Four years have passed since I posted anything. Maybe that’s because we’ve been busy living this confusing life. In those years we have been thru a lot, mostly medical problems for Gerry, but I’ve had a few issues as well.
I’ll start off by saying now we have all of these doctors, a Primary Care, he handles referrals to all other doctors and he manages Gerry’s Diabetes and non-special needs. Then there’s the Gastreoenterologist, he is very important because it seems a lot of his problems come from these areas. He has non-alcoholic liver Cirrhosis. As best as we can understand it was caused by his diabetes and the meds he has taken over the years. During these years he has been taken To the ER 5 times with bleeding, bowels and vomiting. three to 5 day hospital stay each time. Test this test that. infections undetected and identified. In the end no results except for the first and last time.
First time when and why the Cirrhosis was detected, he was bleeding from Varices in his upper abdomen. He still has one that can’t be cured or removed because of its location. Therefore constant risk of it bleeding. So he takes an extra blood pressure med to keep his BP low. So far so good. The last because he had gallstones detected in his six month scan. So an ERCP was done to remove the stones because they blocked his bile ducts. Got home and developed a fever. Back to the ER. Next day had to redo the ERCP because from the first one his bile duct spasms and caused it to get blocked again. Fine, this one left him with an infection, but, can’t find the origin nor the right antibiotic to treat it. Five day stay. Turned out to be Sepsis, which scared me to death. People die from this one. So he came home with a pic line so that I could give him the antibiotic daily for seven more days. Oh yes and they had to put in a stent in the bile duct which had to stay two months. What did that mean, another ERCP!
During this stay and all of the hospital stays they would not give him his Aricept and the more days he goes without it, the more confused he gets. Odd, huh?
Gerry has had so many kidney stones, we lost count, but he does have them in a vial for a souvenir. He has also had Bladder stones, which we caught and kept three of them, good thing they weren’t barbed! So he has a Urologist and a Nephrologist. And let’s not forget his Dermatologist because he has Psoriasis, which he takes shots for. A dentist of course.
He had to get a Cardiologist because he was having heaviness in the chest and was out of breath when walking from the back yard to the front yard, not that far so concern. Good catch by him, he had to have the procedure to have four stents put in because of the blockages. Doing very well from that one.
So he had to go to a Pulmonologist to be tested for sleep apnea or breathing problems. From the overnight sleep study, they decided he needed a cpap machine to sleep. Well that didn’t last too long, but he did try. He would wake up in the middle of the night screaming and scared from the mask or just the little nose thingy. So we let the Pulmonary doctor go. We have found that taking a gummy Melatonin or two or a little CBD oil on his wrists help him get a good nights sleep now.
After he had heel, thumb and a couple minor accidents we were able to put his Orthopedist on stand by for a while. His tool work is down to hammer, nails, screws and screwdrivers, rake and shovel now. But he is back to using the lawnmower, after taking a two year break from mowing.
Well during this time, his Mother died at age 93. It haunts him a lot because he misses her so much and he hates the way she died. She had a massive heart attack while in the bathroom in the middle of the night. Of course he wasn’t there with her. But we had been with her the day before. He also found out that his Mother disinherited him in 2010 after his dx of dementia. This really hurts him still. Moms roommate of 65+ years died at age 97 a couple years later. His son still will not talk to him so that has continued to be a great loss for him. But his grandson has grown up and left home and has spent time with him during these years so that’s helpful. And of course we have our Sweet Callen visiting when he can, he’ll be 10 this year. Out of his family on his Moms side only two of her sisters survive. Hopefully they will be fine and free of this crazy disease that has taken so many. The last two brothers and one more cousin has died from Alzheimer’s in that time. So out of those last ten of his Moms big family, three brothers died from Alzheimer’s for sure and probably one sister. One sister died from Diabetes and a heart attack. 1 cousin committed suicide by jumping off a bridge over a busy interstate highway. 1 who was never quite right? Died of a heart attack. 1 rode his skateboard down the middle of a busy highway into traffic and died. And of course Gerry’s only sister died from FTD and since her only daughter (48) has been diagnosed with the same genes as her mother had that caused her disease.
The last doctor that has been added was a Neurologist. I thought it was time that someone addressed the subject of his mental state. His PCP and Gastro docs are the 9nky two that say that he even has dementia. They do the best they can in understanding. So the thought was that the Neuro would interview him then go on to have s brain scan....nope. He said he had seen one that he had done in 2017 and saw nothing to be concerned about. Have him a 30 question verbal test and he passed with flying colors. Scheduled him for a visit in six months. That’s it. So Gerry asked him if he could quit taking the Aricept then. He said only if you are willing to take the risk. I recommend you continue with it. So this is when my trouble began. He planted a great seed of doubt in both of us.
Have I imagined all of this because that first doctor said he has dementia, probably Alzheimer’s and put him on Aricept. What about all of the problems he’s had? There is so much that has happened that I haven’t written, like the falls, the times he hasn’t known me, when he can barely talk, when he chokes on food, when he falls and hits his head. When he can’t remember so many things. I am losing my grip right now. So on the 23rd I am going to a seminar held by specialist and doctors of all kinds at UTSA downtown, so that maybe I can get some answers that I much need. And oh yeah, do we take the chance on him quitting the Aricept? This question comes up every couple of days now. I’ll update this after the 23rd, who knows maybe he has been cured of whatever or maybe this medicine is more than anyone knows. I’ve been thinking, maybe I need to start taking it?
