31 August 2010
The Spy Hop
(Humpback Whale breaching, taking a Spy Hop during seasonal migration).
My pal Boats is a retired USCG Master Chief Bo’suns Mate. That is an awesome rate in the Sea Services, the iron backbone of the Navy and the Coast Guard.
He is an authentic Coon Ass from Louisiana, a raconteur of the waterfront. His expert knowledge encompasses all manner of things- Admiralty Law, merchant shipping best-practice and the arcane world of international trade. He also knows about the awful insidious process that is consuming Mom and Raven.
Since ships are worlds unto themselves once the lines are cast off, he has more than a working knowledge of practical medicine. He also knows about what happens ashore, since this is happening to a lot of us these days.
He wrote and said we needed to get together at the Fleet Reserve in Annapolis, which is just down the street from him. I wrote back and agreed. The FR is the equivalent of the Chief’s Mess, a place of privilege and open to officers only on an invitation basis, and predicated on the proposition that the commissioned will be escorted by an eligible enlisted member.
He was concerned about what is going on in the little city by the Bay.
“Vic,” he wrote, “I caught your comment that the progress of the scourge of dementia is not linear, but rather occurs in a series of plateaus with dramatic drops in capacities."
“That rings true with my memory of my dad's slow descent. There is another aspect that you have to watch out for. I call it the "spy hop."
I wondered what the hell he meant by that, since his commentary is always informed and surprising.
“That term refers to the behavior of whales traveling along a coast- periodically they breach and go into the air to look around and get their bearings. The Spy Hop. When en route to breeding/feeding grounds they occasionally get nearly half their body out of the water apparently looking for coastal landmarks that they use to help them find their way to the targeted grounds. Then they plunge back into the murky deep.”
“That is what I observed in my Dad. At each stage of the disease, he would manifest a period of lucidity that lasted anywhere from a few minutes to the better part of a day a return to near pre- disease normality a couple of times a year.”
“At first it appeared to be totally unpredictable. Later, I felt there was some correlation between the administration of powerful pain killers with anti inflammatory effects and the on set of a "spy hop" when Dad would appear to break out of the fog and know who he was ,and who we were, and that something was dreadfully wrong. He'd often ask "how long have I been out of it?"
“ I've since learned that there is some medical research that links strong anti inflammatory medications and narcotic pain relievers with periods of normalcy in Alzheimer's patients. Why they don't experiment with this I don't know. Whenever I discuss it with the Docs, they seem well aware of the phenomena but assert the conventional wisdom; "we can't create morphine addicts."
“My answer is why not? If the choice is to be out of your mind for years or dependent on morphine or a similar product, what would you chose in your lucid moment?”
I nodded as I read. I would do anything to ease this pain, deaden Raven’s need to pace in the night.
“Mostly we are talking about very elderly people who stopped working years ago. The addiction will not affect their productivity or ability to make a living they are past that point. It is all about quality of life in the last year(s). The narcotic induced "spy hop" needs to be explored. But I think it will take a lay demand for that to happen. No American MD wants to risk the controversy of being the champion of a treatment that results in addiction to a controlled substance.”
I completely agree with Boats, but we are hysterical about drugs in this country anyway. The idea that people might be comfortable was alien to the Puritans of pain, who preferred that to palliative comfort.
Boats says it this way: “This is medical ethics gone blind. Nothing in such a use of narcotics is contributory to recreational drug use, or the medical inducement of drug dependency in people who are still productive or likely to be "cured" of their underlying condition. I don't think it is a big stretch. All I can tell you is to be aware of the "spy hops" that many patients exhibit and never assume that these are an indication of "improvement". The "spy hop" is another symptom of the disease but one that may hold a way of not curing it, but controlling it in the later stages. Unfortunately it is not an area that is likely to benefit from any serious research in the near future due to the politics of recreational drug use and culture.”
"Good luck with all of this. I've been there, had a sister who had to take the burden Anook has taken on. This disease will injure each of you before it is over, don't let it injure your relationship with your siblings.”
I wrote him back and thanked him for the insight. Anook is punching out of Petoskey this morning. She reported it was a good day yesterday- maybe a Spy Hop. Mom has engaged with the Potemkin Village staff. Apparently she now understands some of the rules of the road, including dinner times and such.
Anook moved her car to the Dealership temporarily, to take that out of the equation, and we will see whether Mom returns to her demands for access to it when I get there. But I imagine that will be day by day, a hop at a time.
Michigan in the morning.
Copyright 2010 Vic Socora
www.vicsocotra.com
Copyright 2010 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
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