An Update (About Mom)
The story is as follows...
A couple of weeks ago, mom got pneumonia for the second time in four months (last time she also had congestive heart failure). When she got over that she went to a Pulmonary specialist who told her that all this time while she thought she had asthma, it could likely have been enphysema. The next day, her doctor calls to tell her he got results from a blood test they did while she had pneumonia and she has diabetes.
Not long after this, she starts having disjointed vision (she explains it as she sees fine, but everything kind of flickers) and (unbeknownst to me) headaches.
Wednesday, she calls me at work (about 4 PM) to tell me she's going to the ER on doctors orders, he thinks she's having mini-strokes or Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs) I call Sheila and take off for the bus. On the way I call Aunt Mela, as she can get around the easiest and to let SOMEONE in the family know. She goes to Overlook and meets mom there. Sheila and I arrive about an hour later (about 5:15).
Mom was having terrible headaches in her left temple, and she was having trouble having conversations (mixing up words). She also would just say out of nowhere "I can't do that" for no reason. (Not just at random, she would have a... Spell? Is that a good word?)
Her doctor (Dr. Rizzo) had them run a CAT scan, take blood and test her sugar level. A Nurologist (Dr. Sachs) came by and tested her a bit. (Name, year, president, repeating things.) She got everything about her family history right, all her personal questions right, but couldn't repeat things he said to her. He told us the CAT scan came back normal. They wanted to do an MRI the next day and would admit her.
Her sugar that might was 425, extremely high, so they gave her an insulin shot. So we waited in the ER until about midnight when they got her a room upstairs. (Overlook Hospital, Room 702-2, 908-522-6174) Upstairs they put her on Heparin to thin her blood to help with the mini-strokes. They gave her a Percocet about 2:30 AM for the pain. About 3:30 she was finally drifting off and we went home.
Thursday, Dr. Sachs explained he felt the headaches, localized to her left temple, might be Temporal Arteritis. He immediately started her on a corticosteroid, Prednazone to lessen the inflammation. To verify this diagnosis, they needed to do a temporal artery biopsy, this is scheduled for Friday. Thursday, after giving her a Xanax to calm her down, they bring mom down to the MRI room, but she can't get into the tube (fear plus machine too small) so they send her back upstairs. The Xanax and the Percocet both kick in about seven PM and she conks out for her first good night sleep in two days.
Yesterday, they bring her down for surgery. Her anesthesiologist is the same one I had in October for an Endoscopy, which comforts me at least. (I lived.) The biopsy goes well and quickly, and she is in recovery in under an hour, wide awake and hungry. (She hadn't eaten since six the night before, and it was then about five. We go back up to her room, she eats, she's pain free (off the Percocet) and doing okay. She was still having the occasional disjointed vision and still having these periods of losing cognizance. What happens is she's talking, and then suddenly stops and says something like "No." or "I can't do this" or "Wait", then she stares off in the distance for about two minutes, blinks her eyes a few times and comes back.
Today, we had to take care of a bunch of stuff at home (taxes, laundry, SLEEP) and went up about 5:30. She said she had a good day, but she was starting to get headaches again. And while we were there she got maybe seven of them in five hours, only now they're in different places. (Behind her left ear, one in the temple again, in her neck, the other side of her head.) They gave her a percocet and it seemed to be helping. She's still having the moments of "spacing out" and they're frustrating her.
Dr. Sachs has scheduled a EEG for Monday, and we get the results of the biopsy on Monday as well. Mom's generally okay for most of the time, but several times an hour, she'll either have the disjointed vision, a headache, or space out. She's worse today than yesterday, but still better than Wednesday. (Those initial headaches were ROCKING her badly) They are keeping her until they figure out what exactly is wrong and how to handle it. Currently they believe it is Temporal Arteritis and TIA's, but the TIA's could actually be Eplilepsy.
It's all fun and games up here. Tomorrow we pick up some stuff from her place and head back up to spend time with her. Being Sunday, I don't expect many answers. We don't know when she's headed home yet. We were hoping for Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday, but now it appears to be Tuesday at best. Which would be about a week...
Crappiest. Vacation. EVER!
A couple of weeks ago, mom got pneumonia for the second time in four months (last time she also had congestive heart failure). When she got over that she went to a Pulmonary specialist who told her that all this time while she thought she had asthma, it could likely have been enphysema. The next day, her doctor calls to tell her he got results from a blood test they did while she had pneumonia and she has diabetes.
Not long after this, she starts having disjointed vision (she explains it as she sees fine, but everything kind of flickers) and (unbeknownst to me) headaches.
Wednesday, she calls me at work (about 4 PM) to tell me she's going to the ER on doctors orders, he thinks she's having mini-strokes or Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs) I call Sheila and take off for the bus. On the way I call Aunt Mela, as she can get around the easiest and to let SOMEONE in the family know. She goes to Overlook and meets mom there. Sheila and I arrive about an hour later (about 5:15).
Mom was having terrible headaches in her left temple, and she was having trouble having conversations (mixing up words). She also would just say out of nowhere "I can't do that" for no reason. (Not just at random, she would have a... Spell? Is that a good word?)
Her doctor (Dr. Rizzo) had them run a CAT scan, take blood and test her sugar level. A Nurologist (Dr. Sachs) came by and tested her a bit. (Name, year, president, repeating things.) She got everything about her family history right, all her personal questions right, but couldn't repeat things he said to her. He told us the CAT scan came back normal. They wanted to do an MRI the next day and would admit her.
Her sugar that might was 425, extremely high, so they gave her an insulin shot. So we waited in the ER until about midnight when they got her a room upstairs. (Overlook Hospital, Room 702-2, 908-522-6174) Upstairs they put her on Heparin to thin her blood to help with the mini-strokes. They gave her a Percocet about 2:30 AM for the pain. About 3:30 she was finally drifting off and we went home.
Thursday, Dr. Sachs explained he felt the headaches, localized to her left temple, might be Temporal Arteritis. He immediately started her on a corticosteroid, Prednazone to lessen the inflammation. To verify this diagnosis, they needed to do a temporal artery biopsy, this is scheduled for Friday. Thursday, after giving her a Xanax to calm her down, they bring mom down to the MRI room, but she can't get into the tube (fear plus machine too small) so they send her back upstairs. The Xanax and the Percocet both kick in about seven PM and she conks out for her first good night sleep in two days.
Yesterday, they bring her down for surgery. Her anesthesiologist is the same one I had in October for an Endoscopy, which comforts me at least. (I lived.) The biopsy goes well and quickly, and she is in recovery in under an hour, wide awake and hungry. (She hadn't eaten since six the night before, and it was then about five. We go back up to her room, she eats, she's pain free (off the Percocet) and doing okay. She was still having the occasional disjointed vision and still having these periods of losing cognizance. What happens is she's talking, and then suddenly stops and says something like "No." or "I can't do this" or "Wait", then she stares off in the distance for about two minutes, blinks her eyes a few times and comes back.
Today, we had to take care of a bunch of stuff at home (taxes, laundry, SLEEP) and went up about 5:30. She said she had a good day, but she was starting to get headaches again. And while we were there she got maybe seven of them in five hours, only now they're in different places. (Behind her left ear, one in the temple again, in her neck, the other side of her head.) They gave her a percocet and it seemed to be helping. She's still having the moments of "spacing out" and they're frustrating her.
Dr. Sachs has scheduled a EEG for Monday, and we get the results of the biopsy on Monday as well. Mom's generally okay for most of the time, but several times an hour, she'll either have the disjointed vision, a headache, or space out. She's worse today than yesterday, but still better than Wednesday. (Those initial headaches were ROCKING her badly) They are keeping her until they figure out what exactly is wrong and how to handle it. Currently they believe it is Temporal Arteritis and TIA's, but the TIA's could actually be Eplilepsy.
It's all fun and games up here. Tomorrow we pick up some stuff from her place and head back up to spend time with her. Being Sunday, I don't expect many answers. We don't know when she's headed home yet. We were hoping for Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday, but now it appears to be Tuesday at best. Which would be about a week...
Crappiest. Vacation. EVER!