Mom & Me Three Archive

    "on the [website]". All blood tests have been leaned and replace their previous incarnations. I still have the urinalyses, imaging tests and pathology report to go and a little work to do on the glucose reports indexed at Mom's Test Results, but those are pretty simple and should be easily dispatched. As it is, my butt's falling asleep so I'm not going to linger here too much longer; I need to get up and move. I want to mention, though: As I was leaning the pages I couldn't help but scan the blood test results from 7/27/00, the first (by date) recorded blood test. Damn, we've come a long way! Forgive me for mentioning this yet again but we've come this long way with very little "help" from doctors:

• I was the one who imperceptibly nudged Mom toward better eating habits and these habits resulted in the felicitous changes in her blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c and cholesterol levels, with dangerous help from metformin, which I finally dumped, and some slight help from glipizide.
• I was the one who discovered the correct type of iron that supplements her well enough to keep her from having, so far, more than one transfusion; I also have been managing her antioxidant levels well enough so that she no longer reads way over on iron and her kidneys pancreas and liver are doing fine, thank you.
• I'm the one who, with only a few easily surmounted blips, has been managing her hydration levels so that her electrolytes remain steady and well placed.

    Of course, I am endlessly grateful for the tools doctors are capable of placing in our hands and their availability to us, especially when something's up and information is needed. Doctors, though, are fairly helpless without the concerned attention of patients and/or patient advocates. When I think back to how many times I've been told, "Ah, don't worry about it," but I did anyway, I researched and thought and researched some more, then took appropriate action without upsetting my mother's life and changed her health for the better and kept her from being unnecessarily poked and prodded by doctors, I am astounded at how much one concerned advocate can accomplish, especially in the face of lack of support (including attempts to undermine my advocation) by doctors. Whew!
    It's funny. Especially over these last, oh, 36 "bad" hours or so, especially, too, in the face of my horrible harassment of my mother over the issue of exercise and my "ungentlemanly" exhaustion over the constant monitoring of food, pills and fluid intake, I've wondered, as I always wonder during "bad patches", what good I am really doing my mother. I tend to jump to the conclusion that I am doing her no more good than a nursing home could do for her. Going over these tests has opened my eyes and helped me recover a bit of my flagging sense of value to my mother's life. I feel better since having put myself through this marathon test transfer.
    I still feel like I need a day or so of "vacation" to completely recover. Today I'm letting Mom sleep in again while I grab some isolated peace. I'll probably take stats here and there. Maybe, depending on whether I feel as though I can back off internally and externally and let her do her thing however she wishes (taking into account that movement of any kind is good for her), we may have an exercise session. I'm not yet up to hauling her to Costco (my automatic use of the word "haul" tells me this). I know myself well enough to know that I'll probably run roughshod over her hunched pushing of the walker and have no sympathy when she complains about her back hurting so I think it's best that we put that trip off another day.
    We talked about canes again last night. After an initial auto-refusal then a little dance to the song entitled, "I Know Someday I'll Probably Need a [insert type of mobility device, in the case a Cane] When I Go Out, But Not Yet", after which I said, "You know, Mom, you shifted a little heading into the bathroom, tonight, I'm thinking you could probably use a cane around the house, too," she considered the possibility from a more felicitous point of view. When we see her doctor in late October/early November I think I'll seek an Rx for a cane. Her walker and wheelchair are not prescription, they were the generous gifts from friends who'd lost the people who used these devices, so Medicare will cover the cane and, since it will be a prescription cane, we can have it fitted to her specifications. She could, of course, use it now, but she won't use it unless she is convinced that it's useful to her and doesn't undermine her dignity. So, we'll work on the proper attitude between now and then.
    Funny, funny woman...such an honor to consider that she "belongs to me". If I decide I want to take Life as far as she continues to take it, I could ask for no better inheritance than her genes and her example with which to take it.
    I think I'll hoist myself off the floor, tiptoe into her room and see where she is as far as arising is concerned.
    Later.