Thursday, November 15, 2007

Pile it on

So...we now know the cause of my grandmother's infection. Apparently in diabetics, extreme swelling can cause infection. For several years my grandma has been battling the edema in her legs, even before her diabetes diagnosis. It turns out that the swelling was caused by her blood pressure medication.

Now, edema in the legs is worsened by lack of movement. Enter the cyst in her spinal column. She *can't* walk and has had to spend much of her time in a chair or in bed. So the swelling got really bad. The severe swelling caused the infection, the infection prevented the surgery that would allow her to walk and thus relieve the swelling. Rather vicious circle, no?

Her regular doctor said he didn't want her to have the surgery next week -- that he didn't feel she would be ready until 2 days after it was scheduled. She saw the surgeon today (the surgeon who rolled his eyes at a lot of things he has heard that her regular doctor has said over the course of time he's been treating her). The surgeon said that he would have gone ahead with the surgery on Monday if he were making the decision entirely on his own, but didn't want to upset the treatment that her regular doctor had started (legs wrapped tightly like mummies, removal of antibiotic, change of diuretic, addition of potassium supplement, removal of blood pressure meds). So her surgery is now scheduled for the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Which sucks ass. Mr. W can't take time off to be there, I don't want to drive 10 hours with the lowercase on my own if it can be avoided. I haven't started getting anything ready for the holidays and had planned to do so that week. My parents offered to get me back home except they have obligations the weekend after the surgery so that would have me staying 2 weeks or driving myself (seriously. NOT an option. I know exactly how to get there, but don't want to drive through Cleveland -- an interstate should NOT make a right angle turn like it does right in the middle of downtown!). So...we don't know how we're going to handle this.

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