Sunday, May 2, 2010

Sunday morning, 7:57 a.m.

Dr. Grumpy: "Dr. Grumpy, returning a page."

Mr. Husband: "Yeah, you see my wife for Alzheimer's disease, and she had a seizure 2 weeks ago."

Dr. Grumpy: "Uh huh."

Mr. Husband: "Well, ya know, I was just thinking, she was maybe just a bit more alert for a few days after the seizure, not a lot, but maybe a little. Can I bring her in to your office and you can make her have another one?"

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, you have GOT to be making this up.

Phil said...

Hahaha. What if she's actually got major depression, and the seizure functioned like a session of ECT? :)

soulful sepulcher said...

That sounds like ECT!

lbparker said...

Now THAT'S desperation.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's sad! And kinda sweet, in a messed-up kind of way.

Li'l Azathoth said...

Actually, isn't this pretty much how electroshock therapy was invented?

TN said...

So you set up an appointment right?

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Anon #1- Nope.

Tanya said...

Anon #1: Why would the good doctor be making this up? Truth can be far more bizarre/entertaining than fiction, because fiction has to make sense.

Unknown said...

you should publish this in a journal. Along with your findings that your patients with epilepsy who are not medication compliant have more seizures than the compliant patients.

bb said...

OH MY GOSH -- no f*** way!!!

Is this really possible????

Alex said...

in a way, thats kind of sad

Albinoblackbear said...

That has got to be one of the worst things, caring for a spouse with severe Alzheimers. :(

John Woolman said...

Such clinical observations can be the foundation of Nobel prizes.... Shades of Moniz!

Joe said...

I feel for the guy. Alzheimer's is tough to watch, he's gotta be grasping at straws.

Anonymous said...

how about a bit of empathy for the partners of alzheimers patients.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Joe. My mom has dementia. It's really tough to watch.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Anon at 4:51- I have tremendous empathy for them.

Otherwise I wouldn't do this job.

Or return calls like that on a Sunday morning.

Or spend 20 minutes on the phone explaining why that isn't a good idea.

I put it up as an unusual call that I got.

Scritches.com said...

How heartbreaking.

Dopamine, Serotonin, Who knows? said...

As others have said, maybe some ECT is in order. For the husband, that is.

And, I've got all the empathy in the world for those suffering from degenerative neurological diseases and the partners who act as their care-givers, as my father went down with the good ship USS Parkinson's Disease, and my mother (and I, to a lesser extent) were his care-givers.

Anonymous said...

I can't say I blame him for the suggestion at all. for someone with (I'm guessing) no medical education it seems like a good idea. I can understand why he would want his partner back even at the expense of a seizure.

Anonymous said...

You should change Mr. Husband to Mr. InDenial.

But that is sweet... kind of.

I don't know how I'd feel about someone wanting to induce a seizure in me in a futile attempt to delay the inevitable if I had Alzheimer's... but you know. Sweet.

Anonymous said...

aww. :(
That is incredibly sad, and gives you insight into the mental state of the caregiver of an impaired person. Sounds like he'd do anything just to have his wife back for a bit.

Sigmoid Freud said...

Poor guy. Depending on just how much she improved, symptoms of depression, and her medical condition, I think people aren't far off in saying ECT may be worthwhile to consider. One complicated part of the picture is that this woman already seems to have a low seizure threshhold and balancing ECT in a person with a seizure disorder can be tricky.

 
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