Is the Worst Behind Us?

Gee, I hope so.

As you have noted, there have not been many posts to this blog recently. That's because I like to report progress toward recovery...and there has been precious little of it lately. But maybe we are turning a corner just now. By that I mean today...this afternoon!

To recap recent history, since Bettie came home from the hospital on the 30th of July, she has been frequently complaining of pain in the right side of her abdomen. At first we naturally (and probably correctly) attributed it to the drain tube that had been inserted into her gall bladder and which remained with her for another few weeks. When that was removed (see Maybe We'll Glow in the Dark) we thought that would be the end of the pain. It wasn't.

Next we discovered a badly deteriorated right hip joint. We arranged to have an injection of Depo Medrol in the hip to relieve the pain temporarily. It didn't.

Finally, just a week ago today we concluded that she had a bowel blockage. We had just selected a new primary care doctor (Dr. David Schumer) and he had an x-ray made that confirmed her bowel was full, but not necessarily blocked. Four days of Miralax solved that problem...but the pain persisted.

So today I took her back to Dr. Schumer to see if we could determine what we might be missing. Dr. Schumer is just the kind of guy I hoped we would find. (We found him simply by calling a physician referral service in Auburn.) He describes himself as a "former hippie" so you can imagine he is somewhat laid back. He has a wonderful way of making you feel like everything will be OK. He comes in the examining room, sits down, puts his feet up and chats with us as if we are the only important case he has and the rest of his day is ours. We like him.

His take on Bettie's current condition is basically post stroke depression. He says he sees it all the time. He reassures me that it will pass and gives me some tips and adjusts some medication and adds a new one to help with it. "I'll see you early next week...we'll get through this" he assures me. We leave and I feel better...Bettie, not so much.

Reassured that we're doing the right things, it is a little easier to help Bettie through this. For one thing, my son Rick (who I recently hired to be semi-full-time caregiver, partly because he is a former certified nursing assistant) has helped me soften my overall dealings with Bettie. I was getting a little bossy with her, he pointed out, whereas she needs tender right now...lots of TLC. I think it is working. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like she's feeling some better this afternoon. I got her to make some funny faces at me...that's always a good sign.

Meanwhile, the issues that put me in the ER last week seem to be past and I'm following a new regime on doctors orders...weight coming down, neck pain decreasing, and other good stuff. All in all, I'm hopeful that we've left the worst behind us and are ready to make some progress.