June update and doctor visit results

6/2/2010

You are spared a long detailed saga. We have to go to the doctor in 15 minutes. The test results showed that mom had a pancreatic attack. She has high, very high levels of everything she shouldn’t. According to Dr. Sullivan most patients that suffer pancreatic illness are overweight men who drink heavily or it’s inherited. Great! More blood tests today to see if her liver and pancreas have begun to return to normal. She will have an abdominal ultrasound on Friday to assess the damage. Since mom has always complained to pain on her lower right side and her ?@#@$$% doctors in El Paso never ran a blood test, everyone called it gas. It was/is not gas! Had this past weekend not been a holiday and Sullivan had seen her test results he would have wanted her hospitalized. After he saw her walking around on Tuesday, looking fiddle all he could do is shake his head and call her a tough old bird. Pancreatic attacks normally will bring people to their knees in pain, turn yellow and hurl constantly. Mom just lay and moaned about gas.

She is still in pain but won’t go down.

Just goes to see, hell I don’t know what to see, but there we are.

6/18/2010

I wish that I could give you good news without a but. But here I go again. The mass in mom’s stomach is just fatty tissue. It does interfere with how much she can consume, but it is not life threatening.

The CT scan found that she has a lesion on her pancreas. She also has a lesion on her adrenal gland. Both of these conditions are fairly rare. Dr. Sullivan asked if he should go further into the pancreas issue which would involve a biopsy. The biopsy would be performed from her back and would be extremely painful. We also discussed what if anything could be done about the lesion on her adrenal gland.  We discussed the pancreas biopsy and both agreed that she would not most likely benefit from the surgery and the stress of it would probably endanger her. More questions than answers and the only sure thing is to do nothing about these two things at this time.

The other thing found was that she has fluid in her pericardium and her heart is enlarged. The pericardium is the sack that surrounds the heart. Too much fluid in the pericardium would definitely interfere with her blood pressure and circulation and could also damage her already weakened heart. This issue will be discussed with her cardiologist. He also received a copy of her CT results. I will call Monday and make an appointment.

Mom is not in pain. Her only complaint continues to be her lack of short term memory. She is sleeping (she denies she is asleep) most of the day and part of the night. She is frail but has no problem making sure her needs are met. She wants a perm and that is easy enough to satisfy. I cannot take her grocery shopping anymore since she literally throws a tantrum now if she can’t get/buy everything she wants. I can still take her clothes shopping. She is so picky that we usually don’t find anything to please her. All she wants to eat are In and Out burgers and drink Dr. Pepper. I don’t feel comfortable leaving her alone more than 2 hours now. She is so disoriented that she panics and forgets to read the notes I leave her or reads them and thinks that they were written previously instead of currently. She can read and knows what she read, but will forget she read it and the circle starts again.  She also cannot remember how to use a phone and that increases my anxiety when I leave her.

My plan to go to El Paso is definitely on hold as she continues to slide away. Clearing her house and all that has lost importance with the news of her increased frailty. She insists on going and I won’t take her and I don’t think she can handle the added anger, stress, and anxiety at this time. I think it will only aggravate her condition. Lynn and I do want to go on vacation in late July. I am trying to figure out the best way to cover our absence. As long as she believes we are not going to El Paso I hope she will be okay. It seems that taking care of Mom is not the issue; it is being away from her that causes me stress.

I hate to share all this, but each of you has asked to know what is happening with Mom. Thank you again for your interest and concern and certainly for your encouragement. I appreciate you more than I can say.