So how is your dad?

So how is your dad?

‘Not doing well these days’
         

‘What happened?’

‘Nothing much, but old age problems’
            

- 
  

Before you make that diagnosis of ‘old age problem’ for your for your dad, uncle or grandparent, an aged gentleman who has recently worsened; manifested by inability to to walk, slow talk, poor memory, and cognition, consider 3 possibilities.
           

1. Hyponatremia – Low sodium is common among elders who don’t take much salt in food. Many blood-pressure medicines might also lower sodium level. Low sodium may be eminently corrected. 
       

2. Normal Pressure hydrocephalus – In this condition the hollow spaces inside the brain (the ventricles) tend to widen. A CT scan can confirm it. Few sittings of draining of cerebrospinal fluid or a shunt procedure can make a turnaround.
    

3. Subdural hemorrhage – small bleeding just outside the brain can compress the brain and create problem. In the elderly, such bleeding can come without an obvious history of head trauma. A surgical procedure cures it.
     

None of these tests cost a million; but time and again we have seen that confirmation of such a diagnosis can substantially change a demented, bedridden, blabbering elder to sit up, smile and ask for a ‘samosa’.
   

To some of us that toothless smile is like the MasterCard ad – priceless.

-Tiny Nair,MBBS,MD,DM