Can I take my dad to the vet?

In the months that have passed since I last found the time (or maybe the energy) to post a blog a lot has happened.

I've logged hundreds of miles and hours in the car with my trusty side-kick, Jonah. Mostly visiting dad at his home. I've spent a ton of time on my mobile phone between texts and calls with my sisters going over dad's health, medications, appointments and more. The three of us have navigated (not always successfully) the health care and medicare system.

All of this brings us to another stroke.

Several weeks ago, on the day of dad's scheduled eye surgery (another story for another day), my sister Sue arrived early in the morning to take him to his appointment, only to find him waiting in the drive way with uncontrollable shaking and tremors. Off to the ER they go.

13+ hours later, Dad is in a hospital room with a diagnosis of another stroke, only this time it's in the cerebellum.

Well, we're old pros at this now. Through a series of texts and calls, we work out our plan of action of who's going to do what, be where, etc. For the next five days we all put in our time. We get dad back home. Having learned our lesson the last time, we have refused in-patient therapy.

Dad is doing well. However, he is on a whole new regimen of medications. Fantastic.
So we think we've got a handle on all this. All except the coumadin. That's a tough drug. It starts with blood tests every other day. Maybe a whole pill, maybe a half pill. He's not liking taking any of the pills, but one that's going to be a problem just seems to be too much. And it's harder that we all live over 100 miles away and it's not feasible for us to be there constantly (not that it would be good for our mental health).

On a semi- side note, my geriatric greyhound, Yogi (who we've dubbed "The Dog Who Won't Die"),  has renal failure that we discovered after a terrible night with him panting and having trouble walking. Yogi now requires prescription dog food and two additional medications. One for high blood pressure (really?) and one for pain. The vet assured me that Yogi could live several years in renal failure...
Is anyone else hearing this?

So, I don't pay any attention to the meds my dog is on. And even as I type this, I couldn't tell you the name of the blood pressure med. I just know that he gets one every morning. So when we were getting low on pills, I picked up the bottles to a) get the phone number for the vet and b) find the names of the drugs so I can ask for the correct ones.
I do a double take. "Gabapentin." Yep, I read it correctly. My dad and my dog are taking the same medication.
Is anyone else hearing THIS?

Does this mean I can take my dad to the vet? It might be a little cheaper.


All joking aside, the last two weeks has been trying mentally. Dad has become difficult and begins to take pills out of the daily pill box and put them back into their bottles (not the correct bottles, though, so we're on to his deviousness), instead of taking them. Dad thinks that since he feels better, he doesn't have to take all the pills.

I feel as though this is preparing me for having know-it-all teenagers. I don't want know-it-all teenagers.

So it's back to the phone to text back and forth about what to do next.