Delftsman

Mom Update #2

Mom's not doing well, although the good news is that they don't believe she has any anuerisms in the brain. They now think that she has a one somewhere in her colon, however. They also determioned that she had a form of pneumonia, which is complicating treating the blood clot there. They have been giving her about two units of blood fraction every two days, but the hemacrit level keeps falling

The drugs they had given her initially had put her into a coma, which she has been coming out of for the last three days, with mixed results, there have been some short periods of violent physical and verbal reactions, followed by a period of lucidity, then calm semi-catatonia.

The violent ranting episodes have really unnerved my dad; to see the woman he's been married to for 53 years, who wouldn't say the word "damn" if she were roasting over hot coals, suddenly become a shreiking flailing harpy with language that would embarrass a stevedore will do that, I guess. The doctors ordered restraints, which upset him even more. So he's been experiencing a stomach bleed himself; old news for him, and just caused by the stress, but still, another complication for him to deal with.

We'll just have to trust that the doctors are able to keep the fine balance in the treatments for the ailments afflicting her without causeing more damage. It's tricky, since every treatment for one aspect is contraindicated for the other three, and the compounding of all effedcts from the four different treatments is greater than the sum of the parts.

But they think that now they have enough information to start to make some real headway. We can only trust that they are correct. There is a reason that they call it the "ART" of medicine. Although science is involved, the instincts and "touch" of the pratitioner seems to be the factor that makes the real difference.

Please keep those good thoughts and prayers coming.