(no subject)

[joebanks]

Sorry, all i have is mom news. She (we) spent four days in the hospital because her Coumadin went crazy. They spent two days flushing her bladder trying to get the blood clear. Now she's back in her building but on another floor for observation. I've read a couple things that say there is a connection between stress and high Coumadin levels and mom is stressed. She is so disoriented by this and starting to get cranky, her personality is changing. Also her vision is changing i have to schedule an appointment to see if her macular degeneration is changing. Mom continually asks me "What did i do wrong?" And i have no answer for her that she'll accept.
My father-in-law is in hospice and on and on.

Comments

[rafqa]

Oh, horrible, I'm sorry-- anything that happens with Coumadin seems so volatile and scary. Does she test in a lab? They seem to have gone with longer and longer periods between testing but it leaves more time for things to go haywire. My dad had a terrifying, almost fatal bleed from Coumadin and for that I squarely blame Kaiser and a lack of proper monitoring. Do you think that could have affected her vision as well?

It's impossible enough to make sense out of life when you have all your marbles, honestly.

Is you father-in-law at home or in a facility?

[joebanks]

They test her where she is but you know how it works, it's working, it's working, it's not. I've read a few things on stress and i'm convinced that contributed, she has been a mess since her dream - not constant but when she's down, she lying fetal on the bed. I'm worried that's possible, i have to get hold of her eye doc this week.
She was better today (Sunday) but is still disoriented because she's not in her regular room.
He was in home hospice but his wife can't take care of him now he's in a really nice facility.
Thank you.

[rafqa]

When my dear friend was dying last November, my other friend, who's kind of an expert on these things, kept recommending that she look for a hospice facility; she said there's all this hype about dying at home, but very often it's MUCH better to be somewhere where they really have the resources to manage pain properly. That's what hospice used to be about. I think the huge shift to home hospice was driven as much by the fact that it was a gravy train for insurers as by the ideal of dying in your own bed. Which is a nice ideal, but not always the best choice when weighed in the balance.

I have no doubt that major stress can impact Coumadin levels; also, the physical manifestations of stress, like changed eating habits, lack of movement/exercise, other medications. Well, you can tell me to shut up, because I'm sure you know all this. But normally levels will not e.g. double overnight. They have moved towards longer and longer intervals between tests in recent years, and though it's supposedly based on "research," again, I think it's mainly cost-driven. It's nice to not have to get your blood drawn so frequently, but it gives things a chance to go really haywire if they're not strictly on track. And I think small, elderly people are even more susceptible to variations.

My mother had an eye bleed many years ago-- it cleared up, but she just had to wait it out.

[joebanks]

Everything is cost driven.
This past Winter my doctor put me on a something for my thyroid which seems to have stopped working, along with vitamin D. Done some reading and it looks like I'll be on the thyroid drug for the rest of my life. This is where it starts, my cholesterol has been on the edge, making my dr. nervous for years; luckily there when he put me on something 10 years ago i developed a rash. I don't want to live as long as my mom, i'm thinking a heart attack would not be a bad thing. Maimed and scarred, i look at my mom and her fellow residents; that is no way to go.

As far as the cholesterol, i'm central European, what does he expect?

[rafqa]

I agree-- a heart attack is a close second to peacefully drifting away in one's sleep. What are the alternatives? they're all much worse.

Barbara Ehrenreich has a new book called Natural Causes that addresses the insane overtesting in "health care,"-- I'd kind of like to read it. Although after seeing her on C-SPAN, I'm not sure her point of view is entirely mine: she said she wanted to call it "Old Enough To Die!" and seemed to have the idea that after a certain age you should move over and make room for the up and comers. I'm not on board with that. If you have seven children, you can move over; I'm childless and I intend to stay around as long as I want.

Yeah, I think the numbers game with cholesterol is a little ridiculous, and there's bound to be natural variation, and talk about PROFIT DRIVEN...