Hey Larry
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No idea what's going on, Larry -- but know of my prayers for your missus and you.
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Wonderful news, Larry!
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This is crazy...
This morning about 7am my mother called and in a weak voice said.."Will you come take me to the emergency room?"
I jumped straight up, pulled on some clothes and ran out the door. Picked her up, and off we went to the ER. When I'd ask her what was wrong, she'd say "it's just a problem, ok?" On the way there she decides she doesn't want to go to the ER, she wants to "see if Dr. Post can work me in."... so I rush to the correct entrance for seeing her Dr and let her out. I mentioned that she had fallen a week or so ago. So I'm sitting out in the parking lot wondering if whatever it was that was wrong today was connected to her falling last week. Whatever it was I thought to myself, it must be serious to cause today's issue to be so urgent. Shortly a nurse called to tell me Dr Post wasn't in so they were taking her to the ER. Oh wow, I thought to myself... this must be bad! I sat out in the parking lot (this hospital isn't letting anyone in unless you're a patient) from about 8am to 4pm, scared half to death, thinking about Sarah bein alone, etc..
Here's the deal, all boiled down: 3 weeks ago I had taken her to a Dr appointment at which time her Dr told her that her sodium level was too high. He prescribed fluid pills. She hates salt anyway, so for 2 or 3 weeks she had been avoiding salt and taking fluid pills. Today, after ct scans of her brain, her lungs, who knows what else.. blood tests, urine tests, you name it they did it... the ER team determined that her sodium level was too low, to wait for her Dr to arrive in the hospital and let him decide what to do... her Dr finally calls the ER and tells them to have my mother to stop taking the fluid pills, and how her low sodium level might be why she passed out and fell....
- I'm pissed at her regular Dr for putting her on the fluid pills in the first place. I'm pissed at her regular Dr for taking 8 freaking hours to call the ER back just to say in essence "stop taking the fluid pills and eat some potato chips..." But what I'm most concerned about is why my mother made it seem like it was an emergency, scared me half to death, when there was absolutely nothing new wrong with her that couldnt have waited until her scheduled dr appointment next week... im wondering if she did this to compete with Sarah for attention...
Geez......
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Oh Larry, so glad to hear that Sarah is back home! That is one load on your mind. As others have said, it will probably take a bit of time for her to be fully recovered, but I know she is in good hands!
Re: your mom - I dont have any good advice, but will send good thoughts to you!
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I have heard that as people get older, and then elderly (whenever that is), they become more self-absorbed, their world gets smaller, and everything becomes about them. At some point, there isn't much difference between a molehill and a mountain. That's what I've heard, and it does certainly cover my mom most of the time.
As for being jealous of your wife. Is there any reason she should? From the sounds of it, you do a lot for your mom, more than most offspring. That might be objectively true, but from your mom's point of view, maybe she sees things differently. I guess it depends on how your mom spends most of her time. Does she have productive things to do, or does she sit around a lot with her own thoughts, kinda stewing over things?
My MIL went from being totally independent and ignoring medical issues including pain, to complaining about every little thing and wanting to go back to the Dr. She would also insist she needed to be taken to the grocery store, wheelchair and all, when the end result was she would just get a half-gallon of milk. Kinda crazy stuff, but we'll all get there, probably.
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The problem was the doctor put her on a powerful diuretic for a temporary problem with no followup. I would bet it was furosemide, or lasix as the trade name. It flushes sodium from your system through urination. A week on the diuretics should have been plenty to balance her out and there should have been re-testing. She needs a new doctor if he did not do this.
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You're right, Mik. I have already told here we will be fi ding a new doctor.
Understand by the way.. my mother loves Sarah like she was her own daughter. I didn't mean to give the impression she was jealous of Sarah, she's not. I worded it poorly... I was speculating that maybe she was in some way trying to compete for attention. That may be a better way of saying it. But now, the more I think about it, it may be just straight forward her sodium level and other things had dropped so low she just felt like she was going to drop.
I've never liked that doctor anyway.
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I'm very sensitive to how doctors 'treat' our mothers. My mom's doctor when she developed COPD just put her on a bunch of drugs including Lasix and prednisone full time. Forever. No followup. I looked at that as a young man and found it odd, so I learned about these drugs and then started fighting - there was no reason to have her on diuretics and steroids forever. Both my mom and dad just trusted the doctor like he was a god and dad said I could not possibly know more than the doc.
It got even worse much later in her illness when my dad complained that she got so 'hyper' - she was worried about the oxygen running out - so he put her on Ritalin - speed, for most people. She was not hyperactive, she was worried. She couldn't sleep for days or months because of that damn drug. My father and I almost came to blows over it.
I've only scratched the surface of the horrorshow her illness was. Suffice to say it was an education in medicine. So forgive me if I condemn physicians I do not think are diligent.
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Not all docs are empathetic. In fact, due to the demands of the job and the routines of the specialty, it's a serious problem many of them have to contend with.
