Confirmation

I spoke with Mom's doctor's office and confirmed some of the information she gave me. She did have an old, healed rib-break on the x-ray, and her alkaline phosphatase level was extremely elevated. The nurse said that her BUN is high normal and her albumin levels were below normal, but higher than they've been in quite some time. Mom thinks this means she is no longer dehydrated or malnourished. These results are marked improvements on her previous blood levels, but they do not mean she is healthy. The pre-albumin level is more indicative of recent health and I will ask that to be added to the next bloodwork they draw. Mom has since told me something confusing about them retesting the blood and her alk phos wasn't as high, but when I asked if it was a retest on the same bloodwork (such that the first results were mistaken), she said no, but she hasn't had any more blood drawn. I don't know what she thinks happened, and when I ask her, she is too tired to explain and becomes frustrated with nobody understanding her. I'm sure I'll speak to the doctor's office again soon, and I'll ask if they know what she's talking about at that point.

Her doctor is trying to get her on Aciphex again. This is the medication that controls her stomach acid. She has been on every medication at various doses over the years, and Aciphex is the only one that worked (and at twice the FDA-recommended dosage). Her insurance stopped paying for it January 1, 2010, and we haven't had the money to pay for cash for it. It's about $800 per month for this particular medication if you pay cash. She has been on Prilosec this year, and they raised the dosage with no effect, so the hope is that we can petition the insurance to pay for the medication seeing as how nothing else works for her. Oftentimes, because of the backwards sort of way Mom's internal organs work, antacid medications cause her stomach to produce more acid than nothing at all. Aciphex is the first medication that has worked on Mom's GERD in years, so hopefully we can get her back on it.

At this point, it is up to Mom if she wants to be tapped again. Paracentesis is a procedure that removes the ascites fluid from her belly, which will lessen the pressure and make her more comfortable, but it is generally avoided if possible. The more you tap. the more often you need to be tapped and this makes doctors uncomfortable. It is not a good cycle to get into and doctors hold off on this until it is absolutely necessary. There is also a risk of infection associated with tapping and Mom has a barely-existent immune system.

Mom started to refill her own medication box two weeks ago. I check it for her to make sure she has the right medications and dosages in the right time slots. She gets a few things confused sometimes, but it makes her feel more in control of her own medicine and medical care and I make sure whatever mistakes are corrected. It seems to be a good system so that she feels more in control but doesn't suffer from mistakes she might make, which relieves the rest of us from worrying about what she's taking. She is also logging everything she takes and she agreed to start logging her pain and sleeping meds as well. This reduces the chance that any medical issues she has in the future would be misdiagnosed as overdoses and indicate inappropriate treatment, and would easily identify an overdose if she did.

Her birthday is next week, if anyone is interested in calling and wishing her well. She always says she hates her birthday and flowers and attention, but in truth, it makes her feel loved. We will be taking her out to a lunch/dinner if she feels up to it. It's always hard to make someone feel good when they always feel so physically bad. She will be 54.