I
haven’t spoken on my mother recently.
She had been doing well. The
pacemaker implanted last year really helped with her dizziness and
falling. She had her cataracts operated in
August for one eye and November the other.
The cataracts were an elective surgery, and since she had been doing
well otherwise we decided to have it done.
It really made her see very well, so well that she was shocked to find
out she had so many wrinkles…lol.
So
things were good until just about a month ago.
She started getting a sharp pain in her left hip, the hip that she had replaced
about eight years ago. It got to the
point where she could barely put any weight on it. We made an appointment with her orthopedist,
the one who replaced it. He took x-rays
and made her do all sorts of leg movements, and from a hip perspective, there
is nothing wrong. That was a blessing
because if the hip had to be re-replaced then that would have been a big, big
deal. What he found was that her arthritis
had really attacked her lower spine and that it had caused the sciatica nerve
to inflame. Indeed, the pain ran down
her left leg and caused it to occasionally go numb down to the knee. He gave her three epidermal shots in her lower
back, and he said if this didn’t solve the pain in a week she would have to go
to a pain management specialist. It did
not make the pain go away, and so we have an appointment with a pain management
doctor on Monday. She did have something like this (stenosis?) over ten years ago, and a precise steroid shot in her spine made the pain go away. I don't recall the pain being this bad, though. She’s been bedridden
now for almost a month, and has not been a happy camper.
Then
there was the adventure from yesterday.
While at work I get a panicky call from her. Her foot is bleeding. It’s spurting out and shooting across the
room. She had been lying in bed when she
noticed blood on the sheets and her foot bleeding. Now here’s what I’m thinking. My mother gets these severe calluses on her
feet which have to get scraped and cut away by a podiatrist. (Yes, she’s got a doctor for every body part…lol) Sometimes those calluses crack, and I’m
thinking that’s what happened and blood started coming out. She tells me on the phone she’s got the bleeding
to almost stop; at least it’s not spurting out.
I’m debating whether I should call an ambulance. Now my work is an hour away, and I carpooled,
so I don’t even have a car to rush home.
It’s just around mid-day and I won’t be home until 5:30. If she goes to the hospital she’ll have to
stay there until evening, and since she doesn’t speak English well, there’s
going to be a lot of confusion.
So
she said to hold off while she goes to look for a neighbor, and I try to call
my wife at home. My wife is out and I
can’t get a hold of her, and the neighbor is not home. She says she’ll wait but it’s starting to
bleed again. After almost an hour, the
neighbor does get home, sees my mother and calls me. We decide it’s best to call an
ambulance. When the EMT get there I get
on the phone and explain her medical history and they stopped the bleeding. It was not from a crack in a callus, but one
of her varicose veins had “blown.” By
now my wife had called me back and I told her to head over, and she did. The EMT did not think she needed to go to the
hospital, but my mother’s neighbor and my wife both thought it would be best
because my mother was anxious and not feeling sure. So the EMT took her to the Emergency
Room. Actually it turned out to be good advice
because the vein started bleeding again and requiring a stitch while in the
ER. The doctor at the ER said blowing a varicose
vein was not uncommon, and in time it might happen to her other veins. I guess it sucks being 81 years old. And so I picked her up when I got home and
settled her in. There were a lot of
bloody towels on her floor and blood on her bed sheet and carpet.
So
that’s the adventure. Just when you
think things are going well, something unexpected comes along. I just
hope they can do something for her back.
She’s walking with a can, stooped over and favoring one side. Just a few months ago she was still
gardening.
