Wednesday

I got a call at work this morning from Dad. Mom was not feeling well again and wanted to go see their GP. I asked about her symptoms and they were about the same as the past two days. The main concern was whether they indicated a heart issue. They couldn't get an appointment earlier than 11:30, which unfortunately coincided with the time the caregiver was scheduled to leave. I made a few calls and sent a few texts to find someone to stay with Dad while I took Mom. I am very grateful to my boss who did not hesitate to tell me to go, even after taking off a half a day on Tuesday and being short handed today. Our oldest son Adam called and said that he had to be in Fayetteville later that day and would look in on Dad. I guess he had called Nathan to get more details and he told me that Nathan said that he could come stay with Dad and study there. I had not called Nate because I knew he was finishing up his thesis defense and because he has done so much to help Mom and Dad out but when he found out he came over without hesitation. Charlotte and I are blessed to have four wonderful kids.

I picked up Mom and we went over exactly what her symptoms were as we drove to the office. While the general lethargy, irregular heart beat and aching neck could indicate onset of heart attack, she had not had any shortness of breath or edema. She did not have a temperature or other indications of infection.

We got in to see the doctor fairly quickly. Mom's BP was 102/40 according to the first reading by the nurse and the second was 122/40. This was not even close to what Mom had gotten at home. Dr Salmon listened as Mom gave him the history of the last 3 or 4 weeks. He was especially interested in the events after her surgery and the change in dosage of BP meds as well as yesterday's events.

After lengthy discussion and explanation he told Mom that he didn't think anything serious was going on with her heart and that most likely:
1)her body was telling her that it did not appreciate the trauma of the surgery and was simply needing to recover;
2)the anxiety of waiting on the test results wasn't helping the recovery and since she got good news about the melanoma that should provide some relief.
He recommended:
1)that she try not to stress about the current symptoms, he explained that heart patients often fixate on their condition and develop "cardiac awareness" where they hear and feel irregularities more acutely simply because they are so focused on their condition
2)that she go back to the original dose of BP Rx. If she continued to have constant high readings that they could try a different med. He explained that BP fluctuates throughout the day and that none of the readings that we reported were at dangerous levels unless they base lined at those levels. He also wanted her not to check BP more than two or three times a day for a couple of reasons, mostly that the readings themselves could cause stress if it was high or low and she started worrying about that single snap shot. It could also constrict the blood vessels in her arm causing false readings. (We are not even sure if the digital machine is correctly calibrated anyway)

I told him that the cardiologist that saw Mom at the hospital had set up an appointment for a stress test and wondered if he thought that was a good idea at this time. He said that after the battery of test they did at the hospital did not indicate any heart attack and since her body was obviously under duress he said that he would recommend that we cancel that appointment. I think Mom was relieved to hear that, I know I was.

Finally, I wanted his opinion on the swelling in her right leg, which is the one that both the hip replacement and the melanoma affected. He said that it was not unusual under the circumstances but he thought it would be a good idea to have imaging to do a sonogram to make sure that there were no blood clots from the surgery. So he ordered it for us and we took a trip down stairs and had that done. The images were clear so we were on our way.

When we got back to the apartment, we found Charlotte had come and relieved Nathan and as we were leaving, Adam drove up. Once again I am blessed.

Please pray for Mom and Dad as they continue to face their challenges.

God is good.