My dad has been determined to have Valley Fever. This is a fungal infection, with the majority of cases in the US ocurring in Arizona. He got back from Arizona around March 5 or 7th. He and my step-mother have a small second home in that state. I read online that most cases of Valley Fever show “mild symptoms”–however my dad’s symptoms have been severe. Curiously, my step-mother said that one of his doctors told her yesterday that his case was “mild, believe it or not.” Perhaps the delay in treatment caused by the inability of various doctors to diagnose his condition has worsened the situation, going back to early last week when an urgent care doctor ordered a test for Heptatitis C and last Monday when the doctors pronounced that he had some form of meningitis. Perhaps he dosen’t really have Valley Fever but something entirely else. The infectious disease doctor wants to do more tests on him tommorow.
For each of the days of this week he has alternated between seemingly being on the upswing and then going downhill. My step-mother seemed upbeat about his conditon earlier today. She stated that he continued to have trouble consuming solid food without vomitting and was being fed through a feeding tube, although he seemed to be making a tiny bit of progress in that he was able to consume a shake with a straw. My step-mother encouraged me to call him this evening which I did. I called his cellphone but received no answer. About twenty minutes later he called me and appeared to be in a considerable state of confusion and was barely awake. He had hallucinated/dreamed that I had just called him to invite him to go bowling. He asked me if I had indeed issued such an invitation; I told him that I hadn’t; he said that he must have been dreaming or that it had been “the voices in my head.” He remarked that he was “in no condition to go bowling tonight.” Overall, he spoke with me very briefly in slurred fashion, then declared he was going back to sleep. My step-mother just called me to report that she too had spoken to him, that he was obviously in a very severe mental haze and that he quickly ended their conversation. He told her that his headache had returned after he got up from bed too fast to go to the bathroom. She was very worried.
His mental incapacity is perhaps due to the painkillers–he is getting a dose Oxycontin four times a day. My greatest fear is that this infection has permanently damaged his mind. He is 69 years old but has always been a bull of a man, fit, trim and looking perhaps ten or twelve years younger than his actual age. He has been my rock and perhaps the closest thing I have to a close friend. It is extremely upsetting to see him reduced to frailty and mental incapacity in a matter of days. As I’ve said before I don’t know what I will I do if I lose him, either to senility or death and am left alone with my step-mother.
Receiving bad news about his health on Tuesday prevented me from sleeping for more than an hour or two that night. It clearly impacted my performance in my training the following day at my new job. Now I will see if I can get any sleep tonight (Thursday).
An Autistic Freedom Fighter 