Thursday, September 16, 2010

Sept 16th Drs, pills and pain

Wow its the 16th of September already. Lots has happned since my last post.

My brother came in on Saturday and that evening mom had another episode of feeling like she was floating away. I had Mike run up and purchase a blood pressure cuff. It has been a wonderful purchase to know what is going on. It was 156 which was high but not as high as the 180's. I think after taking her blood pressure over the past few days that her blood pressure med is too much for her and it was dropping her blood pressure down to the 80's.

OK on the the neurologist story. Her appt was at 5:55pm on Wednesday. We were there for 2 1/2 hours before we saw the dr. Can you believe 2 1/2 hours. I thought her oncologist was bad at an hour. He says the problem is nerve but he can't tell where and with her pain level so high they can't do the normal test to find out where the nerve is pinched. So they scheduled her for a MRI on next Wednesday the 22nd. He gave her a pain med that targets the nerve. Nuerton(?) 300 mg. We gave it to her around 10pm and she really woke up fully at 6:30pm the next day. At 5am she fell out of her bed and hit her head on her night table. I called the drs office at 3:30pm and they said the dr would call her in a new script for 100mg. She took the 100mg last night and this morning and it hasn't really touched the pain. We are going to try 2 100mg pills tonight at bed. They are capsules so we can't cut or divide them. Her follow up appt with the neurologist is on the 24th with the nurse pract. They assured me she does not run 2 hours late.

Guess that is all the updates right now. Next week maybe we will know what is causing her pain.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

September 7, MUCH happening

It is hard for me to even post this and debated if I should. Sunday Sept 5th we were watching t.v. and mom bolted up and started saying "I am sorry I have to go, I have to go home, I'm sorry I have to leave." Of course I didn't know what to do. She said she didn't hurt she just had to go. Then she thought she was going to throw up but then said she wanted to go to bed. In the midst of all this I phoned 911 as "what else do you do". Hopefully I have learned NOT to do that again. Her blood pressure was 186/110. The fire guy said oh that is probably her regular blood pressure, of course I told him no where close except when she had her tooth pulled. Well we spent over 4 hours in the ER in which they gave her pain meds and nausea meds which did not help her hand pain at all and then sent her home with a pain med that I told them she couldn't take as she throws it up. They did take an xray of her hand but never even told us what it showed. The one good thing was that the ER dr said he thought her hand pain was probably from a nerve problem.

We arrived home and got settled around 10pm. Mom said she was sure the Lord was taking her home but that she no longer wanted to go to any drs appt she didn't have to and didn't want anymore chemo. I told her that was fine.

Yesteray we were both spent and today it is a little back to our normal. Of course yesterday was a holiday so couldn't call any drs. Today I called her rheum. and asked if they could refer her to a nurologist and they gave me names of 3 drs in their group. I pulled out the yellow pages and it opened to nurologist and this drs name just jumped out at me, thank you God!!! I called them and they could get mom in next Tuesday. I phoned 2 other drs groups the 2nd one said Wednesday or Thursday of next week and the 3rd one said November. So I went with the first. It will be a whole week now.

I phoned the oncologyst and told them that mom no longer wanted chemo. They really want her to come in to the appt. she has Thursday to get the pros and cons of quitting. I am sure this will be an exausting visit emotionally.

She had her blood work today and they said it looked good. I don't know when the rheum. office will call and let us know how her uric acid level was.

I did tell work that there was no way I could work this week and deal with everything. This has been VERY hard for me but I need to let it go right now. My brother is supposed to be in town on Saturday and stay for a week. My husband has been WONDERFUL.

Can you believe I actually felt like baking today and baked 2 pies this evening, a peach cream and peach/raspberry cream. The raspberries are from my garden. While they were cooking I looked out at my back yard garden to see 4 types of birds having a great time including, 2 blue jays that came very close the to the door and other birds bathing in my bird bath. I LOVE Gods nature.

I know that God has all this in His hands I MUST cling to him in everything. I haven't done such a good job at that but He gently reminds me.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

September 2, drs!!

The home health care nurse came today and this was her last day. She has been so nice and helpful. She was concerned about the pain in moms hand and asked her from 1 to 10 how is the pain. Mom said a 9. She said she would call the rheum. office and ask if they could give her something for pain and we said OK. She called and they said oh the gout in her foot. My, my, my. Then they said why didn't she call her gp. Well her gp referred her to you. my my my. They called me back later and wanted to know if I had made her 2 week follow-up. I told them "you sent me her paper to have blood work done, but how long after she takes her Prednidone can she have her blood work done?" She then replied oh she has to wait at least a week after that. So I said let me pull out the calendar, if she has to wait a week then she can't have her blood work until the 15, then we have to wait for the results from the blood work before we come in right?". She said yes, so then I say "that means the earliest she could come in is the 17th. The lady then says "oh let me see if the dr will call in something for pain". Well they call back and say the dr will call in Loritab which I had already told the nurse when we went in that she threw that up and couldn't take it. So the lady says I will see if the dr will call in something else. She never called back, oh yes and they never did schedule her follow-up appt. She also said she wanted her uric acid blood work done again tomorrow. Now what I don't understand is that she had that done last week on Wednesday and they told me it was not an elevated level but if she is in a gout flair it wouldn't show up but she is still in a flair and they want another uric acid blood work done. my, my, my. I am beginning to think I am Alice in Wonderland. I have to remind myself that God uses all things for good.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

September 1, pills and more pills

Wow September already.

Chemo went well and with the lowered Taxol it seems to have helped. Mom had stomach pains which has been the one recurring thing but it only lasted for 1 day. The pre-meds did not help with the swelling in her hand, so I called the rheum. on Thursday afternoon. They called me back on Friday and said her blood work did not show gout but they were putting her on prednisone for 12 days and then want new blood work taken again. Don't know when or how long it will take to work but hope it does as she is in a lot of pain.

Pills, pills, pills. So now she has to take a pill 30 minutes before breakfast, one pill before breakfast and 3 pills after breakfast. Then 1 pill after lunch and dinner and 3 pills before bed. The good thing is all refills are up-to-date as of today.

Mom got her blood work done yesterday and her blood work was great!! They did lower her coumidin to 1mg. My brain is on drugs, lol.

My brother called my mom and is planning on being here on the 10th for a week.

Mom has told me and several others that she is not sure she will take the next 2 chemos but has not made a decision. I think she is just tired of being in pain.