Is my thinking right on this to not trust the neurologist?

[Rocktheman]

My dad has stage 4 terminal brain cancer. He lately has been having symptoms that I have associated as having a possible TIA, but my family seems to not listen to me when I tell them to report it to the hospital or his physician when he has symptoms. Essentially on about four different occasions, my dad has had to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. My mom notes on several occasions that when this does happens, he sometimes has pronounced weakness on one side of his body, and my mom says that sometimes he walks on the lateral aspect of his foot to the bathroom. When she asks him to correct his foot, he said he cant move it at all. Interestingly all of these symptoms resolve by the morning. Our neurologist informed us that this is due to permanent brain damage, since the chemo he is receiving is very powerful. (called evastin I believe). But as a nurse that is going to be graduating with my BSN in less than a month, I honestly don't think that to be the case. First, off he was prescribed aspirin for the first time by his physician after this started happening. Which is ironic, since he has high BP, cholesterol, Triglycerides, overweight, Type 2 Diabetic, over the age of 60 before he had any cancer and was not prescribed aspirin therapy (like he hits all the criteria). I just think that these symptoms overall are from a TIA and not muscle weakness or brain damage from chemo. I informed my family that its impossible to tell the difference between a TIA and a stroke until the symptoms start to get to severe, possibly worsening the outcomes. Therefore, I said that if he ever shows symptoms like this again, to call either his physician, the hospital or 911 immediately. Is my logic sound? Physicians make two reasoning calls all the time like any human, and they feel that since I am "just a nurse", I don't know what I'm talking about and shouldn't question what the physician says. Id appreciate your insight.

[sailornurse]

Unfortunately, we can not give medical advice that's per terms of service. It would be difficult for anyone to give you correct info without examining a patient and evaluating diagnostics, hence the restriction of giving advice. I am sorry that you are experiencing this situation. It is tough when you are the nurse in the family, it is hard to separate ourselves from our nurse part and be a son/daughter. I think we carry a heavy weight as sometimes the rest of the family expects us to intervene or to know everything about a disease.

[sirI, MSN, APRN, NP]

We are so sorry that your Father is ill.

sailornurse is absolutely correct. We cannot possibly offer the medical advice you require because we do not know nor have we conducted an exam on, your Father.

Please speak with the family and see if you can have a face-to-face talk with his Healthcare Provider.

We hope you can get the answers you need.