Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Mom & Dad Update

Mom . . .
Thank goodness for medicine! I don't know how many times on Monday she said how glad she was that she went to the hospital Sunday night. She was greatly improved. The swelling was still there, but that horrific pain was gone. They have her on Prednisone for 5 days to help with the problem. She didn't even have to take pain medicine during the day on Monday, but by bedtime she was needing it and yes, she took it. She still needs your prayers for a quick recovery and hopefully there will be no further complications and she will get over this in the normal time frame of two weeks.
Regarding Mom's shoulder and the Deltoid muscle not working at all: She had her EMG nerve test on Monday. The report wasn't good and she goes to see the Orthopaedic doctor on Thursday to discuss the results. The EMG that was done is mainly for a base line to re check it in 3 to 6 months to see if there has been any improvement.

Dad . . .
I can't stand seeing my Dad not feel good and especially when it involves his heart. That's just not something you play around with. Today he went to get his blood level checked as he does every Monday because of being on Coumadin - blood thinner. Since he was feeling really bad and having some chest pain he requested to see the doctor as well. Mom and I were both there with him. After much discussion, they are going to do a cat scan on Dad's lungs to make sure that the Amiodarone medicine has not caused any damage to his lungs, which is one of the side effects. Once Dad found out that this was a possible side effect he has been worried about it. He has taken this medicine for years. We are now wondering if (some) of his problems is anxiety over possible lung damage since he has been having such labored breathing and they can't figure out what the cause is. To relieve everybody's mind they are just going to cut to the chase and do the cat scan to answer the question once and for all. If there is no lung damage then they are going to increase the level of Amiodarone for 2 weeks and then do another shock on his heart to see if they can get it back in rhythm.

That is the scoop for now and I will try to keep you informed and updated as I learn more.

2 comments:

The Going Blog said...

They must be well for camp. I guess we should double our prayers :) I'm so sorry they don't feel well.

Myranda said...

We are really thinking of you guys. Does all this mean you will be staying there with them a little longer than you had thought?