December 4

Today we saw Eddie Bean, Dr. Kress's PA. He shot a lot of Xrays of Mom's hips and knees and determined that there was nothing wrong/compromised with any of these joints. He then sent her for an xray of her spine. She has scoliosis (curvature of the spine). He also discovered that L2 had broken at some point and has healed. He thinks that because she has no disks left between her vertabrae that when she fell she jossled something and that is what is causing her pain. He recommended that we see a spine specialist and gave us his name. An appointment has been made for next Wed.

December 4

December 3 we visited with Dr. Seiden, a neurologist. He did a complete neurological assement of Mom to see what the problem is with her legs/walking. His conclusion is that neurologically she is just fine. He also said there was nothing he could do about the neuropathy in her feet. Dr. S. suggested that the problem with Gram's legs might be orthopedic or rheumatic and that she should see a doctor in either/both fields for assessment. We are going to see Dr. Kress' PA on Dec. 4 for an ortho-assessment.

November 17

Mom awoke in the middle of the night and said her right leg was numb. I massaged it for a bit and then decided that we should return to Kennestone ER as I thought it could be another stroke. The ER doctor said it was probably neuopathy and suggested we find a neuologist. This I did with the help of Dr. Cohen. We are scheduled to see a Dr. Seidon at Piedmont on Dec. 3

October 26

Mom fell in her bedroom and hit her head on the dresser. She was taken to Kennestone ER where a CTscan of her brain was done and x-ray's of her arm. It was determined that she had broken her elbow in three places. The arm was "set" and an appointment was made with Dr. Schneider at Resurgens.

Dr. Schneider reviewed the x-rays, took some of his own and set the arm in a half cast.

Mom also developed fluid on her lung as a result of the fall. Dates of Dr. I are to follow.

October 21

On 10/21 - Mom had a small stroke on the left side. She went to Kennestone ER and was admitted. She was released on 10/22 after she was seen by a physical therapist, occupational therapist, neuologist, swallow specialist.

A visit to the lung doctor

Today Mom and I made an unscheduled visit to the lung doctor (Dr. Iatredes). He took two x-rays and ran her through two breathing tests; how much air she could blow out - lung capacity, how much saturated oxygen was in her system. She was compromised on both tests.

1. She has some kind of congestion in the left lower lung. I'd say it looks like 1/6-1/5 of the lung is cloudy.
2. Her saturated oxygen levels were low after 3 minutes of walking so he has put her on oxygen for when she sleeps and or is going to move about for more than 3 minutes.
3. He has her on 8 days of prednisone in case this is allergy related.
4. A 3 tier barium swallow is scheduled for Wednesday to see if there is an obstruction in the esophogus (or what happens when she swallows) which is routing some food particles into her lung. It takes three different kinds of swallows. Thin fluid, medium fluid, thick fluid. This will be done this coming Wednesday, May 22.
5. He does not think it is heart related and he could see no reminants of the pneumothorax.

We will see Dr. Iatredes for follow-up on Nov. 3rd

October Update on Mom

Well, a lot has transpired since I last posted. Mom had her pacemaker put in. She also got a pneumothorax as a result of a nick in her lung allowing air to get into her chest space. This means she got air between her lung and lung sac. As of today, however

The air in her lung sac is gone
Her pacemaker was adjusted from a 60 beat per minute to a 70 beat per minute pace. This means that her heart will never go below 70 beats per minute.
Doctor Cohen changed her prescription. He has deleted one 25 mgToporal XL and replaced it with Verapamil which is the lowest dose med. and a diuretic which she is to take in the morning. I need to give him a call as Mom/Karen/Mary don't think she is retaining water.

From the question list:

Mom can sleep on any side she wishes.
The extreme pain she experienced the night she came home was probably the air leak pressing on her lung. That is gone now and she has no pain.

She can now shower whenever she wants. Swimming pool next week when the last little corner of the incision is healed.

The light-headedness, floaty feeling and shortness of breath is a result of three things:

• The pneumonia which can take a long time to return to health
• The Atrial Fibrillation - which means that when the heart does the extra ta-da's the blood is not sent out of the heart and thus there is a reduction in oxygenated blood to her organs
• The fast heartbeat which wooshes blood through her system too fast and thus, isn't oxygenated enough.

This is why the pacemaker was implanted so they can reduce the heart beat and not kill her off when her heart used to beat at 45 and how low it would go was unknown.

Doctor Cohen hopes that the additional meds will take care of the heart issues otherwise, he stated again, that Mom is a candidate for ablation, which means he would cauterize a spot on her heart and she would be totally dependent upon the pacemaker. I asked him about risk and he said that 1 in 5000 have problems and yes, he has had some patients die. An ablation would, however, stop the AF and have her tick just like clockwork. Obviously this is something that can be discussed down the road if necessary.

Mom's coumadin levels went from 1.3 to 2.3 in one week. We will check it again next week, the 22. On the 23 we will see the lung doctor. We will see Cohen again on Nov. 12.

Mom can drive, lift her arm and, in general do what she wants but she shouldn't be lifting heavy objects for a while yet.

Dr. Cohen said it took him 2 months to get his energy back after a small pneumonia last year. So Mom should be patient with getting her energy back as hers was a bit larger than his.