Health Problems

I guess this is a bit late since she already passed, but I have to be a pallbearer for my grandma on tuesday. She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia like 2-3 months ago and there really isn't any treatment that a frail 96 year old woman would survive. She was bright and alert when we celebrated Christmas at the hospice, but she deteriorated pretty rapidly I guess.

At least the coffin won't be very heavy, i doubt she weighed more than 80-90 pounds. I'm pretty sure she got to meet at least one if not both of her two great great grandkids though, which had to be nice.

Gavinmad_sl said:

I guess this is a bit late since she already passed, but I have to be a pallbearer for my grandma on tuesday. She was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia like 2-3 months ago and there really isn't any treatment that a frail 96 year old woman would survive. She was bright and alert when we celebrated Christmas at the hospice, but she deteriorated pretty rapidly I guess.

At least the coffin won't be very heavy, i doubt she weighed more than 80-90 pounds. I'm pretty sure she got to meet at least one if not both of her two great great grandkids though, which had to be nice.

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Sorry man. Sucks. Back in 93 I was one for my great grandma who was 93 but I was very close to her. I did it with a cast and 8 broken foot bones. Sucks too, I broke my foot in 8 places the day before she went into the hospital with pneumonia, she was asking for me to come up but everyone assured me she was fine and died 3 days later. I was in severe pain which is why I didn't go but being 21 I downed a ton of hydrocodone and carried that casket with 5 others like a pimp. Always felt bad over that I didn't go see her.

Olebass_sl said:

Always felt bad over that I didn't go see her.

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This is the kicker when someone is dead or dying. Did I do enough? Was I there enough? I try to be pragmatic about the answers to those questions, but they always linger it seems.

Kuriin_sl said:

I actually completely glazed over the fact that you said she has pain with swallowing and chewing. As someone mentioned, marijuana comes in various forms that will probably benefit her. Honestly, she should (at this point) be on a continuous drip if she is in pain around the clock. The fentanyl patch is +++, excellent choice. I also spoke with my hubby and he said that should at this point not even eat except for ice chips and sips of water. Her oxy should be switched to Roxanol (liquid morphine).

But yes, please get her POLST in order and quickly that way you won't have to worry about it.

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Seconding the liquid morphine, also dont hesitate to up the dose (slightly) should she get in pain again.

Gravy_sl said:

This is the kicker when someone is dead or dying. Did I do enough? Was I there enough? I try to be pragmatic about the answers to those questions, but they always linger it seems.

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This.. The questions of whether I visited or spent enough time with my mom in her final months tortures me to this very day, even three years later.

Dyvim_sl said:

Seconding the liquid morphine, also dont hesitate to up the dose (slightly) should she get in pain again.

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She got switched to Dilaudid today. Her bone scan came back and it's all through her bones, too, which the oncologist said was pretty rare for colon cancer. No wonder the poor lady is in so much pain, hospice starts tomorrow.

The biggest battle will be to get her to move in with us during all this. She's always insisted on staying in her apartment.

Yeah if she's in that bad shape don't bother with any pot shit. Just stick with the Dilaudid. That will be far superior than any cannabis substitute you'd find.
"Sorry" just doesn't seem adequate. My mother's colon cancer ended up spreading to her brain. Thankfully it went very quickly after that. :\

Gravy_sl said:

She got switched to Dilaudid today. Her bone scan came back and it's all through her bones, too, which the oncologist said was pretty rare for colon cancer. No wonder the poor lady is in so much pain, hospice starts tomorrow.

The biggest battle will be to get her to move in with us during all this. She's always insisted on staying in her apartment.

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You might consider, and I really do only mean consider, letting her stay in her apartment and temporarily moving in with her. I know you have health problems of your own and that may not be feasible. I don't know if you're looking at a long time commitment and there may be more comfort in the familiar surroundings. It's one less way she has to feel like she's imposing on you. It's only something to consider assuming that it's even possible.

We've talked about that, too. Having my wife or I spend the night with her. Also looking into a monitoring device.

K-man, what is PCA? I've not heard that in our discussions that I can remember.

PCA = Patient Controlled Analgesia
It's just an IV pump that has a button you can press to self administer pain meds. It has a timer you can set for how long the delay between presses. It's handy once you get the pain under relative control then you can do small doses periodically to maintain relief or OD if you press it far too much. That happened to me after one of one surgeries. They set the timer too short for and ended up having Apnea incidents. Increased the delay and it was better after that. Lemme tell though you being yelled at to breath every few minutes is a jarring experience.

Patient-controlled analgesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hrm I want to say no because that isn't a drug name I'm familiar with and while my memory is shit I try to make it a point to remember the drugs I've been on. lol

Welp, fun week. Went to a GP a week ago for tiredness as i had only been sleeping 2-3 hours blocks at night and getting increased headaches, asked for a blood test. 2 days later at the follow up the doc informs me my kidneys arent working properly and takes my blood pressure @ 192/114.

He immediately gave me micardis and to take one per day, hit me with referrals for blood/urine tests and a kidney scan. Couldnt book the kidney scan till thurs last week, but on wednesday went back for a followup on the blood/urine tests... First thing he did was retake my blood pressure and it was then 226/124, he immediately called the ED of the local hospital and wanted me admitted. Mind you this appointment i had was on my lunch break so i had been working prior.

Went to ED they admitted me straight away and started blasting me with all kinds of blood pressure drugs, none of which worked, they did however skyrocket my headaches from around 5 to motherfucking 11. Then they started giving me pain killers which all bounced off me to no effect, oxy, morpheine and lots of other shit i cant remember, same night they admit me to ICU because they cant lower my blood pressure or get rid of the pain.

Same night i get kidney ultrasounds and head cat scans. Fast forward to today and ive spent 3 days in icu while they give me 14 different drugs per day and also do a kidney biopsy. Sooo now im still in hospital in the renal ward waiting for the biopsy result which had to be flown to a different city for analysis. But the specialist here is 90% certain it is a acute phenomenom autoimmune kidney disease that had no trigger and will never know what started it.

Ive had 1500mL of steroids over 3 days to flatten my immune system and in another day when they get the biopsy results if hes right (he has been all along) i have to get 6 months of a chemo drug every 2 weeks, which come with 20% of making me sterile... Im 35 fit, strong and only have a stepson but want kids of my own.

The worst is at best im only getting 50-60% of my kidney function back which means at around 55 ill be looking at dialysis or transplant.

Total fucking balls.....

That is, indeed, total fucking balls.

Yeah 50-60% was best case i think, but ill be seeing the same nephrologist (sp?) personally for the fortnightly doses assuming its what he thinks it is, so im happy at least hes not palming me off. Biopsy will reveal all apparently, fucking australia day here today or i would know it all today.

Well I have IGA Nephropathy, advanced stage, 20% kidney function left at 35.
Transplant in 5 years or less is my only real option atm

Damn, sorry gravy. I don't know when you'll check in and I missed it when I took my 15 minutes to pretend that things were halfway normal the other day... but don't be afraid to lean on the nurses. They can help you immediately and they can set you up with people who can help more.