Mike’s dad encountered a problem that taught Mike a lesson.
If our parents start feeling like something is changing with their health, we need to listen to them, even if it is something we just attribute to aging.
Mike Barnes started the private Facebook Group, Parenting Aging Parents, because of his mom’s battle with Alzheimer’s.
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Transcript of Video: “Lessons Learned from Caregiving Our Elderly Parents
Mike Barnes: We don’t have the answers here on Parenting Aging Parents, mainly tips and suggestions, and in this case, a lesson learned. A lot of you know that we moved my mom into memory care back in March, more than five months ago, and it’s been tough on my dad. Sixty-one years of marriage and being apart from her most of the time, other than visits, has been really tough.
We actually went to a doctor’s appointment, his regular checkup, back in June. I went with him and talked to the doctor at the time. She understood how tough it is on him, but it was just a checkup, and he passed through it fine.
Since then, he’s complained to my sister and me about being tired. He says he goes down to breakfast in the independent living place where he lives and comes back up, sits down to do the Sudoku, and just gets tired and falls asleep for an hour, an hour and a half. After lunch, in the afternoon, he sits down, starts to work on something, or watches something on TV, and he gets tired and falls asleep. He was kind of worried about it, and we were like, “Dad, it’s okay. You’re 83 years old. You’re stressed because of being by yourself. You’re stressed because of Mom being in memory care. You’re stressed because visiting Mom isn’t always easy because sometimes she’s in a bad mood. You’re stressed for so many reasons. It’s okay. We’ll set something up, but it’s okay. It’s okay to rest a little bit. It’s okay if you’re getting a little tired because these things happen.”
Long story short, he finally went to the doctor last week, and my sister took him. They did an EKG and some tests. He goes home, my sister takes him home, and immediately gets a call from the doctor: “Take him to the hospital. He needs a pacemaker.” Well, he wound up getting a pacemaker on Thursday, and it was simple surgery. He was out by Thursday night for dinner, and he’s like a new man. He laughs about it, saying, “Yeah, I’m not tired. I feel great. This is amazing.”
Sometimes we have to listen to our parents. They know their bodies more than anybody. We know our bodies; they know theirs. If there’s something wrong, if they think there’s something up, it doesn’t mean to jump to conclusions. But I suggest, my lesson learned from this is to go ahead and contact their doctor. Go and contact whoever it may be to let them know that they see a change, that there is a change that they’re worried about. Is there anything that we need to be worried about as their children?
And hopefully, you have the same result as my dad.
*This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or mistakes.
