We had an unusual day at the Buffy Bed and Breakfast, today. As you know, I am the caregiver for my mother. That’s a bit misleading, actually. At 88, Elegant Mother is still pretty much able to take care of herself. We provide her home, and meals and transportation, and she does most of the rest.
\nToday, things shifted a little bit in that strange swap of positions that aging parents and their children endure. I had to take on a little bit more of the “in charge” position, while EM relinquished it.<\/p>\n
\nI had gone out to start the sprinkler early this morning, because it’s our day to water. When I came in, I discovered that EM was sitting in her chair, obviously in pain. I asked how she was, and she admitted that the pain she had been having all week had worsened, and had kept her up a good deal of the night. She had been trying to wait the pain out until she had a doctor’s visit on Monday.
\nI knew she was afraid that her cancer had returned. Pretty strong statement, hmmm? In her shoes, I’d be frightened, too. I reminded her that she had not had any pain with her first experience of colon cancer, and that she’d had a clean bill of health at this year’s check up. That calmed her a bit.
\nSo, she agreed that we should go to the hospital. That’s a sign of how uncomfortable she was. The emergency room was not overwhelmed at 8:00 in the morning, and she was seen fairly soon. She had a superb YOUNG doctor, who asked lots of questions. I purposely stayed quiet to force EM to answer his questions, but I added comments now and then to expand on her answers.
\nIn addition to the pain, we managed to remember the “hives” at her waistband, which seemed minor under the circumstances. The doc had her go through a CT Scan, and an hour later had some surprising information. EM has a hernia, and shingles, but NO CANCER!
\nIt seems that as her immune system gets older it’s releasing its hold on chicken pox virus that it has corralled for decades. That virus is reappearing as shingles, and it’s responsible for the pain she’s experiencing. The plan seems to be to treat the shingles with meds and to generally ignore the hernia if it is not showing any symptoms.
\nShe’s relieved. We could see it within an hour of returning home. It’s my job this week to get her re-hydrated, to encourage (read: tempt) her to eat, and to get lots of rest. You can’t know how thankful I am that this trip turned out as well as it did. Now that she knows what’s wrong, she can deal with it, and I can help her. It’s a relief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had an unusual day at the Buffy Bed and Breakfast, today. As you know, I am the caregiver for my mother. That’s a bit misleading, actually. At 88, Elegant Mother is still pretty much able to take care of … Continue reading