS is about 93 year old patients these days (more funding blah blah blah)

How likely is he to actually make it home? Any similar experiences would be comforting to read about, at the moment..

Thanks

My grandpa had pneumonia alongside alzheimer's, but pretty early in the course of things - course of antibiotics and back to (his then-current version of) normal. Died at home many years after that.

We're good, as a society, at treating pneumonia, but nobody would/should give you any statistics except the team looking after your dad, because we don't have all the variables. I will venture 'pretty likely', but there are a ton of complicating factors, and he's an individual, not a statistical data point.

The NHS as a body might perhaps quietly prefer not to be investing intensive treatment options into very elderly people with other stuff going on too, but individual doctors and nurses will not hesitate for a second to do their best for him - if he has a reasonable chance of returning to comfort and life amongst his family, they will protect that chance with all they've got, for as long as they've got.

The question of reasonable chances is where it gets tricky - for example, if someone who already has a severe, long-term condition like Alzheimer's gets poorly enough to need a ventilator to breathe for them, then it may be that their chances of returning to their pre-acute-illness state of health may not be great, and that may be a point about which someone will ask you some difficult and painful questions. I apologise for bringing it up, but it may be less stressful to have a quiet think about it in your own space than to have the topic broached for the first time by a medic who doesn't know your family and has never met your dad on a good day.

Strong advice - if you're* not already, be there with him a LOT. Ward staffing is desperately tight these days and rushed nurses may not recognise small cues of discomfort or whathaveyou before they escalate - this is no criticism at all of them, just the reality of what it's like when someone whose communication is impaired is in hospital. Find out when ward rounds are and especially be there for those, if you possibly can. (*you-plural, members of your family, rather than you specifically as an individual - but be there, help out with looking after him as much as you're confident with, be his voice if his own is not readily understood by strangers, remind him and yourselves and the medics that he's a home to go back to)

All the very best. Hope he feels better very soon.

[counterofbeans]

FlyingMeeces said:

All the very best. Hope he feels better very soon.

Many thanks for your reply. Unfortunately he didn't make it...

[FlyingMeeces]

counterofbeans said:

Many thanks for your reply. Unfortunately he didn't make it...

I am very sorry to hear that. Good thoughts to you and yours for the coming weeks.

PHers are good at looking out for each other - if you find you're struggling, need someone to talk to or whatever, pop on here, start a thread, we all prop each other up as best we can.

[Turkish91]

counterofbeans said:

Many thanks for your reply. Unfortunately he didn't make it...

Sorry for your loss